Chapter 27 - THE LAST THING SHE COULD STEAL
Camille reached the master suite before police did.
The biometric device she took had been created after Alejandro's old kidnapping as a private safeguard.
Ignacio never told him the real reason.
He presented it as routine executive continuity planning.
Alejandro had complained that the device was excessive.
Ignacio replied,
"You complain about seat belts too until the car stops suddenly."
Alejandro remembered rolling his eyes.
Now that harmless memory carried a hidden layer.
His father had built protections around a trauma he refused to name.
Secrecy again.
Love expressed through systems instead of truth.
Camille understood those systems because she helped administer them later.
She knew the device could suspend Alejandro's active credentials during medical incapacity.
She also knew it contained a one-time emergency authority token that could open corporate emergency accounts.
Even if Sanctuary activated, she could use the device to finance an escape.
Brooks realized that second motive as soon as the safe inventory came through.
"She is preparing two outcomes."
"Stop Sanctuary if possible."
"Run rich if not."
Elena heard over the vault radio.
"Then don't assume every move she makes is about us."
That insight changed the pursuit.
Police placed watchers not only on routes to the vault, but on private airfields, marinas, crypto brokers, and emergency corporate transfer channels.
Within minutes, an attempted authentication hit a Castillo treasury server.
Camille tested the device before reaching Alejandro.
The server rejected the request because live palm verification was missing.
She now knew exactly what she still needed.
Alejandro.
The theft was no longer theoretical.
A clock had begun inside a second system too.
A hidden camera caught her entering through a wall panel behind the dressing room.
Alejandro had never known that panel existed.
Elena had.
"There's an old linen passage," she said through the vault radio.
Brooks listened from the corridor outside.
"Where does it exit?"
"Behind the north stairwell."
Officers covered both ends.
Camille was already inside the bedroom.
The family safe sat behind a painting above the fireplace.
She knew the code.
Of course she knew the code.
She had scheduled the locksmith who installed it seven years earlier.
The safe opened.
Inside was the emergency biometric device.
A palm-size unit holding encrypted identity certificates tied to Alejandro's legal and corporate authority.
It could not activate Sanctuary.
But it could move money, open secured sites, authenticate board actions, and issue emergency instructions if paired with the right stolen credentials.
Camille slipped it into her coat.
Then she took Alejandro's passport.
Elena's old passport was gone.
Lila had used it years earlier.
Camille stared at the empty slot where it once sat.
For a second, something almost like frustration crossed her face.
Then she heard police in the hallway.
She entered the linen passage.
Officers reached the bedroom seconds later.
Empty.
Brooks cursed softly.
The passage forked inside the wall.
One route descended toward the north stairs.
Another climbed toward the attic.
A third led to a small service balcony outside.
Camille had choices.
Too many.
The mansion had been built with servant routes invisible to the people who lived in grand rooms.
Vivian and Camille turned those routes into a hidden country inside Alejandro's home.
Elena had spent three years living in that hidden country.
Now her knowledge mattered more than any blueprint.
"She won't take the north stairs," Elena said.
Brooks asked why.
"Too obvious."
"Attic?"
"No."
"Why?"
"Dead end if police cover the roof."
"Balcony?"
Elena closed her eyes and pictured the house.
"The balcony drainpipe reaches the conservatory roof."
"From there she can get to the greenhouse."
"Greenhouse connects to the bunker."
"Bunker connects to the red room tunnel."
Brooks moved teams.
Camille emerged on the conservatory roof exactly as Elena predicted.
A drone saw her.
She looked up.
For the first time, surprise broke through her control.
Police ordered her to stop.
Camille ran.
She crossed slick glass panels while smoke from the east wing drifted over the roof.
One panel cracked beneath her foot.
She caught the iron frame and pulled herself forward.
She reached the greenhouse roof and kicked through a maintenance hatch.
Officers entered from below.
Camille dropped into the greenhouse and fired two shots toward the ceiling.
Nobody was hit.
She ran into the bunker tunnel.
Motion sensors tracked her.
For ten seconds.
Then one sensor went dark.
Another.
She knew where they were.
She cut them as she moved.
