Hit For Hire

by David Archer

  Sarah stood up from the chair and reached for her purse. “Come on, then,” she said. “If there’s one thing I know how to do, it’s steal a car.” Noah stood, and she followed him out to the truck and slid behind the wheel. He got in beside her and nodded, and she started it up and began driving in the general direction of the garage once again.

  The ride was quiet, interrupted only once when she made a comment about the lack of traffic. Noah knew she was worried, but there was nothing he could say that would allay her fears, so he said nothing.

  She pulled into a parking lot about a mile from the building and then turned to face him. “I know you’ve got to do this,” she said, “but I’m scared, Noah. I know there’s this big gap between us, between the way I feel and the way you feel, but I don’t know what I’ll do if anything happens to you tonight. I love you, and I need you to know that before....” She stopped talking suddenly, and leaned over to grab his collar and pull him to her for a kiss.

  He held her for a few extra seconds, and then slowly let her go. “I’m going to come back,” he said. “Have some faith. My grandfather would have told you to say a prayer, and I believe it couldn’t hurt if you want to.”

  She gave him a weak grin. “I already have been,” she said.

  “Then what’s there to worry about? Like I said, just have some faith.”

  She leaned her forehead against his own for a moment, then pulled away and got out of the truck. Noah stepped out and followed her as she walked over to where a few cars were clustered together. She glanced into each of them, then turned to him with a grin.

  “This is too easy,” she said. “Somebody left the keys for you.”

  Noah stepped up to the Volkswagen she indicated and glanced inside. Sure enough, the keys were hanging from the ignition. “This will be fine,” he said. “Stay back out of sight, and I’ll call when this is over.”

  He tugged on the door handle and cocked his head to one side when it didn’t open. He leaned down and looked again, then turned back to Sarah. “I think the reason they left the keys in it is because they locked them inside,” he said.

  Sarah burst out laughing. “Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe I missed that! Give me a minute and I’ll...”

  “I’ve got this,” Noah said. He reached behind his back and withdrew his pistol, using its butt to break the window. He reached in and unlocked the door, then pulled it open and began brushing broken glass off the seat. “It’s still the most convenient solution.” He climbed inside and started the car, then reached out and caught her hand. He looked into her eyes for a moment, before letting her go and putting the car in gear.

  * * * * *

  Neil was nervous. While it was likely Noah was correct and the team would be reassigned if anything happened to him, Neil didn’t like the idea of losing the little family he had finally discovered. As an orphan, he had often felt alone in the world; Noah, Sarah and Moose had become the family he had always longed for. As a result, he was frustrated at not being able to do anything to help in this particular situation.

  He peeked in on Iverson, but the fellow had not moved since the last time. The snoring sounded real, so Neil was convinced he was genuinely asleep. He went out to the garage, intending to play with the drone for a little bit in order to take his mind off the situation.

  “If only you had a longer range,” he said irritably to the machine. “I could sit right here and keep an eye on the whole thing.” He tapped the power button on the remote app he had installed on his phone and it came to life. He guided it through the screen to hover a few feet off the floor, and was about to send it out the garage door when a thought occurred to him.

  He landed the drone again, then hurried inside and dug out the toolkit from one of his bags. He carried it back to the garage and was delighted to find a workbench along one wall. Once the tools were all set up, he took the cheap phone they had picked up from the Holy Smoke restaurant and laid it on the bench beside them.

  “A signal is a signal as a signal,” he said. “The receiver doesn’t care where it comes from, as long as it can receive and interpret it!” He hurried over to the drone and picked it up, then set it on the workbench and began taking its covers off.

  Fifteen minutes later, the speaker and microphone wires from the cheap phone were soldered into the drone’s processor, replacing the input and output wires from its original radio transceiver. Neil turned his attention to his own phone, carrying it into the house and plugging it into his computer. It took him only minutes to find the drone’s control app, and a few more allowed him to get into its code and begin making modifications. After a couple of false starts, he found the correct section of code to alter that would allow the app to transmit commands directly through the cell signal, rather than bouncing them through the remote control unit via Bluetooth connection.

  He ran back to the garage and powered on the phone that was now connected to the drone, then told his own phone to connect with it. He had set the receiver unit to answer automatically, so the connection was almost instantaneous.

  Now to test it. He tapped the icon to launch the drone, and shouted, “Yes!” when the little aerial vehicle lifted off the floor. He hurried back into the kitchen and connected his phone to the computer, so that the video image appeared on the larger screen, then programmed the drone to fly directly to the GPS coordinates of the parking garage. Its built-in proximity detectors kept it from hitting anything as it flew out of the garage and high up into the air.

  With the range now virtually unlimited, Neil watched the display as the drone flew at almost 60 miles per hour toward its destination. Going as the crow flies, it arrived in less than twenty minutes and came to a hovering stop directly over the structure.

  Neal piloted it down to just a few dozen feet above the upper floor and looked around, but there was no one visible yet. It was still almost 15 minutes before midnight, so he hadn’t expected Noah to be there yet. He quickly flew down the ramps, scanning each floor for only a couple of minutes, but there were no new heat signatures on either the third or second levels.

