“The roof is still clear, which is a good sign. Tell the pilot to switch to infrared, and let’s see if the Rabids show up and we can see how many and where they are in the building,” I tell Dan, who starts to speak into the microphone to the pilot.
“I doubt they will show up, they are cold-blooded,” Lieutenant Winters informs us. “That is the report I have seen, from the specimens we have,” he tells me as I look at him, quizzically.
“I’m not going to ask,” I reply.
The picture on the monitor flicks off, then almost instantaneously comes back on again and is showing the footage in infrared. We learn nothing from the infrared camera; it seems the Lieutenant is right about the Rabids, and they are as dead as the building they are occupying. It shows no heat sources, so I get the drone's camera switched back.
“Tell the pilot to fly over the hole in the roof and to concentrate the camera on it. Let’s see if we can get a look inside Sir Malcolm’s office,” I tell Dan, who relays the order.
Almost immediately, the drone adjusts its course, coming around to get in line for its flypast of the hole in the roof of the Orion building. At the same time, the drone’s camera motors turn the camera, so it is pointing directly at the hole; it zooms in and the motors work to adjust the camera's direction, to compensate if the drone sways offline. The camera is now fixed on the hole, moving as the drone approaches its target. It points straight down into the hole when the drone is directly overhead, and still moves, fixed on the hole as the drone flies past.
Even with the pilot slowing the drone’s speed as much as possible, the footage is fleeting, but I think I do get a look inside at the large red and gold patterned Turkish rug that adorns the floor of Sir Malcolm’s office. Or is my mind playing tricks on me?
“Did anybody see anything?” I enquire, but nobody is sure. “Can you play it back in slow motion, Dan?”
“Hold on, let me rewind it.”
Dan rewinds the footage and plays it back slowly, and he even freezes it, with the clearest view inside the building he can find; it is stuck on the screen for us to study. It was Sir Malcolm’s rug that I saw and the only other thing we can make out in his office, apart from the edges of his furniture on the periphery of the hole, is some rubble on the floor, tarnishing his beloved rug. We can’t even see the sideboard containing the safe from the angle we have, but we know it is there. More importantly, there is no sign of any Rabids in the office, which gives us all a bit more confidence for the mission ahead.
“Okay,” I say, “there is one more view I want to try and get. Tell the pilot to make a flypast of the long side of the building; he is going to have to get lower, as I want to see if we can see inside through the top floor windows, of floor seven.”
“Boss, the pilot said he was as low as he could go?” Dan reiterates.
“Tell him, Dan. It’s worth the risk, and we’ve finished with the drone anyway if it crashes.” Dan gives me a very sceptical look but starts talking to the pilot.
A couple of minutes pass, and Dan goes quiet, waiting.
“No dice, Boss, he says he can’t do it; his Squadron Leader won’t give him permission,” Dan finally says.
“Put me through to the Squadron Leader,” I tell Dan.
Again, a couple of minutes pass, and this time Dan is talking, nearly arguing constantly.
“Here they are,” Dan tells me, takes off the earphones and gives them to me.
“Squadron Leader?” I ask.
“Yes, this is the Squadron Leader,” a female voice replies.
“I’m Captain Richards, carrying out a critical mission under the direct orders of Colonel Reed. This flypast is vital to our mission under the Colonel’s orders. I order you to sanction the flypast, my team is about to enter that building. If there is a chance to see inside, we will take it, understood?”
“I will speak to my superior,” she tells me.
“Colonel Reed is your superior today, Squadron Leader. We are moving out imminently, with no delays, so authorise the flypast now. That is an order.”
The Squadron Leader is silent for a moment before she tells me, “you have your flypast, Captain.”
“Thank you,”
“Good luck with your mission,” she tells me and is then gone.
My eyes revert to the monitor as I pull off the earphones and hand them back to Dan.
We all watch in silence as we see the drone start course corrections again through its camera, the ground below getting closer and closer and seemingly speeding up. The camera then turns upwards so that it is pointing out to the side of the drone and we start to get fast-moving views of buildings shooting past. They are almost a blur and it is impossible to identify any of them.
Dan is talking to the pilot, who is giving him a running commentary on his approach; Dan relays some of it to us. ‘One minute’, he tells us, ‘thirty seconds’, ‘approaching the target, here we go’.
A bright blue flash that lasts no more than a couple of seconds, if that, crosses the screen. There is no mistaking the mirrored blue glass of the Orion building as the drone surges past, close to them, and I suddenly have strong doubts whether we will find any usable footage from that brief flash.
Almost as soon as the flash of blue has fleetingly passed from the screen, the footage comes to an abrupt end, black, grey and white static filling the monitor's screen and we look at Dan to see what’s happened.
“Yep, it’s crashed into the next building,” he
