System Reboot
The impact knocked the wind out of Elias. The intruder was heavy and smelled of mildew and ozone. Rough, calloused hands clamped around Elias's throat instantly.
Elias thrashed. His heels scraped helplessly against the slippery marble floor. The intruder wasn't looking at him; he was looking through him. His eyes rolled back as he mumbled a frantic stream of numbers.
"0-0-1. Override. 4-4. Reset," the man hissed while squeezing tighter. Black spots danced in Elias's vision. The intruder's face was inches away—a mask of madness.
Elias's hand searched blindly across the floor. His fingers brushed cold steel—the steak knife.
He gripped the handle. But with the intruder's weight pinning his chest, he had no leverage to stab. He was losing consciousness. The red light on the hub watched them without concern.
With one last surge of desperate adrenaline, Elias didn't aim for the man. He swung the knife sideways and jammed the blade into the exposed electrical socket on the kitchen island base, right beside his head.
CRACK.
Blue sparks erupted. The penthouse plunged into darkness. The hum of the refrigerator stopped. The red eye of the smart hub went dark.
The sudden shock startled the intruder. His grip loosened for a fraction of a second—just enough for Elias to buck his hips and roll the man off him.
Elias scrambled backward on his hands and knees, gasping for air and coughing violently.
"System rebooting," a backup speaker announced from the ceiling. It ran on emergency battery power. The voice was flat and emotionless, a default factory setting. "Factory settings restored. Biometric cache cleared."
The intruder shrieked in the darkness, disoriented. He scrambled to his feet and lunged towards the sound of Elias's breathing. "No! I controlled it! It was mine!"
"System!" Elias croaked, his voice raw. "Intruder alert! Zone 2! Activate 'Panic Room' Protocol!"
The factory reset had cleared the intruder's hack. The System responded to the master voice immediately.
"Protocol Accepted."
Heavy steel shutters slammed down over the windows with a deafening clang. At the same time, the reinforced security gate dropped from the ceiling like a guillotine, sealing off the kitchen from the living room.
Elias pulled his legs back just as the gate hit the floor, completely blocking the kitchen.
On the other side of the heavy steel mesh, the intruder slammed his fists against the metal, screaming incoherently. He was trapped.
Elias leaned against the living room wall, trembling uncontrollably. He watched the shadow of the man through the mesh.
"Police have been dispatched," the System calmly announced. "ETA: four minutes. Would you like me to adjust the living room temperature while you wait?"
Elias looked at the blood on his hands, then at the trapped, screaming man, and finally at the shattered vent in the ceiling. He closed his eyes and took a long, shaky breath.
"No," Elias whispered. "Just turn on the lights."