The Assassin Drone, Part 8
+++++
After depositing the flowers on the window sill in her office, Olivia led Lucas to the workshop. She had to use her card to get in, then use it again to open various locked cabinets, from which she produced not only one of the drone prototypes, but also a memory stick that she plugged into a laptop. To Lucas, she said, "This is the guidance software for the prototypes."
She also took a small microprocessor from the same cabinet and inserted it into the drone. Immediately, pictures came up on the laptop's screen, and Olivia motioned for Lucas to sit down in front of it. Leaning over his shoulder, she said, "On the left, you can see where the drone is. On the right, you can see what the drone sees."
Lucas squinted, wrinkling his forehead in confusion, and heard Olivia's amusement as she continued, "Right now it's showing you the tabletop."
She told him how to launch the drone, and he did so. It moved slowly away from the table and hovered in the air about half a meter above the surface.
"We can control the height here," Olivia said, indicating another display, "and the speed here. Because we're inside, of course, we don't want it to go very high or very fast, but once we're outside, we can change the settings."
"And this is the laser setting?" Lucas asked, indicating the rectangle in the lower right hand corner.
"Right, but there's no laser inside this drone," Olivia said. "We usually only add them for special test runs."
"So I can't hit the wrong button by accident and burn a hole through the floor?"
"The carpet, maybe, but I don't think you'd get very far through concrete. You'd be more likely to burn a hole through the window, if you were aiming at – oh!" Olivia said. Her face lit up as though she'd just received the answer to life, the universe, and everything – and it wasn't forty two.
"Oh?" Lucas prompted.
"Jeremy! I think I know how he got the drone out!" Olivia cried. Turning on her heel, she strode towards the door, and Lucas scrambled to follow. They went down the corridor to the Jeremy Owusu's office, and Olivia tried the handle. It was locked, and when she tried her key card, the reader flashed red. "Blast."
"Maybe this one will work," Lucas said, handing over his. Olivia ran it through, and glanced at him with surprised respect when the light turned green and she was able to turn the handle.
"What are we looking for?" he asked as they entered.
"Windows," she said, moving around the desk and peering closely at the glass. There was a jumble of books, binders, plants, and various bits of electronics on the windowsill, and she pulled a few of the objects away. "Hah! Look here!"
There was a distinct line across the glass that went from one side of the window to the other, and Lucas had no doubt that the pile of things had been meant to conceal it.
"He used the laser to cut through the glass!" Olivia exclaimed. "Look, you can just barely see where he's cut right near the edges, and down here at the bottom, too. He could have lifted this entire section away, flown the drone out, to his car or right to his back garden, then put the glass back, and no one would ever know."
"With a touch of superglue to hold it in place," Lucas said, pointing out a tiny blob close to one corner.
Olivia made a frustrated sound. "Why didn't I think of this? I'm so stupid! I could have had it so easy, instead of –"
"Instead of what?" Lucas asked, but Olivia shook her head in embarrassment. "Never mind. Let's get back to what we were doing."
"No," Lucas said. "Tell me. This could be important."
The worried look returned to Olivia's face, and she went to the door, glancing up and down the corridor before shutting it. "Are you really going to make sure I don't lose my job for this."
"Absolutely," Lucas said. "You're helping us catch terrorists. In fact, when this is all over, we'll praise your cooperation and your loyalty to your country, and maybe even suggest that Mr Blaze give you a little bonus for your efforts in helping us."
The part about the bonus made Olivia sigh wistfully, and then she said, "You're going to laugh, but –" She swallowed, then confessed. "I'm smuggling the parts for a drone out through the window in the ladies' loo."
Lucas managed to keep from chuckling out loud. "Go on."
"I drilled a hole in the wall outside the window and stuck a long thin piece of metal in it, like an antenna. Then I put the parts in a plastic bin big and hang them up before I leave. Later, I come back with a remote-controlled helicopter and pick up the bag."
"Ingenious," Lucas said.
"No, it's a bloody pain in the backside!" Olivia exclaimed. "The window only opens about this much. I have to sneak a stepladder into the loo and climb up before I can even get my arm out! Then the helicopter can only carry so much weight, so I can only do a few parts at a time. If I'd thought of using the laser, I could have had an entire drone out by Tuesday evening, and I'd have Owen back by now!"
