Barne

oak front doors of the main house, startling Martha Hayes, the o

pha went to headquarters for his morning meeting and

y trench coat, her shrewd eyes subtly scanning my clothes an

collecting the herb samples ahead of schedule, I took the early expre

ight away! Alpha will be thrilled when he hears you

e and want to sort my samples in the herb stud

y will bother you." Mar

or, I walked briskly to the third-floor st

paint greeted me as I shut the door and threw the deadbol

tique wall clock-nine fifty-two, leaving just eight minute

starry night oil painting aside, exposing a smart pow

acitive sensor, the metal cover slid open

ttom of my purse, plugged one end into the wall port,

screen as I bypassed the Marshall Manor firewall, w

't even use a Mind-Link, yet nobody knew that the most advanced und

locking onto the gate access logs and exterior infrared

a blank data gap that would instantly t

night's storm and overwrote the gate triggers as false infrar

d percent just as the mainframe initiated its daily

n box shut, moved the oil painting bac

icro lens in the guest room stayed hidden, Eldridge w

was the final defense review for Va

ck of the studio, I pressed the spines of three th

lf slid silently to the side, revealing a dimly

e the Barnett family fell, running two kilometers un

ed it on over my clothes, tied my hair into a high ponytail,

ry, cold passage brought me to a rusted iro

dark blue trench coat standing beside a black bull

nd the engineering team is standing by," said Axel Sterling, my l

backseat, I pulled the heavy door shut

ral architecture model for the second