“Marking the target house for reference. You’ll see a distance to target and the distance to our closest point of approach, which will be directly down one of the fairways,” said Gupta, a blue square appearing in the distant left of the gray scale image. “We’ll start with IR to see if we can pick up anyone in the yard or immediate vicinity, then switch to night vision for a detailed look.”
Nobody said a word as the distance rapidly decreased. When the square started to drift left, he knew without looking at the numbers that the drone was nearing its closest point of approach. On cue, the camera panned left to track the target as it passed. Devin knew what he was looking at before Gupta started to explain. This looked like a once-in-an-operative’s-lifetime opportunity.
“I have two hot spots in the backyard. One is definitely the hot tub. Another is the grill,” said Gupta. “Wait. Hold on. I have what looks like two people in the hot tub. Switching to night vision.”
“You might want to close your eyes,” said Devin.
Marnie took her hand off his shoulder. “Seriously?”
When the image shifted back to night vision and zoomed in, Gupta started laughing.
“I think it’s safe to assume the kids aren’t home,” said Marnie. “Unless that’s one of their kids.”
“Can you zoom in any further,” said Berg, “and pull up pictures of Mr. and Mrs. Barber?”
“Are you sure? I’d like to keep my dinner down,” said Gupta.
Graves started typing and clicking, replacing the image on the left with the Barbers, while Gupta zoomed in so close that Devin could barely watch. The action had the figures facing the back of the property, both of their faces fully exposed to the drone’s camera. If either of them had looked about fifteen degrees above the top of the tree line that separated their yard from the fairway, they might have spotted the drone—but they were clearly too caught up in the moment to notice.
“Looks like the Barbers to me,” said Berg. “Definitely William Barber. A little difficult to positively ID Stacy.”
“I say we hit them right now,” said Rich. “It doesn’t matter if that’s Mrs. Barber. Actually, I’d prefer if it wasn’t. We could use that as leverage.”
“Get Alex, Mike, and Rico back here immediately,” said Rich. “We’ll gear up and head over. Devin and Marnie, you’ll drive us to the drop-off point on Crooked Branch Lane, right off One Hundred Sixth Street, and peel off. We’ll let you know when we’re five minutes out from extraction. You’ll pull into the circular driveway right in front of their house for the pickup.”
“Whoa. Whoa. Wait a minute,” said Devin. “I’m going into that house with you.”
“So am I,” said Marnie.
“Not a chance. This is a last-second decision to pile into an unknown situation,” said Rich. “I need a single team thinking and acting as one. Not a split crew that I have to coach along. If this were tomorrow or later tonight, after we talked through the plan a number of times, I wouldn’t hesitate to bring you in with us.”
“We’re grabbing two middle-age, clearly out-of-shape adults who have been going at it in a hot tub,” said Marnie. “We’re not abducting a CrossFit couple.”
“Either we’re in or this is a no go,” said Devin.
“What exactly does that mean?” said Rich.
Berg held a hand up. “He’s right.”
“This time,” said Rich. “The two of you better keep up. Emily and Jared. You’re driving.”
Emily popped up from the foot of the bed and glared at Marnie. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I’ll drive. Anish can hold down the fort here,” said Graves.
“The drone is flying itself,” said Gupta. “See? No more gross middle-age couple in the hot tub scene. It’s already climbing and turning toward its next waypoint. All I’m doing is keeping an eye on the house and neighborhood for you.”
“And the police scanner traffic, and you’re shutting down the home security system,” said Rich.
“He’s got it,” said Graves, clapping Gupta on the shoulder.
Rich shook his head but quickly relented. “Fine. Keep the door open so you can watch the antenna array. We don’t need someone tripping over it and taking our drone off-line.”
“There’s like six cars in the whole parking lot, and three of them are ours,” said Jared, who had stuck his head in the door. “I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”