Lucas didn't want to mention that she could have ended up as dead as Jeremy Owusu by then, too.
Olivia ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm so stupid. I'm supposed to be an engineer, for pete's sake! Solving problems like this is my job!"
"You solved it," Lucas told her. "You just did it differently from Jeremy, that's all. More creatively, if you ask me."
She looked at him in astonishment, and he went on. "Anybody can blast a hole in the side of a building, but hanging a bin bag full of parts out of the loo window and picking it up with a little helicopter, now that's creative."
By the way she smiled, Lucas could tell she wasn't used to getting compliments like that. Perhaps Tarla took her creativity for granted. He smiled back, letting her bask in the moment before finally saying, "Well, now that we know all this, we still have to get back to me flying the drones."
The smile disappeared as though it had never been, and Olivia nodded. "Yeah."
They went back to the workshop where the drone was still hovering, and Lucas slid into the seat in front of the laptop. "Right. Where were we?"
Olivia finished explaining the other directional commands, then watched him fly the drone around the workshop, giving tips, until she was called away by Mr Blaze's PA. Lucas was secretly glad that she wasn't there to see him crash it directly into the window. Fortunately, the glass didn't break, or even crack, and he made sure to keep the drone away from it from then on. Just as he was starting to think that he was getting the hang of the thing, Olivia came back in and said, "The, ah, exterminator has come and gone. No bugs, apparently."
"Oh, good," Lucas said.
"And it's lunchtime."
"Already?" he asked, and looked at his watch. She was right.
As he stretched, Olivia said, "You can use your card to get into the canteen, if you want to eat there, or there are some cafes not too far away. I'll meet you back here when you're ready."
"You don't eat out?" Lucas asked, and Olivia shook her head. "I usually just have a sandwich at my desk."
"Bring it with you," Lucas said. "You can keep me company. Better yet, let me buy you lunch."
Olivia hesitated. "No, thanks all the same. I'll just eat up here, and see you when you get back."
Lucas shrugged acceptance and went out. When he returned, Olivia was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands, but straightened up when he rattled his knuckles against the open door. He couldn't see any tears, but her face looked as though she were close to crying.
"Are you all right?" he asked, coming in.
"I don't think I can do this," she whispered.
"You can do it," Lucas said. "You'll be fine."
"I have to do it," she said. "I know I have to, for Owen. But I'm scared."
Lucas laid a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be all right. I'll be here with you."
"No, that's the part I'm scared about. I'm an engineer, not an actress. I'll say something wrong and they'll be listening, they'll know it's all an act!"
"Then don't say anything," Lucas told her.
"Well, that won't sound right, either!"
"We don't have to be best friends," Lucas said. "In fact, maybe you and your brother are barely on speaking terms. You can ignore me as much as possible, and if you do say something, it could be just plain, 'Scott, I'm not talking to you.' Try it."
Olivia gave him a strange look, and Lucas repeated the phrase. "Go on, just say it once."
"Scott, I'm not talking to you," she said, then grimaced. "That didn't sound right. Anyway, why would I let my brother in the house if I weren't talking to him?"
"Because he put his foot in the door?" Lucas suggested. "Leave that part to me. Listen, Olivia. We've got to get back to work now, but think about it. 'Scott, I'm not talking to you.' Say it in your mind a few times before you go home, say it a few times this evening when I'm there, and everything will be fine."
Olivia hesitated for a long time, but finally nodded.
"Back to work?" Lucas suggested.
"Right," Olivia said, but needed another moment before she could continue. "Well. You really should learn how to control the drone outside, and practice firing the laser. I'll have to ask Mr Blaze to open the door to the roof. That's where we do the outside tests."
Always mindful of who needed to know what, Lucas slid his card out of his shirt pocket. "Let's try this first before we ask."
They gathered up the equipment from the workshop and went to the door that led to the roof. Just as Lucas was about to try his card, George Kumar came out of the nearby lift.
"The jig is up!" he called in his soft Indian accent. "I have caught you trying to smuggle a drone out of the building! Give yourselves up or I will attack you with my paper clip!"
Lucas laughed, and after a moment, Olivia's expression of horror and guilt changed to one of forced amusement.
"Very funny, George," she said, annoyance audible in her voice.
