Page 26 of The Last Morgan
As soon as she did Davids's tablet started beeping, he immediately opened his device, syncing it into the building's cyber surveillance system. Corey was already moving, locking Lucy's laptop and engaging the emergency encryption protocols on her desktop.
"How far did they get?" Lucy asked.
"Two firewalls in," Corey said. "And that was just here. They were clearly trying to hit both your home and business at once."
David’s fingers moved swiftly over his screen. "This wasn’t a random probe. They masked their entry points through dynamic relays. I’m seeing bounces from a dozen regions, but two origin traces are consistent.” Lucy swore under her breath. "They're fucking bold."
Corey looked at her. "We need someone who can get inside their system before they make another move."
Lucy didn’t hesitate. "Barnaby."
David glanced up. "Who's that?"
Corey grinned. "Barnaby is our little brother, I’ve seen him break military encryption for fun."
"I trust him with my life," Lucy added, already grabbing her phone.
She messaged him a brief note: Need your help. Emergency. Pack your gear. Come now.
Corey was already calling him.
"Barns," Corey said as soon as the line picked up, "We need you. Dual breach. Corporate and estate. Level 2 firewalls got pierced."
There was a beat of silence, then Barnaby’s unmistakably chipper voice: "Finally. Real work. I’ll be there soon.
Corey laughed. "You got it, genius."
Lucy was already pressing her intercom to talk to Davina. "Can you call Lillian and get her to have the east wing guest suite cleared and prepped, also speak with the tech department and get them to go to my house and complete a triple monitor setup, isolated connections and organize a machine that creates bubble tea. Don't ask!"
David lowered his tablet. "I’ll coordinate with him once he arrives. In the meantime, I’m shifting the building into Level Two lockdown. All backups will be sent to offline vaults, and I’ll reconfigure the camera network to run in thirty-second loops for manual review."
Lucy nodded. "I want live monitoring on my office and the server room. Anyone accesses those files again without my explicit permission, I want to know before the system does."
David nodded tightly. "Understood."
He moved toward the door, then paused. "Should I inform your uncle about the breach?"
Lucy considered this, her eyes narrowing slightly. "No. Not until we know what exactly they were after. For now, this stays between us."
David gave her a respectful nod, then exited swiftly.
Corey returned to his usual spot by the window, phone still in hand.
Lucy turned to him. "Let me guess—Barnaby asked for a soldering station, four different wires, and a fridge of snacks too?"
Corey chuckled. "And a hoodie with his name on it."
Lucy shook her head, smiling. "I’ll embroider it myself if he cracks whoever did this."
Chapter 14
As soon as Lucy and Corey arrived back at the main house, the sound of tires crunching across gravel made them both turn toward the gate. A long black minibus—far too dramatic for a teenager—pulled into the driveway. Its side doors slid open with a hiss.
Out jumped Barnaby.
"WHOA!" he yelled, throwing his arms up toward the towering estate. "Lucy, shall I call you your Highness now? Look at the size of this palace!"
Lucy laughed softly and lifted her hand in a simple, elegant gesture. Two nearby staff members—alert and well-trained—immediately moved to help unload the luggage that Barnaby began to throw out of the minibus with absolutely no grace.
