Late that afternoon, storm clouds gathered over the city, bringing heavy rain and dim skies. Elena knew Mark would be at his main corporate office downtown attending an emergency board meeting. Victoria had scheduled a spa appointment in the afternoon, according to the public calendar shared with domestic staff. This was Elena's only chance to enter the grounds without triggering immediate security alerts.
Elena kept a spare key card to the side gate inside her jacket pocket, which she had forgotten to return during the chaos of her firing. She slid through the side gate quietly, hiding under the shelter of the dense garden bushes as heavy raindrops splattered on the concrete patio. The pool area was silent, the blue water rippling under the falling rain.
She moved quickly toward the pool house, where the secondary network router and local storage drives were kept in a locked utility cabinet. Using a small hair clip and a pocket knife from her bag, Elena worked on the small metal latch of the cabinet door. Her heart pounded in her chest with every loud clap of thunder overhead. After two tense minutes, the lock clicked open.
Inside sat a sleek black external hard drive connected to the security box. It was burning hot, glowing with a steady blue light that indicated it was actively recording and archiving camera footage. Elena pulled out a high-speed flash drive her brother had given her and plugged it directly into the side USB export port. A small screen displayed a progress bar: copying video files from the pool deck cameras.
Suddenly, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from the stone patio outside the pool house door. Elena froze, holding her breath as she pulled herself deep into the dark space behind a stack of folded lawn chair cushions. The door opened with a creak, and a pair of high-heeled shoes stepped onto the concrete floor.
Victoria: I know someone is in here. The gate alarm sent a silent ping to my phone.
Elena stayed completely still, her fingers tightening around her flash drive as the digital progress bar reached ninety percent. Victoria walked slowly inside, holding a small silver umbrella in one hand and her heavy designer purse in the other. She stepped closer to the utility cabinet, her sharp eyes scanning the open metal door and the glowing wires.
Victoria: You should have stayed away, Elena. You are making this so much worse for yourself.
Victoria reached out to rip the flash drive out of the recording port, but Elena scrambled out from behind the cushions, grabbing the drive just as the green completion light flashed. She pushed past Victoria, sprinting out into the pouring rain across the slippery stone patio toward the perimeter fence.