I Came Home Early and Found My Wife Standing Over My Elderly Mother—Then the Hidden Cameras Exposed Her Terrifying Plan

"You really thought Thomas Hale was the only genius in the room?" Thorne laughed, leaning back against the leather seat. "I built the locks on this network. You can't open them without my eyes. And I would rather die than watch my life's work be erased."

"You have twenty minutes to call off the strike team," Cole said, his voice dangerously low as he drove. "And authorize the kill-switch."

"No," Thorne said simply.

I stared at him, my mind racing through options. We couldn't physically force his eye open to scan it against a tablet in a moving vehicle. We needed leverage, but he clearly didn't care about his own life or his freedom. He only cared about the network.

"He won't do it," Celeste spoke up from the passenger side, her voice weak but steady. "He believes Northstar is his legacy. You have to destroy his belief."

"Hannah," I said, turning back to the glowing screen. "If we can't execute the global kill-switch, can we use the Apex Key to localize an attack? Can we target the specific communications relay Thorne is using to command the strike team in Boston?"

Hannah's eyes widened behind her glasses. "A localized breach. Instead of trying to kill the whole monster, we just cut off its head. Let me look."

She rapidly typed a series of commands. Lines of green code cascaded across the black screen.

"Yes," Hannah confirmed excitedly. "The Apex Key gives me backdoor access to the regional node. I can see the encrypted channel Thorne is using to communicate with the mercenaries at the Georgian house."

"Sever the connection," Cole ordered.

"No, wait," I said, an incredibly dangerous, desperate plan forming in my mind. "If you cut their comms, they might panic and breach early. Can you spoof the channel? Can you use the Apex Key to broadcast a message that looks like it came from Thorne?"

"I can replicate his digital signature perfectly," Hannah nodded, understanding exactly what I was asking.

"Do it," I commanded. "Send an abort order. Tell the strike team the mission is compromised and they need to fall back immediately."

Thorne lunged forward against his restraints, his calm completely shattering. "Don't you dare!" he screamed, thrashing violently against the zip-ties.