Chapter 21
Any landing you can walk away from…
We passed through the canal today. The look on the channel gate operator’s face was beyond comical when Melissa came leaping onto the top deck riding a two hundred and twenty pound tiger yelling at the top of her lounges “fasser, fasser!”
The channel operator lost focus for so long I thought they were going to dry dock us right there in the canal. I waved up to them to look at the water level and caught their attention just in time. I sure didn’t want this boat coming out of my allowance check, no matter how overpaid I was.
Once we were out of the canal I felt safer back in open water. No one should see us coming by water, but I still wasn’t about to let my guard down.
“Wilson, come lay out with me.” Meea called sporting a new slightly smaller tighter bikini, I could tell it was smaller from the tan lines showing from her suit yesterday. Maybe there were a few hours to let my guard down a little.
“Be right there!”
“Wilson, the Captain said we’ll be outside of Presidio in two hours.” Steve called out as he came up the stairs with Melissa in tow. “She’s making me tell her story after story.” Steven whispered, questioning if this was okay to keep feeding her stories.
“It’s okay Steven, as long as you have more children’s stories. I’m sure her little butt needs a rest from bouncing around on that tiger. Meea laughed out loud as she rolled over waving to Melissa. Meea splashed a generous portion of tanning oil onto her stomach and then stretched out again lying on her back. The sun was still almost straight overhead even though it was now way pass noon. It felt good laying up here in the warm sun allowing it to bake into our bones. The heat melted away all the tension like a well-trained masseuse.
“I need to call for the helicopter for this evening. Do you need anything while I’m on the bridge, Meea?”
“Grab me a soda please, and see if you can find Stacy and Marty. They’re at the disappearing thing again. I know there up to something, but Stacy’s not saying a word about it. I know she knows it’s driving me nuts too.” Meea rambled.
“Well, I’m not too sure they want to be caught at what there up to, if you know what I mean?”
“Oh?”
I left Meea to ponder that while I went below.
Kobe was sitting in the bridge watching the captain eating a sandwich. This can’t be good. Maybe Kobe is picturing the captain between two pieces of whole-wheat toast. I know Meea told Kobe the group members were off limits but I wasn’t too sure that restriction covered Captain Crunch over there.
I used the ship to shore phone and had a large chopper scheduled to pick us all up this evening. I went below to find Marty and Tony. They were manning the monitors and satellite equipment.
“What’s the good word men?” I asked.
“We’ll bet good money our boy’s are in that hut the girls picked out. There are deliveries of food taken in there twice a day by two armed men. They take in food and water and then leave within minutes of entering and no one else has been in or out.” Marty said patting Tony on the back. “Tony, tell Wilson what else you did.”
Tony slid over and typed some commands out on one of the surveillance computers. “Last night when I knew the air would be much cooler I tapped into a NASA satellite that has infra red imaging and took a picture of the hut, here take a look.”
“Wow, Uncle Sam has some high tech. toys. You can actually tell these people have their hands tied behind their backs, and that three of them are female. That’s our group for sure. The government lets you move satellites around like that?” I asked.
“Been doing it since I was thirteen, and who said I asked permission.” Tony chuckled.
“Permission or not, good job. Contact Ishmail and get him to tie into this so he can have someone monitor this 24-7. We need to make sure they aren’t moved. Then get some rest because in a few hours we drop off the girls and head over to the bridge to set up the Gatling guns. Did you have a chance to hack into the bridge’s upper and lower cameras?”
“Yeah, I did that early this morning, I set up a program that also tracks for particular size vehicles. So if a van with the dimensions I programmed in approach the front or back of the bridge, it sends a signal through this earpiece. That way I don’t have to watch the monitor all the time. So far it’s gone off three times for a pet supply delivery van that is the same dimensions as what we’re looking for.”
“That’s great work, Tony.” I turned when I heard the buggy speeding up to us.
“Where you off to hot-rod?” Stacy looked very pleased with herself today. She looked right at Marty and blew him a kiss as she answered me.
“Top deck to sun with Meea.”
“Hey, that reminds me, give her this soda and tell her were going to need another tuna for Kobe before we take off tonight.” She spun back grabbed the soda from my hand still beaming like it was her wedding day or something.
“What’s up with her she seems to be in an exceptionally great mood this afternoon?”
Marty puffed up his chest and put a cheesy look on his face, “Well, ya know…”
“Oh shut up… I don’t even want to hear it,” I said.
