She slammed her hand against the green exit button.

Nothing happened.

The magnetic locks were still holding.

“Caleb!” she screamed into her radio.

“Open the service door!”

“The system is locked!” Caleb shouted back, his voice barely audible over the static and the alarm sirens.

“Someone is overriding the mainframe from the study!”

“I can’t get in!”

Elena turned around, her back pressed against the locked iron door.

Her silver pistol was pointed down the hallway toward us.

The two mercenaries stood in front of her, their rifles raised.

We stopped ten yards away, taking cover behind the concrete pillars of the wine cellar entrance.

“It’s over, Elena,” I said, my voice echoing down the corridor.

“You’re locked in.”

“So are you, Adrian,” she spat back, her face twisted in anger.

“You can’t get out of this hallway either.”

“We will blow this door before we let you take this house.”

I looked down at my phone.

The screen lit up with a new message from the automated security grid.

It was a single line of text, sent from the study terminal.