Chapter 14 - Lockdown
The digital hum of the mansion's security system had always been a comforting background noise, a technological heartbeat assuring me that my family was safe. But at 2:00 AM, that hum turned into a piercing, high-pitched alarm that shattered the silence of the night.
I bolted upright in bed, my heart hammering in my throat. I grabbed the heavy flashlight from my nightstand and ran down the hall to Leo's room. He was already awake, sitting up in bed, clutching his stuffed bear tight against his chest. His eyes were wide with a terror that broke my heart all over again.
"Daddy, what's happening?" he asked, his voice trembling.
"It's just a malfunction, buddy. I've got you," I lied smoothly, scooping him into my arms.
I carried him downstairs to the panic room in the center of the house. Marcus was already in the main corridor, frantically tapping commands into a wall-mounted tablet. The usually bright, interactive screen was flashing a sinister, bleeding red.
"What's the status?" I demanded, shielding Leo behind my legs.
"We're locked in," Marcus said, his voice tight with panic. "The entire mainframe has been hijacked. The perimeter gates are deadlocked, the steel shutters on the windows are completely frozen, and the phone lines are cut. Someone bypassed our military-grade encryption in less than sixty seconds."
Suddenly, the blaring alarm abruptly cut off. The sudden silence was somehow more terrifying than the noise.
Then, a voice echoed through the mansion's intercom system. It was digitally altered, distorted into a deep, metallic rasp that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
"You thought dissolving the trust dissolved the power," the voice sneered. "You thought giving away the money absolved you of the sins of this family. But the Collins legacy was never about money. It was about absolute control."
"Who are you?!" I shouted into the empty hallway, hoping the hidden microphones were still active.
"I am the consequence of your arrogance," the Chairman replied. "You stole the empire from its rightful heirs. I have Charles. If you ever want to see the old man alive again, you will rebuild what you destroyed. You have forty-eight hours to transfer the remaining decentralized assets into a designated offshore account. If you fail, the boy is next."
The intercom clicked off with a sharp hiss of static.
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Marcus slammed his fist against the wall panel in frustration. "I can't trace the IP. It bounced through a dozen proxy servers before hitting our network."
I knelt down, looking into Leo's terrified eyes. "Nobody is going to take you," I promised him, pulling him into a fierce embrace. "I will burn this entire legacy to the ground before I let them touch you."
