She sighed heavily before she slid her arm lazily through mine. “Sure, let’s go.”
I could only hope that the distraction of the movie marathon gave the guys enough time to get back from whatever it was they were doing.
Unharmed, preferably.
26
DOC
The clubhouse wasn’t a safe place to be any longer, and my place had been burned, so we went to Ranger’s second-hand shop that he ran in town. He had a host of old ass gaming systems and electronics that he piddled around with in his back shop, but one of the things he outfitted his store with was the ability to turn this place into a bunker.
It was the safest place for us to hunker down while we executed the second phase of our plan.
“Almost there,” Ranger said as he slowly eased the joystick in his hand to the right.
The screen we were watching tilted while trees passed beneath the camera on the drone he was flying.
“And you’re sure the heat sensors are going to work?” Cap asked, hunched over the man’s shoulder.
“Absolutely, this is just a test flight,” Ranger said as he wrapped the drone back around. “I want the sound to draw people out. Drones aren’t completely silent, but if within enough of a range, it can definitely be heard. I’m almost done with the wraparound, and then we’ll let her rest for a few minutes to cool off.”
“Then the heat sensors?” Cap asked.
Ranger grinned at him. “Then the heat sensors.”
“Good job,” Cap said as he patted Ranger on the shoulder.
“Are you going to raise up the drone during the second pass through?” Brutus asked.
“Yep,” Ranger said, popping the p. “I’ll get it high enough to where the sounds of the drone will be masked by the swaying of the treetops with wind and stuff. I just want them out and looking for the source of the sound. Doesn’t mean they’ll find it.”
“Good thinking,” Ghost said with a nod of his masked head.
Everyone knew he meant business when he ditched the balaclava for the full-head mask that he wore.
“All right,” Ranger said as he released the joystick to tap a few keys on his keyboard, “you guys ready for the heat sensor show?”
We all huddled around him while he sat at the desk in the back of his shop, staring at the computer screen. We watched the drone footage rise higher and higher into the air until it looked almost impossible that we’d ever see anything with the heat sensors.
“And for my next trick,” Ranger said.
He flipped a button and the cool and heated tones of the heat sensor registered on the screen in front of us.
At first, flying around only revealed the wildlife. It made sense, since we were flying over the state park. There were packs of deer and birds flittering about. Things skittered along the forest floor, and while we couldn’t identify what those were, we saw them. The little yellow and red dots, morphing and rushing about until they disappeared.
“Why do they disappear suddenly?” Cap asked.
“Burrowers,” was all Ranger said.
Ah, so no ground penetration.
Got it.
I stayed silent. Even though the guys asked questions every once in a while, I just kept my eyes glued to the screen in frontof us. And for a while, I thought this was going to be a fruitless venture.
Until three massive heat signatures popped up, all of them, walking around in some sort of circle.
“There you aaaaare,” Scout singsonged.
