Chapter 10 - Breaking and Entering
Midnight at the Vance estate felt like a tomb. The heavy grandfather clock in the main hallway chimed twelve times as Clara slipped out of her bedroom, dressed entirely in black, her movements silent and calculated.
Her target was Eleanor’s private second-floor study—a room strictly forbidden to everyone, locked with a biometric security pad and guarded by heavy oak doors. Clara crept down the carpeted corridor, her heart thumping against her ribs. She reached the biometric scanner, pulled a specialized micro-controller from her pocket, and plugged it directly into the auxiliary port.
Years of technical training paid off as the bypass script executed silently in the background. With a soft click, the heavy oak door unlocked.
Clara slipped inside, closing the door behind her with infinite care. The room smelled of old leather, expensive perfume, and underlying corruption. She rushed to the mahogany desk, pulled out her thumb drive, and connected it to Eleanor’s private terminal. A progress bar appeared on the screen, downloading the master archive of hidden offshore transfers, falsified board resolutions, and personal blackmail files Eleanor had accumulated over decades.
Suddenly, a sharp beam of light cut across the dark study.
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"Who is there?" a sharp, icy voice demanded from the doorway.
Clara froze. Eleanor Vance stood in the entrance, draped in a silk robe, her eyes blazing with furious realization as she looked at the glowing laptop screen.
