I’m surprised how fast it all moves though. I mean, I understand that we have to get the evidence before the public meeting on Fonchem’s expansion. But it still seems a bit rushed.
We meet at James’ again to go through the plan. I’ll pick up the car – I might have to show my fake documentation, but it’s more likely I’ll just need to show the email receipt that I’ve paid. And James is going to repay me when we get back – they have a little fund set aside for covering the costs of their operations. Once I’ve got it, I’ll take it onto the Lornea Island ferry. Oscar and James are on the same boat, booked on separately as foot passengers. I don’t know what names they’ve used – we’re going to pretend we don’t know each other, wherever there’s any chance of us being on CCTV. Then, once we get there, I’ll pick them up just outside the ferry terminal. We’ll drive to my house to pick up my drone, and then we have to wait until it gets dark, which will make the images clearer. From there we’ll monitor the site, and come back on the morning ferry.
I’m excited. It’s going to be fun.
Chapter Forty-Five
I’ve been on the ferry quite a few times before, but never under a false name. It’s a really weird feeling. I walk around as Hans Hass, then buy myself a coffee and an actual newspaper in the café – because that’s what someone called Hans would do. And I sit reading. I feel sure that Hans Hass would have been a smoker, but obviously you can’t smoke indoors these days, so I make do with a slice of cake. I see James, while I’m eating it, and he makes eye contact for a second, but other than that we pretend we don’t know each other. I don’t see Oscar at all.
As the ferry docks, the drivers have to go back to their cars, so I line up, and then wait until the bow doors open, and slowly we drive off. It’s weird to be back on Lornea. Weird but nice. I like it this time of year, when it’s empty and cold.
I see James and Oscar just past the entrance to the ferry terminal, and slow down to pick them up. They’ve both got big backpacks on – part of their disguise as foot passengers, and they fill up the trunk. Then we drive south, down through Newlea, and out towards Silverlea. This is the trickiest part of the plan. I just have to hope Dad’s not home, so I can go in and grab the drone, without being spotted. If he does see me, well it doesn’t matter, but it’s going to be a bit hard to explain. I don’t have a plan for how to handle this until I actually arrive in Littlelea, and then – instead of driving right up to the house, I park on the road a minute away. I tell James and Oscar to wait for me. Then I cut through to the cliff path, and run along that until I can see the house. No truck, I’m in luck.
I have my key, so I let myself in, and run up to my bedroom. It’s the first time I’ve been back since going to college, and it’s strange to be back, to see the bed I’ve slept in since I was just a little boy. It makes me think about Lily. How I’m not little any more. How I’m a man now. It almost makes me think about what I’m really doing here, and whether it’s such a great idea after all – but I don’t have time, not with James and Oscar waiting in the car. So instead I grab the drone and quickly check it over. The battery won’t be fully charged, but I can give it a boost from the socket in the car. I chuck it all in my bag and get out of there.
Then we drive back the way we came, but this time past the ferry terminal in Goldhaven and right up to the northernmost tip of the island, where the Fonchem site is. We decide to wait until it gets dark. It’s unlikely there’ll be anyone around, especially this time of year, but there might be someone walking their dog, around the footpaths that surround the fence, so it makes sense to be cautious. But then it’s too cold waiting in the car, so we drive away again, and wait in a bar, where we get some food. There’s a TV on in the corner, and it says it’s going to snow. I hope not. That could be a problem, for the drone I mean.
We don’t talk much as we wait, there’s a ball game on the TV, and James and Oscar watch that, while I get on with converting the camera on the drone to infrared. I had to buy a kit to do it, and it was $350, but James said he’d put it on his credit card. It’s pretty simple, so when I’ve done that I do a little research on my phone on how to set the drone up to fly in the snow. I find out you can do it, but it’s not exactly recommended. There’s a risk that the batteries will lose voltage, which means the drone will crash, or you could get moisture in the electrics, or an ice buildup on the body of the drone, or even the rotors. And if any of that happens it could crash as well. I explain all this to James, but he
