“Mother, please,” Grant said, his voice flat and dead.

“I built this family,” Patricia said, her eyes wild as she looked around the room.

“I built everything we have,” she said. “You cannot take me out of my own home like this.”

I watched her, remembering the years she had spent telling me I didn’t belong in her social circle.

She had always insisted on absolute control over everyone in her orbit.

Now, her hands were shaking so hard she could barely hold her silk robe closed.

“Colonel Monroe,” Vance said to me, drawing my attention away from her.

“We need to secure the primary hard drives before we leave,” Vance said.

“I’ll assist the tech team,” I said.

As I turned to go back toward the stairs, a sharp chime rang out from my pocket.

I pulled out my secure military smartphone.

The screen illuminated with an incoming encrypted call from an unknown number.

I looked at Vance, who nodded once.

I pressed the receiver to my ear.

“Monroe,” I said.

The voice on the other end was muffled, disguised by a digital scrambler.