Christ
ghts, passing through automated security checkpoints before pull
oor of the mansion flew open, and Stephen Hudson hurried down the marble steps. He was smoo
sity that bordered on reverence. He reached out with both hands to take my battered
y shifting the strap onto my shoulder and stepping
nstantly, his smile deepening into a posture of complete subservience. "Of course. Whatever you pre
red under his breath, "He
ed is the only thing keeping his spinal cord from
op of the short marble staircase was Sharon Hudson, draped in an eme
sequiel's worn sneakers. The disdain in her gaze was sharp enou
wn the stairs. "Are these the... distant relatives you insisted on boarding? I do hope our modest esta
offered no polite greeting, no deferential bow-only an i
uneasy shiver visibly ran through her
ance, keeping his eyes locked straight ahead a
in the grand fo
ort Miss Eliza and Master Esequiel to the executive suites on the second f
ward quickly, bowing low.
-two vast, interconnected suites complete with a private
sequiel tossed his backpack onto the sofa, retrieved an
already tapping out high-level decryption scripts. "Her private trust fund is
power on background noise," I said, setting my cu
e mansion's internal network. My fingers blurred across the me
rade firewall, bypassed the router's WPA3 encryption, and planted
emetry data cascaded
eaning back in the executive leather chair. "Now, let'
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