by Dale Mayer
She studied him for a long moment and then said, “You don’t belong here.”
He grinned at her. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Just a big fan of the drones. I was wondering if I could see some of the detailed work you do.”
She shook her head. “Not today. Not any day.” She stood and pointed at the tent flap.
The smile fell from his face, and his gaze narrowed. He gave a clipped nod, turned and walked out.
She breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been in the industry way too long to allow somebody to sneak under her guard like that. Nobody ever saw the work she did. She wasn’t just repairing; she was the designer of these drones. The modifications made on a standard-issue drone were her baby. And no way in hell did she want anybody to see her work.
She operated alone, always, and always would. Hence, starting her own company.
On the other hand, it was a hell of a lonely life. But she had no time to fill it with friends, and, as for family, … that was just painful. All she did was work. Turning her attention back to the pieces on the table, she checked her watch and realized she was almost out of time. Just that two-minute conversation had made her lose focus. And she didn’t have time for that shit.
Colleen walked back in just then. “This drone tested out fine. Did you fix the other?”
Bristol shot her a fulminating look. “If the men would stop coming in here, it would be a whole lot easier to work.”
Colleen grinned at her. “I saw the man walk in. Got to love that long, loose-limbed walk of his. And how the guys know to single out the ladies and grab us when we don’t have anybody else around.”
“Like I need that shit today.” Bristol returned to her work on the table. “How much time do I have?”
“Twenty-two minutes and counting.”
“Right, of course. So I miss out on lunch again.”
“Sorry, we were late getting in. Without having everything ready for us, it’s been a bit nuts.”
“A bit?” She hadn’t wanted to come in the first place. She should be back at her lab, working on changing out these developments so they weren’t so finicky. But again, it went back to that whole issue of no time for testing. Everything was now, now, now. And, of course, her contract had a deadline with many conditions if she couldn’t meet it. If she defaulted, she’d lose everything. Still it was a major contract and a huge step forward. She owed Brent for this opportunity. He had received other bids, but she appreciated him giving her this chance. She didn’t understand why, but wasn’t about to argue.
Everybody wanted results and money. Brent didn’t care how the hell they got it. And if she couldn’t do the job, she’d get the hell out of the way because he’d find someone who could. And in fact, already had a backup in place according to him. She’d been listening to that for a long time.
She’d known better. She should never have signed this contract.
When she looked up from her work twenty minutes later, she found Colleen standing there with a cup of coffee and a muffin in her hand. She held both out to Bristol. “It’s the best I could do.”
Bristol nodded gratefully. “It’s a hell of a lot more than I had, so I’ll take it. These are ready to go. If they break down this afternoon …” She shook her head. “Well, not a whole lot I can do about it.”
Bristol motioned toward the broken pieces on the table. “I can’t even take it back like this. I wish I didn’t train today and could leave that to the others. I have so much to do. But I have no choice. Morgan can handle one, you and I the other two groups.”
“What about having David take one?”
Bristol snorted at that. “He’s good with a pencil, but he sucks on the drones, as you well know.”
“I know, but there’s a need …”
“No, I’ll do it. Which means no dinner. By the time I get all this shit packed up, it’ll take me right through until tomorrow morning. You know that too.”
“I’ll help.”
“I was counting on it.”
Bristol smiled at Colleen. The two had worked together for the last four years. Colleen was great on hardware, but she didn’t do software or design. However, she was a great operator, and that made her perfect for training. Bristol took one last look around and said, “Let’s go. It’s time.”
Muffin in one hand, coffee in the other, Bristol walked out with Colleen to where the training would be—and realized they would have a larger audience than normal.
“Great,” she said under her breath.
Colleen smiled at her. “You can do this. You always do.”
*
Devlin watched as the women walked to the center. He wasn’t sure what it was about the blonde that caught his attention so. She was prickly, like a porcupine, but when you stroke them right, those soft quills lay down smooth. He just knew something good was inside.
He often found that the bristlier a woman was on the outside, the softer she was on the inside. Usually somebody had given her a reason to not trust anymore. But he wasn’t here for women. He was here for the drones.
But one thing he did recognize was, when she spoke, she commanded attention. He listened to her rehearse her speech for the afternoon and realized not only would she be doing the demonstration but she was the engineer he’d been looking for. This latest technology allowed these drones to target a dime on a sidewalk at an incredibly unnerving distance.
He wanted to know more about the accuracy, having heard rumors of a built-in retargeting system as well. He hoped so because that would just make their life so much easier.
It also explained why she’d been so prickly when he had walked into the tent unannounced. She had a lot of her parts and pieces there. Probably thought he was after intel. Although they should be safe in a camp like this, he understood security measures. Men should’ve been standing guard at the edge of the tent, but no MPs had been there. That’s why Devlin had walked in. He realized he may have shot himself in the foot.
Just then her gaze landed on him. Her lips downturned.
Shit.
