The Midnight Inventory

At 00:15, Sophie found a sideways crate in the delivery bay. That small observation — a pallet rotated 90 degrees from standard receiving protocol — triggered a chain of discoveries that none of the senior staff had caught.

She brought it to Victor, who knelt beside her on the archive floor and verified the evidence himself. The crate's delivery manifest had been forged — Morrison & Cade Logistics signed for a shipment on April 29 that never arrived in any household ledger. Julian traced the shell company behind the forgery while Cordelia found what was actually delivered: a telemetry module, installed in the environmental control system, quietly mapping room-by-room occupancy patterns for 23 days and transmitting to an external server in Slough, 40 minutes away.

Victor initiated full lockdown at 05:47. Sebastian briefed the household at 05:54. The intruders have had nearly a month of occupancy data. The surveillance feed just went dark — they will either abort or escalate within hours.

Sophie was promoted to Victor's investigative team. She stayed awake because a crate looked wrong. That's not training — that's instinct.