"Ms Stephens is kindly helping us with our enquiries," Lucas stated.
"Oh, dear, I don't like the sound of that." In a stage whisper, George said, "Would you like me to bust you out, Olivia? I'll distract him while you make a run for it – now what shall I use?"
Olivia rolled her eyes as George made a show of patting his pockets. "Let's see. Pen. Glasses. Keys. Card. No paper clips. Wait. I'll run to my office and get a piece of paper."
"A piece of paper?" Olivia asked, and George continued with his stage whisper. "I'll slit his throat with it. Don't you know, there really is nothing more distracting than a paper cut?"
He winked at her and walked off. Wondering if George's humour was a cover-up for something more sinister, Lucas asked, "Is he always like that?"
"Mostly," she said. "The worse a situation gets, the more he goes for the gallows humour."
She waited until George had disappeared down the corridor before adding, "I don't know why this situation should be stressful for him, though. His son hasn't been kidnapped -- he hasn't even got kids!"
Having discovered in his early morning briefing that George was juggling two lovers and managing, so far, to keep them distinctly separate from each other, Lucas privately thought George's life must in fact be incredibly stressful. He was reminded of a joke that Aleksander Dmitrovich had once told him. "What's the Russian punishment for polygamy? You're married to two women!" But instead of telling that to Olivia, Lucas simply suggested, "Perhaps he was good friends with Jeremy?"
"Not more than I was," Olivia replied. "And he isn't on the verge of treason, either, like I am. Or will be, if this doesn't work. Are you sure your card is authorized for this?"
Lucas tried, and when the reader flashed green, he turned the handle of the door. Olivia said, "Wow. Mr Blaze must really trust you."
"Either that, or my boss has leaned on him for cooperation."
Once they'd gone up the stairs and through the door to the outside, Olivia moved without hesitating to a plastic table not far away that had obviously been set up for testing purposes. There were chairs, too, folded against the side of the stairwell, and Lucas set up two of them.
"Well," Olivia said, taking one of the chairs for herself. "See if you can fly the drone to your car and back."
Lucas set the drone in motion and flew it in the direction of the car park, using both screens on the laptop to orient himself. It took a bit of getting used to, after the confines of the workshop, but eventually, he figured it out. When aimed correctly, the camera showed him the licence plates of each vehicle, and eventually, he found the Mercedes that he'd checked out from MI-5's motor pool that morning.
"Good," Olivia said. "Now, bring it back to the roof."
As Lucas did so, the camera caught sight of a person walking through the rows of vehicles. The woman was waving, and Olivia explained, "Everybody does that when they see we're testing. It's part of the reason why we make these things look like toys, so they can't know it's the real thing. Can you wave back? Make the drone bob up and down a bit?"
Lucas managed to make it wobble somewhat, and the woman stopped waving and went on. After several more test runs, Olivia said, "Good work. You're learning fast, Now bring it in. I'll install the laser, and we'll give you some target practice."
After Lucas had landed the drone on the table, Olivia took it apart, installed the laser, then snapped everything back together.
"That's handy," Lucas said, "the way you can just open it up and put it back together again."
"Yes," Olivia said. "You can learn a lot from Lego. Now, the targets are down on the ground, in a special garden on that side of the building."
She pointed to the east. "It's actually one of those big chessboards made out of cement, with human sized figures, but we usually just shoot at the black squares."
Lucas guided the drone over the side of the building and immediately identified the chessboard on the screen. "Looks like somebody's already using it."
There were figures set up to show a game that was already well underway, but when Lucas used the camera to scan the area, he couldn't see anybody standing on the sidelines.
"Wait a minute, get closer to the white queen," Olivia said. "Right on top of it, if you can. There's something there."
Lucas moved the drone. Balanced on top of the plastic crown was a large piece of cardboard with a message written on it in heavy black letters.
"'Shoot me,'" he read out loud.
"George," Olivia announced, leaning back in her chair and shaking her head. "I should fly the drone to his window and zap his cactus, just for that. Well, um, Scott, you'll just have to use the spaces that are available, because I don't want the replacement costs for those things coming out of my salary."
"I'll put it on my expense account if I have to," Lucas lied. He didn't have an expense account, but he did know that Olivia used most of her salary to pay for Owen's school fees, carefully doling out the rest to meet the requirements of daily life. And if it would soothe Olivia's nerves even somewhat, he was willing to take responsibility for any damages.
