“I-I am sorry, señor. I should have known that you would already…” He trailed off, his mind unable to find the proper words.
“Trust me, mi hermano. I already have their coffins waiting.”
22
MacDill AFB, Florida
Bridger and DJ hunkered low behind a stack of crates inside the hangar while Mauk and Lisa stacked along the inner door of the jet. Laughlin stood just outside the cockpit waiting to relay the clearance for takeoff.
Bridger reached out and gripped DJ’s arm. “Wait for the signal.”
DJ grinned at him as he gripped the detonator switch. “Premature ignition was never my problem, Top.”
The clearance for takeoff was relayed across the coms and Bridger released DJ’s arm. “Do it.”
DJ couldn’t fight the grin on his face as he depressed the red switch. No sounds were heard and no alarms blared.
Bridger turned and glared at the man. “Are you sure you—” His words were cut off as the fire alarm sounded and a klaxon echoed through the hangar.
DJ shrugged. “There’s always a delay between the flash and the heat. Their system had to recognize what was happening.”
The two men ducked lower as the few people inside the hangar rushed for the inner doors and made their way to muster in the front parking lot.
As Bridger and DJ rose from their hiding spot, Mauk and Lisa were already trotting towards them. Bridger tugged at the cart and pushed it alongside the stack of drone cases.
The four made quick work of stacking them onto the cart and wheeling it towards the plane as the pilot began to rev up the jets. Laughlin hung out of the doorway and caught the incoming cases, tossing them unceremoniously to the rear of the passenger compartment as the other four relayed them off of the cart.
Once empty, Mauk pushed the heavy cart away from the plane with his foot then pulled the door shut, sealing it behind him. “We’re clear!”
Laughlin stuck his head out of the cockpit and gave him a thumb’s up. “We’re out of here.”
Lisa fell into her chair, panting. “Please tell me you didn’t burn their building down to hide our dirty work.”
DJ laughed as he cleared two of the cases from his seat. “Hardly. I set up a mini fire bomb in the ladies restroom. Set it right next to the fire and smoke detectors.” He wiped at the sweat on his forehead. “I’m surprised it took their system so long to trigger.”
Slippy held up a drone. “Uh…Bridger? We may have an issue here.”
Bobby worked his way past the scattered black plastic boxes and made his way next to him. “They look okay to me.”
Slippy dropped the drone into the seat next to him. “Yeah, they’re fine. Except none of them are charged and I don’t see a data cable in the box with them.” He gave the man a defeated look. “I’m dead in the water without that charging cable.”
Bobby groaned and fell into the chair next to him. He scooped up a couple of the black boxes and set them between his feet. “Okay people. Rip these things open and let’s find him that cable.”
“Great,” DJ groaned as he reached for the bolt cutters. “We got these nifty little guns with no bullets.”
“Oh, there’s plenty of bullets,” Slippy replied. “Just no way to—”
“It was a METAPHOR,” DJ yelled. “Christ, you’ve got to be the dumbest smart person I’ve ever met.”
Slippy gave him sarcastic grin. “Me? Dumb?” He tossed the box aside. “Fine. Spell it.”
DJ gave him a confused look. “It? I-T. There, dumbass.”
“Ha-ha. Spell metaphor, smart ass.”
Bridger stood up, his head brushing the ceiling. “Can it, both of you.” He nodded to Laughlin. “Tell me you can conjure us a data cable that will work with these?”
Laughlin studied the drone then slowly shook his head. “I have no idea. It looks like a standard USBC port…only bigger.”
“It’s proprietary,” Slippy added. “I read that in the specs.” He groaned as he kicked another box away from his feet. “This is fucking great. We got forty assassin drones and no way to charge them or load their parameters.”
“Bingo!” Lisa yelled. She pulled a long black cable from a box along with a transformer brick. “You may all call me ‘Your Majesty’ from this day forward, thank you.”
Slippy sighed heavily and reached for the equipment. “Great. We got a relatively short trip to have to charge this many drones.” He plugged the brick into the 110 outlet and fed the cable to the nearest drone. “I have no idea how long this will take.”
Bridger stood over him and glanced at his watch. “Can you have them done before we land?”
Slippy looked at him like he was an idiot. “Did you not hear me say that I had no idea how long this might take?”
Bridger nodded. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
Langley Virginia
Jameson nodded as he listened to the man on the other end of the phone. “Very well. Rest assured, I’ll take care of it. Thank you for notifying me.”
Ingram held up his own phone. “I got a missed call from MacDill. I assume it has something to do with your future asset?”
“It most certainly did.” Jameson tucked his phone back into his pocket and leaned back in the observation chair. “It would seem that Mr. Bridger decided to relieve the Air Force of some experimental drones they were testing.”
Ingram’s brows knit together in confusion. “I’m not following.”
Jameson
