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Juan yelled down the hatch, “Move us over to get him.”
The Gator maneuvered until it was directly under him. While Juan and Linc held López, Raven unlatched his bungee cord. The CIA agent fell into their arms.
They lowered him into the Gator, then followed him down.
Juan closed the hatch and ordered the Gator to move at top speed without submerging. Two med techs from the Oregon treated López while Raven and Linc slumped into seats, drained from the chase. Gomez Adams was prepping two drones as if he were getting ready to launch them.
“What are those for?” Linc asked.
The Chairman looked at López’s inert form and shook his head in disgust and rage. Raven had never seen him so angry.
“MacD and Hali are in trouble,” Juan said. “And we’re not losing anybody else today.”
17
Hali struggled to keep the paraglider in the air. Jessica Belasco’s right harness strap had been severed by a bullet, so she had her hand looped through his harness to keep from falling all the way out. But in doing so, she was shifting more of her weight to the right, which made it difficult for him to maintain a straight flight path. If they went into a stall, he’d have to throw out their reserve chute or they’d plunge into the water from a thousand feet up.
Making an uncontrolled landing like that in the water in a tandem harness might drown them, so Hali told Belasco to remain calm and keep her grip steady.
All she co
uld do was nod in terror. Hali was scared as well, but he had something to focus on. Still, his heart was hammering in his chest, and he had to remind himself to breathe slowly and smoothly, just like he had to handle the paraglider.
“I’m not going to be able to maneuver very well around those drones,” he told MacD. “It’ll be a challenge just getting to Ilha da Laje intact.”
“They aren’t from the Oregon, are they?” MacD asked.
“Not ours,” Juan replied from the Gator. “They came from Ferreira’s yacht. Belasco’s friends must have called him back when she disappeared. The drones may be equipped with explosive devices, so try to stay away from them.”
“Fantastic,” Hali said.
“What is?” Belasco asked.
“We’re on schedule to be picked up,” he said. No need to scare her even further. “But, prepare to hold on if I need to roll quickly.”
“Why? Wait a minute,” she said, pointing with her free hand at the dots that were approaching. “What are those?”
“Drones.”
“That can’t be good.”
“It’s not.”
MacD came up next to him only twenty-five yards away so that they were flying in formation. “Got a plan?”
They were still half a mile away from the island fortress, passing eight hundred feet in altitude.
“When the drones get close, we’ll split and dive. You go right. I’ll go left. We’ll descend in a spiral pattern, which might be hard for them to follow if they’re being flown manually.”
Hali didn’t have to add that they were toast if the drones had automated targeting systems. He knew Gomez had that kind of software in his drones, but he didn’t know if Ferreira’s were similarly outfitted.
When the drones were within a hundred yards, one of them split off while the others hung back.
“They must have a single operator controlling them,” Hali said. “Otherwise, they’d attack all at once.”
How Hali wished they had a shotgun. Pistols were useless against such small maneuverable targets.
“Tell me when to break,” MacD said.
