Knocked again.
In the early morning stillness, a low voice carried with ease. “NC State Bureau of Investigation. We have a warrant to search the premises. Open up.”
Nothing.
The tension lingered for a full minute. Then a voice came over the earpiece. “We have a window being opened. Upstairs. Back of the house.” A pause followed by a calm observation. “UAV deployed. Payload unknown.”
Why didn’t the bad guys ever just say, “You know, this plan was stupid. We’re idiots. You caught us. We give.” But no. They had to fly a weaponized drone out the window.
Lord, protect us.
“Hold your fire.” The incident commander’s voice came over the coms.
The drone flew over the backyard and hovered. A female called out from the front of the house. “We don’t want to hurt anyone, and we aren’t doing anything illegal. We have permission from the homeowners to be here.”
“Come out with your hands up.” Under normal, non-life-threatening situations, the incident commander had the kind of voice that frightened babies. Now? He sounded like he was about to call down fire from heaven and burn the whole place up.
Zane spoke in a low murmur. “Would you believe he’s married and has four girls?”
Tessa kept her eyes on the house. “I bet they have him wrapped around their little fingers.”
“Every last one.”
A drone appeared over the top of the house right as a new voice came through the coms. “Another UAV deployed from the opposite side of the house. Payload unknown but is visually similar. That makes two UAVs. One in the backyard, one flying into the front yard.”
The incident commander’s tone was a spike of fury. “Land the UAVs or we’ll shoot them out of the sky. Come out of the house with your hands in the air.”
The drone Tessa could see hovered in the middle of the yard. She wouldn’t consider herself an expert, but she knew enough about UAVs to see that this one was not the kind you bought off the store shelf. This model could easily go for $50K. Maybe double. And whoever was operating it knew what they were doing. The flight was smooth, the hover alarmingly steady.
“We have heat signatures.” Tessa assumed that was coming from either the SWAT or the SBI team. “Six people inside. All appear to be in the center of the house. Upstairs. No one is moving to exit the residence.”
They’d dug in? Six people against a host of law enforcement? Wha—
Tessa lifted her phone and made a call. “What’s the status at the warehouse by the airport?” she asked the woman who answered. She didn’t know her name but knew she was the communications specialist for this op.
“Updated thirty seconds ago. All quiet.”
“Thank you.” Tessa disconnected and directed her next question to Zane. “Is it possible they think we’re onto them at this location but not at the other? That if they keep us tied up here,we won’t be able to do anything about the warehouse near the airport?”
“Maybe?”
“We’ve got movement inside.” The voice in her ear was calm. Relaying facts without emotion. But that didn’t prevent Tessa’s pulse from spiking. “Looks like we’ve got another UAV being launched. This one is significantly larger. Hang on.”
Tessa knew it wasn’t possible, but she was so sensitized to what was going on around her that it felt like her hair was tingling.
“We’ve got spray nozzles.” The words had barely come through the coms when the air above them filled with red mist.
“Take cover!” Everyone on the far edge of the mist turned and ran. Those directly underneath the mist scrambled into or under cars if they could.
Everyone else, including Tessa, pulled jackets over their heads. She felt one small drop on her hand before she got it tucked under her coat. Situationally blind under the jacket, she suddenly felt a large, warm body covering her. She didn’t need to see him to know who it was.
“Zane!”
“Be still! I’m covered. Don’t move.”
He was covered only as long as whatever this stuff was didn’t eat through their clothes.
They stayed still until they heard, “The drones are empty. Nothing new coming down.” Followed by. “I think it’s water.”
