Breach to Ground Level

Slid the vertical chute along the umbrella's folded black canopy. Touchdown at the base of the ceramic umbrella stand was silent. The floor tiles held cool evening shadows. Beside the cylindrical rim lay a heavy, discarded zinc coat hook that had worked loose from the lower wall trim. Solid metal casing. I crouched, bracing both combat boots against the stand's curved ceramic base. Using the rifle barrel as a pry bar, I wedged the tip into the screw eyelet, leveraging the dead weight six inches to block the draft line sweeping under the front threshold. Night barricade confirmed.