It all began in the stealth of night...

Intruders—three of them—dressed in black like graceful ninja warriors, their faces masked by the sheen of used ladies’ stockings, slipped inside her home. Security was breached in this gated community with paid guards at the entrance who were bribed with rolls of cash. The two German shepherds who kept watch were poisoned, a tortuous death of fresh ground meat laced with antifreeze. They watched the tortured animals writhe in pain before the light went out of their eyes. With a tap on a cell phone, the camera feeds stuttered and died, and the motion alarms went quiet.

Just as the sun peeked above the Pacific Ocean, a scream would be heard in Forbes Park, inside the compound of this neighborhood of tightly guarded mansions on the outskirts of Manila, juxtaposed by the poverty and squalor of the city limits.

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