It was easy enough to see why that particular prototype was still in the testing stages, as the targeting mechanism didn't work very well. After blasting several of the white squares and even one of the figures, Lucas figured out how to compensate for the misinformation, and was soon hitting his target with an accuracy rate of about ninety percent.
"You're really good," Olivia murmured.
"I've had weapons training," he said. "This is similar, except for pulling the trigger."
"Oh."
"Right," Lucas said. "Shall we try a long-range test now?"
He thought briefly about flying it to Thames House, but knew it wouldn't be a good idea. Nor could he direct it towards his own flat. In the end, Olivia pointed the drone in the direction of her home, and Lucas watched as the rooftops and trees sped by on the right-hand screen. At last, the left-hand screen showed the correct street.
"There are the McCallums, out in their garden," Olivia murmured, watching two people move around behind one of the houses. In the front garden, a small dark blob trotted across the street. "And their cat. Over there is my little jungle. It'd be nice if I could program the laser to mow my lawn."
Lucas laughed at the thought, and flew the drone up the street to Olivia's terraced two-up, two-down. Each house had a small patch of garden both front and back, none of them showed signs of excess money.
"If you can see Lego in the garden, then that's ours," Olivia said, and Lucas guided the drone over the roof and into the correct yard. When it was only six inches off the ground, he cut the power to the thrusters and watched the long, thick grass fill the screen.
"Oh, dear," he said. "The drone's just crashed and we can't get it back."
"You should have told me you were going to do that," Olivia said. "Having the drone is one thing, but I also need the software from the laptop to guide it. I could have copied it onto a memory stick, put it in the drone, and smuggled it out that way."
"Make a copy now and hang it out the loo window," Lucas suggested.
"Very funny. Power it up again and bring it back now, Scott."
"If they're watching you," Lucas said, "they'll notice if you don't go out to-night and use your helicopter to pick up the parts. It's better if you still have something you need to smuggle out."
Olivia spoke through gritted teeth. "Scott, I'm not talking to you."
Part 9
After depositing the flowers on the window sill in her office, Olivia led Lucas to the workshop. She had to use her card to get in, then use it again to open various locked cabinets, from which she produced not only one of the drone prototypes, but also a memory stick that she plugged into a laptop. To Lucas, she said, "This is the guidance software for the prototypes."
She also took a small microprocessor from the same cabinet and inserted it into the drone. Immediately, pictures came up on the laptop's screen, and Olivia motioned for Lucas to sit down in front of it. Leaning over his shoulder, she said, "On the left, you can see where the drone is. On the right, you can see what the drone sees."
Lucas squinted, wrinkling his forehead in confusion, and heard Olivia's amusement as she continued, "Right now it's showing you the tabletop."
She told him how to launch the drone, and he did so. It moved slowly away from the table and hovered in the air about half a meter above the surface.
"We can control the height here," Olivia said, indicating another display, "and the speed here. Because we're inside, of course, we don't want it to go very high or very fast, but once we're outside, we can change the settings."
"And this is the laser setting?" Lucas asked, indicating the rectangle in the lower right hand corner.
"Right, but there's no laser inside this drone," Olivia said. "We usually only add them for special test runs."
"So I can't hit the wrong button by accident and burn a hole through the floor?"
"The carpet, maybe, but I don't think you'd get very far through concrete. You'd be more likely to burn a hole through the window, if you were aiming at – oh!" Olivia said. Her face lit up as though she'd just received the answer to life, the universe, and everything – and it wasn't forty two.
"Oh?" Lucas prompted.
"Jeremy! I think I know how he got the drone out!" Olivia cried. Turning on her heel, she strode towards the door, and Lucas scrambled to follow. They went down the corridor to the Jeremy Owusu's office, and Olivia tried the handle. It was locked, and when she tried her key card, the reader flashed red. "Blast."
"Maybe this one will work," Lucas said, handing over his. Olivia ran it through, and glanced at him with surprised respect when the light turned green and she was able to turn the handle.
"What are we looking for?" he asked as they entered.
"Windows," she said, moving around the desk and peering closely at the glass. There was a jumble of books, binders, plants, and various bits of electronics on the windowsill, and she pulled a few of the objects away. "Hah! Look here!"
