At 4 the next morning I was awakened by my implant vibrating. Security alert!

Edging quietly out of bed, i moved to the desk and flipped on to security. Mom had her ducks liked up; we were being invaded from the park behind us. Two, now three bogies moving towards us. Rooftop guard had two of them on target, the third was picked up by our park motion detectors.

I watched as suddenly one of the two was taken out by the rooftop guard; he was using trank darts to maintain our image in the community. Lot security took out the second. The third moved well, using what little natural cover there was to get onto the back lot and move through the vehicles parked there. Rooftop couldn't get a clear shot, so Mom directed a door guard away to cover his approach. This was the smartest of the three, and he got as far as the back door before security finally tased him down.

They gathered the invaders and dragged them to the delivery door, when I saw just a whisper of movement on the front of the building, and was ready to hit the panic button when Mom did. Two more. Three. Five.

Pulling on pants, I was down to the main entry in seconds, in time to slap off a shot or two; I think one hit. More security was stirring out, and I saw a few of the lot defenses knock down invaders, while two of ours hit the ground. There was no more movement, and Mom called an all-clear.

One of my two down was in the hospital in a few minutes, one was in the morgue. The 8 invaders were all taken down; three in the morgue, one in the hospital... and four in the hands of the Don. His men got here just after the invasion attempt was over, too late to save my security person's life.

I was crushed. Jeri had not just been security, she was part of my family. I had to ponder whether it was time to take the offensive; but was my information network good enough?