Not dimmed.
Not flickered.
Out.
Victoria froze.
Richard whispered, “Backup should have switched instantly.”
It did not.
Daniel’s warning about the emergency power system came back to her.
Someone approved equipment that should never have been connected this way.
The failure was not random.
It was preparation.
A door opened somewhere downstairs.
Victoria reached for her phone.
No signal.
Richard moved toward a wall safe.
Victoria grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“My gun.”
“If whoever is downstairs controls this house, they may know exactly where you’re going.”
Richard stopped.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Then a beam of light crossed beneath the study door.
Victoria pulled Richard behind the heavy desk.
The doorknob turned.
Locked.
A voice came from the hallway.
“Mr. Sterling?”
Martin Keene.
Richard exhaled in relief.
Victoria did not.
“Martin?”
“Sir, the power system failed. We need to move you.”
Victoria leaned close to her father.
“Don’t open it.”
Richard whispered, “He’s protecting us.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Then why didn’t he call before coming upstairs?”
Richard looked toward the door.
Martin knocked again.
“Mr. Sterling?”
Victoria said loudly, “Martin, what is the authentication phrase?”
Silence.
Richard looked at her.
Sterling security used rotating emergency phrases for executive extractions.
Martin would know.
“Victoria,” Martin said through the door. “This isn’t the time.”
“What is the phrase?”
Another silence.
Then the doorknob stopped moving.
Footsteps retreated.
Richard’s face changed.
Victoria immediately sent a message through the satellite emergency communicator built into the study.
One line.
DANIEL WAS RIGHT.
Daniel received it while driving.
He called 911.
Then he called another number he had not used in twelve years.
The man answered on the fourth ring.
“Carter?”
“Frank.”
Former federal investigator Frank Delaney had retired eight years earlier.
Daniel did not waste time.
“Victor Lang is alive.”
Silence.
Then:
“Where are you?”
Daniel told him.
Frank’s voice changed completely.
“I’m making calls.”
“I need someone at Sterling’s secure residence now.”
“You trust local police?”
“I trust uniforms more than private security at the moment.”
“Fair.”
Daniel accelerated.
Frank added, “Daniel.”
“What?”
“Do not go inside alone.”
Daniel did not answer.
Frank swore.
“You never learned anything.”
“I learned plenty.”
“You have a daughter.”
That stopped him.
Daniel’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“Yes.”
“Then act like it.”
Police reached the Sterling residence eight minutes before Daniel.
The intruders were gone.
Martin Keene was gone too.
One exterior security officer was found unconscious near the service entrance.
Alive.
A van camera from a neighboring property captured two vehicles leaving.
One belonged to Sterling Global security.
The other was the black sedan Victoria had seen beneath the headquarters earlier.
Richard sat in the back of an ambulance while paramedics checked him.
Victoria stood nearby.
When Daniel arrived, she crossed the driveway immediately.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“You should have told us everything.”
“I didn’t know everything.”
“That didn’t stop you from ordering me out.”
“You’re alive.”
The words landed harder than she expected.
Victoria looked at him.
Daniel’s face showed no triumph.
Only exhaustion.
Richard stepped down from the ambulance.