The Silver Guardian Bk. 01

The Silver Guardian Bk. 01 Ch. 19

The Silver Guardian

By DaddyIrishman

A huge thank you to my editor Tex Beethoven for another amazing job and collaboration, thank you Tex you rock!!!

Book 1

Chapter 19

Once Dante, Ben and Sara had taken their seats in the conference room, Ben opened things up. "Okay, let's talk about Pack security.

"Our Pack, as was said earlier, is around 200 wolves strong. We aren't the biggest Pack in the U.S., nor are we the smallest; we're a little over average size.

"Of our 200 members, around 150 live in the compound and our community here, while the other 50 live either in Whitefish, on the Cattle Ranch or in a few other areas of our territory. Of the 150 in the compound, roughly 50 are Pack Enforcers and Betas. You don't have to be a Beta to be an Enforcer, and only some Enforcers are. If you have the role of Enforcer, then you focus on the physical security and defense of the Pack, the Omega Enforcers serving full-time while the Betas fill in as needed, especially in times of conflict. The exception to that is Sara and I; the Alpha Pair has delegated the running of the Enforcers to us, and we do that full-time. There are 35 Omega Enforcers, then Sara and me, and the remaining 13 are Betas that split their time between Enforcer duties (where they serve as our officer cadre) and their own businesses and family needs. Even the Betas without active Enforcer duties are well-trained bad-asses or they wouldn't be Betas, so in an emergency we can field around 75 Enforcers almost at the drop of a hat, depending on who is present within the compound at the time.

"During peacetime such as now, at all times we have one wolf at the main gate and 10 other wolves patrolling the compound and the surrounding perimeter and woods. They cycle through in 8 hour shifts, so that the compound and Pack are always protected.

"That being said, we really don't have any formal plan for emergencies. Emergencies don't happen often and even when they do, the 11 wolves on duty (plus Sara and I who are constantly on call) have always been adequate to handle them. The Eradication War was 100 years ago, so we have likely grown complacent."

Dante had been silent as Ben spoke, with Sara speaking up now and again to clarify one of her mate's points or to add additional details as she felt were needed. Once Ben had finished, Dante requested, "A moment, please," and studied a map of the compound and area for several minutes while Ben and Sara waited.

Dante finally spoke, "The first thing you have to know is that I grew up in war, whether it was bullies at the orphanage or gang members in Boston or service in Afghanistan, so my thinking is shaped by my martial arts training, the street fighting I survived, and my military training and experience. Considering the peace the Pack has enjoyed for so long, your preparations against hostile encroachment aren't bad at all. You've done a good job overall, but I can see room for improvement.

"Thanks to our remote forest environment and that impressive ten-foot wall, there is only one primary point that could be focused on for breaching the compound, and that's the main gate, although in a bit I'll have a few things to add about the wall. I want to further enhance the gate in ways that aren't obvious, so anyone attempting a forced entry will encounter some surprises. We should also set up some deterrents along the road approaching the gate.

"I want to do three things. First, a set of steel pylons hidden underground we can rig to extend at will, and heavy-duty enough to prevent forced entry, even by large, heavy equipment. These should give us some lead time to respond to a surprise attack when every second counts. Second, let's install a napalm deployment system. This will be a sprinkler system extending 300 yards along both sides of the road and hidden underground, to pop up and spray accelerant on anything on or near the road before self-igniting. According to international law napalm is illegal for use against civilian populations, but uniformed or not, I think we can safely assume that any attackers will not be civilians and almost certainly aren't even run-of-the-mill humans. Lastly, along the final approach to the gate we should line the road, again along each side, with remote controlled claymore mines as a final surprise to eliminate or at least reduce an attacking force. We can conceal them in bushes and fake rocks and logs and such, so that once again no one will be the wiser."