Cathal #2
We found Faolán almost as soon as we left the room.
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been going crazy trying to find you. What’s happening here?” he barked as he hugged her. I retained hold of her hand.
“Daidí, calm down. I’m fine. You had to know that Cathal and his family wouldn’t allow anything to happen to me. We’ve been married for less than twelve hours. He isn’t sick of me that fast,” she teased.
“It’s possible,” Murdoch muttered, giving her a steely-eyed look, but I saw his mouth twitch.
“Don’t start. You’re just mad that you had no idea they had something this cool. And I didn’t either. Cathal was showing me around a little. Has anyone heard an update yet on those people who were coming?” she asked.
And just like that, they were diverted to go closer to where the Hounds worked. It appeared the available Hounds had arrived. They had a compound deeper in the swamp, not far from our property. Hollis, Quinn, Jaime, Mario, and Dylan were here. Hollis was Alistair’s second-in-command.
Along with them were two of the women members of the Hound team: Nova and Riley. The murmuring was pretty loud. I noted that the kids and babies weren’t in the middle of it. I moved over to Cara.
“All the kids down?” I asked.
“Yeah, they’re in their area.”
“Area? The kids have a different area?” Bronagh asked.
“It’s still within this one. It’s more of a safe room within a safe command center. We refuse to endanger kids,” I explained.
“Sounds like you’ve thought this through. Got to say, never thought you had anything like this. And you don’t need to say it. We won’t breathe a peep to anyone, not even among ourselves,” her dad immediately tagged on.
“Thank you,” I told him.
“Alright, if you’ll all pay attention. We’ve got movement outside the walls. They’re probing for a weak spot,” Alistair announced.
He watched screens closely. Monitors were hanging from the ceiling all over.
The cameras were all focused on the outer perimeter of the ten-foot-tall wall that encircled the entire estate—front and rear gates provided entry.
We mainly used the front one, but both had a guardhouse inside the walls next to them.
I caught sight of four large SUVs, dark-colored with blacked-out windows.
There was no way to see inside to tell who was in them or how many were in each.
They were spaced out along the front of the compound.
Glancing over, I saw no one at either side wall or in the back.
I would’ve been shocked if they were at the rear one.
It came out essentially backed up to swampland, and if you didn’t know where to go, navigating it was a nightmare.
We used UTVs back there and varied the paths so we didn’t beat down the vegetation enough to show a trail.
Suddenly, the doors of the lead SUV opened and out stepped four, no, six men. It was one of those three-row vehicles. They all were. So that meant they could technically hold up to seven each, so just shy of thirty max. That was assuming they didn’t have more backup elsewhere.
One of the guys was carrying something. He fiddled with it, then set it down on the ground. From a backpack he carried over his shoulder, a square device emerged.
“He’s got a drone. He’s gonna do a flyover to see what he can see. Fucking idiot,” Cillian murmured.
“Why get so close just to fly a drone over?” Bronagh asked.
“I have no clue, but something tells me it’s not gonna work the way they think it will,” Burke replied.
“Ones that size have a limited distance, and the size of the estate makes it so they have to get close. Now, if they had military-grade ones, that’s different,” I explained.
“So they’ll be able to map out the location of all the houses and stuff,” Murdoch muttered to her.
“And there’s nothing anyone can do about it. That sucks,” Bronagh said.
“Oh, I wouldn’t say there’s nothing that can be done. They clearly have no clue who they’re dealing with,” I chuckled.
“What does that mean?” Burke asked.
“You’ll see. Watch the cameras,” I grinned as I said it.
I enjoyed showing them what we were capable of. It was a good thing they were here at this moment. If Faolán had any intention of moving against us, this would make him think twice.
The security guards did more than protect us whenever we left home.
They, along with others, worked to protect the estate and its occupants.
Many of them had served in the military, like Alistair, and several on special forces teams. Their expertise in modern warfare, especially since the introduction of drones, has benefited us.
All the guards trained in warfare techniques like they were special forces troops.
What would shock outsiders was that the fifteen O’Sheeran children were included in much of that training.
We’d accounted for the possibility of drones being used against us. Not the military ones, but the cheaper ones available to the general public. To counter them, we implemented two things.
First, we had the Wingman and Pitbull: a wearable, belt-mounted radio-frequency drone detector and a lightweight radio-frequency jammer that, when paired, blocked the drone’s control and navigation signals.
They were made by a company called MyDefence.
It covered as much as one thousand meters of jamming range.
When the Pitbull was paired with the Wingman, the Wingman automatically triggered the Pitbull to jam the drone’s frequency.
Without the Wingman, however, the Pitbull could be used manually.
Second, there was another device known as the EDM4S SkyWiper, which stood for Electronic Drone Mitigation 4-System, a portable electronic warfare anti-drone device.
It worked by jamming the communication and navigation systems of small and medium-sized drones using an electromagnetic pulse.
A company called NT Service in Lithuania made it.
Then, our security was supplied with guns in case they chose to shoot down the drones manually.
Our favorite was a Benelli M4 with a suppressor using #10 Birdshot.
It significantly reduced the noise created.
This lowered the chances of sound traveling to neighbors, even a couple of miles away, and prompting them to call the police.
The only issue was making sure it did the job; when using #10 birdshot, the action had to be cycled by hand to eject the spent case and load the next round.
However, the birdshot’s scatter pattern was more effective at ensuring the drone was hit, so it was a small price to pay.
And of course, they were equipped with other guns for actual people infiltrating the compound. We were serious about ensuring the safety of everyone living and working here.
Everyone watched the screens intently. When the drone took off, it barely cleared the wall and entered the compound before the Wingman-Pitbull combination brought it down. Laughter rang out. I wondered if they had more to try. It would be entertaining to find out.