* * *
It was late in the day as Hunter maintained his heading. They were already in California airspace and without really thinking about it, he had settled into a familiar habit, similar to a carrier pigeon heading home to roost.
They had easily left the approaching storm far behind. Clear skies and waning sunlight welcomed them back to his old stomping grounds, southern California.
“So where are we headed?” Jim asked.
Hunter shrugged and gestured forward. Back to L.A., I guess. It’s all I know to do, unless you have a better idea.” He glanced at Jim. “You’re right about me. I am predictable.”
“It’s okay, Hunter. Most of us are. Changing old habits isn’t easy.” Jim looked out his window. “Hard to believe sometimes, how quickly we can travel from one point to another these days.”
“Yeah. Especially in one of these jets,” Hunter said. “And you’re right about old habits. We get so comfortable in our routines. Our internal auto-pilots kick in far too easily.”
“Your mind has been busy thinking about a lot of other stuff too, you know. Auto-pilot, as you put it, is just about all that keeps us going sometimes,” Jim said grinned. “It’s what gets us through the day.”
Hunter chuckled. “Which is probably why we’re this far south.”
“How’s our fuel?”
“We have plenty. It was nearly full when we took off.”
Jim glanced back at their passengers. “That would have made for quite a fiery display if those guys had managed to complete their mission.”
“Yeah.” Hunter replied. “It would have.”
Both men were convinced Daniel’s business-as-usual philosophy, regarding collateral damage, meant blowing up the plane with all of them in it.
Hector, John, and Charlie came forward and crowded around the cockpit.
“So where are we?” John asked.
“California. Almost back to L.A.”
“You have a plan in mind?” he asked.
“A plan? Not really. You tell me,” Hunter said. “I’m just flying this thing.
“We need to get in touch with Ham,” Hector said. “We’ll have to tap into a radio frequency.”
“I think I know another way,” Charlie said. “Daniel bought a special electronic router system not too long ago. He had it installed on all his aircraft including his two jets and all three of those helicopters out there, wherever they are. The router allows someone to use a mobile phone in flight without interfering with the other radio frequencies used by pilots and air traffic controllers. It lets you call or text someone.”
Hunter nodded. “I read about that a year or so ago. I never gave it much thought since I didn’t really have a need for it.”
“Well that’s a little tidbit Brian recently discovered about Daniel’s rigs.”
“Brian.” Hunter looked at him in disgust.
“I know what you’re thinking, and I can explain what happened at your uncle’s place, but right now we need to make a call.”
“To Drew.”
“Yes, or at least text him.” Charlie grabbed his phone from its clip and sent a quick message.
In short order, Charlie’s phone buzzed with a reply. “It’s him!” He read a quick text then said, “He says, ‘copy’ then ‘location’.”
“I’ll tell him where we are,” Charlie said, and sent another text.
Another response. “Stay away from LA,” Charlie read aloud.
Hunter frowned. “I wonder why?”
“Don’t know but adjust your course and head away from here,” Hector said. “He wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t important.”
“Okay,” Hunter replied, “but where to?”
John tapped Jim on the shoulder. “Pull up a navigation map and let’s take a look.”
Hunter, in the meantime veered to the east just as they were approaching the northern reaches of the Los Angeles metropolitan area.
Charlie sent another message.
Another response. “They are in pursuit of one of the other helicopters.” His eyebrows shot up. “I wonder which one? I’ll ask.” He sent another message.
Hector scribbled something on a piece of paper and handed it to Hunter. Let’s also monitor that radio frequency,” he said. “It’s how we’ve been communicating with each other in critical situations and anonymously. We use Morse and an identification code Ham came up with.”
Hunter took a look and showed it to Jim.
“You think you can you handle that?” Hector asked.
“It’s been a while,” Hunter replied.
“I can help,” Jim said and set the frequency using the standby radio display. “So just wait and listen?”
“Yeah. Just in case.”
Charlie held his phone in anticipation of another response, but nothing was coming through.
“Let’s see if anyone is monitoring the radio frequency,” Hector said. “Send four letters. Mike-India-Bravo-Golf.”
Jim gave him a strange look but tapped it out.
“M-I-B-G? What the hell does that mean?” Hunter asked.
John, Hector, and Charlie all laughed.
“If refers to Men in Black,” Charlie said.
Hunter gave him a curious look.
“One of his favorite movies, believe it or not.”