  The ground level was different. There was one new heat signature that he hadn’t seen before, hiding behind a car in the far back corner. Neil zoomed over in that direction, keeping the drone just under the ceiling, and then aimed the camera.

  Then he laughed, as Moose looked up at him and waved frantically for him to get the drone away. Neil bobbled it a couple of times and then took off again. This time, he went out through one of the gaps in the side wall and made a low reconnaissance around the building, moving through the alleys and along the street.

  He found no one hiding outside, and began to wonder if perhaps Adrian had only set up this meeting as some kind of diversion. That wouldn’t make sense, though, since he certainly knew that Noah would be forced to show up. There had to be something he was missing.

  He took the drone up again, going up high enough to once again get a bird’s eye view of the entire building. The darkness still covered it completely, and the infrared showed no sign of anyone hiding there, but Neil was sure that Adrian must be around somewhere. He held the altitude and began rotating the drone, raising the angle of the camera to scan the surrounding area.

  * * * * *

  Noah pointed the car toward the garage and took out his phone to call Moose. The call was answered on the second ring. “I’m on the way,” Noah said. “Where are you?”

  “Ground floor. I’ve been watching for anyone coming in and haven’t seen a single thing. Maybe he’s standing you up?”

  “I doubt it. He’s around there somewhere, you can be sure of it. We just haven’t found where he’s hiding.”

  “What do you want to do, then?” Moose asked.

  “I’m coming in, driving a Volkswagen Golf diesel. Watch for me, I’ll be turning in in about fifteen seconds. Hop in and ride up with me, maybe we’ll draw him out and can get this over with.”

  “Roger that,” Moose said. A moment later, Noah pull
ed in and saw Moose waiting for him in the main aisle, so he stopped and let him get inside.

  “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said as he eased the clutch out again and started up the ramps.

  * * * * *

  A small car came toward the building on the street, and slowed as it approached. Neil swung the drone over the side of the building to watch as it turned to enter, realizing that it must be Noah making his appearance. He moved back to watch the ramp exit on the top, and sure enough the car came slowly out into view.

  It stopped just outside the exit and sat there for a moment. Neil expected Noah to step out, but he only sat in the car, as if watching to see if anyone else was there. After a moment, Neil went back to looking around the area.

  A flash of red at the edge of the screen caught his eye, and then a second, much brighter flash left a glow near the same spot. Neil spun the drone toward it and saw movement, but the residual glow was too great to see through at that moment.

  That was a gunshot, Neil thought. Adrian is on the roof of that building! Noah is a sitting duck!

  He spun the drone around again and zipped toward the little car on the roof, but it was already moving. Noah had thrown it into reverse and backed into the exit again. Neil flew the drone down until it was just in front of the car and followed as it moved down to the third level.

  Noah braked the car to a halt once it was out of the line of fire, and suddenly saw the drone in his headlights. There was no reaction from the car, but then Neil waggled the drone and saw Noah and Moose step out of the car, staring at the machine. He moved slowly, easing toward them and then backing away, until he saw they had caught on and were following the drone. Moving slowly, he led them to just inside the exit to the top.

  He stopped there and turned the drone to face Noah and Moose, moving toward them for just a moment and then hovering. Noah said something that Neil couldn’t hear, then pointed down at the floor to indicate he understood he was to wait there. Neil turned the drone again and zipped out quickly, rapidly taking it high into the air. He aimed it at the spot where he was sure Adrian was hiding, and sure enough the infrared picked up the glow of his body.

  “Okay, guys,” Neil whispered to himself, “I hope you’re paying attention!”

  Neil hit an icon on his phone and every light on the drone suddenly came to life. He dived at Adrian, trying to hit him with the small spotlights that were mounted under the drone, and was rewarded with a clear glimpse of the man.

  And then the screen went dark, as Adrian realized what was happening and put a bullet through the camera and the main body of the drone.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Noah pulled the car out onto the roof, but there was no visible sign of anyone there, so he paused. He was sure that would be the natural response to finding yourself alone if you were expecting a meeting, but he also knew it put him right into the open. When a shot rang out and a bullet struck the roof of the car, he was only half surprised, but his instincts took over and he slammed the little car into reverse and floored the accelerator as he dumped the clutch. It flew back into the ramp leading downward, and he braked to a halt when he was sure they were out of the line of fire.

  “You okay?” he asked Moose, and the big guy nodded.

  “I’m fine,” he said. “The bullet came through just behind me. If you’d waited another second or two, he’d have gotten shots into the windshield and we’d both probably be dead.”

  Something crossed between the car and the slight glow of the light reflecting on the ever-present clouds. Noah stared hard to try to see what was coming at them. “What the hell?” he asked when he saw the drone hovering just in front of the car.

  “It’s Neil,” Moose said. “He’s using the drone to scout for us. You didn’t know?”

  Noah shook his head. “Neil is back at the house,” he said, “he can’t run the drone from that far away, can he?”

  Moose shrugged. “He seems to have found a way. You know how he is with electronics, making them do things they weren’t meant to? I don’t put anything past him.” The drone was wiggling around. “What’s he doing?”

