24 June 2014 – Hilltop Road, Lancaster, Massachusetts
“… Happy birthday to yoooouuuu!”
Sabrina suppressed her smile long enough to blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Sixteen! She couldn’t believe it. In eight short months, her application to the Air Force Academy would be due. If all went according to plan, she’d be in Colorado Springs as a member of the USAFA Class of 2020 a few days after turning eighteen.
Everyone present at her party clapped and cheered once all the candles were out. After three days of rain, the skies over the region were clear except for a few puffy clouds. The back yard was swampy, so Sabrina and her friends sought refuge downstairs in the family room while parents and adult friends of the family hung out upstairs.
“Sabrina, what’s with the cue stuck in the wall?” Pete asked while they played pool.
“Dad got angry with my Aunt Heather after he came back from Afghanistan in 2004. She ignored him for over two years because he reenlisted in October of 2001, and then she showed up out of the blue. She kept trying to talk to him like nothing was wrong and he snapped. In his anger, he spiked that cue through the drywall. He says he leaves it there as a reminder of what anger can do to a person.”
“It’ll remind me not to make anyone in this family angry with me …” Pete muttered. Sabrina shouldered him out of the way with a smile before lining up her next shot.
“So what are your plans this summer? Are you and your mom still headed to Seattle?”
“Yeah. We’ll leave mid-July and come back two weeks later.” Pete checked how close their other friends were. “How are you doing? With what happened here this spring, I mean.”
She shrugged. “Okay, I guess. Counseling’s helping. There’s a part of me – a small part – which still has trouble with what I had to do.”
Pete bit off his reply when another of their friends walked past. Sabrina said she wanted to talk rather than play pool, so when Naomi and Ruby came over to play, Pete and Sabrina wandered over to a pair of beanbags in the corner.
“So, tell me more about your trip, Pete.”
“We’ll spend the first week and part of the second exploring the area outside Seattle, then we’ll finish up in the city before we fly home. What about you? What will you be doing now that we’re out of school?”
“Working full time at the dojo and taking my flying lessons. Dad asked if I wanted to go out to my Uncle Chris’ hockey camp again, but I’d rather teach this summer.”
“Your Uncle Chris runs a hockey camp? That sounds cool.”
“Yeah. He’ll retire once his contract’s up though, so I don’t know if he’ll keep running the camp past that.”
“‘Contract?’ Is he a professional player or something?”
“Uncle Chris is Chris Micklicz, Pete. Dad played hockey with him in high school and dated his older sister.”
“No way! That’s cool! Um …” Pete blushed and looked away. “Sabrina, speaking of dating, when I get back from the west coast or when we start school again … would, um … would you like to go out?”
“I think I would, Pete,” she smiled back at her friend and took his hand. “I enjoyed getting to know you before Prom this year, and I’d like to get to know you more this year.”
“Cool.”
“Dad, why did Mr. Abernathy want to meet with us?” Sabrina asked as her father drove to Abernathy and Associates. “I’d rather be getting ready for my CFA.”
“You’ll still have plenty of time to get ready for the academy’s Candidate Fitness Assessment, Sabrina. It’s only July – you’ve got seven months! Anyway, Josh said the DA wanted to talk to either your mother or me or both of us together, about where the home invasion investigation stands. I told Josh that if the DA wanted to talk to us about the slavers, the DA had to include you in the meeting. The DA agreed that was fine but there might be others at this meeting who aren’t too happy about that. They can learn to get over it.”
Keiko glanced back from the front passenger’s seat. “As with the interviews at the police station following the incident, Sabrina, follow our attorney’s lead at this meeting. Your father and I will also allow Joshua to speak for us. You have your father’s temper, so please keep that in check.” Jeff nodded to his daughter, acknowledging the truth of his wife’s statement.
“Okay, Mom.”
Josh Abernathy’s receptionist greeted the family with a smile and directed them to the firm’s largest meeting room. Josh rose from his seat at the room’s conference table when they entered.