Hunter shook his head in disgust. “And he doesn’t like any of my movies?”
The men laughed again.
“So which movie should he have used instead?” Jim asked.
“Oh, I don’t know. Never mind.”
“My guess, Hunter, is he didn’t want to say or do anything that would refer to you or implicate you in any way. So don’t be too offended,” Charlie said.
“Yeah,” Hector agreed. “And the letter G is for Garcia.”
Hunter and Jim exchanged looks.
“It’s how we identify ourselves,” he said as they waited for a response.
Jim frowned. “Maybe my Morse is rustier than I thought.”
“No. I watched you,” John replied. “You got it right.”
“You want me to try again?”
“Let’s wait a couple more minutes.”
Hunter chuckled. “So, Men in Black... does that have some significance?”
“Not really,” Hector said. “Ham just liked the movie, that’s all.”
Jim was about to tap it out one more time, when a response came. He frowned. “Break off communication? Is that what he said?”
“That’s what it sounded like to me.” Hunter replied.
“That’s not good,” Hector said. “They must be in trouble.”
“They?” Hunter asked. “Oh. Don’t tell me. Brian.”
“Uh... yeah.”
“I don’t trust that kid. He disappeared mysteriously while we were at Uncle Joes! So how’d he end up with Drew?”
“He was part of the ground team. He came with me,” Charlie said. “But before you get all excited, let me explain.”
Hector and John decided to step back so Charlie could get in closer to talk to Hunter. “Okay, the day you all bugged out of your uncle’s place, he was out doing his job. Looking around. Making sure you hadn’t been followed.”
Hunter interrupted. “Yeah, well we found his bloodied shirt and that fancy vest out back in Joe’s trash can.”
“I know, he... well he borrowed one of your Uncle’s shirts... but he’ll give it back.”
“Uh-huh,” Hunter said.
“Well anyway, he heard your planes revving up and hurried to get back to the airstrip. He got there just in time to see you take off and noticed your uncle’s plane was gone too. So he was stranded and I had to go pick him up.”
“You did.”
“Yes.”
“Well, why didn’t he just say he was going out to look around? Nobody knew where he went. And how did he contact you?”
“By phone. That’s what most people
use.”
“Very funny,” Hunter said, “but we all disabled our phones.”
Charlie grinned. “Yeah, well he used your Uncle’s home phone. Anyway, it’s all good. He’s not mad. He just wondered what spooked you.”
“He did! He took off and didn’t tell anyone where he was going. We found his bloody clothes in the trash and decided to get the hell out of there! I’m mean, what do you expect? Especially after everything we’d been through up to that point.”
“I get it. I get it. I told him he should have said something to you. He’s still learning the ropes.”
“The ropes.”
“Yes. He started working for us about a year ago after Ham met him at the compound in southern California. He’s one of our C.I.s.”
“Like Janet,” Hunter said. “I wish I knew what happened to her.”
“So do we,” John said.
Hunter looked at his companions. “Yeah, well I am so fed up with all this clandestine stuff and C.I.s and secret codes and... all of it!”
Charlie nodded. “I know. I’m really sorry you got pulled into this whole mess. We’ve all been trying to watch out for you.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry too, but... thanks for whatever you’ve all been doing... I guess.”
“Okay,” Charlie continued, “so back to Brian... when everything started coming down today, I told him to head for a pre-arranged rendezvous point while I stayed to help Ham and the rest of you.”
“What rendezvous point?”
“It’s a small clearing about a mile south of the cabin... or what’s left of the cabin.”
“How’d he get there and how would Drew know when and where to pick him up? Telepathy?”
“I used a satellite phone and contacted Ham.”
“You still have it. We could use one of those, don’t you think?”
“Why? When we have all this,” Charlie pointed to the cockpit display.”
“Yeah, well. Before we had this, we could have used one... maybe.”
Jim held up one hand. “Can we decide where we need to go and just fly this plane?”
“Yeah, but where to?” Hunter asked. “Anybody have any bright ideas?”
John looked at Hector. “It sounds like Ham must be in trouble.”
“I agree,” Hector said. “So I vote we find out where he is and figure out how to help.
“Okay,” Hunter said, “but I don’t know what good we’ll be to anyone flying around in this rig. It’s not like we can maneuver it as tightly as a chopper and we’re definitely not armed so aerial combat is out of the question.”
“We’ll think of something,” Hector said.
“Okay, but I’m going to keep flying east until you do.”