  “I’d say he wants us to follow the drone. Maybe he’s seen something we haven’t.” Noah opened his door and got out, and Moose did likewise. Sure enough, the drone started slowly back toward the exit onto the roof, and the two of them followed.

  When they got to the opening, the drone stopped and seemed to push back at them for a moment. Noah looked at Moose. “I think we’re supposed to wait here. Get over where you can keep an eye on the drone, and I’ll do the same from this side.” He looked at the camera lens of the drone and pointed down at the floor, then nodded. The drone waggled once more, then turned and moved quickly out of the exit and up into the air.

  With its lights off it was almost impossible to see as it flew around in the dark, and Noah lost track of it only a moment later. He tried to keep his eyes focused on where it had seemed to be going, and it paid off.

  The drone’s marker and landing lights came on suddenly, and it dived to the far left. Noah leaned around the concrete wall he was hiding beside and caught a glimpse of a man on the roof of a building next door. The drone seemed to be attacking him like a bumblebee, and as Noah watched, the man raised a rifle and fired three shots in quick succession. The drone’s lights went out, and it crashed down onto the roof of the garage.

  “There he is,” Noah said, but he didn’t need to say anything. Moose had already moved over beside him and dropped to one knee, aiming the rifle and squeezing the trigger. He fired several bursts of automatic fire, and after one of them he was rewarded with the sound of a man screaming in pain.

  “You hit him,” Noah said. “He’ll be coming down through the building. Let’s get down there and try to head him off if we can!”

  They ran down through the ramps and out onto the street, but saw no sign of Adrian. A back door on the building was broken, and a spot of blood smeared on it showed that he had brushed against it as he made his escape.

  “He’s gone,” Noah said. “Let’s get out of here before the police show up.” He took out his phone and called Sarah for a pickup as they walked quickly through the alley to the next street over.

  * * * * *

  “No!” Neil yelled as the screen died. He knew what had happened, of course, but it left him with no way to know what was going on. “Damn it!”

  He shut off his phone and tossed it onto the table, then decided to go and check on Iverson again. He reached across the table for his machine pistol, but a sudden sound behind him made him turn just in time to see a blur that struck him hard on the side of his head, and then everything went dark.

  * * * * *

  Sarah pulled up alongside them only a moment later and both of them quickly got into the truck. Moose laid the rifle on the floorboard under his feet as she sped away.

  “What happened?” Sarah demanded.

  “He was there,” Noah said, “hiding on the roof next door. It never occurred to me to think of him as a sniper, I should’ve seen that coming. Neil somehow got the drone working and managed to spot him up there, so when Adrian got a shot off at us he was able to use the drone to show us where to find him. We’re pretty sure Moose managed to hit him, but it may not be serious. He got away before we could get to him.”

  “Damn,” Sarah said. “Are you guys okay?”

  “We’re fine,” Noah said. “He only got one shot at us, and he missed.”

  “He got the drone, though,” Moose said. “It’s definitely dead. Maybe we should have grabbed it, to keep it from leading back to us.”

  “We’ll deal with that if it happens,” Noah said. “Right now, I think I want to get my hands on Broussard. With any luck, Adrian is going to be dealing with his wounds for the rest of the night. If we move fast, we might be able to convince Broussard to help us turn the tables on him.”

  Sarah shook her head, but she pointed the truck out toward Broussard’s home. Sensing the urgency, she pushed the tr
uck as fast as she dared, ripping the speed limits to shreds all the way.

  Still, it took them almost 40 minutes to get there. She parked on the same dark side street, and Noah told her to wait right there until they got back.

  He and Moose each took an assault rifle and began moving through the brush that would lead into Broussard’s estate.

  “Funny”, Moose said, “seems like just yesterday I was making jokes about having to invade this place. Oh, wait, that was yesterday, wasn’t it?”

  “The day before,” Noah said with a straight face. “Pisses me off I never bothered to find out if he has security at this place. I was hoping we’d never have to do this.”

  “Well, look at it this way,” Moose said. “We could just go back to the house and take it easy, or we can invade this place and try to make this mission work. Personally, I think this way is going to be more fun.”

  They came to the fence that surrounded the estate and watched it carefully for a few moments. There was no sign of any guards inside the perimeter, and they saw no indication that the fence was wired for alarms. Noah was about to climb over it when Moose nudged his arm.

  “Look over here,” he said. “The last good storm must’ve knocked that tree down, it’s leaning right over the fence. We can go right up it and hop over without ever touching the wires.”

  Noah nodded. “Let’s do it,” he said. Both of them ran up the leaning tree and hopped onto the ground on the other side of the eight-foot fence. They crouched there for a moment, but there was no sign that they’d been detected so they began moving toward the house once again.

  A few minutes later, they made it to the east end of the house. There were only a few lights on inside, and none of the lighted rooms seemed to have anyone in them. Noah scanned a window looking for an indication of the security system and found it after only a few seconds.

  “It’s a simple breakaway,” Moose said. “If we slide the window, the contacts come apart and that’s what sets off the alarm.”