by Jon McGoran
“You get that thing decoupled and ready to go,” she said. “I’ll stash this one back in her tent.”
Claudia clambered back under the copter while Sly and I carefully pulled back the tarp. By the time we were done, Dara had returned, carrying Roberta’s rifle and dart gun in addition to her own. She was rolling a gray dart between her fingers.
“You took the dart?” Sly said.
Dara nodded. There was an odd expression on her face, and I realized she was trying not to smile.
Sly’s brow furrowed. “What if Martin thinks she slept through her watch?”
Dara nodded again. “Yeah, what if?” She seemed to be trying even harder now.
Sly shook his head. “But—”
Dara’s smile disappeared as she cut him off. “Look, Sly, Roberta is bad news in general, but she’s especially bad news for Chimerica. If Martin expels her, it will be the best thing for all of us.”
Sly nodded grudgingly.
Claudia looked at me and wrinkled her nose, making it plain she was totally on board with Roberta’s comeuppance.
“Okay, let’s get out of here before anyone else sees us,” Dara said.
“You’re coming with us?” I said, surprised.
She gave me a wink. “If Rex is in trouble, I’m not going to stop you from borrowing a copter to help him, but I can’t let you steal it. Someone’s got to bring it back.”
We all climbed into the quadcopter.
“You’re sure you’re okay to fly this thing?” Dara asked as she and Claudia headed for the cockpit.
Claudia nodded. “Yeah, I was telling Jimi, my dad used to have one just like it.”
“Just like it…,” Dara said, just this side of condescending. “Okay, great, so you’re good with ramjet thrusters? And you know how to clone a beacon?”
“No…I guess I don’t.”
Dara grinned and edged past her, toward the pilot’s chair. “We’ve made a few modifications. How about I take the lead this time and show you how they work.”
Claudia nodded, intrigued. “Yeah, okay.”
The lights came on, the motor clicked and groaned, then the rotors started spinning, two in the front and two in the back. The buzz became a whine and then a scream as the rotors built speed, and in moments we were rising into the sky.
It was not a smooth ascent. The wind was even fiercer above the trees. In the cockpit, Dara grinned at Claudia, clearly enjoying the ride.
As we rose into the night sky, the copter turned slowly clockwise. The rest of the camp came into view, and a lone figure standing in front of the big frame tent. Martin, watching our ascent. He didn’t seem to be doing anything to stop us. I wondered how long he’d been there.
The copter dipped hard to one side. It might have been a gust of wind, but it seemed like a gesture, one wing tipping at Martin. Then we shot forward, past the trees, past the old lighthouse, and out over the moonlit water.
CHAPTER 43
Sly pulled headsets out of a compartment, put one on, and handed the others to Claudia and me. Dara kept her microphone on and gave us a running play-by-play. We saw a couple of other copters as we flew south across Lake Huron, and a few planes above us, as well. Dara explained that she was still using the beacon signature that she had cloned on the previous flight, so anybody observing us from a distance would think we were a small, Canadian-registered family craft, carrying a small Canadian family. The flight remained uneventful until we passed over the strip of land separating Lake Huron from Lake Erie. Then Dara said, “Crud.”
The sky above us, ahead of us, and to the east remained calm and clear, dazzling with stars and a bright full moon overhead. To our right, however, a gray line on the horizon was rising quickly into a wall that seemed to be racing to head us off before we reached land. Dara adjusted course, edging east, explaining that she was trying to keep some distance between us and what looked to be a rapidly developing cold front.
“Well, that’s a nasty looking storm system to our west, but we’re halfway across the lake,” Dara said. “With luck though, I should be able to get you where you’re going and get back across before it hits.” As soon as she finished speaking, a bell-like tone rang through the copter, followed by Dara’s voice once again. “Double crud,” she said. “We have a little visitor on our port side asking for clarification because our beacon ID’s not matching our radar signature. Just a drone, so it’s no big deal, but I’m going to have to shake things up a bit to confuse it while I switch our beacon ID. Hold on to something.”
