Chapter 5 - The Night the Lights Went Out
The power failed shortly after eight.
One moment, Lily sat beside Thomas’s bed reading a book about a bear who refused to hibernate.
The next, the room disappeared.
She stopped in the middle of a sentence.
“Grandpa?”
“I’m here.”
Emergency lights came on in the hallway.
Thomas had returned from the hospital two days earlier with a treatment plan, follow-up appointments, and clear instructions from his doctors.
He was improving.
But darkness made everything feel uncertain again.
Lily reached for his hand.
Downstairs, Dante heard the generator fail to start.
Carmine’s radio crackled.
“The south camera feed is down.”
Dante looked up.
“Only the south?”
“Checking.”
He was already moving when Rosa appeared at the stairs.
“Lily’s with Thomas.”
“Stay with them. Lock the door.”
Rosa met his eyes.
“Don’t bring whatever this is upstairs.”
He nodded.
Outside, snow struck the windows in hard white streaks.
A winter storm had been forecast all afternoon, but the security system should have remained operational.
Dante went to the control room.
One guard was missing from his station.
A service entrance showed open.
On the monitor, a figure crossed the covered walkway toward the east wing.
Carmine reached for his weapon.
Dante caught his wrist.
“Keep him away from the bedrooms. Call the police.”
Carmine stared.
“Boss—”
“Now.”
For years, those two words had meant the opposite.
Now Dante wanted witnesses, records, and help that did not depend on which man drew first.
He reached the east-wing corridor as the service door opened.
A maintenance contractor stepped inside carrying a tool bag.
Dante recognized him.
The man had repaired a kitchen vent the previous month.
“Stop.”
The contractor froze.
“You shouldn’t be in this wing.”
“Generator problem.”
“The generator is outside.”
The man looked toward the stairs.
Carmine appeared behind him.
“Put the bag down.”
For several seconds, nothing moved.
Then the contractor slowly set it on the floor.
Inside were tools, gloves, and a phone displaying a photograph of Lily’s shoeshine box.
Dante felt his stomach turn cold.
“What were you sent to take?”
The man said nothing.
Dante stepped closer.
Every instinct he had inherited told him how to end the silence.
Then, from behind the locked bedroom door, he heard Lily begin reading again.
Her voice shook.
But she kept going.
Dante stopped.
“Sit down,” he said.
The police arrived while snowplows worked through the main road.
The contractor was questioned. The phone and tool bag were handled as evidence. The missing guard was found outside near a utility shed, conscious but injured after confronting someone near the service entrance.
An ambulance took him for treatment.
The outage had been exploited deliberately.
Whether the same people had caused it would take longer to establish.
Dante gave his statement.
He answered questions he would once have refused even to acknowledge.
Upstairs, Lily had finished the bear book.
Rosa opened the door only after hearing Dante’s voice.
Thomas sat against his pillows, pale with worry.
“Is it over?”
“For tonight.”
Lily looked at Dante’s empty hands.
“Did you hurt somebody?”
“No.”
“Were you going to?”
The honesty of children was sometimes unbearable.
Dante sat beside the bed.
“I was angry enough to want to.”
Lily considered that.
“Grandpa says wanting to throw a plate isn’t the same as throwing it.”
“Your grandfather says a lot of useful things.”
“He’s old. He had time.”
Thomas laughed, then coughed.
Dante brought him water.
Later, after Lily fell asleep, Thomas spoke quietly.
“You can’t guard us out of everything.”
“I can improve security.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
Dante sat back.
Thomas looked at the closed door.
“She needs a life, son. School. Friends. The chance to forget where the exits are.”
Dante had purchased safety for powerful people all his adult life.
Cars.
Guards.
Gates.
He had never asked whether a life that required so many defenses was one a child should have to inherit.
“What are you asking me to do?” he said.
Thomas’s eyes remained steady.
“Make sure helping us doesn’t become another reason she has to be afraid.”
Outside, the generator finally started.
Warm light returned to the room.
May you like
Dante looked at it for a long moment before answering.
“All right.”