Then she turned, grabbed her remote and sent one of the drones soaring into the air. And she carried on.
“Good afternoon everyone. We set up several targets on the ground up ahead,” she said. “I’ll demonstrate the three drones we’re working on. If you all will keep quiet for the next twenty minutes or so, we’ll show you just how accurate these drones can be.”
And what followed was an intense, awe-inspiring session. The drones danced in midair, flipped and turned, rolled easily, and then went into what she called flight-and-mimic mode—the soaring motion of any bird in the wind. “Watch the target,” she called out, pointing to a setup on the far side, a good 250 yards away.
A hard ping sounded, and the target took a shot right through the dead center of the bull’s-eye.
He grinned. “Oh, hell, yes.”
Not only had the first drone fired, but the second had too, leaving a matching hole in the target right beside the first. The third did sweeping maneuvers around the other two. But at no point did the drones allow that to stop them. When the blonde brought all three to a smooth landing, the crowd erupted into applause, and nobody clapped louder or harder than Devlin. Damn, she was something.
For the first time, she smiled. “Gentlemen, you’ve all been assigned to a group, and we will work for the next four hours with these three drones plus six more. The other six do not have the same capability. These are the elites. When you’ve mastered the basics on the six, then we will carry on to training with the three. However, if you think all the training is done with the drones in the air, you’re wrong. I have a lot of computers set up. This is an extensive group so we’ll work in subgroups. I needed several days to teach this, but apparently you’re getting a crash course today. We’re here this afternoon only so let’s make the most of it.”
She turned and walked off. The other woman, who had been with her damaged drone, stood and said, “I’m Morgan, one of the instructors. Get
into three groups as assigned, and please go to your allocated station.” She grabbed her handset. “I control one of the big drones.” It flew over her head and stayed above her as she headed to her training station.
Devlin watched in amazement as she led group number three to the right. “Amazing.”
He hurried over to his group, which was group one. He could see another drone hovering over another woman as she headed to a different location. He had no idea what instructor he had. He hoped he would have the engineer he’d met, but he had no way to know.
Then he caught sight of the third drone. As it came on this side of the area, he knew where it was headed. He quickly followed as the crowd swelled around him. He had hoped the trainee groups would be smaller, but he quickly understood that half the crowd here were just spectators. Twelve men stepped forward, of which he was one. Then he realized he’d lucked out. He had the engineer, Bristol. Perfect.
She gave instructions clearly. They would work with computer simulations, not the real drones yet. He was positioned with Easton at a laptop. Six laptops, six remote controls. She ran them through simple navigational training. Remote control was something they all had worked with at one time or another. But not at this level of fine-tuned control.
He watched as Easton’s fingers managed the basics but lost out on the commands. He itched to grab it in his own hands.
Only, when his turn came, Bristol had walked behind him, and he had completely flopped at everything—slamming the drone on the computer screen into the wall and then crashing it on the ground. And yet she never said anything mocking. He expected it, especially after their earlier meet. He shook his head.
Easton just said, “It’s way harder than it looks.”
“And you’re trying too hard,” Bristol added. “Pull back the tension on your thumb. Consider it like a video game controller and pretend you’re just playing against a buddy.”
At her words Devlin relaxed. Because this was exactly that—a training session, just a simulation. Like the remote in his hand was quite similar to a controller. But he only had one toggle to control and two thumbs that refused to listen to his commands. His thumbs kept getting in the way of each other. “Could you make this controller more hand-friendly?” he asked.
“It’s in progress. But this session was moved forward so I couldn’t finish them.”
That also accounted for some of her disgruntlement. She’d probably been pushed to bring the equipment here when she needed more time on it.
He nodded. “Sorry,” he said in commiseration. “A typical story. Everybody wants everything now.”
She glanced at him, and he caught the glimmer of another smile when she murmured, “Isn’t that the truth.” Then she walked over to another pair in the group.
But it was enough. He glanced back down at the laptop and made another run at the stimulation. This time he reached the end without killing it.
As progress went, this wasn’t much. But he’d take it. He handed the controller back to Easton and said, “Your turn.”
Easton grabbed it and said, “What? Are you going to hunt your ladylove?”
Devlin snorted. “Did you ever see anybody less likely to sign up for the position of my ladylove?”
The derision in his tone had Easton laughing. But they both settled back down and got through the simulation. Once again with a good lineup and they reached the end with a relatively smooth performance. The instructor returned and set them up for the second simulation.
Devlin turned and smiled at her. “You introduced yourself at the very beginning, but it was hard to hear. I’m Devlin Hayman,” he said and held out his hand.
Her smile widened. “I’m Bristol McEwan. Now get back to work.”
Devlin smirked at her retreating back, losing his sense of humor quickly. The drones were finicky and complicated. Way more than he’d expected. To do a decent job was one thing, but to excel at these was much harder.
