Page 105 of Triple Threat

The looping drive home took us across a picturesque bridge, through the oldest and most historic parts of the city, and eventually back home. Sadie took it in good stride, Roan was a stunning conversationalist, which was good. All my attention was on keeping an eye behind us, and scanning intersections, hoping to spot the ambush before it came.

None came.

At the manse Roan started the fireplace, and I prepared drinks for everyone. I could have traded the MAC-10 for a less bulky pistol, but it felt comforting at the moment. Sadie would get a sparkling dessert wine, and Roan some anise and wormwood non-alcoholic spirit of his, and for me a curious black gin from New Zealand.

While Sadie was changing from her casual jeans, I handed Roan his drink and I laid out everything. Kaijin, Chauvignon, and the rest of the Cartel Escadrille top members had been in Chevalier. He nodded grimly, and did something on his phone, and told me that he had activated something he called his Dunkirk plan. I didn’t ask him to elaborate on it, but I knew it was handled.

When Sadie returned to the living room, the fire was going strong. Roan threw some wood chunks into it, so that the gas logs produced the scent of a regular fire. The effect was nice. Sadie’s satin negligee was also nice. I handed her a flute of wine, and she smiled as she took it.

Roan had settled back, not picking up the remote.

No movie then, I was fine with that.

I put an arm around her and kissed her on the lips. Her kiss tasted like wine.

When my hand trailed down the front of her negligee, seeking to tease her nipples into hardness, she touched my hand. “I don’t think I can, tonight.”

“Are you okay?” I brushed a lock of hair out of her face.

“I am a little bit sore,” she said softly. “AndChevalierwas a large meal.”

“It was,” I nodded. I kissed her again, on the side of her neck. She made a soft sound. “Maybe another evening.”

“Definitely,” she whispered.

She sat between us, and we just talked. There were traded kisses, and the small gestures of affection we shared. It was nice. But it didn’t last. Roan’s phone started a vibrating alarm. He excused himself and went to the Bat Cave at a brisk limp.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Perimeter alarm,” he said. He toggled through cameras, the screens filled with saturated green and black images. “Motion sensor, grid sixteen.”

“What can I do?” I asked.

“Can you manage one of the drones?” Roan asked. He gestured to the control setup he had. I nodded and grabbed a chair. The drones were interesting to use, sometimes fun. “Don’t grab one through six, their armed and loaded and I don’t want to lose one over a stray cat.”

“Aye, just call me Maverick,” I said. It only took a few seconds, but I had one of his drones out of its cradle and zipping away from the manse. “Where is grid sixteen?”

“The boat pen,” he said. I sent the drone whizzing across on a flat arc across the property. There were trees, turning into a mangrove of knobby roots and then the outline of the pen. There was a powerboat inside, and that was the other end of the escape tunnel. Roan had that stocked, I was certain. Fuel, bug-out bags, firearms, the works.

“Take it across the wall, and then follow it to the drive,” Roan said. I did as he instructed, gliding the quadrotor on its near silent wings.

“The middle screen,” Sadie said. I looked, and she was right, there was the profile of a man, holding near perfectly still.

“Good eye, our intruder is in… grid... next to the gate,” I said.

“Twelve,” Roan said.

“Do any of these drones have guns?” Sadie asked.

“No,” Roan said. “They are civilian remote control, and they can’t handle anything but the smallest firearms, and there is no aiming them.”

“Oh,” she said. “But that would be useful?”

“Damn right,” I said.

“I’ve got him,” Roan said. “Swing out toward the road, go thermal, see if he has backup or a getaway vehicle.”

“I’m on it,” I said, and then the drone was moving again. Switching the thermal was a bit of a gamble, I had done this some, the drones could be fun to play with, but if something was the same temp, all over, then it was invisible. I had landed drones in tree branches more than once, because the cold branches didn’t show against the cold air.

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