“The Ebba Maersk has an escape boat too. Assuming the crew didn’t have a chance to launch it, we cover ourselves in colony pheromone and head for the escape pod just before we run aground on the shoals.”
The ship’s captain was just shaking his head in confusion. “What the hell is everyone talking about-parasitic wasps and ants? What does this have to do with drones?”
Evans waved him off, looking considerably calmer than he’d been. “Believe me, ignorance is bliss.” He looked to Odin, McKinney, and Foxy. “Well, it’s big of you to take one for the team, guys. Best of luck.”
Ripper was studying the pheromone canister. “Don’t get too excited, Mort. We still need to chart a course to ram the Ebba Maersk.”
“But they’re going to-”
Odin turned to her. “Why, Ripper?”
“What if you fail, sir? This ship needs to already be on track to intercept, otherwise there won’t be time to catch up.” She jabbed a finger down onto the chart. “Which means this ship will be inside colony territory before we can be positive you’ve succeeded-at which point we can break off and head for safety.”
Evans’s eyes went wide. “For how long?”
Odin studied the map. “Probably fifteen minutes to a half hour.”
“It beats two hours plus.”
Odin nodded, then turned to the others. “She’s right. Any objections?”
Evans raised his hand. No one else moved.
“So that means we all have jobs to do. Let’s get moving, people. We’re leaving within the hour.”
CHAPTER 30
Linda McKinney watched Odin gently playing catch with Huginn and Muninn on the deck of the Tonsberg, near the Sikorsky helicopter. She knew he was saying his good-byes, since it seemed likely they would not return.
He looked over to her, and McKinney came alongside and tossed a pellet of food to Muninn. The raven caught it without difficulty.
“We’ll be back.”
He was stone-faced. “I hope you’re right about this, Professor.”
Foxy was finishing up the twin pheromone canister rig on the nose of the chopper. A wrench clattered to the metal deck and he stood. “Well, this is what we’ve got.”
McKinney and Odin turned to see that the twin metal canisters had been clamped into place with fire extinguisher brackets bolted below the chopper’s nose. The nozzles of both were aimed straight at the fuselage, and a braided copper wire ran through a hole drilled in the windscreen.
Foxy ran his finger along the copper wire. “Pull on this and it directly depresses the nozzle valves.” He gave it the barest tug, and a cloud of pheromone vapor sprayed the chopper, leaving a wet spot two feet in diameter. “Voila. What do you think?”
Odin examined the assembly and tugged forcefully at it, trying to shake the canister loose. He looked up at McKinney.
She nodded. “Simple’s good. How do we detach it for the run to the ship’s bridge?”
Foxy leaned in and threw the clamp lever, popping the canister bracket loose. “That easy. Then we depress the valve by hand.”
“Let me see that…” McKinney extended her hand and took the canister from him. “We need to dose ourselves too-for when we land.” She pressed her finger down on the nozzle and sprayed herself with the odorless, colorless perfluorocarbon. It nonetheless felt moist and cool as she could feel it evaporating slowly. She handed the canister to Odin.
“How long does the coverage last?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. So watch how they behave toward you. If they start getting aggressive, you need another dose.”
Foxy sprayed himself as well, and then reclamped the canister into place on the nose of the chopper.
Just then they heard the deep growl of a powerful engine, and they turned to see a new silver Bentley sedan drive up a ramp from the lower deck, leap the apex, and screech to a sliding halt in front of them. Steel deck plating crudely welded across all its windows marred the beautiful car, with burn marks at the connection points lending the appearance of smeared mascara. There were small view ports in the steel plates. After a moment the passenger door opened with difficulty, and Evans got out. Beyond him Smokey was behind the wheel.
“What do you think? The Mulsanne armored edition. Some billionaire in Hong Kong will be very disappointed with our mods.”
“Can’t say much for the styling.”
Evans thumbed in the direction of the ramp. “There’s six more wrapped in plastic down there. Buses, tractors, earth movers. And there’s gonna be a BMW shortage in Beijing if this ship goes down.”
Odin placed Huginn and Muninn in the folding cage and handed them to Smokey. “Keep them safe.”
“Will do, chief.”
“Where’s Ripper?”
Smokey gestured down the ramp. “Welding armor plate onto trucks. Figure if we stay mobile, they’ll have a hard time swarming us, and there’s running room on the ramps down there. We might be able to crush them against walls, and whatnot.”
Odin nodded, examining the weapons arrayed across the car’s backseat. “Is that all we’ve got?”
Smokey nodded. “Pistols too. But three. 338 rifles. A couple MP5s, and an HK416. A few hundred rounds and some frag grenades, some thermite.” Smokey leaned forward. “You’re not taking any weapons?”
Odin shook his head. “Where we’re going, if we need to start shooting, we’re dead already. Better that you have them to hold off an attack.”
Smokey handed him an HK tactical pistol. “Take a pistol at least-you might need to shoot off a lock or something.”
“Or something.” Odin grabbed it and slid it into a leg holster.
The sound of a heavy diesel engine roared belowdecks, and in a moment a large front-end loader rolled onto the main deck with Ripper behind the wheel and Mooch sitting in the shovel. There were steel plates welded around the cab on this too. Mooch hopped out as it came to a halt. The engine cut off moments later.
“Should be able to stomp a few of the fuckers with that.”
Foxy shouted, looking at his watch, “Time to kill drones, people!”
The team moved into a circle but did not touch or say good-bye. They simply stood looking from one to another. McKinney was slightly off-balance trying to understand this close-knit team’s unspoken ritual, but they seemed to just be regarding each other. Evans also watched from the car door.
After a few moments Odin broke the silence. “You all know the stakes and what’s expected of us. We will meet on the other side.” With that he snapped a sharp salute, and the others returned it. They nodded to McKinney and immediately resumed their duties.
Foxy started flicking switches in the Sikorsky, and the engines began to whine to life. Odin opened the copilot door. “Time to go!”
Evans shrugged to McKinney and shouted over the noise, “Good luck, Professor.”
She turned and entered the chopper as Evans watched. McKinney barely had her seat belt on by the time the Sikorksy lifted off and edged out over the ocean. She looked down to see the captain standing on the top of the control tower, simply watching them leave.
Odin handed her a set of headphones, and the moment she put them on, she could hear Foxy speaking.
“… fuel to get there. We’re gonna keep this straight and simple.” He pointed. “Look, you can see the Ebba Maersk already.”
McKinney craned her head and could indeed see a smudge on the horizon if she didn’t look directly at it. “Foxy, fly low to the water. That’s what they seem to be doing, and it might help contain pheromone
