Page 113 of Kai
Cece elbowed me gently. “What is it?”
“Levine’s rented a plane. From an island outfitter. Or maybe he stole it; I don’t know. He turned off the transponder and skimmed the water on his way here so that he could fool radar and other surveillance systems and conceal his whereabouts. He’s undertaken additional reconnaissance on his own. This supports the information Guzman and Bozeman brought us. Xi is done or about to be done with Levine. This is Levine’s last-ditch effort to locate us. He’s hiding from us, but he’s also hiding his activities from his boss.”
“He flew right by us and didn’t see us,” Cece pointed out.
“BB’s cloaking capability is holding for now, but Levine is a stubborn SOB.”
I watched the screen as he flew the Cessna over the reef again, near enough that we could hear the single engine sputtering as he turned due west, flying away from the cove toward the next set of cays.
The sound dimmed as the distance between the Cessna and us grew. Our cloaking system held, thank fuck. I sat on the chair, clicked a few keys, and designated a couple of cameras totrack the little plane, just in case it came back.
“That was his second pass.” I released a breath. “He might be done with us for now.”
“I have an idea,” she said. “All we have to do is get him to come back.”
Snapping my head up, I found Cece’s sparkling eyes narrowed in an expression that spelled high-level thinking and trouble, with a capital “T.”
I returned my attention to the screens. “That’s a firm nope.”
“We can use me as bait—”
“Negative, I’mnotusing you as bait, and I’mnotputting your life on the line. We sit tight and go for our exfil tomorrow night as planned. Period.”
“But—”
Our discussion came to an abrupt end as my screens flashed with red frames. “Warning,” Bellator alarmed. “Military grade aircraft detected. Approaching at high velocity.”
“Give me a visual,” I barked. “Lock onto the approaching aircraft.”
Several cameras swiveled at once to focus on the threat. It was only after the cameras acquired a blurred image that the visual radar locked in and showed me a red blimp moving at brain-defying velocity. Like Levine’s Cessna, this aircraft must be flying without a transponder.
“Maximize images,” I commanded. “Increase resolution.”
“Maximizing,” the bot said. “Increasing resolution.”
Even with amplification, my eye had trouble focusing on the aircraft. All I got was a blurry glimpse of… what the hell was it? It was unlike anything I’d ever seen before, fast, sleek, with a weird flat nose and a narrow profile I wasn’t familiar with. It reflected its surroundings, which made it nearly invisible in the sky and suggested a high-end, new-gen camouflage.
“Bellator,” I said. “Identify.”
“Identifying,” the bot reported.
Cece blinked at the screens. “I’ve never seen a helicopter like that one.”
“Neither have I.” If that wasn’t trouble, I didn’t know what was. “It’s some kind of helo moving at warp speed. Come on, Bellator. What am I looking at?”
“Tracking fast attack helicopter,” the bot reported.
“Distance?”
“Thirty-five clicks.”
“Specs,” I demanded.
“Stealth mode detected. Designation unknown. Configuration unknown. Registration number unknown. Weapons, confirmed. Transponder, off. Velocity, four hundred and five miles per hour.”
“What?”I choked out. There were very few helicopters in the world that could move that fast. All of them were classified projects.
“Kai?” Cece’s voice caught my attention.
