Kurt nodded to Joe. “Let’s go wake the neighbors.”
Joe turned the drone toward the Chinese ship, easing it along and keeping in on the bay side of the icebreaker. As he neared the bow, he turned the drone’s spotlight to full power.
—
At the memorial garden in town, Paul stood near a statue, pretending to admire it. He placed a set of glasses over his eyes and leaned in close to the placard describing the work of art, as if attempting to read what it said.
His right hand remained in the pocket of his overcoat, where it cradled a small controller. At the press of a button, a heads-up display appeared on the glasses in front of him. For now, it was only an artificial horizon and a few numbers showing the drone’s altitude at eleven feet above sea level, airspeed at zero, and heading at 090, or due east.
A second button activated the drone, which Gamay had hidden a few yards away behind another statue. A tiny joystick on the controller handled pitch and direction. A two-way rocker switch that his finger rested on controlled the altitude up or down, while squeezing the controller like the sprayer on a garden hose handled the speed.
Paul pushed the rocker switch upward, causing the drone to rise up behind them. Even at this range the machine was quiet. A slight rushing sound, like wind through the leaves, was all they heard.
Studying the drone’s view through the glasses, Paul maneuvered it over the garden, catching sight of himself and Gamay.
“What an attractive couple we make,” Paul said.
“I’ll say,” Gamay replied. “I could get used to you in those glasses. You look very studious.”
Paul grinned and maneuvered the drone. He took it back across the park, away from the waterfront, and then made it climb over the trees at the edge of the garden. When it was high enough, he turned it toward the Chinese ship, approaching slowly from the dockside.
—
Back on theLyra, Joe was having so much fun flying the drone, he’d almost forgotten the plan. He made a few passes along the side of the icebreaker and then dropped down almost to the waterline, as if to inspect it closely.
When a group of crewmen appeared on the deck with flashlightsand night vision goggles, he buzzed them and then turned back out over the sea. The men ducked and scattered as the flying lawn mower raced at their heads. Two of them turned to run in opposite directions, colliding like two members of the Three Stooges.
Kurt laughed.
“Too much?” Joe asked.
“They put three mechanical torpedoes into our side. No such thing as too much. Buzz them again.”
Joe did just that, though the men ducked in a more controlled and less comical style this time. As the drone passed, one man threw something at it, a wrench, or a pipe perhaps. The projectile sailed wide of the mark and vanished when it hit the sea.
“Let’s take a look in the bridge windows and see what’s happening behind the curtain,” Kurt suggested.
Joe took the drone out wide and then brought it back to the bridge, parking it loudly just off the starboard wing and moving it in tiny increments. There was no response.
“I was hoping for angry villagers with pitchforks and torches,” Kurt said.
“This is the twenty-first century,” Joe said. “For all you know, they might think we’re delivering pizza.”
Joe maneuvered to the side and brought it right up to the glass. With a deft touch he tapped on the window using the drone’s nose. A few baffled sailors stood inside. One took a picture with his phone. The officer of the deck could be seen barking into a microphone, perhaps calling for an anti-drone weapon or some other defensive measure.
“Take it to the helipad next,” Kurt said. “Maybe we can make them think twice about flying that thing for a while.”
While Joe kept up the distraction, Kurt listened to the chatter from Paul and Gamay. The Hawkeye Raptor was approaching theship from the land side, moving slowly and silently across the trees. With a flick of a switch, Kurt put the smaller drone’s view on his screen. The icebreaker and the quay could be seen clearly in a wide-angle view.
At the same moment, the big drone was approaching the helipad. Joe parked it directly over the first of the two Chinese helicopters, hovering there until a door opened nearby and more angry crewmen came out. This time they carried guns.
Joe moved the controls to the side, peeling off and leaving the angry group behind.
“Good work,” Kurt said. “Bring the flying lawn mower home. It’s time to see what they do when they think they’re no longer being watched.”
Chapter 27
With the big drone gone, the skies were left to Paul and the tiny Hawkeye Raptor. The quiet little machine moved slowly to a spot above the last group of trees fronting the harbor. From there they had a perfect view of the dock, and the red ship tied up to it.
