“Ranger,” I muttered as I peered over at him, “you got what you need?”
He smiled and thumbed to the massive backpack on his back. “I’ve got the main gear.”
Brutus held up a small back in his burly hand. “I’ve got the ancillary shit he wants me to haul.”
I nodded. “Ghost?”
He waved his hand through the air. “Don’t worry about me. You just stick to your part, and I’ll stick to mine.”
I grinned. “Uh huh.”
“Ten bucks says he deviates within fifteen minutes.” Scout stretched his neck out with a crack.
“The fuck?” Ghost went still.
Brutus held up a finger. “I’ll take that bet. Make it ten minutes.”.
Ghost balked underneath his balaclava. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
“Hey, can someone put me down for thirteen?” Wrecker raised his hand like he was in class. “Gonna squeeze right in the middle there.”
“I’ll kill you all.” Ghost crossed his arms.
“No, you won’t.” Cap rolled down his window for the approaching man.
Cap exchanged a few murmured words with King’s second in command. The two of them talked for a second. There was some head nodding. A few questions answered. Nothing that any of us overheard. But then, Cap readied his hand on the steering wheel. All was silent for a while with the clouds hanging heavily over our heads, and Ranger dug around in that pack of his already.
“Ready, Ranger?” Cap asked.
I watched him pull out his drone. “Ready when you are, boss.”
“Hand it to Wrecker.”
Ranger handed the drone to Wrecker over our heads and Cap rolled down Wrecker’s window. I heard the revving of theengines before King’s men took off into the woods on their bikes, starting the first phase of our plan that had taken us days to concoct.
“Now,” Ranger said.
Wrecker tossed the drone out the window as the bikes took off. The loud rev-up of the drone was covered by the roaring sound of the motorcycles. It took Ranger a bit of time to get his viewfinder up and running. But when he gave Cap a thumbs up, our president laid his foot on the gas pedal of the van.
Taking off into the woods.
For the first half a mile, just as planned, we were right on their tails. We followed the pathways that the bikes carved out for us, and then we hit the fork. After the first half mile, they quickly darted off to the right, soaring toward the building where we were going to lay the noise trap.
We took a hard left with Ranger’s drone following high overhead.
“See anything yet?” Cap asked.
“Not yet,” Ranger said.
With every spiral of the tires beneath the van, we grew closer to our final destination.
“Ranger,” Cap barked.
“Nothing yet, Cap! My drone only flies so fast!”
My leg bounced with nervous jitters until Brutus shot me a look.
“Got ‘em!” Ranger exclaimed. “Seven heat signatures. Two outside, five inside.”
