Chapter 13: The Night Operation
The moon was completely obscured by thick, rolling storm clouds as Detective Ray Miller crept along the perimeter fence of the Blackwood estate. The five-hundred-yard buffer order from the judge meant nothing tonight; justice required stepping outside the lines when the lines themselves were drawn in crooked ink.
The heavy stone pillars of the grand entrance loomed in the darkness, silent and forbidding. Ray bypassed the main gates, slipping through a rusted maintenance latch hidden behind a dense thicket of rhododendron bushes. The cold damp air clung to his skin as he moved stealthily across the sprawling lawn, keeping low to avoid the motion-activated security cameras sweeping the southern gardens.
Not far away, near the grand courtyard, Luka the Cane Corso let out a low, echoing bark into the night air. The massive gray dog stood near the stone path, its gold chain collar catching a stray beam of moonlight. Luka’s head snapped toward the bushes where Ray was crouching, his dark eyes piercing the gloom. For a tense moment, Ray held his breath, fearing the guard dog would charge. But Luka simply stared for a long, silent second, then turned and trotted back toward the manor’s west entrance, as if acknowledging a fellow traveler in the dark.
Ray exhaled slowly and continued moving toward the red-brick utility substation tucked against the side of the archive building. Using a small pocket toolkit, he popped the metal panel off the substation box, revealing the glowing green circuit boards and blinking diagnostic lights inside.
He pulled David Chen’s encrypted USB drive from his pocket and plugged it into the subterranean maintenance port. The screen flickered to life. Ray quickly punched in the cryptographic command string Chen had provided, his fingers moving with practiced efficiency despite the freezing temperature.
A progress bar appeared on the small diagnostic screen: Copying transaction logs... 45%... 78%... Complete.
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Suddenly, a loud red warning siren began to flash silently on the internal diagnostic panel. Alert: Unauthorized root access detected. Security dispatch notified.
Ray pulled the USB drive free just as heavy footsteps echoed around the corner of the stone pathway. “Hey! Who’s there?” shouted a gruff security guard, his flashlight beam slicing through the darkness. Ray didn’t hesitate; he bolted into the thick shadows of the oak grove, melting away into the stormy night before the guards could converge on the substation.
