Chapter 17 - Siege of the Estate
Back in New York, the dark, rain-slicked grounds of the Moretti estate were illuminated by sweeping searchlights. Heavily armed mercenaries clad in black tactical gear moved silently across the pristine lawns, converging on the main entrance.
Inside the panic room behind the study, eighteen-year-old Leo Moretti stared at the security monitors, his hands clenched into tight fists. On the screens, he watched three armed men breach the grand foyer, their weapons drawn.
"Sophia, we can't just hide here," Leo said, looking toward the young woman who was rapidly typing override commands into a secure terminal.
"Your father taught me never to fight a war on the enemy's terms," Sophia replied, her fingers flying across the keyboard with lightning speed. "They think they've captured the house. But they forgot that every security camera, door lock, and smart-grid terminal in this building was coded by a system I built."
With a sharp enter keystroke, Sophia hit the master switch.
Instantly, the heavy steel security shutters slammed down across every window and doorway in the mansion, plunging the intruders into pitch-blackness. Automated defense turrets hidden within the vaulted ceilings hummed to life, discharging non-lethal high-voltage pulses that dropped the lead mercenaries to the marble floor before they even knew what hit them.
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"Got them," Sophia whispered, locking the inner sector partitions.
Suddenly, the heavy steel door of the panic room rattled violently. Someone on the other side was hammering against it with a heavy breaching charge.
