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“Some of the lower-end tech can be adjusted for sensitivity and mass but not set for height. However, since we have thousands of acres to cover, we use highly advanced cameras of varying capabilities. Some of them are able to process body temperatures, mass, and whether the intruder is a biped or quadruped within nanoseconds. It sends the alert once it identifies that the potential threat is human. Otherwise, we would get pinged every two minutes for deer, elk, mountain lions, or any other wild animals. You don’t need something like that in your palace because you have a security team constantly monitoring the video and not a whole lot of wild animals running around.”
“That’s so cool!” Alex exclaims.
“Mom, can you take Alex downstairs and show him my gaming console? I bet there are a few games he might want to play.” Having watched the video and quickly coming to the same conclusion we have, she didn’t hesitate to acquiesce to my request.
“Sure. Alex, we have a really neat virtual reality gaming system downstairs. You can even ride rollercoasters with it!”
“No way! On it!” he says, mimicking Jerry’s words from earlier. He slips his hand in hers as she leads him to the basement. Once he’s out of earshot, Ariella addresses the room.
“Okay. Clearly, you all have something to say that little ears shouldn’t overhear. What did I miss? It’s just a couple of hunters that came and left. What’s so bad about that?”
Savannah shakes her head. “They weren’t hunters. They may have dressed to look the part, but they were scouting.”
“How do you know?”
“For starters, they didn’t have orange vests, which hunters are required by law to wear for safety. Then, they were stomping through the woods. If they were hunting game, they would move slowly and quietly so as not to startle their prey. And then there is the fact that they had handguns on their hip and not rifles on their back. No one uses a handgun to go hunting,” I explain.
“Did you notice the direction they were scanning when using the binoculars? They weren’t scanning the tree line or forested area where animals roam. They were scouting the house,” Jessie says.
“If they aren’t hunters, then what do we do? How did someone find us so fast? We’ve been here for less than two days!” Ariella asks, panicked.
“Calm down,” I say.
“Ooh! That is the absolute worst thing to say to a woman, Patrick. Even I know that!” Jerry jokes.
I can’t help but roll my eyes, but when I see all the women bobbing their heads in agreement, I realize I’m outnumbered and decide it’s best not to argue the point.
“Okay then. How about we take a step back and think about this rationally?” I ask, figuring that this is a reasonable request.
“That’s not any better,” Jessie says under her breath.
I raise my hands in surrender. “There’s nothing that I can say that will be right in this moment, is there?”
Savannah touches the tip of her nose with her index finger, “Bingo! Now you’re catching on!”
The banter back and forth is just what Ariella needed because I can see that she looks more relaxed now. If we’re not panicking about the situation, then she shouldn’t either.
“I need two volunteers to go to the area where the men were last seen and check it out. The plates on the ATVs were removed, so there isn’t a way to track them down by searching the database. I’m hoping that they dropped something or left behind identifiable bootprints or DNA.”
“I’ll go, Son. I know these woods better than anybody here, and I have the tactical skills and can handle myself if I get into any scrapes,” my dad offers.
“Thank you. That’s an excellent idea. But please be careful, Pop, and take someone with you.”
Jessie raises her hand. “I’ll go. I could stand to stretch my legs a bit.”
When Jerry yawns loudly and begins rubbing his eyes, Savannah walks over and places her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll take over on surveillance duty while you go get some rest. You’ve been awake for more than 24 hours.”
Jerry pats her hand and relinquishes his seat. “Thanks. I just need a few hours. When everyone returns, I want you to use the setup in the bunkhouse to monitor live streams. We all need to enable the encrypted walkie-talkie feature on our phones for instant comms unless you want to use the earpieces.”
“Walkie-talkies should be good for now. I think you’ve all heard enough conversations that should have been private,” I say, smiling.
He waves and leaves, dragging his feet. Ariella walks over and stands beside me. “Jerry is going to sleep, Savannah is monitoring the video streams, and Jessie is going for a hike. As leader of this team, what do you plan on doing? And don’t you dare say ‘supervising.’”
Smiling, I take her hand in mine and head toward the basement. “We have a rollercoaster to ride.”
When Jessie and my father returned, they didn’t have much to share with us. The tire tracks were made by a Maxxis 4 ATV snow tire, one of the more popular tires sold in this area this time of year. Even my dad’s ATV has them, making narrowing down ownership even more difficult.
With very little to go on, everyone decided it was best to burn off some energy and go outside to play. We all bundled up to help Alex build his very first snowman, except for Savannah, who was in the bunkhouse monitoring the cameras.
