Chapter 5 - The Deactivated Feed
The atmosphere in the mansion grew heavier as the hours ticked toward dawn. While the household was restricted to their quarters under heavy guard, Alejandro, Bruno, and Dr. Mercer gathered in the security control room in the mansion's basement.
The control room was a state-of-the-art facility lined with dozens of high-definition monitors displaying live feeds from every hallway, gate, perimeter wall, and public room in the estate.
"We checked the hallway feeds outside your study, boss," Bruno said, clicking a mouse to replay a section of video from 3:45 PM. "Because of the angle of the main corridor, we see Marco carrying the tray with the decanter toward the study wing. But there's a blind spot right near the linen closet where the hallway turns."
On the screen, a middle-aged waiter in a black vest carried a silver tray with a crystal decanter. He turned the corner toward Alejandro's study and disappeared from view for approximately four minutes before reappearing on another camera, walking back empty-handed.
"Marco says he put the decanter on your desk, saw you weren't there, and left immediately," Bruno explained. "He claims the glass was empty when he brought it, and the wine was sealed."
"Did Marco know about my allergy?" Alejandro asked, staring at the screen.
"No," Mercer chimed in. "Marco was hired six months ago. He has no access to your medical history."
Alejandro leaned closer to the console. His eyes, trained by decades of paranoia and survival, noticed something strange on the monitor.
In the corner of the ceiling, right above the door to the study, was an old, round brass smoke detector. It looked identical to the dozen other antique smoke detectors installed throughout the historic mansion during its renovation in the 1990s.
Alejandro’s eyes widened slightly. He stood up, knocking his chair back a few inches.
"Bruno," Alejandro said, his voice tense. "Who installed the motion-sensing climate control sensors in the hallways two years ago?"
Bruno blinked, caught off guard. "Uh... the smart home automation team from Manhattan. They put hidden sensors in the old smoke detector housings so they wouldn't ruin the historical woodwork."
"Those aren't just climate sensors," Alejandro said, a sudden realization striking him like a bolt of lightning. "When my late wife had the nursery built upstairs, she had the contractor install a secondary, redundant nanny-cam network wired into the main house structure—completely separate from the primary security system. She was worried about the staff when Kiara was a baby."
Bruno stared at him. "Boss... you turned off the main security camera in your study three years ago. But did anyone turn off the old secondary nanny system?"
Alejandro didn't answer. He lunged forward, grabbing the keyboard from Bruno. His fingers flew across the keys, inputting a deep-level administrative override code that he hadn't used in over three years—a code associated with an old local storage server tucked away in the back rack of the server room.
The screen flickered. A dark, buried directory folder appeared on the screen: ARCHIVE_NURSERY_EXT_1.
Alejandro clicked it. A window opened, displaying a grainy, high-angle black-and-white video feed. The timestamp in the corner read: TODAY - 04:12:05 PM.
The camera was positioned high inside the fake smoke detector right above the study door, angled down toward the interior of the private room. It bypassed the primary security network entirely.
"My God," Bruno whispered, leaning over Alejandro’s shoulder. "It was recording the whole time."
Alejandro slammed the spacebar to play the video.
The screen showed the quiet study. The desk was visible, along with the leather chair and the fireplace. At 4:15 PM, the heavy oak door opened.
A figure stepped into the room.
The person was wearing black leather gloves. They walked quickly to the desk, pulled a small glass vial from inside their jacket, and emptied a clear liquid into the crystal decanter containing the Barolo. Then, with methodical precision, they placed a small, unmarked box on the edge of the shelf behind Alejandro’s desk—a tiny signal jammer designed to block mobile phone signals inside the room.
The figure turned toward the camera for a fraction of a second as they adjusted their collar.
The overhead light caught the person’s face clearly.
Bruno gasped, taking a step back in sheer disbelief. "No... no, that's impossible."
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Alejandro’s eyes turned into two pools of liquid coal. His jaw clenched so hard a muscle pulsed violently against his cheekbone.
The face on the screen belonged to Dr. Edward Mercer.