“Hi, guys. Thanks for giving up a nice summer’s morning for this meeting.”
“Why don’t we wait until we see how this meeting goes before you thank us, Josh,” Jeff cautioned. “Anyone else besides the folks you told me about coming?
“When Ted set up the meeting, he said Lancaster’s police chief and an FBI agent would join him. I understand the Massachusetts Attorney General decided she needed to be here, too.”
“Why is the Attorney General involved?”
“No idea there, Keiko, sorry. We have to wait and see. Ted and his bunch should be here in fifteen minutes, so let’s sit down and review where we are from my standpoint.”
It was closer to twenty minutes later when the receptionist knocked and ushered Ted Brewington and his party into the room.
“Hi, Ted,” Josh offered as he shook hands with his former boss.
“Josh. Thanks for arranging this meeting.”
“Let me introduce you to my client and her parents.”
Ted nodded as Josh did so.
“Allow me to introduce my party, as well,” Ted Brewington said before handling his part of the introductions.
Everyone on the Knox’s side of the table nodded to the Lancaster police chief and the FBI agent from their Boston office. Sabrina and her family stared at the Massachusetts Attorney General. The AG didn’t offer her hand, which suited the Knox family just fine.
Law-abiding gun owners such as the Knox family classified the AG as a ‘virulent anti-gunner,’ someone who wanted to confiscate all privately owned firearms in the Commonwealth. True or not, since her election, she had earned no friends among law-abiding owners. Her attempts to use consumer protection arguments against gun manufacturers hadn’t helped, either. In a state where the population outside the cities was ambivalent about guns, she sounded strident.
“Why don’t we all have a seat?” Josh suggested after seeing the looks on the family’s faces. Once settled, Josh asked, “Where do we stand with the investigation, Ted?”
“We have made little progress, Josh,” Ted admitted. “We think we’ve identified the larger group responsible, but we can’t be sure. Special Agent Best can correct me if I’m wrong.”
“Mr. Abernathy, District Attorney Brewington is correct,” the clean-cut agent admitted. “We believe this group operates out of the North Jersey area, just outside of New York City, but we can’t pinpoint them. They’re using some sophisticated methods to mask the origin of their phone calls, and with the local group destroyed we can’t monitor communications to and from this area.” SA Best glanced at Sabrina, but there was no accusation in that glance.
The look the AG gave the teen was full of contempt at Sabrina’s actions on the night in question. Sabrina couldn’t hold her tongue.
“Do you have a problem with me, lady?” Sabrina expected one of her parents to place a hand on her arm to cut her off, but it never happened so she kept speaking. “If you have a problem with something I did, then you will have a problem with everyone on this side of the table.” Josh glared down the table at Jeff and Keiko, willing them to keep Sabrina silent, but they didn’t care.
“You should have waited for the police to arrive and take care of the intruders,” the AG stated.
Sabrina’s glare grew even more hostile.
“Chief Hogan, what was the elapsed time from when I initiated the silent alarm to when your first two officers arrived at my residence?” the teen asked the Lancaster chief without taking her eyes off the AG.
“Five minutes, Miss Knox. Four minutes from the time we received notification from the alarm company.”
“Did they report any gunfire upon their arrival?”
“No.”
“Did they have to engage any targets with their weapons?”
“No.”
“Did they arrest me?”
“No. My officers detained you until they could determine the reason for the silent alarm and investigate what they found, but at no time were you considered under arrest. You had preliminary counsel present within moments, and we did not question you until Mr. Abernathy arrived at our station.”
“So the incident in question was over by the time your officers arrived, Chief?”
“Yes, it was.”
“Thank you, Chief.” Sabrina kept her gaze fixed on the AG. “Mister District Attorney, was I charged with a crime?”
“No.”
“Why not, sir?”
“You acted in self-defense that night,” Ted replied with a shrug.
He understood Sabrina’s line of questioning and her formality. He tried not to grin. He didn’t like the AG much, but he had to work with her or at least deal with her office. He enjoyed seeing Sabrina take the older woman down more than a few notches. The young woman across the table from him used a cool voice to eviscerate the lawyer-turned-politician who had become her target.
