19. Patrick
Boom!
The sound of the shotgun going off is deafening, especially since none of us are wearing hearing protection. Ari was in the process of telling me how much she wanted to have a future with me when Jerry came over the comms sounding garbled.
“Sig…Jam…Incom…dro…sure…arm…!” he said. Not having any distractions, Savannah could decipher his broken message through the static. She immediately located the source of his distress and aimed the shotgun. With the drone now destroyed, communications quickly come back online.
“What happened, Jerry?” I ask.
“Cn ooh pliss geet awwf me? I aunt bweeve!” Ari says muffled, pushing at my chest.
Understanding her words better than I had Jerry’s, I get off her so she can breathe.
“I’ll tell you what happened! Those guys sent in a drone with a signal jammer. Get back here as soon as you can. I lost visuals for almost thirty seconds, plenty of time for someone to breach the perimeter!”
Having just witnessed Savannah take out the drone, my dad recognizes that there’s an immediate threat and pulls up beside us. “Get in, Ariella. It will be safer in here than on horseback.” When she glances at me, silently asking my permission, I give her a slight nod. She complies and slides in, placing Alex on her lap. Once they’re on their way back to the main part of the ranch, I turn toward my partner.
“Savannah, can you ride?” I ask, hoping her answer is “yes.”
“Like the wind, Cowboy.” We get on the horses and put them into a gallop. What had taken nearly half an hour earlier while walking the horses takes less than seven minutes running them at full speed. We arrive at the barn within seconds of the RZR.
I hop down from John Wick and rush over to the utility vehicle, opening the door for Ari and Alex. “Let’s get you into the house. Sav—”
“Son, you go take care of your family. I’ll get the horses settled. Savannah can help me if she’s not needed inside,” my dad tells me.
“Go, Patrick. They need you. Your dad and I got this,” Savannah reassures me.
I don’t hesitate. I follow Ariella and Alex up the porch steps, walking backward to keep my eyes directed toward the pastures and tree line while positioning my body between them and any possible threat.
Once we’re safely inside, I feel some of the tension melt from my body. “How are you two holding up?” I expect Alex to be scared, but neither he nor Ariella appear to be put out or upset. As if reading my mind, Ariella says, “It’s not our first time encountering an unknown threat and being rushed to safety.”
Jessie walks by, heading toward the kitchen. “Ah, so just another walk in the park. Hungry? Charlie and I made sandwiches.”
“Yes, please,” Alex says.
“Like father, like son. I’m always able to eat, no matter the circumstances.” As soon as I say the words, my stomach growls loudly.
“Come on. Let’s wash up, grab some food, and get some answers.” Ariella takes my hand and drags me toward the kitchen, where we find plates already made for us.
Jerry has the laptop open on the table, pecking away at the keyboard. “We should wait for Savannah, so I don’t have to say everything twice. Right now, I’m running a software diagnostic to see if our cameras have been hijacked or if what I’m seeing on the screen are spoofed images. It will take another ten minutes for the program to finish running.”
Ten minutes later, Savannah walks in and immediately grabs a sandwich before sitting down at the table. “Don and I untacked the horses, and they’re cooling down in the larger paddock. I’ll return to help him clean up after this briefing.”
My mom sits down next to her. “You’ve done more than enough, Sweetheart. Sit down, eat, and take a breather. Don is more than capable of stabling the horses and brushing them down.”
“What do you have for us, Jerry?” Jessie asks impatiently.
He flips around his laptop screen. “As you know, our perimeter was breached with a drone armed with a signal jammer. It doesn’t look like the signal was used to hack our system, and I haven’t detected any back doors or malware. As far as I can tell, none of the cameras are spoofed.”
“I would certainly double-check. I’m not a ‘techie’ by any means, but Brachha is one of the leading developers of technology, specifically in the realm of cybersecurity. They may have created something new you aren’t aware of,” Ariella warns.
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Jerry says, unperturbed. “I think the signal jammer was an attempt to prevent outgoing communications if their drone was detected. As it was, I barely got a warning to you in time, and it was a garbled mess.”
I lean forward and look at the screen. “Do you have any video of the drone before it imploded from a 12-gauge shotgun shell?”
Jerry reaches around to press the enter button, already having the video cued up. “I didn’t get the opportunity to tell you earlier, so I’ll tell you now. Nice shot, Savannah.”
“Thank you. My mother made me learn skeet shooting for all of the garden parties we were invited to during my pageant days.” She has a smile on her face, but there has always been a hollowness in her eyes when she talks about her mother.
I watch the video up until the point where the drone is shot down. “Did you see any armaments or explosives on the drone? I couldn’t tell.”
Jessie shakes her head. “I watched the video a few times while Jerry combed through the software. I didn’t see anything attached to the underbelly, and it didn’t turn into a massive fireball on impact. I believe the drone’s purpose was solely surveillance, not an attack.”
