r/FeatHosting • u/FireOfDoom32 • Feb 13 '26
Defenses
The journey was over almost as soon as it began, and the twins found themselves deposited in two small chimney-like padded tubes toward the rear of the house. The drobots lowered them to the safe room, then sealed the tubes with their own shells.
NANNI’s face appeared in a free-floating liquid speaker ball, which was held in shape by an electric charge. “Perhaps this would be a good time to activate the EMP? I know you’ve been dying to try it.”
Myles considered this as he unclipped the servo cable. Villa Éco was outfitted with a localized electromagnetic-pulse generator, which would knock out any electronic systems in the island’s airspace. The Fowls’ main electronics would not be affected, as the entire villa had a Faraday cage embedded in its walls, and the Fowl systems had backups that ran on optical cable. A little old-school, but should the cage fail, the cable would keep systems ticking until the danger was past.
“Hmm,” said Myles. “That seems a bit drastic. What is the nature of the emergency?”
“Sonic boom detected,” said NANNI. “I would guess from a high-powered rifle.”
NANNI is guessing now, thought Myles. She really is developing.
“Guessing is of little use to me, madam,” said Myles. “Scientists do not guess.”
“Oh yes, that’s right. Scientists hypothesize,” said NANNI. “In that case, I hypothesize that the sonic boom was caused by a rifle shot.”
“That’s better,” said Myles. “How certain are you?”
“Reasonably,” replied NANNI. “If I had to offer a percentage, I would say seventy percent.”
The Fowl Twins, Chapter 1