Chapter 6
Julian’s hand hovered over the kitchen island, his fingers twitching slightly before he pulled them back as if the marble had suddenly turned to ice. The realization that his technological kingdom had become a prison was a bitter pill for a man who prided himself on absolute control. He walked over to the built-in workstation at the far end of the kitchen, pulling out a sleek, brushed-aluminum laptop that sat dormant beside the cookbook rack.
"If they have root access," Julian muttered, his fingers flying across the trackpad to wake the machine from sleep mode, "they aren't just watching us through the cameras. They’re monitoring our keystrokes right now. Every command I type into this console sends a packet back to their server."
"Then why are you opening the terminal ?" Claire asked, stepping closer, careful to keep Sophie secure against her chest. The toddler let out a soft sigh, her breathing steady and deep in the warm cocoon of the carrier.
"Because we can't wait for them to make the first move," Julian replied without looking up, his eyes reflecting the blinding white glare of the terminal window opening on the screen. Lines of code began scrolling downward in a blur of green text. "If they have the defense algorithms, and they have control of the smart-home protocols, we are sitting ducks. I have to isolate our local network from the outside world before they initiate the lockdown sequence you warned me about."
"Can you sever the cloud connection without triggering their automated tripwires ?" Claire asked, her voice laced with skepticism born of too many nights watching him work late into the night on complex network architectures.
Julian paused, his fingers resting motionless above the backlit keys. A drop of sweat traced a slow path down the side of his temple, catching the harsh overhead light. "I can pull the physical fiber-optic cable from the master junction box in the basement. But doing that will instantly flag a hard-line disconnection on their end. The moment I cut us off from the net, their automated protocols will assume we've gone rogue, and they’ll execute the contingency script."
"Which means what for us ?" Claire’s heart pounded a frantic rhythm against her ribs.
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"It means we have roughly three minutes from the second I pull that cable to get out of this house before the automated deadbolts seal every exterior door and window shut," Julian said quietly, turning his head to look directly into her eyes. There was no anger left in his gaze, only a grim, desperate determination. "Three minutes, Claire. That’s all the time we’ll have."
Claire swallowed hard, the weight of Sophie in the carrier suddenly feeling heavier, more precious than ever. Three minutes to traverse a four-bedroom suburban home, bypass any potential physical traps, and reach the detached garage where their secondary vehicle sat parked. It was an impossibly narrow margin of error, but it was the only option they had left.