I grabbed one of the slats that ran along the inside of the cabin. To the east, I could see a tiny blinking light, alternating red and blue and getting closer with each blink.
Then it disappeared. With a lurch, we decelerated and dropped, seemingly in free fall. My stomach rose into my throat. Seconds later, we lurched again, rolling to our right, then corkscrewing to our left. By the time we stabilized, the blinking light was between us and the storm front.
“That ought to do it,” Dara announced. “We are now using the beacon signature of an American-registered commuter craft. Canadian Rescue might send a search party for that disappeared Canadian family, but they shouldn’t give us any more trouble.”
She had barely finished speaking when the cockpit filled with a flashing red glow that spilled out across the cabin. Sly and I looked at each other as a screechy buzzer alarm blared through the speakers.
“WARNING,” a semi-robotic voice blasted through the headsets and the copter’s speakers. “YOUR CRAFT IS USING A BEACON SIGNATURE THAT HAS BEEN REPORTED CLONED OR MISAPPROPRIATED. MAINTAIN YOUR PRESENT COURSE AND AWAIT POLICE ESCORT. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT CRIMINAL CHARGES.”
A trio of red and blue lights appeared to our left, spreading out and approaching fast.
“Crap, those aren’t drones,” Dara said. “I guess you better hold on a bit tighter.”
This time we dipped to the right and dove toward the water. The buzzer alarm resumed and the red glow coming from the cockpit began flashing twice as fast.
“Just…keep holding on until further notice,” Dara said. “I’m killing the speakers. And the beacon.”
With that, the headsets and speakers shut off and the cabin went quiet except for the whine of the motors and the roar of the air outside. We rolled into a corkscrew, turning over again and again and again. When we finally pulled out of it, the water was a lot closer and neither the drones nor the police copters were anywhere in sight.
Pressing my face against the window, I spotted them, above and behind us, three copters and a drone, all tailing us. I was puzzled for a moment, wondering how we had managed to get past them so quickly. Then I realized we hadn’t. We had turned away from them. To the west. Toward the storm.
“We’re headed into the storm!” I shouted in Sly’s ear.
He looked confused for a moment, then his eyes went wide with alarm.
The copter shook like we’d hit a wall, then it bounced around like we were tumbling down steps. The windows went opaque and gray.
Behind us, I caught glimpses of red and blue smudges as the police lights tried to penetrate the snow and fog.
The whole time we bobbed and weaved, I was terrified we were going to end up in the water. Eventually we evened out, but the cockpit was still flashing, and when Dara turned the speakers back on, the buzzer alarm was louder than ever.
“I haven’t been able to shake them,” she announced. “I’ve got exactly one last trick up my sleeve. Hold tight.”
We slammed into a steep climb, flipped around and doubled back, this way and that. I was totally disoriented, surrounded by dense gray, until a flashing blue-and-red smudge appeared in front of us, and then two more, one on either side. They were flying in a tight formation right toward us. And we were flying right toward them.
“DISENGAGE! DISENGAGE!” boomed the voice over the speakers, and in seconds the police copters were crystal clear and right in front of us. “DISENGAGE IMMEDIATEL
Y OR WE WILL BE FORCED TO CONSIDER YOU A HOSTILE CRAFT.”
At the last possible second, the three of them peeled off, two to the left, one to the right. Dara pulled us into a sharp turn, and suddenly we were out of the storm, the wall of clouds receding behind us. A single police copter remained alarmingly close. I could see the pilot do a double take at us. For several moments we stayed close and kept pace, and I felt queasy as I realized Dara was cloning his beacon. Impersonating a police officer.
“Got it,” Dara said, and immediately we fell away, back toward the clouds.
Dara informed us we’d be riding under cover of the storm for a while, cycling several beacon signatures: the cop she’d just cloned, some other American copters she had on file, and at times none at all. They were all highly illegal, but even I knew using a cloned police signature was by far the most egregious.