“She killed four men that night …” the AG grumbled.
“I’ve already had to school one lawyer on the relevant chapter and section of Massachusetts General Law pertaining to this incident,” Josh butted in, trying to take control of the meeting again. “Would you like to be the second, Madame Attorney General?”
AG Philips glared at him but didn’t respond otherwise.
“Josh, as you likely know neither Lancaster Police nor the State Police has the manpower to watch over your client and her family twenty-four-seven,” Ted admitted. “All we can do is suggest hiring private security for the moment.”
“And make ourselves look like the First Family?” Jeff exclaimed. “Don’t give me that look, Josh! Mr. Brewington just admitted that the police can’t protect us, and I doubt our friends at the FBI will cough up a platoon or two of agents to protect us, either. Am I right on that, Special Agent Best?”
“I’m sorry to say you’re correct there also, sir.”
“So now we have to surround ourselves with armed guards?” He shook his head in frustration and sighed. “I thank you and the district attorney for your honesty, Special Agent.” Jeff looked like he wanted to say more but held his tongue this time.
“Unless you and your team have anything else for us, Ted, I believe this meeting is over.”
The Attorney General rose and walked out, while the other three men in her party lingered to offer their apologies.
“Thank God her car’s here and not back at Lancaster Police where mine is,” Ted mumbled to Josh. “I won’t have to listen to her for long, or at all if I drag my feet leaving here.”
“Unless she asks you for a private meeting, Ted.”
“I haven’t had enough coffee yet today for that …”
“Ted, you said in your written determination that Sabrina acted correctly that night, and we thank you for that. As long as my clients stay within the legal definitions of self-defense would they be in the clear with your office if something like this were to happen again?”
“Unless they hunt down someone who is no longer a threat, yes. They can subdue such a person, but eliminating one could get them in hot water.”
“So, my clients could restrain someone once they no longer pose a danger, but they can’t go any further, right?”
“Right. I hope they never need to.”
A week after Pete returned home, he met Sabrina at the ice cream stand in South Lancaster for their first official date.
“Are you sure Prom wasn’t our first date, Sabrina?” Pete asked while they waited in line.
“No, we went as friends, remember?”
“I doubt I’ll forget that night, Sabrina, but you kissed me. T. That didn’t change it to a date?”
“Why are you arguing semantics with me, Pete?”
“It’d be nice to know what day you count as the start of our relationship, that’s why. I need to make sure my list of important dates is complete.”
“How about my birthday, then? The day you asked me out?”
“Great,” he grumbled. “So, you’ll blame me for forgetting your birthday and our anniversary?”
“You’re a guy, so you were doomed from the start,” she laughed back.
“How are the flying lessons going?” Pete asked once seated at a table.
“Great! By the time I can get my private license next summer my instrument training should be finished. Uncle Hamish will sign me off on both and I can work on some other qualifications.”
“Like what?”
“Night VFR or over-water VFR flights. Depends on how much time I have between school, hanging out with you and our friends, and hockey season. After New Year’s I’ll be taking driving lessons, too.”
Pete laughed. “It’s weird you already know how to fly but don’t have any time behind the wheel of a car yet.”
“I know! Strange, isn’t it?” They walked over and threw away their trash.
“How are your workouts for that CBA going?”
“The C-F-A? Meh,” she shrugged. “I’m improving on each part, but overall improvement is slow, especially when I do all of them in succession like the real CFA. You ready to ride up to my house?”
“That hill’s gonna be a killer! I hope you won’t be waiting for me very long if I have to walk.”
Sabrina gave her boyfriend a coy smile. “If you get too far behind, you won’t be able to check mine out!”
She gave Pete an extra little wiggle to watch as they walked to their bikes. Pete found he kinda looked forward to falling behind Sabrina in a few moments.