After they had a break, she separated the groups further, taking several out of each and moving them off to the side. Thankfully, Devlin was one of them. Each person now had a drone and instructor of their own. And yet, once again, although it looked easy enough to do, it wasn’t.
The coordination and control of the drone was very difficult to fine-tune. Devlin tried hard. He could get it up; he could move it around and over trees, but he clipped a tree, and his landing left a lot to be desired. Not to mention repairs were needed.
And the other guys didn’t appear to be doing any better. Behind them, Ryder and Easton were still working on the simulations. But Devlin knew their hearts weren’t in it. So that was all good. He was where he wanted to be. But he sure as hell wasn’t putting his best foot forward. And that sucked. By the end of the day he was frustrated and fed up. He joined Ryder and Easton and walked over to where the rest of Mason’s unit worked with the Afghani soldiers.
Mason and Swede talked with several other men. Devlin and his buddies approached, not wanting to disturb them, yet at same time ready for a change of pace. One of the guys motioned toward them and grinned. “Heard you crashed a drone today. Nice job.”
“I didn’t crash it. It just had a little rough landing.”
The others laughed. Swede said, “Not very easy to handle, is it?”
“It’s definitely more difficult than I thought.” He shrugged. “I’m not doing that bad though.” As he spoke, he saw a look of shock spread over Swede’s face.
“Fire!”
Devlin spun to see one of the tents—close to where he’d been practicing with the drones—going up in flames.
Cries ripped out across the small compound as everyone rushed into action. He was only halfway there when he realized the tent was the same one he’d walked into earlier. The tent where Bristol had been working on her drones.
He raced toward the disaster as the flames easily ripped through the canvas tent, quickly spreading to those on both sides. But these were all military men and well trained. Very quickly they had a fire brigade moving in, putting out the flames.
Once the fire was completely doused, everyone stood and stared in shock at the remains. The fire had started in Bristol’s tent. The table was gone; a mess of melted plastic left instead. The temporary wooden flooring had burned up, adding fuel to the fire. His heart jumped as he worried Bristol was inside. He pushed his way through the crowd until he stood at the edge and could see for himself. The murmurs rose.
Then they cut off in silence as quickly as they had started. But Devlin had to know for sure about Bristol. His gaze flowed over the water-soaked area and landed on the floor in the middle of the small space.
And spied the charred body among the black ash. Not as badly burned as the rest of the place. Enough for a positive ID as one of the women working on the drones. His gaze scanned the crowd, and there, off to the side, he saw Bristol, standing, her hands over her mouth, tears in her eyes as she stared at the remains. Several men stepped away from her. The hell with that.
He approached quietly and asked, “You okay?”
She turned and stared up at him wordlessly. Her eyes were huge and tear-stained.
He stepped between her and the body.
She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them again. “Is it Colleen?”
“I’m not sure,” he said calmly. “But from the hair and bits of clothing, it’s likely.”
Her lower lip trembled, and she looked for a moment like she couldn’t remain standing. Then she straightened her shoulders and gave a clipped nod. “I need to ID the body.” She dashed around him and stepped into the blackened nightmare.
He stayed with her, knowing military police in the compound would take over. But he wouldn’t leave her alone. From the looks of it, everybody else stayed well away from her. Which said much about her cool personality. But nothing was cool about it at present. Shoulders shaking, she bent down beside the woman on the ground. He heard one hiccupping sob.
Then she straightened and faced him. She g
ave a nod and said, “It’s Colleen.”
He led her out of the way, knowing the men rushing toward them weren’t happy they were in there. He held up his hand and was instantly surrounded. “She just identified the body. Her associate Colleen …” He turned toward Bristol for more information.
Bristol said, “Colleen Palmer. She works for me. We’re here today for the drone training.”
Two MPs led her several tents over, where they sat her down and asked questions. He hadn’t planned on following. He had his own work to do and people to be with. But when she glanced at him, he saw that look of hope in her eyes, and couldn’t leave her alone. He immediately caught up with them and stayed with her. At the entrance to the tent, one of the MPs turned and shot him a hard gaze. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
He quickly identified himself and added, “I’m with her.”
The MP turned to Bristol to confirm. She gave him a shaky nod. With that, Devlin stepped up behind her to give silent support. She gave him a grateful look and then murmured, “Thanks.”
He reached down and gripped her shoulder, squeezing gently once, then dropped his hand and waited for the questions to start.
And start they did. The men were kind, yet firm. “Where were you before the fire broke out?”
“In the mess tent, getting a coffee.”
“Were you with anyone?”
“No. But I was seen by many.”
“Where was Colleen when the fire broke out?”
“Obviously in the tent,” Bristol said. “I don’t have any idea why.”
“When did you last see her?”
“Before I went to get coffee. We were talking outside the tent.”
“What was she doing in there?”
“Recalibrating one of the drones that had a rough landing.”
Devlin stiffened at that. She turned and looked up at him with a smile. “Don’t worry. We’re used to it.”
Still he hadn’t wanted to be the one involved in this.