dispersal.”
Foxy nodded and brought them down alarmingly low-within twenty or thirty feet of the water’s surface.
“Jesus! Not that low.”
“I got it, Professor.”
Odin turned back to her. “ETA about ten minutes.” He extended the copper nozzle wire to her. “You’re the best person to control this.”
McKinney nodded and took the line.
Odin then spoke into the radio. “Safari-One-Six actual, crossing Lima Delta, out.”
“TOC copies. Happy hunting.”
He then pointed to a firefighter’s oxygen mask and supply tank sitting on one of the captain seats. “Put it on, and we’ll do an equipment check.”
McKinney started prepping the gear, and the process considerably calmed her nerves. She knew enough about herself that when frightening events were afoot, she preferred to be actively doing something. Listening to Odin’s instructions on the oxygen rig served that purpose. She tried to lock eyes with him, but he was all business- focused on the mission. She decided that came from experience and tried to put everything else out of her mind too.
They were coming up on the huge container ship all too fast for her liking. And soon they could see drones flying about in ones and twos, running forage patterns-with denser clouds closer in.
Odin raised binoculars, then shouted, “Incoming! Professor. Dose us. Oxygen masks on.”
She tugged on the wire to release pheromone, then lowered her oxygen mask and turned on air.
Odin looked side to side as they skimmed over the ocean surface. “We’ve got six… hell, we’ve got several dozen headed this way with a lot more behind that.” He lowered the binoculars. “How are we doing on pheromone?”
“We’ll find out in a moment. Let me know if they get aggressive, and I’ll increase the spray.” McKinney tried not to get crazy with the application of pheromone. She imagined the size of an ant if its mandibular gland were the size of the canister outside. Then tried to remind herself how small an amount they could detect. Nonetheless, her first blasts from the nozzle felt excessive.
As she looked up from the canister, her heart raced. Flying in alongside them now were a dozen flat black flying wings only about five feet wide, with loud but small turbofan engines. These were clearly not ship-cutters because they didn’t have legs or a welding torch nose-instead they seemed to have automatic rifles or similar weapons bolted under their wings. They looked cheap. Poorly made. Some were damaged, but they still functioned enough to fly.
Judging from the motion of their engine nozzles, they seemed to be able to rotate them to increase their maneuverability. They were flying in close to the chopper-mere feet from the window-almost bumping into the Sikorsky, skirting under it.
Foxy swerved and cursed. “Goddammit! They’re going to take out our rotors if they crowd us too close.”
A drone bumped into their fuselage.
But just as soon as they appeared, they dispersed. The chopper was suddenly flying in open air again, just off the water. Drones now occasionally crossed their path, but it was the more random activity of a hive running foraging patterns. McKinney let out a relieved breath and pulled the cord to apply pheromone again.
Odin and Foxy glanced back at her. “Looks like you were right, Professor.”
“It was more than a hunch. These things operate on algorithmic principles.” She nodded. “Now let’s hope we don’t run out of pheromone or oxygen before we get this done.”
Odin keyed the radio. “TOC, this is Safari-One-Six actual.”
“Go ahead, Safari-One-Six.”
“Looks like the pheromone ruse works. We are flying into the swarm and toward the ship right now. Will keep you apprised. Out.”
“Goddamn, that’s good news, chief. Out.”
Just a few miles ahead they could see the broad stern of the Ebba Maersk. McKinney swallowed hard at the swirling crowd of aircraft and the now discernible vuvuzela-like whine that came to them even through their own engine noise.
“My God, look at it… there are thousands of them.”
Foxy shook his head. “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to get close enough to land without hitting a dozen of those things. Look how packed in they are.”
Odin motioned with his hand. “Get up higher. Try to come in from overhead.” He glanced to the side. “Hey! Getting some aggressive approaches at three o’clock. Professor, give us another dose.”
McKinney pulled on the nozzle.
Nonetheless a drone slammed into the side of the helicopter, cracking the side window and knocking their trim off before Foxy could recover.
“Jesus!”
McKinney watched the damaged drone spin apart and crash into the sea. No other drones seemed to be following its lead. She pulled several more times on the nozzle to coat their fuselage, just to be sure. Clear droplets traced along the glass.
Looking ahead, she could see they were now rising above the stern of the massive container ship. The water churned from the huge propellers as the ship steamed southward. The control tower in the distance rose like a massive T square near the center of the ship, probably twenty stories above the water-in the center of thousands of blue, gray, orange, and silver shipping containers that rose almost to the level of the control tower itself.
Unlike other shipping containers McKinney had seen, many of these had open panels in their sides and tops from which drones were entering and leaving the nests. She could see the turbofan drones tilting their engines down and hovering in for a landing, the air wavering with hot exhaust. But there were thousands of drones of still smaller size. She thought she could make out clouds of black quadracopter drones as well, not unlike the ones they’d faced in Colorado-but bigger, lawn mower-sized, with smoke coming off them as their two-stroke gasoline engines added to a deafening droning sound. It seemed to set the fillings in her teeth vibrating.
“God, would you listen to that?”
Foxy was bringing them into the cloud, angling for a landing. “Will these things make room for me, Professor?”
McKinney leaned forward to look. “If we collide they’ll back away… after trying to exchange data via their sensilla.”
There was a loud thump as a drone bumped into them from behind.
“Goddammit! We’re running on vapors. There’s no time for finesse. We gotta land.”
Looking below, it seemed like the ship was the molting ground of some vast flock of birds. Tens of thousands of drones covered every available surface-others seemed to be crawling around. McKinney released more pheromone and looked on with amazement at the complex and terrifying manifestation of her work. In some sick way it almost gave her satisfaction to see her model working-but she quickly rebuked herself.
Another drone bumped into them, and there was a loud bang as pieces of something sheared away and fell out of sight along with the drone. McKinney hoped none of those pieces belonged to the Sikorsky, but moments later the chopper started vibrating. An empty water bottle rattled in a cup holder at her elbow. The vibration quickly increased. Several red lights and alarms went off on the console up front.
Odin looked up through the overhead view ports. “We’re leaking something up there, and it isn’t pheromone.”
Dark fluid sprayed across the glass.
Foxy was checking indicators and struggling with the yoke. “Gotta land… gotta land.”
Another bump, followed by yet another bang, as a drone edged into them.
“I don’t see a way to clear a path without running into them. We’ve got some damage to a rotor blade already-maybe more than one.”
McKinney scanned the vast expanse of containers below them but didn’t see any helipad or unoccupied spot. They were now flying into a cloud of smaller drones, and the impacts were coming fast as popcorn popping. The chopper lurched, and a lawn mower-sized quadracopter bristling with antennas bumped right into the window next to her before it disappeared below them.
