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“We’re running out of ammo,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.
“A better delivery system for putting a missile or explosive charge down its throat, and more antitank weapons. We’ve reached out to the local National Guard, but that’s going to take hours; we have minutes.”
Rafael leaned over me to speak into the mic. I hit the button for him as he said, “There are drones up watching the action; some of them are already posting online.”
“Civilian drones would need to be jerry-rigged,” Edward said. “Again we’re out of time. Once the BearCat pushes the dragon over, we need to hit it with everything we have.”
“If there happened to be civilian drones that were already fitted with light payloads in place above us, what would you need them to do?” Rafael asked.
I looked at him. I forgot sometimes that Rafael’s other business was sending his wererats around the world as mercenaries. I had nothing to do with that part of his life, other than that the wererats I knew came back worn out and world-weary, sometimes with a desert tan and almost always slimmed down as if they hadn’t been able to eat enough to offset the physical activity.
“If?” I said, looking up at him.
“Hypothetically speaking,” he said.
“Okay, hypothetically speaking, I would need to know how light the payloads are,” Edward said.
“Hold up, Edward.” I turned to Officer Smitz. “Give me your radio and you can walk away with plausible deniability.”
“Are you kidding? I’d rather stay, please.”
“Okay, but don’t disappoint me later by oversharing,” I said.
He crossed his heart and hoped to die. If he only knew how very likely that scenario would be if he betrayed the wererats and Edward. The dragon was struggling to push back the BearCat, but it looked like all those bullets and a couple of LAWs might have at least weakened it, because the BearCat was gaining ground.
“We’re back on, Ted,” I said.
Rafael leaned over the mic and said, “If they existed, very theoretically speaking, two antitank grenades.”
“One drone with two grenades, that it?” Edward asked.
“Two drones with two grenades each,” Rafael said.
I so wanted to ask why he happened to have the drones up there ready to go, but I could be curious later; the dragon was wrestling with the BearCat at the edge of the cliff. “Is the BearCat going over the side with it?”
“Not part of the plan,” Edward said.
I wanted to protest that we needed to help them, but I’d worked with SWAT too long; they were going to work their part of the plan. They hoped not to go over the cliff with the dragon, but they knew it was a possibility when they decided to do it. I didn’t have to like it, I just had to accept it, and since there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to change it now, I focused on what I could do and did my best to let go of what I couldn’t.
“Will it exploding in the dragon’s breath be enough to kill it?” I asked.
“My people didn’t want me coming this close to a dragon without theoretical backup, but none of them had information on fire-breathing dragons. It is a first even for us,” Rafael said.
“So none of us know the optimal way to use the two chances we have,” I said.
“He’s not an animal, he’s a person in dragon shape. If he blows the ordnance above his head and it doesn’t kill him, he won’t aim fire at the next drone,” Edward said.
“So we need to shove it down his throat while he’s flaming?” I asked.
“We need to force it into his mouth as he’s in the process of flaming,” Edward said.
“My theoretical pilots of my hypothetical drones will be very challenged to hit that small window of opportunity,” Rafael said. He motioned at Benito, who got on his earpiece and started talking quietly and urgently to someone.
“I know some military drone pilots that are good enough to do it,” Edward said.