Summer vacation ended and school restarted at the end of August. Once Sabrina’s brothers had been driving for six months, the state would allow them to carry non-sibling passengers. Tommy Jones would once again ride to school with them in the mornings come mid-September.
Sabrina learned that Tommy’s relationship with Erica Thorisson was going strong. Naomi and Ruby were still together, as were Shawn and Desiree. She and Pete held hands as they walked to classes or sat with each other.
Apart from her friends, anyone not playing hockey with Sabrina ignored her unless they had to speak to her as part of a class. The events of the spring still bothered them. Sabrina noticed their treatment right away and ignored them right back. If she had to partner with someone for an assignment, one of her friends was always in a class with her, so they would pair off.
The families who signed their kids up for classes at the dojo had already reconsidered their opinions of the junior instructor. A few spoke to Keiko on their own if they still had questions. Sabrina’s students couldn’t care less. The few younger kids who heard about Sabrina’s experiences received frank answers from their instructor and then forgot their concerns.
Members of the Fitchburg Shockers hockey team attending Devens Regional joined Sabrina in unofficial pre-school workouts after the first week of classes. With no team at DRHS again this year, the athletic director saw no reason not to allow the players access to the under-used rink. That the athletic department also received a semi-anonymous donation to offset rink-related expenses didn’t hurt either.
Sabrina pushed her fellow teammates hard with conditioning. During suicide skating drills, she even yelled “Again!” and blew a whistle at the start of each one like Kurt Russell’s character in the movie Miracle. Her teammates found it was hard to skate while laughing.
The DRHS AD often came by to watch the Shockers’ unofficial practices. He sat in the back row of the stands at center-ice, a good vantage point to see the team scrimmage action. The normal flow of a hockey game wasn’t there because the team often stopped to rework part of a play, but the AD found he enjoyed watching them play for the fun of it while they prepared for the coming season. He also noted that the sixteen-year-old junior with the black ponytail hanging down her back was the team’s leader during practice.
“Are you still doing well in your classes, Sabrina?”
“Straight As from what I can tell, Mom. Mid-semester grades won’t be out for another two weeks, but I think I’m doing even better than I was at this time last year.”
“I am glad to hear that. And socially? Any changes there?”
“No,” she replied with a shrug. “Other than my friends and my teammates everyone else seems content just to ignore me still.”
Keiko frowned at that. She hoped the rest of Sabrina’s peers would have moved past the events of the spring, but the opposite seemed to be true.
“Don't worry about it, Mom,” Sabrina said in response to the look on her mother’s face. “It is what it is.”
“I had hoped your high school years would be better for you than mine were, Sabrina,” Keiko sighed.
“From what you’ve told me about yours, they are, Mom. The class won’t elect me Prom Queen but I have a solid group of friends and another group that treats me well and respects me. The others can pound sand.”
“I hope you do not speak that way around others, Sabrina. You are a young lady.”
“Who is too much like her father, right, Mom?”
Keiko sighed again. “I hope you do not think I am disparaging you or your father, Sabrina. Be judicious in how you speak, or when you speak as you just did. You will never speak in the same manner which I do, but I do not wish to see you labeled as unrefined or uncouth, either.”
“That, and I racked up four confirmed kills before I turned sixteen, Mom? I’m sure that will cause more concern for people down the road than my manner of speech.”
“Justifiable actions, Sabrina. Should you ever find yourself in similar circumstances do not hesitate. That would be a situation where the cautionary adage of ‘act in haste and repent in leisure’ is the desired outcome. I would prefer to deal with consequences such as we are, and not ever attend a funeral for any of my children.”
“Anyway, I wanted to ask you and Dad about hosting a Halloween party here. I doubt anyone will invite me or any of my friends to other parties, so I’d like to have one the weekend before – the weekend of the twenty-fifth. I’d prefer it then on the off-chance some of them get invited somewhere else.”
“How many of your friends do you expect to attend?”
“Well, it’ll only be my core group, so a dozen? Eighteen or more if some parents hang out?”
