Chapter 10
The pale blue glow of the smartphone screen illuminated Elena’s focused face as her thumbs moved across the virtual keyboard with blinding speed. The synthetic voice of the smart-home terminal continued its relentless countdown in the background, ticking away the precious minutes left before Victoria’s hostile corporate takeover became permanent.
"Asset migration sequence at fifty percent," the automated voice announced coldly. "Time to completion: five minutes."
"She's locking the subnets," Elena muttered under her breath, her brow furrowing as a red error prompt flashed on the phone screen. "She installed a hardware kill-switch in the master electrical panel."
Jonathan hurried back from the kitchen, his dark face tight with desperation. He stopped beside Elena, staring down at the glowing screen in disbelief.
"Can you bypass it? What do you need?"
"I need physical access to the fuse box behind the living room art installation," Elena said without looking up, her fingers still flying across the keys. "It's wired directly into the main server rack. If I can bridge the low-voltage diagnostic leads with a direct signal from this phone, I can force a hard reboot of the network router and terminate her transfer script."
Victoria’s voice echoed down from the upper landing of the glass staircase, laced with growing panic as she noticed the countdown slowing down.
"What are you doing down there? Jonathan, stop that maid! If she touches that system, I swear I'll start shooting!"
"Shut up, Victoria!" Detective Miller shouted, stepping further into the open room and keeping his service pistol trained on the staircase. "You're out of options. Drop the gun and surrender now!"
"Never!" Victoria screamed, raising the heavy firearm and firing a single warning shot straight into the high glass ceiling.
The deafening crack of the gunshot echoed like thunder through the modern mansion, showering the entryway with tiny, sparkling shards of safety glass that glittered like diamonds in the flashing red strobe lights. Arthur flinched, clutching his chest as he sat slumped on the lower step of the staircase.
Elena didn't flinch. She handed the baby gently to Maya, who received her younger sibling with shaking hands.
"Hold her tight, Maya. Don't let go," Elena instructed firmly.
Before Jonathan could protest, Elena bolted from the base of the stairs across the polished white floor toward the living room art wall. Her black maid dress swirled around her ankles as she dashed past the shattered glass.
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"Elena, wait!" Jonathan yelled, lunging forward to cover her, but she was already sliding across the slick floor, diving headfirst toward the hidden panel behind the massive abstract painting.
Victoria shrieked in rage from above, aiming the black barrel of her gun directly at the moving target and pulling the trigger just as Elena reached the wall.
