Chapter 10 - By sunrise, Chicago was under emergency lockdown.Power outages.
Police checkpoints.
Banks frozen.
Communication systems disrupted.
Ramon watched the city from a rooftop.
His city.
The empire he'd built over two decades meant nothing in the face of what was happening.
The Circle had planned this for years.
Victor stood across the roof.
“You were never the king.”
Ramon looked at him.
“I don't need to be.”
Victor smiled.
“Then what are you?”
Ramon looked at Emma.
“A father.”
Victor laughed.
“You're sentimental.”
“No.”
Ramon lifted his gun.
“I'm angry.”
Victor disappeared behind a vehicle.
Gunfire erupted.
Ramon chased him through the building.
They fought hand to hand.
Victor was older, but faster.
He slammed Ramon against the wall.
“You still don't understand.”
“What?”
“You were designed.”
Ramon froze.
Victor whispered:
“Your entire life was engineered.”
His childhood.
His enemies.
His rise.
Even his crimes.
Victor had manipulated events to turn Ramon into someone The Circle could eventually control.
Ramon struck him.
Victor fell.
Before Ramon could finish him, Emma screamed from downstairs.
He ran.
She was standing beside Ramon’s mother.
Blood covered the floor.
His mother was wounded.
“Mom!”
She grabbed Ramon's wrist.
“The Vault…”
“What?”
“The Vault isn't beneath the cathedral.”
She coughed.
“It's underneath the Ortega mansion.”
Ramon stared.
“That chamber was a decoy.”
“Yes.”
“Then what's under my house?”
She looked toward Emma.
“Your real childhood.”
Ramon returned to his mansion.
He found the hidden door beneath his study.
A biometric scanner appeared.
He pressed his hand against it.
Access granted.
The floor opened.
A staircase descended.
Ramon and Emma entered.
At the bottom was a laboratory.
Not a vault.
A laboratory.
Medical equipment.
Computers.
Old photographs.
And one glass room.
Inside sat a chair.
Ramon recognized it from Evelyn's recording.
The machine.
The memory machine.
His memories had been altered.
Someone had erased years of his childhood.
A computer activated.
A message appeared:
WELCOME HOME, RAFAEL CRUZ.
Ramon stepped closer.
Another message:
SESSION 1 OF 12.
Video began.
A little boy sat in a chair.
Ramon.
Age eight.
Across from him was Arturo.
Arturo spoke:
“You must forget.”
Young Ramon cried.
“Why?”
“Because they will use your memories.”
“Will I remember Mom?”
“No.”
“Will I remember Mateo?”
“No.”
“Will I remember Emma?”
Arturo froze.
At eight years old, Ramon stared at him.
“Who is Emma?”
Arturo looked toward the camera.
Then said:
“The child who will save you.”
The video ended.
Ramon was stunned.
Emma touched his hand.
“That's what Mommy meant.”
“What?”
“You forgot me.”
Ramon looked at her.
“When did I know you?”
“Before you became Ramon.”
He crouched.
“Tell me.”
Emma whispered:
“You promised you'd come back.”
Ramon felt something crack inside his mind.
A flash.
A red room.
A woman screaming.
A baby crying.
A man standing behind glass.
Then a gunshot.
Ramon stumbled backward.
He remembered.
Not everything.
Enough.
He had met Emma when he was seventeen.
She was a baby.
He had promised her mother he would protect her.
Then The Circle took him.
They erased his memory.
They rebuilt him.
They made him Ramon Ortega.
A weapon.
A crime boss.
A puppet.
Ramon looked at the machine.
Then at Emma.
“Who am I?”
Emma smiled through tears.
“Rafael.”
The laboratory lights shut off.
A screen turned on.
Evelyn appeared.
“I knew you'd remember.”
Ramon stared.
“Why?”
“Because now you're finally ready to meet the real enemy.”
The screen changed.
A photograph appeared.
Ramon's mother.
Arturo.
Victor.
Mateo.
And one final person.
Ramon stared.
His blood went cold.
The last face belonged to…
himself.
But older.
Standing at the center of The Circle.
May you like
The caption underneath read:
FOUNDER: RAFAEL CRUZ.
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