“That is not a problem. I will speak to your father later tonight. You should plan a simple menu for you and your friends, and we can scale as necessary.”
“So, that’s what I’m thinking about doing the weekend before, guys,” Sabrina said after outlining her party plan to her friends.
“Well, I think it sounds like a cool idea, but I’m biased,” Pete quipped.
“Whaa-chhhh!” Ruby joked, mimicking the sound of a whip.
“Whatever!” he laughed while squeezing Sabrina’s hand.
“What about the guys from the Shockers?” Shawn asked.
“I’ve talked to most of them and they’ve either ‘outgrown’ the Halloween thing, or they have other plans.” Sabrina shrugged. “I expected most of them would. Your parents are welcome to come and hang out, too. They can stay upstairs with my folks while we take over the family room downstairs.”
“I don’t think any of us will have a problem getting our parents to come,” Naomi said while glancing at her girlfriend. Ruby nodded in agreement as her mom and Naomi’s were now fast friends, and her mom knew the Knox family well. The rest of the friends nodded.
“I’ll tell my folks they should plan on the ten of us and maybe half a dozen of your parents? They may invite other friends over, as well.”
“Is this a costume party or no?” Vic Thurmond’s girlfriend Faith Henderson asked. “Either way is fine with us. I just wanted to know what we should plan for.”
“Why don’t we say no?” Sabrina asked. “We can just worry about hanging out.”
“Sounds good.”
Sabrina and Jeff sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast before her flying lesson that Saturday. The other members of their family were still asleep upstairs. Sabrina enjoyed her early morning lessons – her father less so. As they rinsed their plates Jeff’s cell phone started ringing, and the vibrations caused it to skitter across the tabletop.
“It’s early in the morning to be calling me for a date, Hamish,” Jeff joked after turning on the speakerphone function.
“Vurry funny, lad,” the Scotsman growled. “I’m callin’ ye because I have tæ cancel Sabrina’s lesson fer today.”
“Is everything okay, Hamish?” Jeff asked while glancing at Sabrina.
“Næ, lad. The hangar caught fire last night, and the plane burned with it.”
“The hangar and plane burned last night?”
“Aye. The lads from the Fire Marshal’s office have already told me t’is a suspicious fire, too.”
“Then they’re thinking arson, Hamish?”
“They will næ commit themselves yet, lad, but t’is my feelin’ on the matter. I couldnæ hear them from where I stood, but some debris they carried out of the wreckage looked like metal Gerry cans.”
“Whoever did this wanted you to know it wasn’t an accident,” Jeff concluded, “otherwise they would have used something which would have been harder to detect after the fire.”
“Aye,” Hamish sighed. “Sabrina? Are ye there, lass?”
“Yes, Uncle Hamish?” she answered.
“Ye’re ready fer yer solo, but that’s næ gonna happen today. I’ll be callin’ a flight school at Hanscom Field for ye later. I used tæ work there when I first came tæ the States, and I know the owner vurry well. She’ll næ have a problem loanin’ us a plane for yer solo, and she has instructors who can do multi-engine trainin’ for ye later.”
“Okay.”
“Don't ye worry, lass. We’ll get yer solo scheduled before ye start in with hockey this year.”
True to his word Hamish arranged an appointment for Sabrina’s solo the following weekend. She and her father stood at the front desk of Hanscom Field’s Atlantic Flight School while Hamish introduced them to the owner.
“Miriam, this young lass is the one I told ye aboot, Sabrina Knox, and her father, Jeff. Lass, laddie, Miriam Danforth.”
“Sabrina, this old kilt-wearing reprobate tells me you need to borrow an airplane to solo in?”
“Yes, please.”
“Well, let’s go take care of that while these two yobos stand here and trade lies.”
The two men watched the women walk away toward the building’s exit which led to the airfield.
“Are ye gonna stand fer that, lad?”
“Stand? Nope. I believe I will get more coffee and go sit in that chair over there. Coming?”
Hamish growled before following Jeff to the coffee machine.