There was a distinct line across the glass that went from one side of the window to the other, and Lucas had no doubt that the pile of things had been meant to conceal it.
"He used the laser to cut through the glass!" Olivia exclaimed. "Look, you can just barely see where he's cut right near the edges, and down here at the bottom, too. He could have lifted this entire section away, flown the drone out, to his car or right to his back garden, then put the glass back, and no one would ever know."
"With a touch of superglue to hold it in place," Lucas said, pointing out a tiny blob close to one corner.
Olivia made a frustrated sound. "Why didn't I think of this? I'm so stupid! I could have had it so easy, instead of –"
"Instead of what?" Lucas asked, but Olivia shook her head in embarrassment. "Never mind. Let's get back to what we were doing."
"No," Lucas said. "Tell me. This could be important."
The worried look returned to Olivia's face, and she went to the door, glancing up and down the corridor before shutting it. "Are you really going to make sure I don't lose my job for this."
"Absolutely," Lucas said. "You're helping us catch terrorists. In fact, when this is all over, we'll praise your cooperation and your loyalty to your country, and maybe even suggest that Mr Blaze give you a little bonus for your efforts in helping us."
The part about the bonus made Olivia sigh wistfully, and then she said, "You're going to laugh, but –" She swallowed, then confessed. "I'm smuggling the parts for a drone out through the window in the ladies' loo."
Lucas managed to keep from chuckling out loud. "Go on."
"I drilled a hole in the wall outside the window and stuck a long thin piece of metal in it, like an antenna. Then I put the parts in a plastic bin big and hang them up before I leave. Later, I come back with a remote-controlled helicopter and pick up the bag."
"Ingenious," Lucas said.
"No, it's a bloody pain in the backside!" Olivia exclaimed. "The window only opens about this much. I have to sneak a stepladder into the loo and climb up before I can even get my arm out! Then the helicopter can only carry so much weight, so I can only do a few parts at a time. If I'd thought of using the laser, I could have had an entire drone out by Tuesday evening, and I'd have Owen back by now!"
Lucas didn't want to mention that she could have ended up as dead as Jeremy Owusu by then, too.
Olivia ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm so stupid. I'm supposed to be an engineer, for pete's sake! Solving problems like this is my job!"
"You solved it," Lucas told her. "You just did it differently from Jeremy, that's all. More creatively, if you ask me."
She looked at him in astonishment, and he went on. "Anybody can blast a hole in the side of a building, but hanging a bin bag full of parts out of the loo window and picking it up with a little helicopter, now that's creative."
By the way she smiled, Lucas could tell she wasn't used to getting compliments like that. Perhaps Tarla took her creativity for granted. He smiled back, letting her bask in the moment before finally saying, "Well, now that we know all this, we still have to get back to me flying the drones."
The smile disappeared as though it had never been, and Olivia nodded. "Yeah."
They went back to the workshop where the drone was still hovering, and Lucas slid into the seat in front of the laptop. "Right. Where were we?"
Olivia finished explaining the other directional commands, then watched him fly the drone around the workshop, giving tips, until she was called away by Mr Blaze's PA. Lucas was secretly glad that she wasn't there to see him crash it directly into the window. Fortunately, the glass didn't break, or even crack, and he made sure to keep the drone away from it from then on. Just as he was starting to think that he was getting the hang of the thing, Olivia came back in and said, "The, ah, exterminator has come and gone. No bugs, apparently."
"Oh, good," Lucas said.
"And it's lunchtime."
"Already?" he asked, and looked at his watch. She was right.
As he stretched, Olivia said, "You can use your card to get into the canteen, if you want to eat there, or there are some cafes not too far away. I'll meet you back here when you're ready."
"You don't eat out?" Lucas asked, and Olivia shook her head. "I usually just have a sandwich at my desk."
"Bring it with you," Lucas said. "You can keep me company. Better yet, let me buy you lunch."
Olivia hesitated. "No, thanks all the same. I'll just eat up here, and see you when you get back."
Lucas shrugged acceptance and went out. When he returned, Olivia was sitting at her desk with her head in her hands, but straightened up when he rattled his knuckles against the open door. He couldn't see any tears, but her face looked as though she were close to crying.
