Rain slammed against the towering glass walls of Blackwood Estate, a secluded oceanfront mansion perched above the cliffs of Monterey, California.

"We have to get to the second floor!" Julian yelled, grabbing Elise and dragging her toward the grand staircase. "The gas is heavier than air; it floods from the bottom up!"

"Wait!" Vivian screamed, scrambling after them. "Don't leave me!"

Julian ignored her, pulling Elise up the stairs. The tactical guards in the hall scrambled to follow, but the hiss of the Halon gas was already starting. Thick, white vapor began pouring from the vents near the baseboards.

They reached the mezzanine, the gas pooling like a ghostly lake on the first floor below.

"It's a temporary fix!" Elise yelled over the sirens. "The ventilation system will push the gas up here eventually. We have to override the mainframe!"

"Marcus is in the server room! It's sealed!" Julian shouted.

"I don't need the server room," Elise said, her eyes scanning the dark wood paneling of the hallway. "I built this house, Julian. I built a manual override into the master suite's panic room."

They sprinted down the hall, bursting into the master bedroom. Elise ran to the massive walk-in closet, pushing aside rows of Julian’s suits to reveal a biometric scanner. She placed her palm on it.

ACCESS DENIED.

"He wiped my biometrics!" Elise cursed, slamming her fist against the wall.

"Try mine," Julian said, pressing his hand to the glass.

ACCESS GRANTED.

The wall slid open, revealing a small, reinforced room with a single computer terminal. Elise dove into the chair, her fingers flying across the keyboard. Lines of green code reflected in her eyes.

"He encrypted the ventilation shut-off," Elise muttered rapidly. "He's watching the system. Every time I try to open a vent, he locks it."

"Can you isolate him?" Julian asked, standing behind her, watching the white gas slowly creeping under the bedroom door.

"I'm trying... he's fighting me on the backend."

Elise stopped typing. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. She wasn't the broken maid anymore. She was the genius who had built a billion-dollar empire.

"He thinks I'm trying to open the doors," Elise whispered. "I'm not."

She began typing furiously.

"What are you doing?" Julian asked.

"I'm rerouting the Halon," Elise said coldly. "I'm closing the vents on the upper floors and redirecting 100% of the gas pressure directly into the server room."

She hit enter.

Down in the subterranean server room, Marcus watched the monitors. Suddenly, the screen flashed red. PRESSURE WARNING.

Before Marcus could react, the vents above him exploded open. A concentrated, massive blast of thick white Halon gas blasted into the sealed room.

Marcus choked, dropping the gun. He stumbled toward the door, pounding on the steel.

"Elise!" Marcus screamed, his voice muffled by the thick glass. "Elise, open the door!"

Upstairs, Elise watched him on the security feed. She didn't smile. She didn't flinch. She simply watched the man who had stolen four years of her life slowly slide down the door, gasping for oxygen that was no longer there.