Chapter 5 - The Ultimatum at Dawn
The digital clock on my desk flipped to 4:15 a.m.
Outside the villa in Lake Tahoe, a Placer County patrol cruiser had pulled up to the main gate, its amber emergency lights flashing silently against the dense pine trees. Deputy Miller was standing on the front porch, knocking firmly on the mahogany door while shining a flashlight through the sidelight glass.
Inside, my family was cornered. The brief illusion of ownership had completely shattered under the weight of cold, unyielding reality.
Ethan's message popped up on my secure chat window: Perimeter secured. Local law enforcement is standing by for your final directive. Do we initiate Phase Two, or give them sixty seconds to walk out the gate?
I looked at the live camera feed one last time.
I saw my father sitting defeated on the bottom step of the grand staircase, his head in his hands. I saw Olivia pacing back and forth like a caged animal, while David frantically loaded their suitcases back into the trunk of the SUV I had bought them—an SUV that, coincidentally, was also registered under my primary naval credit union account.
They thought they could take my home. They thought my discipline was weakness, and my absence was surrender.
They were about to learn what happens when you wake a sleeping commander.
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I tapped out my reply to Ethan: Give them sixty seconds.
Then, I picked up my office phone, routed the call directly to the exterior speaker system of the Tahoe villa, and let my voice boom out across the dark, silent mountain air, cutting straight through the crisp dawn.
