CHAPTER SIXTEEN—“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE FLYIN’ THAT THING!”

The display HUD started beeping in alarm. They had the recon bot sitting atop Styne Manor, just waiting for Georin’s return.

“There’s our science douche,” Kyle said.

“Then it’s time to make our move,” John said.

They switched seats so Kyle could fly the Corvo Onatta. They kept the car close to the water as Kyle flew the car.

“Stay on course,” John said. “We don’t want to alert the guards.”

“I am.”

“Just make it seem like we accidentally veered off our sky lane.”

“Dude, I am. It’s time for your drop.”

John nodded. “All right,” he said. “See you in a few.”

“Sure thing,” Kyle said, then he hit the doors. They angled up and back simultaneously.

John glanced down at the water. They were descending fast. As soon as Kyle pulled the car’s nose up, he would drop into the water.

“Here we go!” Kyle said.

The car angled upward and John jumped out, landing into the water in a dive. He went deep with the force of his jump and the momentum of the car, but surfaced after a couple moments to see Kyle in the Corvo disappearing into the mist.

Glancing toward the beach, he would only have to swim about three-hundred meters. Not too bad.

He swam.

When he reached the beach he pulled up his sleeve to get a look at his wristlet. He had already deactivated the electronics completely, but decided to double check.

If he turned the device on, the frequency would auto alert the guards in the sensor array building.

With no weapons but a knife and a ballistic pistol with a silencer, John trudged up the beach and into the dunes. On this side of the island, he could hike the terrain until he reached the house.

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Much easier than climbing that cliff, he thought.

The rain was cold, even though it was summertime, but what made it worse was the wind. John’s skin prickled, but with his excitement and adrenalin, it bothered him very little.

Crouching low in the grass, the Styne Manor was just beyond. The sensor array building was located on the south-east edge of the property outside of the wall.

It seemed the wall was just there for aesthetics. The real security systems consisted primarily of the sensor array and the armed guards.

John made his way through the grass and approached the security building. It had a veranda that traveled all the way around. A roofed walkway led to the house.

There were no windows. Obviously whoever had this structure built, wasn’t expecting intruders to land on the island in stealth and physically make their way up to the manor without any tech that could easily show up on their scanners.

If a Special Forces unit wanted to get in there, all they would have to do is EMP the whole manor and go in with a large team of guys and do whatever it was they wanted. In that case, all of the security precautions would be useless anyway.

The only other way was to go in stealthily, which was highly unlikely to be done by anyone who wasn’t part of a Special Forces team.

Luckily this isn’t a military complex.

The security systems were affective against amateurs—people who might be disgruntled with the man personally and wanted to take revenge out on him.

John slipped into the grounds and stalked to the front of the security building like he belonged there. By the time the sensors pinged his movements and put them on the displays, he was opening the front door.

The man in the security booth swiveled his chair in disbelief, revealing his chest for a perfect shot.

John pulled the pistol out of his holster and shot the startled guard twice in the chest.

Way too easy.

The only reason he hadn’t drawn his pistol earlier was because the security displayed an outline of movement to the viewer on the screen. If he had his pistol out, the guard would have immediately drew his weapon and been ready for him.

This way, he could easily be mistaken for another guard or a person who belonged on the grounds.

Now that he was in and the guard was dead, John activated his wristlet. “Kyle, it’s done. You there?”

“Yep.”

“Come on in, but make sure you land the car on the south side. There’s nothing over here.”

“Got it.”

John slid the chair aside. It still contained the slumped body of the dead guard. He got onto their systems and shut down the array altogether.

Then he left the console and made his way to the mainframe. He opened up the compartments with the memory drives and pulled them out.

“What’s all that noise?” Kyle asked.

“I’m destroying the memory drives so there’s no sensor data of our ever being here.”

“Oh, right.”

“Shit,” John said.

“What is it?”

“I don’t have the DisintePlast.”

“It’s fine,” Kyle said. “Just stick the drives in your pack and we’ll destroy them later.”

“Okay,” John said, picking up the drives and putting them into his vest pouches. They were heavy, but no heavier than carrying ballistic ammunition.

“How’s the security inside the house?”

“Not too bad,” John said. “Styne’s got six guys patrolling at even intervals. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“All right,” Kyle said. “I’m landing now.”

“Good. Let’s go nab our guy.”