Chapter 16 - The Ghost of Querétaro
Arturo Vargas sat in the back of a luxury SUV parked three miles away from Mateo’s suburban home. The interior of the vehicle was completely dark, save for the blue light emitting from a high-tech surveillance laptop.
Arturo touched the left side of his face. The skin there was completely ruined, twisted into a tight, shiny mass of horrific burn scars. The fire in the Querétaro warehouse had melted his flesh, destroyed his vocal cords, and stripped him of his former handsome, arrogant glory. He now spoke with a mechanical, raspy wheeze that terrified his own men.
"The scout hasn't checked in," a heavily armed mercenary sitting in the front passenger seat reported nervously. "Mateo must have made him."
"Of course he made him," Arturo wheezed, his remaining eye glaring at the laptop screen, which displayed a satellite map of Mateo’s neighborhood. "Mateo is a survivor. But survival makes men arrogant. He thinks because he bested my brother in Coyoacán, he can best me. He thinks he can hide behind a white picket fence in Guadalajara."
"Do we initiate the assault tonight, boss?" the mercenary asked, checking the magazine of his automatic rifle.
"No," Arturo commanded softly. "If we kick the door in now, he will be waiting. He will have a weapon pointed at the entrance. I want to break him psychologically first. I want him to watch the walls of his perfect little life crumble before I burn it all down."
Arturo pulled out a secure satellite phone and dialed a contact deep within the Mexican banking infrastructure.
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"Initiate the digital freeze," Arturo rasped into the receiver. "Drain every legal account tied to Mateo and Laura. Flag their identities in the national criminal database for domestic terrorism. By tomorrow morning, I want them to have absolutely no money, no credit, and no legal protection. I want them to be ghosts in their own country."
Arturo hung up the phone and smiled, the movement pulling painfully at his scarred skin. He wasn't just going to murder Mateo. He was going to completely erase his existence.
