Beneath the Billionaire Mask - Chapter 18: Chapter 18

Piedra Ciega – Control Room – 10:24 PM
Liana’s gun didn’t waver, but her voice cracked.
“You were one of us.”
The traitor stood calmly in the doorway, face half-shadowed by flickering monitors. Rainwater dripped from the hem of their coat, staining the concrete floor like blood.
“I still am,” they said softly.
“You activated a dead signal. Fed our position to an outside trace.” Liana’s hand tightened on the grip. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie.” A beat. “I compromised.”
There was no remorse in their voice. Just something heavier.
Like regret wrapped in inevitability.
Liana took one step closer. “Who did you contact?”
No answer.
“Who?”
Then, behind her—a second signal blinked to life.
Liana spun toward it, realizing too late: it wasn’t just a transmission.
It was a trigger.
The screens all around them surged with static—then went black.
So did the lights.
Foundation Headquarters – New York City – 3:29 AM
Julia King jolted upright at the soft buzz of her encrypted line. Her private office was cloaked in shadows—only the streetlights outside painted the walls in pale stripes.
She glanced at the caller ID.
Unknown.
Only two people had this number. And one of them was currently off-grid in the jungle.
She picked up.
“Julia King.”
Silence.
Then, a whisper, filtered and mechanical.
“Tell Elena… there’s more blood on Blackwood’s hands than she thinks.”
The line went dead.
Piedra Ciega – Main Tunnel – Minutes Later
Elena ran, flashlight beam cutting through the corridor like a blade.
She had heard the shutdown—the silence that followed—and knew something was wrong. She didn’t trust silence anymore. Not in this place. Not around these people.
She turned a corner—and collided with Adrian.
Hard.
He caught her arms, steadying her. “What happened?”
“The control room. The signal. Liana was—”
“I know.”
His voice was flat. Too flat.
And his eyes… his eyes weren’t the same.
Not the guarded billionaire. Not even the broken man from earlier.
This was something else entirely.
Cold. Focused.
Predatory.
Elena took a step back. “What are you not telling me?”
He didn’t blink. “There are things I kept hidden for your protection.”
“That’s not your decision.”
“No,” he said. “It was the only way to keep you alive.”
She stared at him, pulse roaring in her ears.
“Did you know about the tracer?” she asked.
His jaw flexed.
“You knew.”
“Only after it was activated.”
Her breath caught. “And you didn’t warn us?”
“If I had, the betrayer would’ve gone deeper underground.”
“You played us.”
“I did what I had to.”
He stepped closer. She didn’t move.
“You want the truth, Elena?” he whispered. “Fine.”
He reached into his jacket—and pulled out a flash drive. He held it between them.
“This has everything. Every name. Every payout. Every crime I’ve buried in the name of justice.”
Elena’s throat dried.
“Why give it to me?”
“Because if I don’t make it out,” he said, “I want the truth to.”
Elsewhere – Shadowed Vehicle – Unknown Location
Marcus Vale leaned forward, watching the static-riddled feed from Piedra Ciega fade to black. His smile was thin. Calculated.
“She’s getting close,” he murmured.
Beside him, an unseen figure lit a cigarette.
“You sure she won’t flip on him?”
Marcus exhaled. “Oh, she’ll flip.”
He turned the screen off.
“Once she finds out what Adrian did to her father.”
Elena stared at the flash drive in Adrian’s hand, her breath shallow.
“Why are you doing this now?”
“Because everything is unraveling,” Adrian said. “And if I don’t take control of the truth… someone else will weaponize it.”
His eyes locked on hers. “Someone like Marcus.”
The name hit like a slap. Her fingers curled involuntarily at her side.
Adrian slipped the drive into her palm, then closed her fingers over it.
“Whatever you decide to do with it,” he said, “make sure it’s a decision you can live with. Not one you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to rewrite.”
There was something in his voice she hadn’t heard before.
Finality.
“Elena!” a voice called out behind her—Liana, sprinting into view, disheveled but alive. Her side was grazed and bleeding, but her weapon was still drawn.
“Adrian—your system’s compromised. Someone rerouted the network. Surveillance is down. Backups too.”
Adrian didn’t flinch. “I know.”
“You knew? And didn’t lock the gate?”
He turned to face her. “If I had, we’d be sitting ducks.”
Liana’s gaze flicked to Elena. “Does she know what this place really is?”
“Not yet,” Adrian said. “But she’s about to.”
Elena’s chest tightened. “What do you mean—”
The sound of an engine roared through the tunnels before she could finish.
A vehicle. Getting closer. Fast.
Adrian grabbed her hand. “Move.”
They ran.
Lower Compound – Emergency Access Tunnel – 11:03 PM
The three of them burst into a reinforced corridor that hadn’t been touched in years. The dust stirred around their footsteps, thick and suffocating. Elena’s heart hammered in her chest.
