Chapter 6: The Sabotage
Three days later, disaster struck the harbor construction site.
At 2:00 AM, a massive fire broke out in Warehouse 4, where millions of dollars worth of timber, steel reinforcements, and high-tech electrical equipment were stored for the Haven Project.
Mateo arrived on the scene before the fire department could even connect their hoses. Thick black smoke billowed into the night sky, illuminated by roaring orange flames that consumed the wooden roof beams.
"Mateo, stay back!" Frank shouted, grabbing Mateo’s arm as he tried to run toward the loading dock. "The roof is about to cave!"
"The night watchman!" Mateo yelled back, coughing against the acrid chemical smoke. "Old man Thomas was on duty!"
Without waiting for protective gear, Mateo soaked his heavy canvas jacket in a water barrel near the entrance, wrapped it around his head, and charged straight into the inferno.
Inside, the heat was suffocating. Flaming embers rained down from the collapsing rafters. Mateo navigated the maze of burning crates, shouting Thomas’s name until his throat burned.
In the far corner of the office bay, he found Thomas pinned beneath a fallen steel rack, barely conscious.
"Hold on, Thomas!" Mateo grunted, sliding under the scalding steel beam. He braced his legs, channeling every ounce of strength built through years of manual labor, and lifted the hundred-pound metal truss off the old man's crushed leg.
He threw Thomas over his shoulder and ran through the collapsing doorway just as the main roof crashed down behind them in an explosion of sparks and burning timber.
Mateo collapsed onto the gravel outside, gasping for clean air as paramedics rushed forward.
As they loaded Thomas into the ambulance, Mateo noticed something lying near the warehouse perimeter fence: an empty industrial accelerant can stamped with the private security insignia of *Sterling Vanguard Security*.
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Mateo stood up slowly, wiping soot and blood from his forehead. The fire had destroyed five million dollars in raw materials, but it had ignited something far more dangerous inside him: absolute, uncompromising resolve.
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