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He pulled at elements of the metallic things and she instantly recognized what they were. “Drones,” she breathed. Exactly what they needed.
“Yeah.” Raul opened up the laptop and she nudged him out of the way with her hip.
“This is my domain.”
He held his hands up and stepped back. Emma placed the laptop on the top of one of the large plastic containers, essentially turning the back of the vehicle into a makeshift office. She quickly ran through the program, familiarizing herself with the commands and features. In the foam casing holding the drones was a joystick. She picked it up, relishing the familiar feel of it in her hands. She’d spent thousands of hours operating joysticks. This one was simple and fit well in her hand.
First things first. The drone lifted quietly and hovered above them. Emma saw that it had a range of fifty kilometers and could operate for five hours without recharging. A text said that with the addition of small, powerful solar panels, the autonomy could be extended in daylight to twelve hours.
Neat. She brought the drone down gently.
She turned and saw Raul’s face. “What?”
“That is –” He cleared his throat. “It took us two morning seminars to master use of the drone software and guidance system.”
“Well, frankly, it was pretty straightforward. Do you trust me with the joystick?”
“Absolutely.” Raul said fervently. “You’re much better at it than I am. But follow my directions.”
“Sure.” Made sense to her. He would know where to send the drone and she knew how to send the drone. Partnership. “Let’s start now.”
She toggled the joystick and the drone rose back up easily, hovering in the air like some gigantic hummingbird. It was eerily silent.
“Got some excellent noise abatement there,” she said as she sent the drone up, down, to the right, to the left. Its movements were smooth, almost graceful. “If we’re careful, no one will know it’s there.”
Raul shook his head. “First time I tried this particular model, I crashed it. You’re making it fly like a bird.”
She smiled. “What can I say? I have an affinity for tech.”
“An understatement. So, switch on the cameras.”
A second later, the tablet pinged to life. The image was hi-def, very clear. There were two images. One from a minicam in the belly showing images it flew over and one mounted higher up that showed the path ahead. Emma practiced enlarging first one then the other. The images remained crystal clear. This was top rate gear.
“What do you want, the belly eye view or the forward view?”
“Forward.”
“Forward it is.”
She touched the controls and the drone shot up and disappeared over the trees. But everyone was watching the monitor, including a fascinated-looking Colin. The drone was zippy, so it was at the coordinates in no time. They’d flown over three large estates, all lawns and pools and red tile roofs. Nobody seemed to be home in any of the estates except for one gardener. A small insert in the upper right-hand corner of the monitor showed GPS coordinates.
“You’re close, maybe you should slow down,” Raul said, unhelpfully.
She shot him a glance and he held his palms up. “Sorry.”
He should be. As if she didn’t realize that stealth was required now.
“Do the cameras have IR?”
“Yep.”
“Can you get me my laptop? I left it in the truck.”
“Sure.” Raul loped over to the front of the Black Inc vehicle and came back with her laptop.
She opened it up, got the floor plans she’d found earlier on the drive over and set her screen next to the monitor. “Okay. So, what we have here is the floor plan of the house, the one that was authorized. I have no way of knowing if changes were made, but it will at least give us an idea.”
“Smart thinking.” Raul flipped through the schematics and she could see he got a good grasp of the house. Better than her, probably. She wasn’t good spatially. “Okay. Rise up high and let’s get a bird’s eye view. A drone’s eye view. Slowly. Movement captures the eye.”
