Chapter 6 - No One Leaves Hollis Alive
The first explosion destroyed the east entrance.
The second cut the power.
Alejandro knew immediately what Atlas intended.
Erase everyone.
Barrett included.
They moved Daniel toward the underground medical room while federal agents defended the corridor.
Barrett laughed.
“You finally understand.”
Alejandro grabbed him.
“Cole?”
Barrett smiled.
“You think Cole runs Atlas?”
Alejandro froze.
“Who does?”
Gunfire interrupted them.
Sofia joined Alejandro.
“We need another exit.”
She knew one.
An ammunition tunnel beneath the western wall.
They escaped minutes before Fort Hollis burned.
Daniel survived the gunshot.
Barely.
At a safe hospital, surgeons operated for six hours.
Elena waited.
Alejandro sat beside her.
No general.
No strategy.
Just a father.
“I should've known,” he said.
Elena looked at him.
“About Daniel?”
“About everything.”
“You're my father, not my surveillance team.”
He almost smiled.
She leaned against him.
For the first time in years, they simply sat together.
Marcus arrived before sunrise.
“Barrett's talking.”
Alejandro stood.
“And?”
“Cole isn't Atlas leadership.”
“Then who?”
“Barrett doesn't know.”
“But he knows something else.”
Marcus placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Maria Vega.
Standing beside Sofia Reyes.
The date stamp was six months before Maria died.
Elena stared.
“They knew each other?”
Sofia entered behind them.
“Yes.”
Alejandro turned sharply.
“You met my wife?”
“Three times.”
“And never thought to mention it?”
“She made me promise.”
Alejandro laughed without humor.
“Apparently my wife collected secrets.”
Sofia didn't react.
“She saved my life.”
That silenced him.
Maria had discovered Sofia was being recruited into Atlas.
She warned her.
When Night Lantern happened, Sofia survived partly because Maria had secretly arranged an extraction route.
“Why was Sofia declared dead?”
“To protect her.”
“From Atlas?”
“Yes.”
Alejandro looked at Sofia.
“And you spent five years doing what?”
“Hunting them.”
Elena's voice was cold.
“And hurting anyone in your way?”
Sofia looked ashamed.
“I thought you had the archive.”
“You could have asked.”
“I stopped trusting people a long time ago.”
Elena stepped closer.
“That doesn't excuse what you did.”
“No.”
Sofia accepted it.
“I know.”
Daniel's surgery finished.
He would survive.
But Elena didn't rush to forgive him.
She visited.
She listened.
Then she walked away.
Love could exist without immediate reconciliation.
Alejandro respected her for understanding that.
Meanwhile, Maria's drive survived the tracker explosion because Marcus had switched it seconds earlier.
The real archive revealed hundreds of names.
Companies.
Payments.
Operations.
But one encrypted folder remained.
PROJECT LEGACY.
Elena recognized the password clue.
“Dad.”
Alejandro looked.
The clue read:
WHERE WE FIRST BECAME THREE.
Alejandro smiled painfully.
“St. Matthew's Hospital.”
The password worked.
One file opened.
A photograph appeared.
Alejandro stared.
It showed a younger Maria holding newborn Elena.
Beside her stood a man Alejandro didn't recognize.
On the back of the scanned photograph was a handwritten note:
If Atlas survives me, find Samuel.
He knows who started it.
Marcus went pale.
Alejandro noticed.
“You know him.”
Marcus didn't answer.
“Marcus.”
Finally:
“Samuel Vega.”
Alejandro stared.
“My brother?”
The brother Alejandro had not seen in twenty-six years.
The brother who supposedly died in a boating accident.
Marcus looked at him.
“Your brother is alive.”
Alejandro felt the room tilt.
“And according to Maria…”
May you like
Marcus turned the screen.
“…he founded Atlas.”