“What’s down here?” she demanded.
“A vault,” Adrian said, “beneath the old storage wing.”
Liana shot him a look. “You’re opening it?”
“I have to.”
They reached the heavy door, disguised behind false shelving. Adrian pressed his palm to the biometric scanner.
The locks clicked.
Steel groaned.
And then the door creaked open—revealing something Elena didn’t expect.
A room full of files. Paper. Photographs. Analog records.
Not digital.
Untraceable.
Untouchable.
He turned to her.
“This is the real foundation,” Adrian said. “Everything you’ve seen until now was for show. For grants. For investors.”
Elena stared at the evidence—case files, names, entire criminal syndicates mapped out in ink and string.
“You built a vigilante operation.”
“I built an archive of ghosts,” Adrian corrected. “The ones no system wanted to see.”
Liana approached a dusty crate and lifted a folder. Her face paled.
“This is from the Orien pipeline case,” she murmured. “I thought the lead vanished.”
“It didn’t,” Adrian said. “It was buried. Like everything else that didn’t serve the right agenda.”
Elena’s hands trembled.
“How long have you been doing this?”
Adrian’s eyes didn’t waver. “Since Evelyn died.”
The silence that followed was thick.
Then the blast came.
A low, bone-deep boom that shook the walls.
Adrian’s body was already moving—grabbing Elena, pushing her behind a reinforced beam as the corridor filled with dust.
“They found us,” Liana snapped, raising her weapon.
Adrian’s jaw clenched.
“No,” he said darkly. “They’ve been here the whole time.”
Piedra Ciega – Surveillance Room, Recovered Minutes Later
A new figure stepped through the smoke—dressed in tactical black, face obscured by a voice-masked helmet.
They walked to the main terminal, typed in a single phrase on the backup console.
“PROJECT BLACKWOOD – ACCESS LEVEL VALE.”
The screen responded instantly.
The archive began downloading.
And on the figure’s wrist, a green light blinked to red.
Transfer in progress: 11%…
Piedra Ciega – Vault Interior – Moments After the Blast
Elena coughed through the dust cloud, her lungs screaming. Adrian pulled her up against the wall as debris fell from the ceiling in slow, crumbling sheets.
“I thought you said this place was off-grid!” Elena shouted.
“It was,” Adrian growled, eyes scanning the dim-lit corridor. “Which means whoever’s inside didn’t need a signal.”
Liana darted toward the far side of the room, typing commands into a manual override panel. “They’re accessing the Black Archive.”
Elena turned sharply. “What’s the Black Archive?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Elena,” he said quietly, “do you remember that story you tried to publish two years ago? The one that got you blacklisted?”
She froze.
“Of course I remember. It was about a hush investigation. A whistleblower went missing. My editor pulled the piece—said I fabricated sources.”
“You didn’t.”
Elena’s blood turned cold.
“You saw a thread the world wasn’t ready to pull,” Adrian said. “And Marcus… made sure you paid for it.”
The floor seemed to tilt beneath her.
“I… I lost everything because of that.”
“I know.”
Her voice dropped. “What did I almost uncover?”
Adrian turned to the wall behind them and slammed his fist into a rusted panel. It hissed open, revealing an old briefcase marked with three letters burned into the leather:
B.W.M.
He opened it.
Inside were documents, real photos, taped audio transcriptions, and at the very top—
—a security clearance badge with a name that made Elena’s heart stop.
“Agent Guillermo Cruz”
Her father.
Her voice cracked. “No…”
Adrian looked at her, pain in his eyes.
“Your father was one of the last operatives on Project Blackwood. He didn’t just stumble into something dangerous—he helped build it.”
The walls closed in. Elena’s hands shook as she lifted the badge, her father’s worn photo staring back at her like a ghost.
“He died in a car accident.”
“He didn’t,” Adrian said. “He was silenced.”
The words hit like a blade.
“No,” Elena whispered. “You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Liana swore under her breath. “The system’s not just breached—it’s being drained. They’re pulling full archives. Names, agents, locations.”
Adrian spun back to Elena. “You asked me what I’m hiding. This is it. Your father tried to stop the very thing I’ve been trying to clean up.”
“And Marcus?”
“He was part of it. Until he turned it into leverage.”
Elena stepped back from both of them. “You knew. This whole time.”
“I only found the full connection two weeks ago. I was going to tell you when it was safe.”
“It’s never been safe,” she snapped.
Then the power cut again.
Red emergency lights bathed the vault.
A synthetic voice rang out overhead:
“WARNING. Network breach at 79%. Hostile presence inside facility. All exits compromised.”
Adrian’s gaze locked on hers.
“We have to move. Now.”
Elena clenched the badge in her hand like it was the last piece of her father she had left.
And then she nodded.
Not because she trusted Adrian fully.
But because she needed the truth more than ever.
And she was done being afraid of where it would lead.