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She lifted the drone slowly until it was about fifty feet high, high enough that the camera could take in the entire estate in one glance. It wasn’t a huge lot, and was mostly filled with a monstrous McMansion, bloated in the middle. The house had about five feet of dusty lawn all around it from the house to a stucco wall encircling the property. She took the drone around the perimeter, dropping very quickly to see under a portico.
“There,” she said softly, even though they were so far away her voice couldn’t possibly carry. Sitting on a wicker armchair was a guard. He was dressed in black. A weapon was slung across the arms of the other wicker armchair. He was smoking, and an ashtray full of stubs was on the wicker coffee table. She lifted the drone up immediately.
“I saw him,” Raul’s voice was soft, too. “Armed, but a moron. His weapon isn’t in easy reach. Switch on thermal imaging. Let’s see who else is in there.”
Emma switched to thermal and again ran the perimeter of the house, only with the cameras turned inward. “Gotcha,” she said softly as the fiery outline of a person appeared. She checked the floor plan. “He’s in the kitchen.”
All three of them put their heads together watching as the fiery figure, trailing wisps of red, moved around the kitchen. Not cooking so much as pulling things out of the fridge and nuking them. No signs of weapons but the thermal imagery wouldn’t pick up on them. While the red figure had its back to the window, Emma placed the drone outside the window and switched on regular vision.
Whoever built the house didn’t even think of cloaking the windows. Emma resolved then and there to try to have her windows always cloaked. It was eerie looking inside this house.
The man in the kitchen wasn’t overly tall but was very broad, with the kind of muscles that looked impressive but probably got in his way. Gym muscles, totally unlike Raul’s lean panther-like build. Dark haired, longer on top, shaved along the sides. Tattoo sleeves on his arms. Tee shirt a size too small to show off those pecs that almost needed a bra. On the counter was a gun and a cellphone. She didn’t recognize the gun but she recognized the cell. It was good, expensive. She glanced briefly at Raul. He was going to have to take these men down without them drawing their weapons or reaching for their cells.
If he was worried, he didn’t show it.
“Go to the roof,” he said softly. “Use thermal.”
The drone covered the roof in a grid. And on the southwest corner room they hit the jackpot. A man, lying down on a bed. One hand stretched over his head.
Without being asked, Emma directed the drone to the window of the southwest corner room. Colin was bending so close to the screen, his nose was almost touching it. She gently pushed at his shoulder and he moved back. But he was fixed on the screen.
“Damn.” Raul let out a small breath of exasperation. Venetian slats covered the window. “We really need to see inside.”
“Let me see what I can do.” Emma focused tightly, sending thanks up above for the thousands and thousands of hours she’d spent gaming. She wielded a joystick like a surgeon wielded a scalpel.
First, she ran the drone as close to the window as she could without crashing it. But there wasn’t much to be seen, except that the room was in semi-darkness. She pulled away, angled to the right side of the slats. There was a gap, but nothing to be seen except dark wall and … she zoomed in.
A mirror. Angled to catch the bed with someone on it.
Colin took in a deep breath.
There, unmistakably, was Toby, lying on his side. He was unmoving, eyes closed. The outstretched arm was because his hand was handcuffed to a bedpost. Emma studied his chest.Please God,she prayed.Let him be alive.
“Goddamn.” Colin’s voice was shaky. “Is he – is he … yes! He’s breathing! Oh my God, he’salive! Let’s go!”
Raul’s hand shot out and grabbed his arm. “Not so fast. I understand how you want to go to him, but we need to neutralize those two body guards and I’m the best one to do that. We can’t give them a chance to notify whoever paid to have him kidnapped and whoever is paying for those guards. We won’t be doing Toby any favors by rushing in and alerting the bad guys. They might even have instructions to eliminate him if they are discovered. So, we have to do this quiet and we have to do it smart. We on the same page here?”
Colin struggled briefly with himself but gave in. Raul was right. Rushing in wouldn’t help Toby. The only one who could rescue him was Raul. Emma would be hopeless in anything resembling a fight, let alone a firefight and Colin didn’t look built for a fight, either. Right now, he was trembling head to toe, arms wrapped around his middle.
Emma was a little shaky, too.
Raul sure wasn’t. His movements were swift and sure. From the back of his vehicle, he removed a bullet proof vest, a handgun and a holster, a baton, restraints and two pre-loaded syringes.
“Those are…?” Emma nodded to the syringes.
“I hope they are filled with cyanide.” Colin’s voice was vicious. “They hurt and kidnapped Toby!”
“Colin, you’re a doctor and you’re sworn to heal,” Emma told him, then turned to Raul. “You can’t kill them,” she said seriously.
Raul splayed a large hand over his heart. “I won’t. I won’t even dent them, if everything goes right. They won’t even know I’ve been there. It’s Rohypnol, will put them out and they won’t have any memory of it.”
“Date rape drug,” Colin nodded.
“Hmm. No intention of raping them,” Raul said. “But they need to wake up and find Toby gone and not understand how it happened. Honey, can you kill their video feeds? Where we’re parked there are no cameras. But we can’t leave any way to trace back to us.”
“Sure. And I’ll set up a loop so they won’t even know when it happened. How long will they be out?”
Raul checked the syringes. “Colin, 1 mg of flunitrazepam. How long will they be out?”
