When the River Burns

Chapter 11: Ghosts in the Record

The search for Valeria Rios began with a name whispered in an encrypted voice log—buried deep in the files Dara Reyes had recorded in her final weeks.

Ivy played it again inside the hollowed-out metro car they now called base. Elena sat with her arms crossed, chilled by the tremor in her mother’s voice.

> “If anything happens to me... if Rodrigo finds out I was helping the families from within the Program... you’ll need to reach out to Rios. Valeria. She was part of the old bloc. She knows the truth—and she knows how to survive.”

The message ended with a hiss of static.

Elena’s fists clenched. “My mother trusted her. That means she’s still out there.”

“She went underground after denouncing Rodrigo’s bioethics reforms,” Ivy said. “Her Senate seat was revoked. They said she left the country.”

Kai shook his head. “No. Rodrigo doesn’t let threats go. If she was alive, she’s either hiding somewhere too deep to trace—or she’s a ghost.”

“Then we follow the echoes,” Elena said quietly.

—

They started with the last verified footage—Valeria walking out of a council meeting in La Estrella, surrounded by protestors. Ivy enhanced the video frame by frame until a figure appeared behind her: a woman in medical scrubs, handing her a note.

“Pause there,” Elena said.

The woman’s ID badge was partly visible: Isabel Correa. Medical Outreach, East Sector.

“I know her,” Kai said. “She used to patch us up in La Madriguera. She disappeared a year ago.”

“Think she’s still around?” Ivy asked.

“If she is,” Kai said, grabbing his coat, “she’s the key to Rios.”

—

The trail led them to an abandoned hospital in the east zone, swallowed by ivy and broken glass. They moved quietly, the air thick with dust and memory.

On the third floor, behind a barricade of overturned gurneys and rusted IV stands, they found her.

Isabel Correa looked thinner, older, but her eyes sharpened the moment she saw them.

“Elena Reyes,” she said. “You’ve caused quite the storm.”

“And you knew my mother.”

“I did,” Isabel nodded. “And I know Valeria Rios.”

Elena stepped forward. “Is she alive?”

Isabel’s silence stretched—until finally, she said, “Yes. But she won’t talk to you unless you prove you’re not bait.”

“Rodrigo’s still hunting us,” Kai said. “Why would she believe anything else?”

Isabel hesitated. Then pulled a small key from around her neck.

“She left something. A letter. If Dara’s daughter ever came looking.”

—

They returned to the metro hideout with the letter sealed in faded wax. Elena’s hands trembled as she broke it open.

The handwriting was jagged but unmistakably real.

> If you are reading this, it means Dara’s worst fear came true. That Rodrigo silenced her… and you’ve stepped into the fire she tried to shield you from. I knew your mother before she was a wife or a strategist. She believed the blood didn’t make the person—the choices did.

> If you still want to meet, come to the old observatory in Ciel Azul. Midnight. No one else. The signal will be there, if you’re ready.

Below the note was a single line of code—coordinates encoded in a dated encryption method used only by the old rebellion.

Elena looked up. “She’s testing me.”

“She’s protecting herself,” Ivy said. “And she’s right to.”

Kai studied the message. “If this is a trap—”

“Then I’ll face it alone,” Elena said.

“No way in hell,” Kai shot back.

“I have to go,” Elena whispered. “For my mother. For everything we’ve risked.”

—

That night, Elena stood alone at the edge of the ruined observatory on the cliffside, wind clawing at her coat. A dense fog wrapped around the trees, and the shattered dome of the observatory loomed like a broken crown above the earth.

Minutes passed.

Then a voice echoed behind her.

“You have your mother’s defiance.”

Elena turned.

Valeria Rios stepped out of the shadows, aged and severe, wrapped in a navy shawl like a soldier’s mantle. Her eyes were sharp and dry—eyes that had seen revolution, betrayal, and survival.

“I’m not here for defiance,” Elena said. “I’m here to finish what she started.”

Valeria studied her. “You’ve already lit the fuse. But now the fire must be shaped.”

“Help me. Please.”

A long silence followed.

Finally, Valeria said, “Meet me tomorrow. Sector 9, beneath the floodgates. There’s something you need to see. Something your mother died to protect.”

And just like that, Valeria turned, vanished into the fog, leaving Elena alone with only her heartbeat and the sound of waves crashing below.

—

Back in the hideout, Elena told Kai and Ivy everything.

“She’s giving us a chance,” Elena said. “But only if we prove we’re more than a story. More than a leak.”

Kai brushed a strand of wet hair from her face. “Then we show her the fire doesn’t die with Dara.”