CHAPTER FIFTEEN—MONSTER’S LAIR

They landed on a bluff of green grass and palm trees overlooking the sea and the beach. Before John and Kyle was a vast expanse of water and grey mist.

The heavy rains pattered heavily atop the Carvo’s transparent roof.

“Why are we landing here?” Kyle asked.

John looked at him. As always, he was their voice of reason—of constraint, and that was what he would be now. “Reconnaissance,” he said.

“Man,” Kyle complained. “Come on, John.”

Activating the military-grade recon bot they had lifted off of one of their last jobs, John turned around and grabbed the controller he had sitting in a bag in the back seat. Not every piece of tech they got from May and her people.

That was important.

If the people May worked for were unwilling to help them, or unable for some reason—gods forbid—it was best to have a measure of independence.

“Think of it as an exciting commercial to a great summer blockbuster.”

Kyle laughed. “Are you serious?”

“Sure.”

“Sometimes I wonder who I’m talking to.”

“What do you mean?” John asked as he flew the bot across the sea. The Isle of Frenn was only a few kilometers off the coast.

“Feel like I’m talking to my dad.”

John glanced at him, feeling slightly indignant, but he said nothing. “Not too much longer now.”

“Did you activate the stealth systems?”

“Not yet,” John said. “In this visibility, not sure I’ll have to.”

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“They might have scanners.”

“Yeah,” he said. “All right, doing it now.” He pushed a series of buttons that brought on-screen drop down menus forward. He activated the stealth system, which would also scramble their sensor data.

In this storm, that would make anything suspicious play in the Anarcho’s favor. And as if to echo his internal sentiments, lightning flashed, then cracked across the sky.

He found the beach and flew the bot forward, but a steep bank of cliffs met the bot and John had to pull up. It was difficult for the recon bot to ascend when gusts of wind made it sink back down, occasionally an updraft pushing it up far too fast.

Another crack of thunder travelled across the sky, but this time there was no flash.

“If that lightning keeps up, we might get in and out of there without being detected,” Kyle said.

“Let’s see what happens,” John said. Then he added, “I see the house.”

On the screen he could see the lights through the mist. The grounds were impressive with gardens, statues and pools. There was a landing pad and a huge sky-car port.

“I bet this douche has a yacht on the other end of the island.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” John said.

“No high walls,” Kyle said.

“Nope. Well getting into the grounds is going to be easy.” He hovered the bot, scanning for guards and security systems. The screen pinged a sensor array. They followed the schematic to an outbuilding.

“So he’s smart after all,” Kyle said.

“I’ll go in and take out the sensors,” John said.

“No way,” Kyle said. “I want to do it. I’m the one with the knife skills.”

The bot had high tech stealth systems that could easily dodge the sensor array, but if John and Kyle went in there with any other form of tech, they would be made.

“You’re too loud,” John said.

“We could just do this the old school way.”

“I’m worried about our footprint.”

“So we’ll use our topo-masks.”

“These guys have a pretty good array of tech. I’d rather be invisible. Don’t you agree?”

Kyle sighed. “Yeah, I guess.”

“Besides,” John said. “If we get into that building, we can get a look at their security setup. In and out without a sound. You said you wanted to have Styne meet his monster, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Then we need him alive without anyone on our tails.”

“All right, all right.”

“We’ll sit tight, wait until he gets home—he’s probably still sitting in some lab Strogaus has somewhere, and then we’ll go in.”

“Piece of cake,” Lexa said cheerfully over their wristlets. Then she appeared in their backseat. Now she was wearing a similar outfit as before, but now it was a dark shade of blue with a white stripe going down the center.

The design of the outfit drew the eye directly between her legs, and even though she was wearing a full leather bodysuit for outside wear, John thought the style probably certainly sold tickets for the Chylaxium cruise liner.

“Yeah,” he said. “Piece of cake.”

Kyle grinned. “Except for the waiting time.”

“You’ll survive,” John said.