“Go ahead and try, Nathan,” Julian said, his voice suddenly calm.

He held up his own phone, which showed a satellite connection icon.

“The storm took out the local cell towers ten minutes ago.”

“My phone has a direct satellite link to the house server,” Nathan said.

“Not for long,” Julian said, smiling.

He tapped a single button on his screen.

Through the glass of the front doors, far down the winding, snow-covered driveway, I saw headlights.

Two heavy, dark SUVs were pushing through the snowdrifts, their headlights cutting through the whiteout.

“What is that?” I asked, finally stepping out of the shadows.

Nathan looked up, his eyes widening as he saw the vehicles approaching the gate.

“Julian, what did you do?” Vanessa asked, though she did not look surprised.

“I called in our backup plan,” Julian said, tucking his phone into his coat pocket.

“We knew the digital route might fail.”

“Those are private security transport vehicles,” Nathan said, his voice tightening.

“They have a court order,” Julian said, his grin widening in the blue light.