Marcus looked at the woman in the white suit. He looked at the forty strangers treating his sanctuary like a public bathhouse. He realized, with absolute clarity, that trying to reason with Brenda was like trying to reason with a brick wall. She had completely detached from reality, blinded by the microscopic fraction of power her title afforded her.
"I see," Marcus said softly. He didn't argue further. He simply turned on his heel and walked toward the sliding glass doors leading into his house, leaving Brenda looking smug and victorious on the patio. She thought she had won. She had no idea what was coming.
Marcus slid the heavy glass door shut, instantly cutting off the noise of the party. The interior of his house was cool, quiet, and perfectly ordered. He didn't panic. His mind shifted into the methodical, problem-solving mode that made him one of the best engineers in his firm.
He walked directly to his home office and booted up his desktop computer. He pulled up the 4K security camera feeds. He quickly scrubbed back the footage from the side gate camera. The high-definition video clearly showed Brenda, in her pristine white suit, carrying a massive pair of yellow-handled bolt cutters. The video captured her snapping the lock, pushing the gate open, and waving a massive crowd of people inside. It was textbook breaking and entering, destruction of private property, and trespassing.
Marcus pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed 911.
"911, what is your emergency?" the dispatcher answered.
"Yes, I need police to my residence immediately," Marcus said calmly. "I have a woman who used bolt cutters to break through my security gate, and she has allowed approximately forty unauthorized individuals into my backyard. They are currently trespassing, and the woman is acting erratically and threatening me."
He gave the address and hung up. The police would take at least ten minutes to arrive. Marcus looked out the window at the people splashing in his expensive saltwater pool. Ten minutes was too long to let them enjoy the fruits of a felony. It was time to shut the party down.
Marcus’s home was fully integrated with a state-of-the-art smart home system. Everything from the lighting to the irrigation was wired into a central control panel in his utility room. He walked over to the glowing touchscreen on the wall.