Chapter 19 - The Trace
The waiting was the hardest part. The small, noisy house was terrifyingly quiet. Emiliano and Jimena sensed the tension, choosing to color silently at the kitchen table rather than run through the hallways. Laura sat by the front window, keeping a vigil with the shotgun resting across her knees.
Exactly two hours later, the encrypted burner phone buzzed in Mateo’s pocket.
"You owe me a massive favor, Mateo," Hector’s exhausted voice crackled through the speaker. "The digital freeze on your accounts was sophisticated, routed through a dozen offshore shell companies. But Arturo is arrogant. He couldn't resist watching the hack in real-time. I traced a secondary server ping back to a physical location."
"Where is he?" Mateo demanded, grabbing a pen and paper.
"He isn't hiding in some abandoned warehouse," Hector revealed. "He’s operating out of the penthouse suite at the Grand Plaza Hotel in the financial district of Guadalajara. He has the entire top floor locked down. Heavy mercenary presence, private elevator access, and a direct line of sight to the city's major highways."
"The Grand Plaza," Mateo wrote down the address, a dangerous plan forming in his mind.
"Mateo, listen to me," Hector warned urgently. "Arturo isn't just sitting in that hotel waiting. I intercepted an encrypted email from his head of security. They are mobilizing a heavily armed strike team. They aren't going to wait for you to starve. They are planning to breach your house tonight at 2:00 AM."
Mateo looked at the digital clock on the microwave. It was 4:00 PM. They had exactly ten hours before a cartel hit squad descended upon their suburban sanctuary.
"Thank you, Hector. Destroy this phone number," Mateo said, hanging up.
He walked into the living room, looking at Laura. "He's at the Grand Plaza Hotel. And he's sending a team to hit the house tonight."
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"Then we pack the kids and leave," Laura said immediately, her protective instincts overriding her desire to fight.
"If we run, his men will simply hunt us down on the highway," Mateo countered. "We are staying right here. We are going to let them break in. And we are going to show Arturo exactly what happens when you corner a wolf in its den."
