The night tastes like rain is on its way—thick with tension, humidity, and the metallic bite of something unfinished. It’s been hard to shake feelings of abandonment and isolation today. Enzo and Pippa both left quickly after our tryst on the couch. I tried not to take it personally. Neither of them handles feelings well and if they felt anything to the extent that I did, I’m sure as shit that they needed to process it all. I’m hoping after we complete tonight’s mission, they’ll at least be looking to blow off some steam. And maybe Enzo and I will?—
“CCTV and adjacent security feeds are scrubbed,” Eva’s voice slices into the silence over comms. “No eyes on the property, no digital trail. As far as the grid’s concerned, no one was ever here.”
Jules, Enzo, and I are approaching the back door of Malin’s house to disarm the alarm. Niko's team swept the perimeter of the sprawling estate. The heat signature indicates only oneperson on the property—Malin. And he has been lying still in bed for the last twenty minutes.
Pippa is in the van with Luca keeping watch. Eva and Luna work tech and comms from the mansion. If we do this right, we’ll be in and out in ten minutes.
The plan is for Enzo to run a sweep in the office so Eva and Luna can tap in, while Jules delivers the fatal injection to Malin. I’ll be with her to sweep his room and serve as backup. We are looking for any tech or safes we can hack into. Now that we know Malin works with the Russians, we are all hoping there might be intel that can serve everyone’s various needs.
“You’re good to enter,” Pippa confirms. “Heat sig still reads one body, main bedroom, zero movement. He’s either asleep or dead.”
“Dead would save us some trouble,” I joke.
We learned during our surveillance rounds that there’s a nightly window when Malin is alone. His team takes off between one and six a.m., giving us the opportunity to keep casualties at a minimum.
As we enter the back door, Jules approaches the security panel. “Luna, Eva, we’ve got an NX2R touchpad. Mid-tier commercial grade, not hardwired. Secondary cellular backup.”
“Copy that,” Luna says, fast and calm. “NX2R has a six-digit override window, basic duress code, and…hold up, does it have the blue LED ring or red?”
“Red.”
“Good. That’s the older firmware. Eva, you got eyes?”
“Already tapped into the backend. Keypad’s linked to a local node, not central dispatch. No video feed. You’ve got a ninety-second bypass before it pings secondary.”
“Use the 3629 code sequence, hold the last digit down for three seconds,” Luna instructs. “That’ll stall the signal loop. Then swap to manual override and kill the ping. Easy peasy.”
Jules nods once, fingers already moving. “On it.”
No alarms. No lights. But the door doesn’t unlock.
“No luck.” Jules frowns and eases off the panel. She tests the handle anyway. It doesn’t move.
Silence for a beat, then Eva says sharply, “Stand by. Signal went through. Panel reports unlocked.”
Jules braces a shoulder against the door and leans in again, reporting that it’s not budging. The three of us make eye contact, ready to consider our contingency options, if needed.
“Then it’s not software,” Luna says. “It’s mechanical.”
Jules shifts closer to the door. “What do you need from me?”
Luna answers without missing a beat. “We need to time the push with the input.”
“Enzo and I can do that while you walk Jules through the keypad again,” I say.
“When I say ‘now,’ you push. Not before. Not after,” Eva says.
A pause.
Jules confirms that the three of us are ready and in place.
“Okay,” Eva murmurs. “Rerouting LED power...”
The keypad’s red ring flickers, dims.
“On my count,” Luna starts, “One…two…now.”
Enzo and I lean in, controlled, steady.
