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Handley said, “No.”
Young carried the snake into the trees and turned it loose. When he rejoined the others, he lifted John’s hand in his own and examined it. He smiled, “It doesn’t look bionic. Very impressive, Detective Quick.”
John said, “What was impressive was you, with the rattler.”
Ten minutes later, they heard the car approaching, then the doors closing and Randall trotted through the trees with his leaf blower. Handley said, “Use the lightest setting possible. We don’t want
to blow away any evidence.”
Randall started the blower, made an adjustment, then worked the leaves by moving the blower side to side, working the outside of the clearing first, then moving in smaller circles until he had the entire opening cleared.
The drawing revealed itself as he blew away the leaves, and Young Anson rubbed his mouth, “It is to gather power. Much power.” When Randall finished, everyone studied the white, complex designs on the earth.
“You said to gather power. Like how?” John said.
“It is made to do away with any opposition, anyone hindering the accrual of power and money.”
“So, kill their competition.”
“Yes. Or render them incapable of interfering. It is directed to others, too, like the police who try to stop them.”
“Have you seen this before?”
“No.”
Several of them took photos, and Andre climbed into the trees and took overall shots. When they finished, Hunter asked Handley, “You through with this?”
Handley said, “Yes.”
Hunter and Ariel stepped to the white lines and raked their shoes across them, obliterating the designs. Young Anson joined them.
High above them, a black drone hovered into view, then steadily descended, the GoPro camera clicking away.
They heard the whirring sound and everyone looked up as the drone buzzed lower and hovered at a hundred feet above the clearing. It turned first one way, then the other. After twenty seconds, it lowered the front and dove toward those on the ground.
Hunter’s pistol came out in a blink and she had the drone in her sights, squeezing the trigger when it veered away and circled the clearing, staying just above the trees lining the open area.
Hunter said, “Whoever’s controlling that has to be close. I’m gonna go look for them.” She trotted into the trees, with John a step behind.
They emerged by the vehicles and heard, then saw the drone speeding east toward several neighborhoods that began a mile in the distance. Hunter started the car as John hopped in the passenger’s seat, then she sped through tall grass to the pavement, where the tires chirped as they bit into the asphalt for traction. The drone was a speck in the distance when it dropped from sight in a neighborhood of brick homes and eucalyptus trees.
Hunter drove to the entrance and turned in, driving the residential streets, as she and John looked left and right. After twenty minutes, she said, “Well, crap.”
John said, “Let’s go back to the scene.”
Hunter turned the car in a U and started back. “Do you think that could have been kids flying it?”
John said, “Maybe.”
As they left the neighborhood, Hunter passed a parked van in front of a house with a for sale sign in the yard. She glanced at the van and slowed, almost stopping, then said, “Nahh,” and continued on, turning left at the intersection, onto the main road and accelerating in the direction of the crime scene.
Ringo Bazin sat in the back of the van and watched through the front window as Hunter and John drove away. He put the Beretta on the passenger seat and turned his attention to the drone on the van floor, removing the GoPro camera. He checked the images after downloading them to his laptop. One image showed all faces in the clearing upturned to the drone. Ringo enlarged each face, studying them with care, then cropped each face and placed them in a separate file. He lingered longest on Hunter.
When Hunter and John returned to the clearing, evidence was being gathered and logged. Randall said, “Not much else we can do here.” He looked at John, “Ready to go talk to those kids?”
John said, “At least identify the car that left when they arrived, if nothing else.”
Randall said to Hunter, “Jesse Coda and Jason Hale said to give them a call. They want to check out the warehouse, and talk to Ariel. I filled them in on what happened on the Hollywood Beach boardwalk.”
