blast radius, and therefore incinerated. Along with God knew how many children.
“Yeah, I’ve thought about that.”
“Okay. No pressure or anything.”
“Right. I’ll talk to you as soon as we know more.”
We pulled on the Dragon Skin vests, and set out at a little before eight. We would have liked to get in position earlier, but outside Dox’s sniper hide, concealment and blending opportunities were scarce. Strange men loitering outside a school tend to draw attention. The good news was, the shooters faced the same problem.
While Kanezaki drove, we all checked the gear one last time. Good to go. We dropped off Treven and Larison a few blocks from the school. They were wearing jeans and tee shirts and baseball caps. With the gym bags in which they were carrying the HKs, they easily could have been a couple of locals on their way to a job in a hardware store or at a construction site. We wished each other good luck, and no one said what was really on our minds: if I didn’t hear from Horton soon, we were going to have to come up with a hell of a Plan B.
But we did hear from him, ten minutes later. “We got him,” he said, with uncharacteristic excitement. “Not in Lincoln, but close by. Tiny town called Palmyra. Spelled Palm, Yankee, Romeo, Alpha. Nothing but farmland. You have a navigation system?”
“Yes. Give me the coordinates.”
He did. I input the information. “Twenty-five miles,” I said to Kanezaki. “Keep going on Route 2. I’ll tell you when to turn.”
He punched it. “Watch your speed,” I said. “Can’t afford to get pulled over.”
“If we get chased, we get chased,” he said, and I supposed at this point it was true.
“What else can you tell me?” I said to Hort.
“It’s obvious Gillmor chose the spot for proximity to the school but also for privacy. Most of the area is flat, and not well suited for the clandestine launch of a drone, but he’s at the end of a dirt road. Looks like an abandoned granary or something, in a depression by a pond and surrounded by trees. He could put the drone up there, get it up high, and I doubt anyone would ever see it. It’ll reach the school without ever passing over anything but fields and farmland.”
“How long is the dirt road?”
“A little under a quarter mile.”
I wasn’t going to approach using the obvious route, let alone one as likely as a road. “Other points of ingress?”
“None. But the fields look perfectly crossable.”
“You’re looking at the satellite photos. What’s my best point of access?”
“Drive east of the road and go in by foot. That’ll put you on the other side of the granary, and should give you some cover and concealment. I imagine Gillmor is armed.”
“All right, I’ll let the rest of the team know. Call me if there’s a change.”
“Roger that.”
“Oh, and Horton?”
“Yes?”
“If this is another setup, you better kill every last one of us. Because if there’s even one left, he will find you.”
There was a pause. “I don’t expect to live long in any event, but yes, understood. And good luck.”
I clicked off. Kanezaki had the van up to nearly a hundred. I was glad the road was flat and straight, but I thought the van might tear itself apart en route regardless.
“Okay,” I said, using the commo, “that was Horton. We’ve got a fix on Gillmor. Kanezaki and I are on the way, ETA fifteen minutes. Assuming we don’t crash first.”
“I’m in position,” Treven said. “Teachers are arriving. And some kids. Cop at the front entrance.”
“In position,” Larison said. “Dox, you there?”
“Not only am I here,” Dox said, in his serene sniper voice, “but I’m looking at you at this very moment right through my little reticled scope. I’m glad we worked out all our animosity earlier, aren’t you?”
There was no answer. Dox said, “Hey, man, I’m just kidding.”
“Goddamn it, don’t kid like that!” I said, fearing another eruption, hoping my intervention would placate Larison.
We hit a pothole and the van almost went into orbit. “Jesus!” I said, pulling my seatbelt tighter.
Kanezaki, serene as Dox, said, “Sorry.”
He kept it pinned until we turned off the two-lane, and by the time we came to the dirt road to the granary, he had it under the speed limit. We kept going for another quarter mile, and then he pulled over to the side in a dip in the road. “I’m not waiting in the van,” he said. “And we don’t have time to argue about it.”
He was probably right. “Okay,” I said. “Stay to my left as we approach. When we get to the granary, you circle left, I’ll circle right. Let me engage Gillmor first, okay?”
“Why?”
“It’s not about the glory. If the drone’s still on the ground, we can just shoot him, or you can, it doesn’t matter to me. But if the drone’s up, we have to try to make him bring it back, right?”
“That’s a good point.”
“Yeah, I try to think of things like that.”
“Okay, you engage him first.”
“Good idea. Also, let’s not assume he’s alone. Keep your eyes open. If Gillmor’s at the controls and you see someone else, then by all means, shoot the other guy, he’ll just be security, and that’ll be one less thing we have to worry about.”
“Got it.”
He looked scared. It wasn’t confidence-inspiring.
I glanced at the HK he was holding. “You know how to use that, right?”
“I’ve had the training, yeah.”
Which was another way of saying,
“Okay,” I said. “Remember. Aggressive stance, gorilla grip, front site on the target, press the trigger.”
He gave me a tight grin. “Dox always said you micromanage.”
Damn it, he was right. He was either going to perform or not. Whatever I said to him at this point wasn’t going to make the difference.
“All right,” I said. “Let’s go.” For the benefit of the others, I said, “Kanezaki and I are moving in on the granary now. Should be on target in five minutes.”
We headed north a quarter mile across flat grassland, then west, keeping low and moving quickly. There was a stand of trees between us and our objective, but, other than that, no cover or concealment anywhere. I tried not to think about snipers and what we would look like if one were watching us from that granary. When we reached the trees, we paused. I could see the granary. It was circular, about twenty feet high, but it was crumbling and offered no sniper hides, at least nothing that looked in our direction. Thank God. I couldn’t see around it. There was a truck partly visible next to a pond to the right, which might have been good news, but no sign of people. We were going to be in a hell of a jam if Hort’s intel was wrong, and there was nobody here.
“Children going in the front entrance,” I heard Dox say in the ear-piece. “Lots of ’em. Walking in from the neighborhood and some getting dropped off by their parents. No sign of our shooters.”
“My side’s clear, too,” Larison said.
“Same,” Treven said.
“John, I hope you’re in position,” Dox said. “Our timeline’s getting kind of tight.”
I didn’t want to speak, but I tapped the boom twice with a finger.
“Roger that,” Dox said.
I looked at Kanezaki. He was pale. I hoped he was going to be okay. I inclined my head toward the granary. He nodded once and we moved in, our guns up now. I didn’t know who’d trained him, but I had to admit they’d done a good job. Despite his obvious fear, he had his HK out at high-ready, his head was swiveling to increase his range of vision, and he propelled himself with a nice, smooth shuffle.
We reached the wall of the granary. It smelled of earth and hay and I had the urge to cling to it you always get just before you move out from your last position of decent cover. Still no sign of anyone at the truck.
