Kissu had disappeared for a while, but he came back, hunkering down in the underbrush beside me. I do my best to ignore him while I track the first sign of life in the seemingly deserted town through my scope.
West. Kissu pats one paw on the ground.Two and truck.
Tracking to them, I relay it to Kilo. “There are two Sian and a truck coming out of the water reclamation facility.”
“I see them.”
Kilo has his drone high enough that they shouldn’t notice him, and I need him recording for as long as he can.
Riann shifts uncomfortably, pulling out the scope I gave him.
“Catch anything before the doors closed?” I ask. “I mean, aside from the fact that there are about forty vehicles in there?”
Exhaling, Riann says, “There should be water tanks and machinery. There isn’t any.”
School.
I swing my scope toward the school and immediately remove my finger from the trigger. “There are more children here than your report says.”
I count at least forty. There are a dozen women with them.
“Where?”
“The school. But it doesn’t look like they’re getting ready for lessons.”
“No, it does not.” He takes the display from where it sits beside Kilo and switches to infrared. “Forty-six children, fifteen women and two men in the school. No read outs for the reclamation facility.”
And the initial pass of the drone from a few hours ago had shown no heat signatures…
“I’d bet the facility and whatever they have underground are made of Lasap.” Riann curses and then asks, “Do you have the capabilities to see through both the ground and that?”
“You know we don’t,” I tell him before Kilo can voice the snarky reply in his mind.
“You could recall one of the inter-system patrol ships,” Kilo says, still watching what his drone shows him. “I think we’d get along with those guys. After all, we’re just different brands of frea—wait a minute.”
“What is it?” I pull the scope back up and look at the reclamation facility as the vehicles inside begin a processional exit.
“They’re flying the coop, as Andrea would say.”
Riann curses. “Follow them for as long as you can.”
“Tougher said than done. They’re scattering.”
We watch as half of them drive to the school, picking up various groupings of children and mothers like it’s a normal pick-up time.
They rejoin the others, but dozens of vehicles leave, their numbers splitting in half at the exit to the community.
Kilo takes the drone higher, trying to keep them in view, but they split again when they reach the continental crossroads.
“How did they mobilize that quickly?” Kilo asks, still fully in his head set.
It’s not hard to guess.
“They knew we were coming… not exactly when, or they’d have already left.” Riann stares at the line of lights. “If we’d shown up without poking around first…”
“They might have stayed underground and we never would have found them.”
Riann scoots down the hillside a little so he can sit up without being seen and makes a call. “Yeah, I need a satellite retasked.” He pauses. “I know it’s late. But that’s why you work nights.”
