Page 45 of Daddy's Pursuit
The chopper headed toward the suspects.
“They’re on Hill Street,” Jack stated.
“I think I have visuals on them.”
Jack reached to where a pair of binoculars were. The bird wasn’t his usual ride, but he’d been in it enough to know his way around Ace’s cockpit.
Ace lowered the chopper just a bit.
“Yeah. I got ‘em,” Jack announced as he zeroed in on his prey. “Black SUV.”
“There’s a lot of black SUVs. You sure it’s them?”
“The guy hanging out the passenger side window with an assault rifle gives them away,” Jack replied.
Ace laughed. “Maybe we can get these assholes off the street before they hurt anyone.”
But from the sky, all they could really do was track them. That was about it.
Or was it?
A devilish grin reached the corners of Jack’s mouth. “I used to work cattle on my uncle’s ranch in Arizona during the summers.”
“That’s cool, but now’s not the time for your boring stories,” Ace cackled.
“I have a point,” Jack said, still grinning as he shook his head. “One time, the herd got scattered after a storm. So, he hired some local pilots. They used two choppers and rounded them up and herded them home. It was a lot quicker than us doing it on horseback or in the trucks.”
Ace looked back with a smile of his own. “I gotcha. Which way you want me to herd these idiots?”
Jack looked down, studying the city grid like he would a map.
“4thand Olive,” Jack said. “I’m going to have the guys on the ground set up a roadblock.”
“They might need more time,” Ace countered.
Jack thought about it. “Okay. Let’s have it at Temple and Grand. Right in front of the cathedral,” he said, referring to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. “Maybe going to church will do these idiots some good.”
“I hope. They need it,” Ace commented.
Jack radioed the plans in. Then, looking at Iris, he said, “You okay, babygirl?”
She gave him a thumbs up but didn’t say anything. He wondered if it was fear or excitement that rendered her speechless.
Ace took the helicopter low. What some might consider dangerously low. It worked, though. The car’s driver panicked. It tried to turn one way—its tires screeching and leaving smoking, black streaks on the street—but saw the chopper descending, so it went the opposite direction.
Which was exactly where Ace was trying to send them.
The helicopter’s drops felt like a rollercoaster and Jack noticed Iris was gripping the handle in front of her so hard that her knuckles were turning white.
“You good, honey?” he asked again.
She nodded.
“Barf bag’s in the seat in front of you,” Ace yelled. “Now hang on!”
The chopper felt as if it was freefalling, but only for a moment. It was amazing to Jack that Ace never came close to hitting a downtown building. He was an expert pilot and could maneuver the urban landscape with precision.
On the sidewalks, people had stopped to watch the action unfold. Others rushed out of their offices and the nearby stores. Some were holding their phones, probably livestreaming it all.
