Chapter 3 - The Hidden Cabin Beneath the Forest
Ramon didn't sleep.
At 2:17 a.m., he was back in the forest.
He stood beneath the ancient oak where Elena had been found.
Victor, Diego and Matteo surrounded him.
The rain had stopped.
The fog had thinned.
Yet the clearing felt colder than before.
“Search everything,” Ramon said.
Victor nodded.
“Ground?”
“Everything.”
They worked until dawn.
Then Matteo found it.
A metal hatch beneath a layer of roots.
Ramon crouched.
The lock was old.
Almost twenty-five years old.
He recognized the design.
His father had used identical locks in their old warehouse.
He broke it open.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Ramon turned to Victor.
“Flashlights.”
They entered.
The tunnel smelled of stone and rust.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
On it was a symbol.
A black thorn wrapped around a circle.
Ramon stared.
“That's it,” Elena had said.
The key.
He removed the black thorn pendant from his pocket.
It fit into a slot.
The door opened.
Inside was a cabin built beneath the earth.
Not large.
But carefully constructed.
A desk.
A bed.
Shelves.
Medical supplies.
Hundreds of files.
And photographs.
Ramon walked toward the wall.
Children.
Women.
Dates.
Names.
His stomach turned.
He picked up a photograph.
A younger Gabriel Ortega stood beside Elena's mother.
Another showed Ramon as a little boy.
He frowned.
The photograph had been taken when he was six.
On the back:
SON MUST NEVER KNOW.
Ramon's fingers tightened.
Then he found another.
His father holding him.
Beside them stood a woman Ramon had never seen.
She was holding a newborn baby.
He read the writing:
ELENA—KEEP HER HIDDEN.
He stared.
“Boss?”
Victor called from the next room.
“You need to see this.”
Ramon followed.
A large map covered the wall.
Pins connected Chicago, Miami, New York, Havana, Mexico City and several European ports.
Lines ran between them.
At the center was a name.
BLACK THORN.
Below it:
ORIGIN: ORTEGA SHIPPING NETWORK.
Ramon's blood froze.
His father had created the network.
But not for profit.
The shipping company had been used to move people out of danger.
Then someone had hijacked it.
Turned the operation into something monstrous.
His father had tried to stop them.
Ramon reached for a folder.
Inside:
GABRIEL ORTEGA — STATUS: DECEASED
Then another page.
CORRECTION: STATUS UNKNOWN.
Ramon's heartbeat changed.
His father might have survived.
For twenty-two years.
He heard footsteps behind him.
Ramon turned.
Lia stood in the doorway.
Barefoot.
Wearing the same pink dress.
“You're not supposed to be here.”
She looked at him.
“I heard you.”
“How?”
“You were loud.”
Ramon almost smiled.
“I wasn't talking.”
“You were breathing.”
She walked toward the desk.
Her fingers brushed the surface.
Then she stopped.
“Mom said this place smelled like rain.”
Ramon stared at her.
“You've been here before?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“She told me about it.”
“When?”
“Before we came here.”
Ramon crouched beside her.
“Lia.”
She looked at him.
“Did your mother tell you about my father?”
“She said he saved her.”
Ramon's eyes narrowed.
“How?”
“She said he found her when she was a little girl.”
Ramon looked at the photograph.
Elena had been twelve.
“So your mother met my father.”
“Yes.”
“What did he do?”
“He promised to come back.”
“And?”
“He never did.”
Ramon stood.
A sound came from the tunnel.
Metal scraping stone.
His hand moved toward his weapon.
“Victor.”
The men raised their guns.
Then a voice echoed.
“Ramon.”
He knew that voice.
Impossible.
He hadn't heard it since he was eleven.
His father.
“Dad?”
The lights went out.
Gunfire erupted.
Victor shoved Lia behind him.
Ramon fired toward the muzzle flashes.
Someone screamed.
Then silence.
Emergency lights flickered on.
A single figure stood at the tunnel entrance.
Older.
Gray-haired.
Scarred.
But alive.
Gabriel Ortega.
Ramon stared at him.
His entire childhood collapsed into one moment.
“You're alive.”
Gabriel looked at his son.
“I know.”
Ramon raised his gun.
“Why?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at Lia.
Then at Elena's pendant hanging around Ramon's neck.
“You found them.”
Ramon's voice was low.
“Who?”
“My mistakes.”
He turned.
“You need to leave.”
“No.”
“Ramon.”
“You abandoned me.”
Gabriel looked at him.
“I saved you.”
“You faked your death.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if they knew you were my son, they would have killed you.”
Ramon's gun never lowered.
“Who?”
Gabriel whispered:
“The woman who owns the forest.”
A shot rang out from the trees.
Gabriel jerked.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Ramon caught him.
“Dad!”
Gabriel grabbed his son's wrist.
“She's coming for Lia.”
Then his eyes went unfocused.
Ramon looked toward the tunnel.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
Then Lia spoke.
“She isn't coming.”
Ramon looked down.
“Who?”
May you like
Lia pointed toward the hidden cabin.
“She was already here.”