"Are you all right?" he asked, coming in.
"I don't think I can do this," she whispered.
"You can do it," Lucas said. "You'll be fine."
"I have to do it," she said. "I know I have to, for Owen. But I'm scared."
Lucas laid a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be all right. I'll be here with you."
"No, that's the part I'm scared about. I'm an engineer, not an actress. I'll say something wrong and they'll be listening, they'll know it's all an act!"
"Then don't say anything," Lucas told her.
"Well, that won't sound right, either!"
"We don't have to be best friends," Lucas said. "In fact, maybe you and your brother are barely on speaking terms. You can ignore me as much as possible, and if you do say something, it could be just plain, 'Scott, I'm not talking to you.' Try it."
Olivia gave him a strange look, and Lucas repeated the phrase. "Go on, just say it once."
"Scott, I'm not talking to you," she said, then grimaced. "That didn't sound right. Anyway, why would I let my brother in the house if I weren't talking to him?"
"Because he put his foot in the door?" Lucas suggested. "Leave that part to me. Listen, Olivia. We've got to get back to work now, but think about it. 'Scott, I'm not talking to you.' Say it in your mind a few times before you go home, say it a few times this evening when I'm there, and everything will be fine."
Olivia hesitated for a long time, but finally nodded.
"Back to work?" Lucas suggested.
"Right," Olivia said, but needed another moment before she could continue. "Well. You really should learn how to control the drone outside, and practice firing the laser. I'll have to ask Mr Blaze to open the door to the roof. That's where we do the outside tests."
Always mindful of who needed to know what, Lucas slid his card out of his shirt pocket. "Let's try this first before we ask."
They gathered up the equipment from the workshop and went to the door that led to the roof. Just as Lucas was about to try his card, George Kumar came out of the nearby lift.
"The jig is up!" he called in his soft Indian accent. "I have caught you trying to smuggle a drone out of the building! Give yourselves up or I will attack you with my paper clip!"
Lucas laughed, and after a moment, Olivia's expression of horror and guilt changed to one of forced amusement.
"Very funny, George," she said, annoyance audible in her voice.
"Ms Stephens is kindly helping us with our enquiries," Lucas stated.
"Oh, dear, I don't like the sound of that." In a stage whisper, George said, "Would you like me to bust you out, Olivia? I'll distract him while you make a run for it – now what shall I use?"
Olivia rolled her eyes as George made a show of patting his pockets. "Let's see. Pen. Glasses. Keys. Card. No paper clips. Wait. I'll run to my office and get a piece of paper."
"A piece of paper?" Olivia asked, and George continued with his stage whisper. "I'll slit his throat with it. Don't you know, there really is nothing more distracting than a paper cut?"
He winked at her and walked off. Wondering if George's humour was a cover-up for something more sinister, Lucas asked, "Is he always like that?"
"Mostly," she said. "The worse a situation gets, the more he goes for the gallows humour."
She waited until George had disappeared down the corridor before adding, "I don't know why this situation should be stressful for him, though. His son hasn't been kidnapped -- he hasn't even got kids!"
Having discovered in his early morning briefing that George was juggling two lovers and managing, so far, to keep them distinctly separate from each other, Lucas privately thought George's life must in fact be incredibly stressful. He was reminded of a joke that Aleksander Dmitrovich had once told him. "What's the Russian punishment for polygamy? You're married to two women!" But instead of telling that to Olivia, Lucas simply suggested, "Perhaps he was good friends with Jeremy?"
"Not more than I was," Olivia replied. "And he isn't on the verge of treason, either, like I am. Or will be, if this doesn't work. Are you sure your card is authorized for this?"
Lucas tried, and when the reader flashed green, he turned the handle of the door. Olivia said, "Wow. Mr Blaze must really trust you."
"Either that, or my boss has leaned on him for cooperation."
Once they'd gone up the stairs and through the door to the outside, Olivia moved without hesitating to a plastic table not far away that had obviously been set up for testing purposes. There were chairs, too, folded against the side of the stairwell, and Lucas set up two of them.
"Well," Olivia said, taking one of the chairs for herself. "See if you can fly the drone to your car and back."
