Page 40 of What Doesn't Kill You…

"Get down from the fence," the guard ordered, his hand resting on the gun holster at his hip.

"No' before I crown this island for Scotland," Big Andy shouted.

The boys started chanting Scotland, Scotland, Scotland. Evan joined in and threw in a drunken grin to help him blend. So far, nobody had noticed that he had a controller in his hands, but that wouldn't last long.

"Sir," the guard said again, this time more forcefully. "Get down from the fence right now. This is private property and you're trespassing."

Big Andy paused to look down at the man. "Is that an order? What you gonnae dae? Shoot me?" He was nearly at the top of the fence now.

There was movement on the golf course, and Evan spotted two golf carts, full of hotel security, coming their way. Time to bring the drone back to the party. He turned the joystick to direct the craft back to the fence.

Big Andy, meanwhile, had reached the top. With great fanfare, he placed the traffic cone on top of one of the floodlight casings, as though he was planting a flag on the moon.

"For Scotland," he bellowed.

A drunken cheer went up. Big Andy saluted his friends. Evan eyed the controller screen. The drone was almost back to the party. Behind him, the hotel guards climbed out of the carts.

"Get off the fence," one of them ordered as they ran at the group.

"It's the fuzz," Wee Andy shouted. "You can take my life but you cannae take my beer! To the bar, boys. Run!"

Big Andy jumped from the fence and landed on top of Rab. They collapsed in a cursing heap. The drone was over the lawn behind the fence. Nearly there, he just had to get it over the fence before someone noticed it'd strayed.

"Drone!" One of the estate guards pointed upward.

Too late.

Evan had two options. He either abandoned the drone and ran, or he acted like a drunken fool. He went for the second.

"Don't touch my drone," he shouted. "I've got important party pictures on there. It's against the law to interfere with a man's party pictures. Isn't that right, boys?"

His new friends stopped running and turned toward the fence.

"That's our drone," Mick shouted. "Our music video is on there. We're just trying to have some fun."

"This is a bachelor party," Davy shouted. "And you're ruining it, mate."

"No Scotland, no party!" Wee Andy roared, which made the rest of them start chanting the same thing.

Unfortunately, the guard didn't care that they were in party mode. All he cared about was the drone.

"I think it flew over the house," one of the guards called to the other.

Before Evan could protest, the first guard took out his gun and shot the drone from the sky. The action shocked the Scottish boys into silence as they watched the drone plummet to the ground. It hit with an underwhelming thud.

"That's no' on." Wee Andy recovered first. "That's uncalled for, that is. You killed our drone. Murderer! Drone killer! Darth Vader!"

Evan felt the need to correct the mistake. "In Star Wars, Vader went after droids not drones." Nobody paid him any attention, which was fair. They had more important stuff to deal with than getting Star Wars trivia right.

An estate guard picked up the drone. Evan couldn't tell if the gunshot had destroyed the memory card, but it wouldn't matter anyway, he hadn't used it. Everything it'd recorded had gone straight to the cloud. There was nothing on the drone for them to see.

"Give that back," Evan shouted. "That's wedding memories. We need it. I got a great shot of the boys singing for their girlfriends." He put on a puppy dog pleading face. "Come on, man, you're ruining our night."

"Aye," Davy said, shaking off a hotel security guy who was trying to take his arm. "I got dressed up for this and everything. Wore my best Scotland kit." He brushed off the national team jersey he wore like it was a thousand-dollar suit.

That sent his mates into hysterics as the security men rounded them up and herded them towards the carts. Evan couldn't do anything but follow along.

"Wait," one of the guys from the estate called. "We need the control unit. Get it from the redhead."