Agent Vance turned his piercing gaze onto Brenda with cold, crushing finality.
"Brenda Sterling," Agent Vance rumbled. "Under Title 18, United States Code Section 1362 and Section 1030, the intentional destruction, sabotage, or interruption of critical federal communications infrastructure is a federal felony carrying twenty years without parole."
Brenda’s knees buckled. Her stack of HOA bylaws slipped from her fingers, scattering across the lawn as the wire cutters clattered against the concrete.
"Wait! Please! I'm just the HOA president! It was a neighborhood bylaw violation!" Brenda shrieked in total hysteria as two federal agents pinned her arms behind her back.
Heavy steel handcuffs snapped firmly around her wrists.
As the disgraced board president was marched down the driveway in tears of complete humiliation in front of dozens of stunned neighbors, the telecom team immediately ran a new armored cable to restore the encrypted link.
Marcus looked down at the scattered papers on his lawn with a calm, knowing smile.
With the corrupt neighborhood dictator in federal custody and the street finally freed from her tyranny, peace and security were permanently restored to Whispering Oaks.