Ariella takes a long pull from her bottle of water. “What are the chances that the drone was just a toy some kids used?”
Jerry thinks about it for a split second, but that’s all it takes for him to stick with the conclusions he’s already made. “I would be willing to consider it possible if they hadn’t used a signal jammer. An innocent wouldn’t need such a device.”
Alex, who has been quietly eating his lunch and listening intently, asks, “Can you track where it came from?”
Jerry’s eyes widen with surprise. “Kid, you’re an absolute genius! You must get it from your mother!”
“Hey!” I admonish lightheartedly.
Jerry stands up abruptly. “I need to go to the orchard and collect the drone’s remains. Each drone has a unique RFID tag that might help identify who the owner is. I just need to find the piece that has it.”
“What’s an RFID tag?” Alex asks.
“RFID stands for ‘radio frequency identification.’ They’re tiny microchips that store information such as the drone’s make, model, and registration,” I explain.
“Is that a global requirement?” Ariella asks.
Jerry sighs. “No. However, it is a recent requirement by the Federal Aviation Administration and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency to have them installed. And I know what you’re getting at. Brachha and Cothena aren’t required to use RFID technology. But! And it’s a big ‘but,’ Brachha exports a large majority of their equipment to the United States and Europe. I’m willing to gamble that their tech has RFID pre-installed to keep their customers happy.”
“Ask my dad to take you out there in the RZR. It’s fast and should provide you with plenty of protection. Try to be back within the hour,” I instruct.
“Do you think Don will let me drive it?” he asks.
I laugh loudly. “You must be joking. He won’t even let me drive it, and I’m his firstborn.”
“There’s no harm in me asking. If he says ‘No,’ it won’t change my circumstances, but I might get lucky and catch him in a giving mood.” Jerry’s attitude is optimistic, a rarity for him. If he wants to believe he stands a chance, then who am I to get in the way of that?
After lunch is finished, Alex goes into the living room with his grandma to do some of his homeschooling lessons while Jerry leaves to find the RFID. Now is the perfect time to call Ethan and update him on our most recent development. He’s not happy about the drone, but he’s not surprised by the news either.
“Pat, it’s actually a good thing you were out in the orchard when you were,” Ethan states.
“How do you figure?”
“Think about it. If Jerry is right and the drone was for reconnaissance purposes only, then it never reached its intended target. I doubt whoever was flying that thing expected it to get shot down in a field well over a mile from the main house. It was…”
“Ha! Ha! Ha! You must be joking! Ha! Ha! Ha!”
Ethan stops talking when he hears the laughter coming from outside. “What’s so funny?”
Everyone sitting around the table chuckles. “That would be my dad telling Jerry that he can’t drive the RZR. I did try to warn him.”
Ethan joins in. “I wouldn’t let Jerry behind the wheel either. He’s half the age of your father yet drives twice as slow. At the same time, I wouldn’t underestimate Jerry and his determination. He usually figures out a way to accomplish his objective when he sets his mind to something.”
Not wanting to lose our focus, I quickly bring us back on task. “Do you have any updates for us on your end of the investigation?”
“Yes. I do. Kiernan finally turned up in Brachha, looking a little worse for the wear but fully intact and with no broken bones. And can you guess what else?”
“His debt has been cleared,” Ariella says with mild disgust. “Was it Julietta that paid it off?”
Ethan clears his throat. “I believe so. I’m assuming the envelope Julietta gave to Kiernan may have contained confirmation of the transaction. Your father helped us confirm our suspicions. He may not be king anymore, but he still has access to a wealth of information. As an advisor to Aaron, he verified that there was a debit for 1.8 million dollars. Kiernan’s slate has been wiped clean, and we suspect that his injuries were punishment for the delayed payment.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t do worse to him, all things considered,” I add.
“Me, too,” Ethan admits. “But Kiernan has proven to be an excellent source of monetary gain for them, able to come up with large sums of cash when needed.”
“If only he didn’t have to sacrifice me and Alex to save his own skin. I don’t understand why he bothered agreeing to hire you guys if he planned to give up our location. This is the selfish side of him I hadn’t seen since we were younger and before Alex was born.”
I pull Ariella into my lap and wrap my arms around her, providing comfort and security as the conversation continues. “Ethan, do you have anything else for us?”
“One more thing,” he says. “When we last spoke, we couldn’t confirm whether or not Julietta had departed on the aircraft bound for Billings. We still can’t. However, my source says there is a rumor going around that the queen is being quarantined in her room because of a virus. Since Aaron and Julietta don’t sleep in the same quarters or spend much time together unless it’s in public, he may very well be unaware that she’s gone.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Ariella says softly, still nestled in my arms. “Aaron may not care if Julietta takes the private jet to go somewhere, but you can be certain that he knows the plane is gone. Knowing my brother, he accepted whatever bogus reason Julietta gave him for leaving as long as he didn’t have to deal with her.”
I grumble, “And now it looks like she’s our problem.”