Chapter 13 - Cutting The Wire
The ringing concussive blast of the flash-bang hung in the heavy morning air, distorting the shouts of the tactical squad as they stumbled blindly across the asphalt.
Elena sprinted across the gap between the two houses, her boots pounding against the manicured lawn of Number 44.
She slammed her shoulder into the metal housing of the utility box, her fingers tearing at the rusted latch until the cover flew open with a sharp clatter.
Inside sat a dense nest of fiber-optic cables and a heavy master breaker switch glowing with a malignant red LED.
"Agent Vance! Get away from the grid!" Victor shouted from behind the cover of his sedan, his voice strained as he fired suppression shots to keep the recovering contractors at bay.
Elena didn't listen. She grabbed the master breaker handle with both hands and yanked it down with all her weight.
A loud mechanical clunk echoed through the walls of the house, followed instantly by a series of muffled electrical pops.
Across the street, the second-floor window camera of Number 44 went instantly dark, its red blinking light winking out forever.
The unmarked tactical operatives stopped dead in their tracks, their helmet visors flickering and dying as their encrypted comms systems lost connection.
"What did you just do?" Judge Robert Sterling roared, dropping his teacup as it shattered on the wooden porch boards. His polite, grandfatherly facade finally shattered into naked panic.
"I just took away your eyes, Judge," Elena said, stepping out from the side of the house with her service weapon leveled directly at his chest.
Victor Vance quickly rallied his remaining agents, swarming the porch and slamming plastic zip-ties around Robert Sterling’s wrists before the old man could react.
As the judge was forced to his knees against the porch railing, the hard drive in Elena's tactical vest began to vibrate with a low, rhythmic pulse.
A small digital screen on the side of the brushed-aluminum casing lit up automatically, displaying a single line of text: DATA UPLOAD COMPLETE TO FEDERAL OVERSIGHT HQ.
Judge Robert Sterling stared up at the blinking screen, a bitter, defeated smile twisting his lips.
"You think HQ cares about what's on that drive, Claire?" Robert laughed softly, blood pooling from a small scratch on his cheek. "Look up at the highway overpass."
Elena slowly turned her head toward the horizon, where the concrete interstate cut across the edge of the valley.
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A convoy of three black military transport trucks was just pulling onto the exit ramp, their heavy-caliber turret mounts swinging slowly around to face the suburban cul-de-sac.
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