Chapter Twenty-nine
“Sir, Syracuse on the phone.”
“This is Director Hall… Yes… Thanks.” Hall hardly even blinked before bellowing: “Nicco!”
The ex-hacker looked up from his screen. “Yeah? Who wants me?” A couple of intelligence analysts sitting nearby knew full well and slunk into their chairs.
Nicco looked around the room, stretching his neck over the computer screen. He took off his headphones and laid them on his table just before eyeballing Director Hall across the other side of the room. “Oh hi… I mean… How can I help you, sir?”
“You got that feed from Syracuse on your screen?”
“Just hold that thought.” Nicco tapped the keyboard and up came the screen. Nicco gave the director a thumbs-up. Allan Hall grinned, despite himself.
“Right, listen up, people!” The director held the attention of everyone in the room. “Confirmation the cell’s on the move. I want all commanders informed ASAP, including state police. I want a status on our assets in the area. Make sure all our choppers, crews and support staff are on standby. Tell the teams en-route to Lilburn we’ll have new coordinates shortly. Go to it!”
Hall tapped a staffer on the shoulder and leaned down. This time his voice was quieter. “Tell the air-ambulance to take care of the boys then await further orders.” The woman nodded.
This time round Nicco was more aware of his surroundings as Director Hall approached. He’d already anticipated the questions. “The Reaper’s on owl vision sir, a bird’s-eye view of a whirly-bird heading in an approximate northerly direction. Bit of a hoot really.”
“It’s getting late and I’m tired and hungry. Less wisecracks and more concentration.”
“Okey-dokey, let’s see what we have here… OK. This is the live thermal image feed from the Reaper. It’s tracking the target helicopter. Now we’re just getting a new angle and… Oh oh.”
“What the hang did I do with those blasted glasses?” Hall felt in his pockets, found his glasses and placed them on his head.
Nicco reached for a phone and waved it in front of the Director. “Sir, phone the drone operator and have him zoom in on the right-hand skid.”
“Why?”
“’Cause I think the chopper has a passenger… Don’t worry, the guy’s seen the same thing and is zooming in.”
Hall hunched over towards the screen. “Holy mother of… Tell me I’m seeing things.”
“You’re not seeing things, sir.”
“Can you tell who it is?”
“No, sir. Too far away.”
Director Hall stood upright. “I’ll bet you twenty bucks I know who it is.”
Chapter Thirty
Flying straight ahead at a thousand feet, Kate knew that for a while at least the helicopter was safe above any immediate hills. The fact that Nathan had still been breathing after being knocked unconscious was of some comfort. Before she was dragged away she had seen signs of life. Kate turned the dimmer switch down on the panel causing the panel lights to soften, anything so she didn’t have to see them. The action didn’t go unnoticed.
“Who gave you permission to turn those lights down?” Bomani demanded.
Arrogant fool. “I’m not rated to fly by instruments, asshole. The lights are hindering me seeing outside and I need to see what the hell’s going on so we don’t crash into a goddamn mountain. Is that all right with you?”
“Where I come from, women do as they are told, speak only when they are spoken to and respect their menfolk.”
“Well, more fool them. Let me get one thing straight, mister. Like I said before, who amongst us here actually knows how to fly this machine? Oh, that’s right… only me. Go screw yourself.”
The feel of the helicopter was wrong, the balance was out of whack. It was time to put her theory to the test. “Hey, you in the back seat, shuffle over to the other side and see if you can feel for a switch under that seat. I need you to turn it on.”
Bashir looked at her. “Why?”
“It switches the fuel tanks over so we don’t run out of gas. Kind of important when you’re this high up…”
It was complete nonsense — there was no switch there, but Kate hoped it would get the man across to the same side as her front passenger, and keep him there for a while.
Bashir rested the shotgun up against the seat to his left then shifted himself across. Kate had to compensate for the shift of balance much more than she thought would have been necessary. It confirmed her thoughts — there was extra weight on the chopper.
“I can’t find any switch.”
That’s because there isn’t one, you moron. “OK, don’t worry about it. Anyway, we can’t fly about here all night. I never got the chance to refuel, so we need to land.”
Bomani had a further decision to make. The longer he kept flying, the greater the chance of being seen. Right now, having only been in the air a few minutes, he had an advantage, his enemy would have to make new decisions, issue new orders. It meant he had more time without conflict if he landed soon.
“Land now. Somewhere there are cattle or pigs.”
Kate screwed up her face in bewilderment. “You what? You want me to land where there are cows and hogs! Un-fuckin’-believable. I hardly even know where we are, let alone take you to a ranch.”
“You can still fly if my knife sticks out of your thigh. Take us down or suffer pain.”
Kate laughed. “Yeah, but my concentration would be a little off.” But Kate dropped altitude, wanting to land as much as her passengers; if that extra weight on the far side of the machine was what she thought it was…
The landscape below was mostly a mix of arable and livestock farming on gentle rolling open country. Despite what she had told the men, Kate exactly where they were. The mention of a virus concerned her. Kate was well aware of the risk of a terrorist attack, but that was something that would happen in the likes of the big cities, with lots of people around. Here, lights were scattered over a wide area. It wasn’t exactly New York City.
Bomani directed Kate to the nearest light. “There, fly around that house, go as low as you can.”
Kate took the helicopter down to two hundred feet.
“Shouldn’t we fly on to somewhere like the sale yards, where we were before?” inquired Bashir.
“It’s too late for that. Make sure you have the bag with the spray cans.” Bomani turned his attention back to Kate. “Land by the house and turn off the helicopter.”
He spoke again. “Once we’re down make sure the infidel bitch cannot fly off again.”
Matt Lilburn was frozen to the bone and hung on for grim death. His bare hands grasping the skid and support were like ice-blocks, his face numb with the cold and wind. Perhaps he’d gone a step too far by grabbing onto the skid, a step that would send him falling to his death. Perhaps it would be better if the men above opened a door and placed a bullet in his brain. Perhaps the cold would numb his senses so much he wouldn’t realize he was falling through the sky. He opened his eyes. The cold hit his eyeballs like a bucket of ice-cubes. Squinting, he saw far below the lights of what could only be a house. Lilburn closed his eyes. What he would give for a warm bath. Looking again, the light was closer. The helicopter was losing altitude. His hopes raised, he waited for the the next move… and the sooner the better.
Kate brought the helicopter down carefully, reading the altimeter and watching for any sign at all outside of impending danger to her machine. She then gently hovered only a few feet above the ground purposely, not letting the skids make ground contact, to give whoever was underneath as much time as she dared. Finally she made contact with the ground and let the machine’s revolutions subside.