Chapter 6 - The Rat in the Library
By 3:00 AM, the storm had transformed into a sweeping gale that whipped the ancient oaks surrounding the estate into wild, thrashing shadows.
In the subterranean security center beneath the north wing, Marco sat before a wall of glowing blue monitors, a cold mug of coffee resting beside his elbow.
The door hissed open, and Lorenzo stepped into the room.
“Is Ranata secured?” Lorenzo asked, his voice steady.
“In the lower holding room,” Marco confirmed, tapping a key to bring up a black-and-white camera feed on the central screen. Ranata sat weeping in an iron chair, her cardigan rumpled, surrounded by two silent security guards. “She’s sung like a canary, Don Lorenzo. Matteo Moretti offered her two hundred thousand dollars and a townhouse in Florida if she could get the Florence clock out of the house tonight.”
“And Elena?”
“Clean as a whistle,” Marco said, pulling up a background check file. “Elena’s father was a crane operator at Port Newark. Worked twenty years for your father until he died of lung cancer. She’s been working three jobs since she was nineteen to support her daughter. No criminal record, no debt, no connection to Moretti.”
Lorenzo looked at the monitor showing the weeping housekeeper.
“Ranata didn't act alone inside the house,” Lorenzo said suddenly.
Marco paused, turning his head. “What do you mean?”
“Ranata is fifty-two years old and doesn't know how to bypass an encrypted server,” Lorenzo pointed out, leaning over Marco’s shoulder to look at the line logs on the screen. “The internal security feed was disabled from inside this building, Marco. Not from a penthouse in Manhattan.”
Marco’s face went pale. “Lorenzo... are you saying we have a traitor on our core security team?”
Before Lorenzo could answer, a red alarm light began to flash rhythmically across the console. A sharp, high-pitched electronic chime filled the room.
“Perimeter breach,” Marco gasped, his fingers flying across the keyboard. “West gate! Someone just opened the emergency maintenance access point using a master override code!”
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Lorenzo reached down and pulled a heavy black 9mm pistol from the holster beneath his arm, pulling the slide back with a sharp, lethal CLACK.
“Lock down the third floor,” Lorenzo ordered, his eyes turning cold as ice. “Put four men outside Elena and Mia’s door. If anyone steps onto that carpet without my personal clearance... put them in the ground.”
