“Thank you, Control,” Jackson said. He opened his car door and made eye contact with Burke. “Let’s get the drone in the air.”
They all got out of the car. Wilson stood with the portable controller and viewing monitor in his hand. At the back of the vehicle, Jackson and Burke lifted the drone out of its box. This model had a cylindrical body and four fixed-pitch wing propellers with two forward-facing cameras to give a one hundred eighty-degree view as it flew. Additionally, there was a forward-facing thermal camera that registered heat signatures.
After they launched it, they took up positions behind Wilson to look over his shoulder and watch the feed from the cameras. The drone soared high over the trees at speed as it headed towards the back of the property where there was a lake with rustic cabins clustered around it. They’d start the search there. No heat signatures large enough to be human had been picked up as the drone made its way to the lake.
The beautiful blue lake came into view. Wilson reduced the speed so that a more detailed search could be made. Starting at the northwest corner of the search grid, Wilson piloted the drone to the east, flying high over the widely spaced cabins, whose roofs could just barely be seen through the canopy of branches that hung over the cabins. Had the leaves been on the trees, not a single cabin would have been visible.
Several large heat signatures in the woods lit up the screen. Upon closer inspection, they were deer. After nearly twenty minutes of the drone flying over the cabins, the shiny reflection off something metal flashed across the screen. Wilson brought the drone in for another pass at an even slower speed. He angled it down and through the maze of bare branches, the source of the reflection became clear: the front bumper and grill of a dark blue pickup truck. It was parked in front of a cabin in the center of the property, set back a good hundred yards from the lake.
“Got him,” Burke said before anyone else did. Mark Ellison drove a king cab, extended bed, dark blue Ford F-350.
“Got his vehicle,” Jackson said. “Don’t have any heat signatures in the immediate area.”
Wilson hovered the drone over the area and turned it in a slow three-hundred-degree circle. Jackson was correct. There were no heat signatures in the immediate area. He piloted the drone to expand the search, widening the circle in overlapping rings out from the pickup truck. Finally, two heat signatures popped inside the cabin, which also showed warmth, to the south of the pickup truck. They were large enough to be human.
“We drive up and park as close to the cabins that we can without being detected. We’ll split into two teams and hike in,” Jackson said. “Wilson, keep the drone in the air, but widen the angle so you can see if anyone else is heading towards us or to our target cabin.”
“I want to disable the pickup before we engage,” Burke said. “Moe and I can take care of that and then circle back to approach the target cabin from the north, while you close in from the south.”
“I’ve notified Big Bear of the vehicle and heat signatures,” Yvette’s voice came through comms. “Proceed with caution.”
“Roger, Control,” Jackson replied.
The men piled back into the SUV, Jackson sliding behind the wheel. All five of the men knew that Ellison could have surveillance enacted on the driveway into the campgrounds or in the woods closer to the cabin. There could be cameras or motion sensors. Ellison very well could see them coming.
Wilson read off the coordinates of both the pickup truck and the cabin where the heat signatures were. The other men programmed the coordinates into their tactical smartwatches.
“We go in hot and hump it as fast as we can to where the heat signatures are,” Jackson said as he shifted to drive and stomped on the gas pedal.
“I’ll feed you new coordinates if they move,” Wilson said.
The interior of the vehicle was quiet as it sped along the gravel drive, the trees flying by on both sides. Up ahead, the trees gave way to a clearing, and the driveway opened to a parking area in front of a building with a large wood sign that read ‘Devlin Camp General Store’. It looked boarded up for the winter. Two gravel drives on each side of the building continued the driveway that gave access to the cabins and the lake beyond, the drone footage clearly showed.
Jackson took the drive that headed east. Rough wooden signs pointed to smaller gravel paths that led into the trees with the cabin numbers that could be accessed from each.
A few minutes later, Wilson spoke. “Okay, hold up, Jackson. We’re about due east of the cabin where the two heat signatures are holding steady. They’d just passed one of the cabin markers by a narrow dirt path that indicated cabins number thirty through thirty-three were located to the left.
“Looks like the cabin with the F-350 is just a bit north,” Burke said. He grabbed his rifle, which stood on the buttstock on the floorboard by his feet. He opened the car door and climbed out. Tessman followed. “We’ll transmit after we’ve disabled the pickup and are heading towards the target cabin.”
Jackson turned the SUV off. The key fob was on the console for Wilson. He and Rogers also got out of the vehicle. “We’ll circle the cabin and transmit our location after we’ve found the best place to surveil it and eventually breach it.”
Still sitting in the front passenger seat, Wilson scrutinized a heat signature moving in from the west. “I’ve got something bigmoving in from the west, still a ways out. I don’t want to pull out too far to get a good look at it, looks like a deer. I’ll keep you informed.”
“Be advised, team, that there are occasionally black bears in the area,” Yvette’s voice came through comms. “It’s rare this time of year, but it can happen that they’re not all hibernating yet.”
“Thanks, Control,” Wilson said before looking up from the monitor at the four men who stood clustered around the car windows. “Go.”
The four men moved away from the vehicle and faded into the dense forest, almost instantly becoming invisible. Crouching low, moving quickly, and as soundlessly as possible, Burke and Tessman proceeded northwest, following the coordinates on their watches.
The woods were ripe with earthy smells and the calls of several birds in the distance. They heard the rustling of leaves as tiny feet hastened to put as much distance between themselves and these human interlopers in their home. This was familiar to the two Marine Raiders, as they’d spent a great deal of time training and operating in dense wooded areas.
“Nearing the pickup, Taco,” Burke spoke softly. “Are we still clear?”
“Affirm,” Taco replied. “I’ve got you on my screen. You made good time.”
The two men stepped out of the woods and rushed up to the vehicle. Burke went up to the driver’s side door with the intention of opening it to hit the hood release. “Locked,” he announced. Undeterred, they both pulled their knives and punctured the tires. “That’ll slow them down,” Burke told Tessman. “All four tires slashed,” he stated. “On our way to the target.”
They re-entered the woods and made their way south towards the target cabin. It came into view, but nothing about the scene would indicate that anyone was inside. The drone had shown the cabin to be warmer than the surrounding area. It must be from a space heater as there was no smoke coming from the chimney. And the entire area was quiet.
