Michael reached the street at full speed and then stopped so abruptly that the asphalt cracked beneath his boots.The mansion was still standing, but only in the most technical sense of the word. Smoke drifted from shattered windows and scorched balconies, rolling upward in thick, uneven plumes that carried the sharp smell of ozone and burned insulation. The front gate had been torn apart, the reinforced alloy warped and melted inward as though it had been forced open by something that did not recognize resistance as a concept. The security perimeter that should have been alive with motion, drones, and targeting lights was completely dead.For a fraction of a second, Michael stood there and took it in, his mind struggling to reconcile the image in front of him with the place he had personally overseen, reinforced, and secured.He crossed the grounds in a blur, boots crunching over shattered stone and scorched grass. The first guard he found was s