Page 80 of The Fighter
Grabbing my leather coat, I was right on his heels. “I’m coming with you.”
When Magni ignored me, I added, “I’m Raven’s mentor, so I’m going.”
The rain was still coming down in buckets and thunder was putting a soundtrack to the way Magni and I ran to the drones with serious faces.
“We’ll take the Doom’s Bird and leave the Angel Maker to the others.”
The Doom’s Bird was a heavy military drone; I knew my police drone would have been faster. Problem was that I’d left it behind at the open field where we had met this morning and where we were supposed to return to after lunch.
“Laura should know better than this,” Magni muttered as we got in, and he quickly got the drone in the air.
It was my first time inside a Doom’s Bird. It only had room for four and was an old but powerful and lethal weapon with large guns and the capacity to have rockets attached. I kept looking around taking in all the electronics while Magni muttered: “It’s a shame this bird isn’t loaded with rockets, ’cause I’m telling you: if anyone touched Laura or Raven, I would gladly fire a rocket up their asses.”
“I hear you!”
“I guarantee you that it was Raven that got Laura to go. She’s always been fearless and won’t stop pushing boundaries.” Magni snorted. “Khan should have never allowed her to join the police. Now she thinks she is untouchable. I’ve told Boulder countless times that he needs to talk some sense into her before she gets in over her head. She might be a great fighter, but she and Laura won’t stand a chance if a group of men gang up on them.”
My face hardened just from thinking about the cases I’d seen in Mortenstown, which was one of the shittiest places in our district. “Can’t this machine go any faster?”
Magni gave me a sideways glance. “You’d better hold on tight.”
I was strapped in but felt the force of gravitation push me back in my seat when he took the drone straight up in the air. We needed to go high to get to maximum speed, and I would take whatever Magni could push out of this old war machine.
With a desperate need to hear that Raven was fine, I called her up and with every unanswered ring, I grew more nervous. “Raven isn’t picking up. Can you call Laura?”
“I already did, twice. She’s not picking up either.”
The heavy rain and rumbling of thunder made it impossible for me to hear the string of curse words that followed from Magni.
I looked to the right, seeing flashes of lightning illuminate the dark gray sky in the distance. “How old is this machine?”
“At least twenty years. Military budgets are low in times of peace.”
“Maybe you should go around the storm.”
Magni’s laugh sounded hollow. “Not when my woman is in danger.”
I kept calling Raven and was cursing for every time I got no answer.
“Why hasn’t Mila sent us the location like I told her to?” Magni called up his daughter and sounded grumpy when he asked, “Where’s the location?”
“Don’t get angry, Dad, but I spoke to Mom and she said that she preferred if someone else picked them up. Someone calm.”
“Calm. Are you fucking kidding me? Is that why she and Raven aren’t picking up when we call them?”
“Probably.”
Magni growled. “Laura’s ass is going to be so red.”
“Dad!”
“I’m sorry, honey, but you’re a grown woman now. You need to know what a husband does to a wife who pulls idiotic stunts like this.”
“And you wonder why Mom doesn’t want to be rescued by you. Just give her a hug and tell her you’re happy she’s unharmed.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll do that after I spank her. And Mila, call Raven and tell her that if I don’t have her exact location within two minutes, she’s no longer a police recruit.”
“That’s not fair.”