The ride was bumpy but relatively uneventful after that. Sly asked what our plan was for when we landed. Claudia and I told him about Plan A as best we could over the noise. We tried to include Dara at first, but she made it plain her focus was flying the craft. As one point Sly asked her a question and she shook her head and tapped her headset, saying, “Gotta fly!”
After fifteen minutes without seeing any law enforcement, Dara announced, “I think we’ve lost them. We are now under the guise of a Pittsburgh-based courier service.” As we reemerged into the clear ahead of the storm front, the eastern horizon was beginning to pale. Dara turned to Claudia. “We’re about thirty minutes out. You want to drive the rest of the way?”
Claudia shook her head. “Um, no, that’s okay.”
“Okay, good,” Dara said, maybe a little smug. Then she turned to look back at me. “So what’s this plan of yours again?”
CHAPTER 44
Plan A was pretty straightforward. It consisted of finding Kiet, who had hopefully gotten hold of one of the splinter inhalers, then finding Rex, who was hopefully safely ensconced with a bunch of E4E lawyers somewhere. Then, all together and with the inhaler as proof, we would hopefully get law enforcement to shut down OmniCare and the mines and get Doc out of jail.
But that was a lot of “hopefully,” and deep down, neither Claudia nor I truly believed Rex was safe with E4E, or that E4E was even following up on OmniCare, or that Kiet would likely be able to get an inhaler. When we said as much aloud, Sly shared our concerns. Dara seemed to, as well.
That’s why there was Plan B. But that brought up concerns of a whole other magnitude.
I wasn’t even going to tell Dara about it, but when I finished detailing Plan A, she eyed me as if waiting for more.
Claudia looked at me and shrugged. So I told them about Plan B, too.
When I was done, Dara thought about it for a moment. She and Sly exchanged a look, then she nodded to herself and said, “Well, let’s hope Plan A works.”
She turned back around in her seat and announced, “Okay, kids, we’re about two minutes out. Our beacon says we’re totally legit, but it’s five a.m. and these are interesting times, so I don’t want to hang around too long. I also don’t want to put down across the street from the police station, so I’m going to drop you on the edge of town, if that’s okay with you.”
The Dairy Queen and the police station had just appeared ahead of us, but they disappeared once more behind the trees as we dropped down into the parking lot of a machine shop away from the center of town. It felt great to be back on the ground.
We all took off our headsets. Dara turned to face us and looked somberly at Claudia and me. “I’m not crazy about your plans,” she said. “I wish I could stay and help, but like I said, I can help you borrow this, but not steal it. I need to get it back.”
“Of course,” I said quickly. “I know it. And I can’t tell you how much we appreciate your help.”
“Well, from what Rex has told me, you’re the type who’d do the same for me. Tell the big guy I said hi when you see him. And tell him I said to try to stay out of trouble.”
I managed a smile and said, “Will do.”
“We couldn’t have done it without you,” Claudia added.
“No worries,” Dara said.
Then I turned to Sly. “Thanks, Sly. For everything.” I gave him a hug that seemed to surprise him.
“Uh, Jimi…” He tried to pull away, but I held on tighter, realizing how much I had missed him, and how much I was going to. I had a nagging sense that this could be the last time I would ever see him.
“Look,” I said when I finally let go. “I know what you’re doing is important, but I hope…I hope I see you again sometime.”
“Jimi, I’m coming with you.”
“Wait—what? You are?”
He smiled. “Of course I am.” He laughed, then his face turned serious. “That Plan B, you weren’t going to try to do all that just the two of you, were you?”
“And Kiet,” Claudia said a little defensively.
“Really,” he said, blowing air through his cheeks as he shook his head in disbelief.
“But what about Chimerica?” I asked. “What about your orders?”
“That’s important, but right now this is more important. Big Dog’s in trouble, Doc’s in trouble, you two are about to be in trouble.”
My mind was racing. I didn’t know for sure how Sly would figure into Plan A, but as for Plan B, several ways immediately came to mind that would make it much less of a long shot.
Sly gave me a playful slug in the arm. “What kind of friend do you think I am, anyway?”
