Chapter 8: The Internal Breach
The two operatives moved with military precision, keeping low beneath the low-hanging branches of the ornamental maples before slipping into the blind spot beneath the second-story balcony. They weren't local mercenaries or county debt collectors; the way they checked their corners and synchronized their pacing pointed straight to a corporate asset recovery team—the kind of people hired by executive boards to wipe hard drives and repossess more than just financial ledgers.
My mind raced back through the timeline of the evening. Tina hadn't just given the entry codes to a random auditor; she had cut a desperate deal with the Vanguard Foundation's compliance director to bury the embezzlement scandal surrounding her charity accounts. In exchange for wiping her name from the indictment, she had given them the master bypass code for the residential wing—and in doing so, she had unwittingly handed them the key to our private residence.
A sharp rapping on the driver-side window made me flinch. Vance stood outside, his face pale under the harsh glare of the security lights, holding a heavy manila folder and a secondary encrypted radio handset. I cracked the window an inch, the damp night air rushing into the cabin.
"They're bypassing the biometric locks on the mudroom entrance," Vance whispered urgently, his eyes darting toward the north lawn. "The thermal feed shows three more units entering through the pool house. They're using a master override code, Mr. Liam. Exactly like the one Mrs. Tina generated for her foundation audit last Tuesday."
"I know," I replied, my gaze fixed on the approaching shadows. "She traded our front door for a clean balance sheet."
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"What are your orders? Do we engage?" Vance rested his hand near the holster on his hip, his knuckles whitening.
"No. Not yet," I said, shifting Mia gently in my arms to ensure she didn't wake. "Let them get inside the foyer. Let them think they've secured the house. Once they're bottlenecked in the main hallway, we cut the power grid from the master box and move the vehicle through the lower service gate."