Lucas set the drone in motion and flew it in the direction of the car park, using both screens on the laptop to orient himself. It took a bit of getting used to, after the confines of the workshop, but eventually, he figured it out. When aimed correctly, the camera showed him the licence plates of each vehicle, and eventually, he found the Mercedes that he'd checked out from MI-5's motor pool that morning.
"Good," Olivia said. "Now, bring it back to the roof."
As Lucas did so, the camera caught sight of a person walking through the rows of vehicles. The woman was waving, and Olivia explained, "Everybody does that when they see we're testing. It's part of the reason why we make these things look like toys, so they can't know it's the real thing. Can you wave back? Make the drone bob up and down a bit?"
Lucas managed to make it wobble somewhat, and the woman stopped waving and went on. After several more test runs, Olivia said, "Good work. You're learning fast, Now bring it in. I'll install the laser, and we'll give you some target practice."
After Lucas had landed the drone on the table, Olivia took it apart, installed the laser, then snapped everything back together.
"That's handy," Lucas said, "the way you can just open it up and put it back together again."
"Yes," Olivia said. "You can learn a lot from Lego. Now, the targets are down on the ground, in a special garden on that side of the building."
She pointed to the east. "It's actually one of those big chessboards made out of cement, with human sized figures, but we usually just shoot at the black squares."
Lucas guided the drone over the side of the building and immediately identified the chessboard on the screen. "Looks like somebody's already using it."
There were figures set up to show a game that was already well underway, but when Lucas used the camera to scan the area, he couldn't see anybody standing on the sidelines.
"Wait a minute, get closer to the white queen," Olivia said. "Right on top of it, if you can. There's something there."
Lucas moved the drone. Balanced on top of the plastic crown was a large piece of cardboard with a message written on it in heavy black letters.
"'Shoot me,'" he read out loud.
"George," Olivia announced, leaning back in her chair and shaking her head. "I should fly the drone to his window and zap his cactus, just for that. Well, um, Scott, you'll just have to use the spaces that are available, because I don't want the replacement costs for those things coming out of my salary."
"I'll put it on my expense account if I have to," Lucas lied. He didn't have an expense account, but he did know that Olivia used most of her salary to pay for Owen's school fees, carefully doling out the rest to meet the requirements of daily life. And if it would soothe Olivia's nerves even somewhat, he was willing to take responsibility for any damages.
It was easy enough to see why that particular prototype was still in the testing stages, as the targeting mechanism didn't work very well. After blasting several of the white squares and even one of the figures, Lucas figured out how to compensate for the misinformation, and was soon hitting his target with an accuracy rate of about ninety percent.
"You're really good," Olivia murmured.
"I've had weapons training," he said. "This is similar, except for pulling the trigger."
"Oh."
"Right," Lucas said. "Shall we try a long-range test now?"
He thought briefly about flying it to Thames House, but knew it wouldn't be a good idea. Nor could he direct it towards his own flat. In the end, Olivia pointed the drone in the direction of her home, and Lucas watched as the rooftops and trees sped by on the right-hand screen. At last, the left-hand screen showed the correct street.
"There are the McCallums, out in their garden," Olivia murmured, watching two people move around behind one of the houses. In the front garden, a small dark blob trotted across the street. "And their cat. Over there is my little jungle. It'd be nice if I could program the laser to mow my lawn."
Lucas laughed at the thought, and flew the drone up the street to Olivia's terraced two-up, two-down. Each house had a small patch of garden both front and back, none of them showed signs of excess money.
"If you can see Lego in the garden, then that's ours," Olivia said, and Lucas guided the drone over the roof and into the correct yard. When it was only six inches off the ground, he cut the power to the thrusters and watched the long, thick grass fill the screen.
"Oh, dear," he said. "The drone's just crashed and we can't get it back."
"You should have told me you were going to do that," Olivia said. "Having the drone is one thing, but I also need the software from the laptop to guide it. I could have copied it onto a memory stick, put it in the drone, and smuggled it out that way."
"Make a copy now and hang it out the loo window," Lucas suggested.
"Very funny. Power it up again and bring it back now, Scott."
"If they're watching you," Lucas said, "they'll notice if you don't go out to-night and use your helicopter to pick up the parts. It's better if you still have something you need to smuggle out."
Olivia spoke through gritted teeth. "Scott, I'm not talking to you."
Part 9