I was too choked up to answer. Luckily, Dara spoke up. “Oh right,” she said. “Speaking of trouble…” She reached down into a duffel bag between her seat and Claudia’s and pulled out two dart pistols. “Just in case, right?”
She handed one to Claudia and one to me. Sly already had one.
“Do you know how to use these?” Dara asked.
I shook my head and Sly reached over to take mine. He turned it sideways in my hand. “Safety’s here,” he said, pointing to a small switch on the side. “Take the safety off, point and shoot. They’re good for maybe thirty yards. More than that and they lose accuracy and enough oomph to penetrate thick clothing. Other than that, line up the two sights or just point and shoot.”
Dara reached back into the bag and lifted a rifle halfway out. “I don’t know how much trouble you’re expecting, but…” She raised an eyebrow, looking us each in the eye.
The three of us exchanged unsure glances. As Claudia started to reach for it, I quickly said, “No, that’s okay. I wouldn’t really know what to do with it.”
Claudia took her hand back, and gave me a questioning look.
Dara smiled grimly as she lowered the gun back into the bag. “Yeah, you’d figure it out. But probably a wise decision. They do have a way of making situations worse instead of better.”
She rummaged around in the bag one last time and came out with a small plastic box, just a few inches on a side. She handed it to Claudia. “Whoever was following you probably put a tracker on your car. Scan it with this, just hold that button as you run it over the car. If the red light comes on, it’s found a device. Make sure you get rid of it before you go anywhere. And then get going, fast. These trackers are sensitive enough that even removing it from the car will be enough to alert them that you’re back.” Claudia nodded, then we all climbed outside except for Dara. “Okay, better get this back before it’s missed,” she said.
We hurried away from the copter, then watched as it lifted into the predawn sky, tilted once, and disappeared over the treetops.
Sly tucked his dart gun into his jacket, and pulled his collar tight against his throat. “Kind of forgot it was so damn cold down here, too.”
He was right. It wasn’t as frigid as Lonely Island, but it was plenty cold.
We set off quickly, our feet crunching the crusty ice on the side of the road. It was quiet and still. Apart from us, the only movement was the traffic light two blocks ahead, cycling through colors, oblivious to t
he fact that there was no one stopping or going. The Dairy Queen was several blocks past it. The back of Claudia’s car was visible, right where we’d left it.
Claudia stopped walking and pointed to our right, at a darkened, run-down storefront. The plate-glass window said FRANK’S PIZZA. In the corner there was a partially peeled-off E4E sticker. I couldn’t tell if it had been there so long the adhesive was failing, or if someone had tried to remove it. A set of wooden steps on the side led up to a door on the second floor.
“Kiet?” I whispered.
She nodded.
We were supposed to have met him twelve hours ago, but better late than never. The lights were off, but so were all the other lights in town.
I leaned close to Sly and whispered, “This is where Kiet lives.”
He nodded. “Should we get the car first?”
I was dying to get into that car, sink into the upholstery, and crank up the heat. But I shook my head. “No, let’s get Kiet first. If there’s a tracker on the car, once we start moving we’ll need to get it out of the way in a hurry.”
Claudia nodded. “Good thinking.”
As I stepped onto the sidewalk in front of the pizza shop, Sly and Claudia waited behind me. I turned to look at them.
“Knocking on a door in the wee hours?” Sly shook his head. “Probably better if it’s just you instead of a couple of mixies. Just in case.”
I couldn’t argue, even with the E4E sticker in the window.
I nodded and climbed the steps to the second-floor entrance. The flimsy plywood door was peeling into layers and the wooden doorframe was rotted in places.
I knocked gently and waited a few seconds, but there was no response. I knocked a little bit harder, but still nothing. I was hoping to wake up Kiet without waking up the whole neighborhood, but finally I banged hard enough that the whole building shook.
Sly and Claudia looked small, far away, and mortified, glancing around to see if any other lights had come on.
There was still no answer. The door looked so insubstantial, I probably could have broken it in, but if the police were about to pounce on us, I didn’t want breaking and entering added to whatever charges I had already racked up.