Executive

…39

"How much longer, Daddy?" An impatient six-year-old boy, dressed in cargo shorts and an angler's T-shirt, was banging his feet against the seat in front of him.

"Shh… stop that," his father said, and gently put his hand on the boy's knees, getting him to stop kicking. "We're almost there."

"But why did we take the bus?"

"Well, how many times have you traveled on a tour bus before?"

"Never," the boy answered in a firm voice.

"And how many times have you traveled in Dad's car before?"

"Um…" the boy attempted to count from memory, using his fingers as a guide. "Every day," he concluded, giving up on the actual count.

"See? Now you get to experience something new today," the dad continued, arranging his son's baseball cap. "What else are we going to be experiencing today?"

"Fishing?"

"Yes, Teddy, fishing. We're going to rent a boat, a large one, a pontoon, and we're going to take that boat out to sea and catch us some fish."

"Why didn't Mommy come with us?" The boy was no longer smiling.

"You know how mommies are, they sometimes want to spend time lying in the sun, just sitting there, idle, on the beach. And what happens when that happens?"

"We get bored!"

"Exactly, Ted. Because this lovely day can't go to waste, we'll have some serious fun today, son, that's a promise. All those fish will be in serious trouble."

"How are we going to catch them?"

"Well, we don't have fishing rods, but what else do we have?"

"Dynamite?"

The man seated in the row of seats to their left chuckled.

"Dynamite? Why would you think that?"

"'Cause I've seen it on TV. Merlin the cat used to go fishing and couldn't catch any. He got hungry, and he stole dynamite, and he caught many fishes."

"Oh, I see, but Merlin is a cartoon character, and we are real, so we can't do that."

"Then what?"

"We are going bow fishing, Teddy, and that's going to be really fun, 'cause you see the fish from the boat and you shoot it with your bow and arrow, but only if you like it."

"What if I miss?"

"Well, if you miss, you get your arrow back and you try again. Remember how you used to train with Daddy, shooting at the target in the backyard?"

"Yes," Teddy nodded vigorously.

"It's just like that, only this time we train with fish. The better we are, the more fish we're going to get."

"Will they let us bring the fishes on the bus to take home to Mommy?"

"We'll rent a car for the trip home, son, so we can take all the fish with us."

"Bow fishing?" The stranger at their left intervened. "That's a new one for me. Where are you planning to go for that?"

"Near Destin, in the bay, maybe near Crab Island. Fish are everywhere, jumping out of the water. You can see it coming, you have time to take aim and shoot."

"I have to try that sometime. By the way, I'm Stan," the man extended his hand.

"I'm Zack — Zack Cooper, and this is Teddy."

"Very smart kid you have there, Zack, he's a pleasure to be around."

"Look, Daddy, a plane!" The boy's finger was pointing at something over the ocean.

"That's too low to be a plane," Zack said.

"That's not a plane, it's too small," Stan added.

"What is it, Daddy?"

"Looks like one of those military drones," Zack said, squinting to see against the sun.

"Daddy, what's a drone?"

"It's sort of a plane but without a pilot."

"The real question is why is it flying so low?" Stan's question reflected Zack's worry. The other passengers were also commenting on it, speculating about the potential reasons why a drone would be flying in this area.

"There's a military air base not far from here, I bet that's where it's going," one of the other passengers said.

"Yeah, but it's flying way too low and coming straight at us." In an instinctive gesture, Zack put his arm around Teddy's shoulders. The boy fidgeted to get away.

"Oh, my God," someone said in a high pitch, "it is coming straight at us!" The man got off his seat, panicked. "Hey! Hey!" He yelled trying to get the driver's attention. "Hey! Do something, for Christ sake; the goddamn thing is coming for us! Call somebody!"

"Can't be, we're on American soil," someone else said, sounding unconvinced.

"Oh, my God," Zack whispered, eyes fixated on the fast-approaching drone. "This can't be happening." He grabbed Teddy in his arms in a desperate attempt to shield him. "Oh, God, oh, God, please, no," he whispered, amid the escalating screams of the passengers.