The red and blue lights were starting to flash against the high basement windows.

“What are you talking about?” Charles demanded.

“The network is completely isolated.”

“There is no external connection.”

My father tilted his head, his expression cold and calculating.

“It was isolated,” my father said.

“Until twenty minutes ago.”

Charles stared at him, his face losing its color.

“What did you do?” Charles whispered, his voice suddenly stripped of its arrogance.

Ryan stepped forward, the match burning close to his fingers.

“He is lying,” Ryan said, though his voice lacked conviction.

“He is trying to buy time.”

“I don’t need to buy time,” my father said.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

He held it up so Charles could see the screen.

A progress bar on the screen showed one hundred percent.

Below the bar, a single word was written in bold, green letters.

*Complete.*

“The transmitter I placed on your security junction bypasses your firewall,” my father explained.

“It took exactly eighteen minutes to clone every byte of data on these servers.”

“Every transaction.”

“Every email.”