The house’s emergency generator was running now, and a few low-watt lights came on, so they could see. Boom! There was a whining sound as the vibration from the battering ram turned on the motor that lowered the steel shutters on the first floor. Now the whole floor was lit only by those few bulbs, deprived of the moonlight and the glow from the rest of La Jolla’s electric lights.

Then Sam was in the room with them. He went to the metal control box built into the wall, opened it, turned on the monitor for the cameras over the door, and looked for just a second. “Selma, call the police.”

He used the intercom to speak to the men outside. “You, on the porch. Get the battering ram out of here or you’ll regret it.”

Boom! The men seemed to try harder. They stepped back, then forward again and swung the heavy steel cylinder. Boom! Remi could see the door bump inward without giving way.

Sam reached for a covered switch in the control box and flipped it on. In the monitor, Sam and Remi could see the men on the porch react to a hissing sound. When they looked up, they dropped the battering ram, covered their eyes and faces with their hands, and blindly staggered off the porch.

“What’s that?” Remi asked.

“Pepper spray. It’s one of the things I added to the security system.”

“That kind of paid for itself, didn’t it?” she said as she watched men from the woods hurry onto the lawn to pull the injured back to the cover of the pines.

Selma called out, “The phones are dead.”

“Use your cell.”

“They seem to be jamming 850 megahertz.” Selma took another phone out of her desk and they recognized it as one of the ones they’d used in Europe. “Some kind of device. 1900 megahertz too. 2100 and 2500.”

“Then send someone you know an e-mail to call the cops for us.”

“The Wi-Fi is jammed too. I can’t get online. I can’t use the phone line because it’s dead.”

“All right. Of course,” Sam said. He manipulated a toggle on his control board to alter the aim of the surveillance cameras. “Wow. We’re in trouble,” he said. “Look at all the men out there.”

“Are Pete and Wendy home?” asked Remi.

“I’ll go tell them what’s up,” said Selma.

Sam said, “Tell them to open the gun safe and bring us—”

“I’ll do that,” said Remi, already running for the stairs. She took them two and three at a time, but Zoltán seemed to have no trouble staying ahead of her. She reached the second floor and met Pete and Wendy on the way to the third. “Hold it!” she said. “I need you upstairs for a minute.”