Hail Warning

Rond Point Port — Aboard the Hail Proton

Alex Knox was patched into Hail Proton’s mission room speakers from his flight station on the Hail Nucleus. Hail asked Knox, as well as Hail Proton’s pilots, “What’s the status of Foo Fighters and Foreigner?”

With her old drone, Turtles retired after suffering a C-4 enema, Sarah Starling, less experienced than Jason Wilson, was assigned to pilot Seagulls. Jason Wilson flew the combat drone, Foo Fighters.

Over the mission room speakers, Alex Knox reported, “Foreigner is in the air, and we are one mile out.”

Jason Wilson told the group, “Foo Fighters is over the top of the compound now. The video is on screen six.”

Hail scanned the screens until he saw the feed being sent from the smaller drone, Foo Fighters. From a hundred feet in the air, Hail saw a black SUV rocket out from the garage and make a crazy turn onto the compound’s long brick driveway. Less than a minute later, the SUV was swallowed by the vastness of the jungle. Darting after the SUV, Hail saw two white Land Rovers exit another garage on the premises. It was apparent they were in hot pursuit of the SUV.

“I think we have to assume that Kara and Kornev are in the SUV,” Hail said to the room.

Captain Nichols, still seated in the captain’s chair answered, “I would say that is a safe bet.”

“And the Land Rovers, undoubtedly, are the bad guys,” Nichols added.

From the vantage point of the drone, Foo Fighters, it was relatively easy to follow the road the vehicles were on. Hail looked ahead, tracing the road visually until it terminated at the runway about a mile away.

“Quick as we can, I want to get Foo Fighters hovering over the runway, so we can intercept Diambu’s men when they come out of the jungle.”

“Man, that’s a long way. We are carrying a lot of ammo,” Wilson said. “I’m not sure we have the battery power to get there and fight.”

“There’s no other option as far as I can tell,” Hail said, sounding a little desperate. “It’s too tight to engage them on that narrow road in that thick jungle. The runway will be our best opportunity,” Hail said.

“Roger that,” Wilson said, and bent his right flight controller to the left. The video stream craned to the left and then down, as the drone’s angle of attack pitched forward to pick up more speed.

“Where is Foreigner?” Hail asked.

Knox responded, “We’re getting close, Skipper. About a quarter mile and we should be on the X.”

Hail watched the end of the jungle road, subconsciously running the math through his head. He calculated that at if the SUV was doing 60 miles per hour on the narrow road then it was doing a mile per minute. The road was about a mile long, so Hail began silently counting to sixty.

Sarah Starling was flying Seagulls. She finally had caught up and was flying the drone just above the cars and trees. Between breaks in the jungle canopy, Hail could see flashes of automatic machine gunfire coming from the lead Land Rover. If the Suburban didn’t emerge from the road in the next twenty seconds, Kara and Kornev probably would never make it out of the jungle. He didn’t care what happened to the Russian scumbag, but he cared a great deal what happened to Kara. For some strange reason, he resented that fact, because he was at risk of loving someone he could lose again.

Hail had reached his count to “sixty,” when the SUV flew out of the jungle, catching several feet of air before slamming back onto the black runway.

Just as the SUV centered itself on the wide airstrip, Foo Fighters arrived and dove down toward the black tarmac. A moment later, both Land Rovers rocketed out of the jungle. Their big .50 caliber guns bounced around and then settled on their mounts. They turned right on the smooth black surface in hot pursuit of the Suburban.

Hail watched Foo Fighters’ and Seagulls’ cameras as the two Land Rovers pulled alongside one another. Two black heads poked up from the back of each vehicle with each man taking control of their mounted guns.

The video was quite exceptional. Hail could see both men rack the slide of their guns and prepare to fire the weapons. Understanding that Kara and Kornev only had seconds to live, Hail yelled, “Get a gun on them.”

Jason Wilson slid his thumb under his flight stick’s safety cover and pressed the little red button. The gun on Foo Fighters opened up at the same instant the men below began firing at the SUV.