Inside the vault, external power finally reached the terminal.
The screen came alive.
25%.
Activation resumed.
26%.
27%.
Everyone watched.
The progress moved slowly because each evidence package was being decrypted and verified before transmission.
Voss sat before the camera again.
His previous witness statement remained valid at the checkpoint.
Alejandro's biometric confirmation remained valid too.
Elena's phrase and key had been accepted.
They did not need to repeat the first stage unless the system failed completely.
31%.
Camille's voice vanished from the speaker.
She was moving.
That scared Elena more than listening to her.
"She's going somewhere specific."
Alejandro looked at her.
"The biometric device."
Claire nodded.
"What can she do with it right now?"
Alejandro thought.
"Issue an emergency board directive."
"Move accessible funds."
"Open corporate sites."
"Shut down company networks."
Claire shook her head.
"None of those stops Sanctuary."
Elena looked at Voss.
"Can it reach the Swiss custodian?"
Voss hesitated.
"Not directly."
"Indirectly?"
"Ignacio's chairman credential is one of the authentication layers."
"Alejandro already authenticated."
"Yes."
"Can Camille revoke that authentication?"
Voss's face changed.
"Emergency incapacity."
Claire stood.
"Explain."
"If the sitting chairman is medically incapacitated, the emergency biometric device can suspend his legal certification pending review."
Alejandro stared.
"My father added that after my kidnapping."
Voss nodded.
"Yes."
If Camille used Alejandro's emergency device to declare him incapacitated, Sanctuary could pause to verify whether his activation remained legally valid.
That pause might outlast the seventy-two-hour lock.
"Can she do it without my live palm?"
Voss looked at the device specification from memory.
"She needs your biometric sample."
"She doesn't have it."
Elena went still.
Then looked at Alejandro.
"Doesn't she?"
He understood.
The mansion contained thousands of objects he touched.
Glasses.
Door handles.
Pens.
The emergency device likely required more than fingerprints.
"Palm geometry and heat signature," Voss said.
"A dead print won't work."
Elena looked toward the vault door.
"Then she needs Alejandro physically."
That was why Camille had not escaped after stealing the device.
She was coming back for him.
40%.
The vault's secondary release suddenly clicked.
Everyone froze.
Camille's voice returned.
"Alejandro comes out."
"Everyone else stays."
Elena shook her head.
"No."
Camille laughed softly.
"I wasn't asking you."
Alejandro stepped toward the door.
Elena caught his wrist.
He looked at her hand.
Then at her face.
"She needs me."
"And if you go out, she gets what she needs."
"If I don't, she may cut power again."
"Then we restore it again."
"She may burn the rest of the house."
"Then the house burns."
Alejandro stared at her.
Elena's eyes filled but her voice stayed steady.
"People first."
He had told himself for years the mansion represented family continuity.
Elena had spent three years learning walls were just walls.
"You're right."
He stepped away from the door.
Camille waited.
Then she said,
"Fine."
A hiss came from the ventilation duct.
Voss stood abruptly.
"Close the intake."
A faint chemical odor entered the room.
Dr. Holt was not there to identify it.
Voss did.
"Sedative aerosol."
Elena's face changed.
The method was familiar.
Camille was using Voss's own weapon against everyone in the vault.
Voss climbed onto the desk and closed the intake damper.
Too late for some exposure.
Markus coughed.
Claire covered her mouth with cloth.
Alejandro felt dizziness arrive.
Elena held onto the desk.
"How long?"
Voss answered,
"Depends on concentration."
"Helpful."
"Minutes."
The terminal reached 46%.
They needed to remain conscious long enough to reach the next checkpoint at fifty.
47%.
Alejandro sat because the room tilted.
48%.
Elena's knees weakened.
Voss looked worst of all.
His age and health worked against him.
49%.
The screen blurred.
Elena stared at the number.
"Come on."
50%.
CHECKPOINT VERIFIED.
Then Voss collapsed.
The terminal flashed red.
LIVE WITNESS STATUS REQUIRED AT NEXT STAGE.
Camille had timed the gas perfectly.
May you like
The witness had to remain conscious for the final half.
If Voss did not wake, activation would stop.
