Chapter 42 - The Zapopan CompoundThe night was oppressive, heavy with the threat of an impending thunderstorm. The air smelled of ozone and hot asphalt.
Mateo crouched in the dark, knee-deep in murky water, inside a massive concrete drainage pipe that ran directly beneath the walls of the Vargas compound in Zapopan. He wore dark clothes, his face smeared with grease to kill any reflection. Strapped to his back was a heavy, crude device built from a car alternator, thick copper coils, and three car batteries wired in a volatile series.
It was a homemade EMP generator. It was heavy, dangerous, and it hummed with unstable kinetic energy.
He tapped his earpiece. "I'm in position, Silva."
"Copy," Silva’s voice crackled through the radio. "Hold for the distraction."
For a terrible, agonizing minute, the night was completely silent. Mateo could hear his own heartbeat echoing in the concrete pipe.
Then, the world exploded.
A deafening roar shattered the night as Silva drove a stolen, heavy-duty dump truck directly through the reinforced steel gates of the compound. Automatic gunfire erupted instantly, a chaotic symphony of violence echoing above ground.
"Go!" Silva shouted over the radio, the sound of his tactical rifle firing in short, controlled bursts. "They are all moving to the front courtyard! You have five minutes!"
Mateo scrambled out of the drainage pipe, pulling himself up through a heavy iron grate that opened into the compound's rear utility garden.
The darkness was his only ally. He sprinted across the manicured lawn, keeping low, the heavy EMP device bouncing painfully against his spine.
He reached the rear entrance of the main house. The glass door was unlocked; the guards had rushed to the front in a total panic.
Mateo slipped inside, navigating the opulent, marble-floored hallways using only the dim emergency lights. He found the door leading to the basement stairs.
He moved silently, descending into the belly of the beast.
At the bottom of the stairs, the hallway ended in a massive, solid steel vault door. A red biometric scanner glowed ominously on the wall beside it.
Mateo unstrapped the EMP device from his back, gently placing it against the steel frame of the vault, directly beneath the biometric scanner.
"Silva, I'm at the vault," Mateo whispered into the radio.
Static.
"Silva?"
"I'm pinned down behind the truck," Silva coughed, the sound of heavy caliber bullets sparking against metal clearly audible over the radio. "I can't hold them forever, Mateo. Blow the lock!"
Mateo pulled two heavy jumper cables from the device. He attached the negative clamp to the steel vault door.
He took a deep breath, holding the positive clamp in his right hand.
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"Here goes nothing."
He clamped the positive lead onto the exposed copper coil.