Miriam returned alone fifteen minutes later. Hamish raised an eyebrow.
“She pre-flighted that Cessna like a boss. She should be back here in about two hours.” Both men blinked at her. “She seemed more ready to solo than some of my long-time students, so I sent her up for the first part of hers. No sense making her wait.” She looked at Hamish. “Do you think she’s not ready?”
“Oh, aye, she is,” Hamish admitted. “I næ thought ye’d send her up today.”
“That girl has a plan, and it doesn’t include any waiting. She said you’ve got her IFR trained already?”
“Aye. The lass will pass her check ride fer ‘single-engine, land’ with her eyes closed.”
Sabrina breezed through the first part of her solo, not that anyone doubted she would. Her previous flying lessons had excited her, but none like the way flying solo did. Hamish and Miriam laid out a plan for the rest of Sabrina’s training which should have her multi-engine certified before the end of high school.
Practices for the Fitchburg Shockers’ coming season started in early October, giving Coach Denis Savard over a month to evaluate his team before their first game.
“All right, everyone, bring it in!” he called out at the end of practice on Wednesday the 22nd, two weeks before the start of the season. The past week’s practices had been an opportunity for the team to finish gelling following the final roster cuts.
“Very nice job today. What I’ve seen over the past weeks leads me to believe we’ll have another successful season this year. You players who didn’t join those who practiced on their own over at Devens Regional, you’ve done your best to catch up with your conditioning, and it shows.
“What also shows is the leadership one of your number has displayed through last season and into the start of this one. Normally, I would have you all vote on this, but in this case, I have already talked to most of you individually and there is overwhelming agreement with my choice. Normally, we wouldn’t be handing out the uniforms until the practice before our first game. Normally, this honor and responsibility goes to someone older, but I would be hard-pressed to find anyone more deserving on this team.”
Coach Savard held his hand out to Coach Dawson who handed him a small bundle. Coach Savard shook it out, revealing a Shockers home jersey with a captain’s C on the left front.
“It gives me great pleasure to introduce your new captain …” He turned the jersey around and revealed the name and number on the back. “… Sabrina Knox.”
Sabrina’s teammates hooted, whistled, slapped their sticks on the ice while her jaw dropped in surprise. Shawn Hurt gave her a little shove toward the coaches, followed by a nod and a smile when she turned to look at him. Her eyes misted over as she skated up to her coaches.
“Coach …” she whispered.
“Don’t even try to tell me you don’t deserve this, Sabrina,” Coach Savard said as he handed her the jersey. “Even the new players see that you’re the leader of this team. Hell, it is your team.”
She skated back through her teammates as she left the ice. They punched her shoulders, slapped her shin guards with their sticks, or gave her fist bumps. Back in the ladies’ dressing room, she stared at the front of her new jersey. The C weighed exactly as much as the A on last year’s jersey, but to her it felt heavier. Coaches expected the assistant captains to be leaders, but the captain was the leader. Given her goals in life, she decided she better get used to the responsibility.
Sabrina shook off her shock, showered, and got changed into her normal post-practice outfit of a sweatshirt, t-shirt, and jeans. She shuffled out to her mother’s car with her hockey bag slung over a shoulder while carrying her sticks and the captain’s jersey in her hands. The bag and sticks went in the back of the Suburban. She brought the jersey into the front seat with her.
“Sabrina?” her mother asked after she noticed the look on her face.
“They made me captain this year.”
“That is a singular honor, Sabrina,” Keiko replied. “From what I understand, eighty percent of those attending the senior military academies in the United States have been team captains at their high schools. That tells me you are on the right track.”
“If I can live up to the title …” Sabrina mumbled.
“Self-doubt is normal, Sabrina,” her mother reminded her. “How you face adversity, regardless of the forms it may take, will be how you reveal your character.”
Most of Sabrina’s friends had no trouble convincing their respective parents to join them at Sabrina’s house for the Halloween party. Sabrina gave her parents a knowing smirk when they told her Josh Abernathy would bring Sally Dadashova as his guest that night. She smiled wider when told that Hamish would bring Miriam Danforth.
