Chapter 8 - The Breach
Before Daniel could pull the drive from his pocket, a sharp, metallic sound echoed from the far side of the house—the distinct snap of a latch breaking on the kitchen window.
Everyone froze.
"Dad," Ryan whispered, his eyes widening in pure terror. "Did you lock the back patio door?"
"I—I thought I did," their father stammered, his face draining of what little color remained.
Judge Harrison’s demeanor shifted in a fraction of a second. The authoritative magistrate vanished, replaced by a man who clearly knew how to survive a tactical situation. He grabbed Daniel’s shoulder, shoving him back toward the doorway.
"Inside. Now," Harrison commanded in a harsh whisper.
"Who's in the kitchen?" Ryan hissed, grabbing a heavy brass umbrella stand from the entryway.
"The people who want that drive," Daniel said, drawing the metal casing from his pocket. He looked at Harrison. "If they get into the house, we're trapped."
"They aren't going to get into the house," Harrison said calmly, reaching inside his own coat and pulling out a heavy, leather-bound black ledger rather than a weapon. "Because we are leaving through the front."
"Leaving?" their father cried, panic overriding his shock. "My wife is asleep down the hall in the master bedroom! We can't just leave her!"
"We aren't leaving her behind," Daniel said firmly, pushing past Harrison into the dark foyer. "Mom! Mom, wake up!"
From the back of the house, heavy footsteps slammed against the hardwood floors of the kitchen. A muffled crash of breaking ceramic—perhaps one of their mother's carefully arranged decorative plates—echoed down the hallway, followed by a harsh, guttural voice.
"Clear the back! Check the study!"
"Ryan, go get Mom out through the bedroom window into the side yard," Daniel ordered, his journalistic detachment completely gone, replaced by pure survival instinct. "Take Dad with you."
"I'm not leaving you here with a federal judge and a bunch of armed thugs!" Ryan argued, gripping the brass umbrella stand tighter.
"That's an order, Ryan! Go!" Daniel shoved his brother toward the hallway.
Footsteps pounded closer toward the foyer. The kitchen door swung open with a violent bang, casting long, erratic shadows across the living room walls. A man in a dark tactical vest stepped into the hallway, raising a suppressed firearm toward the living room entrance.
Judge Harrison didn't hesitate. With surprising agility for a man his age, Harrison lunged forward, grabbing a heavy ceramic lamp off the console table and hurling it directly into the hallway mirror, shattering glass across the floor and throwing the intruder off balance for a crucial second.
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"Move!" Harrison barked, grabbing Daniel by the arm and dragging him toward the front door as the first gunshot cracked through the interior of the house.
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