All the families brought food and soft drinks for the party. The adults also brought their own drinks. The Knox family’s favorite pizza place would deliver dinner at eight o’clock that evening.
Guests began arriving just after six. They divided up the food between the two groups. The teenagers headed to the basement. John Jones and Jeff Knox carried Erica’s wheelchair downstairs with her in it – something Jeff did often in his EMS career, John because she visited Tommy often. There was a bathroom down in the family room Erica could use so getting her back upstairs wouldn’t be a priority that night.
Sabrina smiled to herself as she looked around the family room. Peter Knapp stood at her side with his arm around her waist. Their relationship hadn’t progressed beyond a little fondling here and there, but they weren’t in any rush and enjoyed just being with each other. Erica and Tommy laughed together as they played pool. She used the bridge cue more than Tommy, but she was a better shot than him even without it – Tommy was a horrendous pool player. Ruby and Naomi were in deep discussion with Alex and Nora Bellamy, Alex’s girlfriend of eighteen months.
The only couple who didn’t appear to be having a good time was Ryan and his girlfriend, Liz Turner. Sabrina liked Ryan’s girlfriend Chrissie Messier from the previous spring, but that seemed to have been a relationship of convenience. They had only dated so they could each have a date for the Prom. They weren’t great friends, but Chrissie still said hi to Sabrina in the hallways at school, at least. Liz was just a bitch. Sabrina couldn’t hear their heated argument, but both used their hands to emphasize their words.
Less than an hour into the party, Sabrina felt the cell phone in her back pocket vibrate while chirping an urgent tone. She heard the same tone from her brothers’ phones. She recognized it as the updated warning tone from the security program. More warning tones sounded when she pulled her phone from her pocket. She watched the unwelcome alerts pop up on her phone’s home screen:
<PERIMETER WARNING – REAR FENCE, SECTOR 2>
<PERIMETER WARNING – REAR FENCE, SECTOR 3>
<PERIMETER WARNING – REAR FENCE, SECTOR 5>
<PERIMETER WARNING – DRIVEWAY SENSOR>
The blood drained from her face as her fingers flew over the phone.
“Sabrina?” Pete asked. “What’s wrong?”
Sabrina stared in disbelief at her phone as the infrared cameras outside showed just over a dozen figures climbing the fence behind her house. An SUV crept down the access road from Hilltop Road.
“Pete, help Alex and Ryan get everyone into the panic room,” she whispered.
“What?”
“Get everyone into the panic room.” She pointed to a door next to the staircase which led upstairs. “NOW!” She looked up to locate her brothers.
“ALAMO!” Sabrina barked, which was the family’s emergency code word. The room quieted as everyone stared at her.
“ALAMO! ALAMO!” she repeated while she tapped commands into the security application.
That got one of her brothers moving. Alex closed the heavy curtain over the large window facing the back yard as he passed it. He guided Nora to the mechanical room’s door. Alex pressed his thumb to the biometric sensor next to the door and pushed it open when the magnetic locks disengaged. He ducked inside to unlock the panic room. Most of the others started moving in that direction, picking up on the urgency of the situation.
While Pete encouraged the others through that door, Ryan and Liz stood at the far end of the basement staring in shock. Sabrina dashed over and shoved them toward the open door.
“Get your ass in there before I kick it up around your ears, Ryan!” she growled.
“What’s going on?” Liz demanded while her boyfriend’s annoying little sister manhandled them. Sabrina ignored her while she stuffed them both through the portal before turning to her boyfriend.
“I’m going up to make sure the adults get down here. Get inside and close this door. It’ll lock behind you, and the reinforced door and wall will protect you until you get into the panic room. Mom can open both doors when she gets down here using the thumbprint sensors. Don’t wait for the rest of the guests. You get everyone inside the panic room and close that door, understood?”
Sabrina laid a scorching kiss on Pete before bolting up the stairs.