Tony snickered out loud as Marty took a halfhearted swing at his head.
“At least I got a girl friend.” Marty teased.
“I’m married to the sea.” Tony said holding his hands to his heart.
“I gotta get you guys back on dry land before you both crack up.”
The chopper arrived right on time as we went over the plan for tonight one last time. We loaded up the guns and still had just enough room to squeeze in Stacy’s buggy. As we all strapped ourselves in, I thought the ride back would be much easier, because when we go back to pick up the girls we wouldn’t have these big Gatling guns to work around.
“This is my first time on a helicopter.” Meea said, with a little tension in her voice.
I reached over and held her hand. “My first time too, but it’ll be fine.” I tried to reassure her of something I had no confidence in myself. Stacy could probably feel exactly how nervous we were, but she still looked very much at ease.
“Is this your first time, Stacy?” I asked, curious how she was so calm since everyone but Marty looked on edge.
“I’m fine. Marty knows more about this than the rest of us so if he’s not scared… I trust him.”
Marty looked at her with loving assurance, and then closed his eyes to take a nap. If you could sleep now it was a good plan, since we were squeezed in this thing like sardines.
The engine roared up at twice the volume now and I could feel the lifting sensation. As soon as the tires were up in the air the shaking on the frame and seats eased up a lot but the noise and the effort the helicopter engine was under felt maxed out…I was wrong again. The engine was given more gas and screamed up to new decibel levels I would have thought impossible. I squeezed Meea’s hand way too tight for it to be mistaken as a reassuring gesture now.
Shit… I was seriously considering other options for us at this point, like speedboats or canoes.
Once the helicopter actually started moving forward it help by taking the noise of the engine and blades away from us. It made it a little easier to believe we wouldn’t be falling to an immediate death.
Other than all these fun little issues the ride was great, if you like roller coasters at night. After about ten minutes, or an eternity, depending on whom you asked, we finally were over land. Within a short time we arrived at the empty lot we had chosen that was only a few blocks from the car dealership that had sold the vans. At touch down we all quickly piled out and got Stacy’s buggy on the ground. We said our good lucks and good-bye’s, and were back in the air within minutes. We didn’t want to attract any more attention than necessary on the ground.
The chopper ride to the bridge was a short one, thank god! It was pitch dark when we got there, which would make the climb up the underside of the br
idge a bit tough.
We first climbed up the support columns and set up a pulley system so we could lift the heavy guns and ammo up. The first two guns took us about and hour to get hung and loaded. We then flew to the other end of the bridge to hang the last two guns. We were making a little better time hanging the last two guns. Practice makes perfect I guess. Marty and I did most of the hanging work though while Tony set up the visual aiming systems for the guns.
Marty and I finished first so we slid down to the ground under the bridge and started gathering up all our ropes and pulleys. We packed them back into our duffle bags as quickly as possible.
I motioned for the pilot of the chopper to get it started when we were about ready. No more did the engine start up and the blades begin to slowly turn when a gunshot sounded. Just one single shot, I hit the ground flat and looked over to Marty. He was lying flat by the bag he had just packed.
“You ok?” I called out just loud enough for Marty to hear me.
“I’m good, they got the pilot.” He said pointing over to the chopper. There was a single half-inch hole in the front windshield with spider cracks trailing out from it.
I looked up to find Tony. He had heard the shot and was frozen up in the support beams looking down at me signaling he was OK. I signaled back for him to stay put.
“Marty, where did the shot come from?”
“Had to be from on top of the bridge somewhere, look at the angle in the windshield.”
“Marty, I hate to ask, but… can you fly that thing?”
Marty thought for just a second before answering. “I can get us in the air probably, and probably, back down…probably.”
“I’m betting the shooter can’t see us since were under the bridge.” I stood up making and easy target, if Marty and I were wrong, and the shot came from another location, man, I didn’t want to think about it. No shot sounded. “Guess we were right.”
“Are you nuts? Why did you stand up like that?”
“Somebody had to. We can’t wait for the back up the shooter may be calling.”
If the shooter were on the bridge he would only be able to see us when we got close to the chopper, out in the open away from the blind spot under the bridge. Since I was still standing after thirty seconds it looked like we were safe for a few minutes.
I motioned for Tony to come down. The chopper was now running at full idle and the blades were spinning at a pretty good clip.
“So what’s the plan?” Tony asked folding up his decent rope. Marty looked as if he was waiting for direction too.
“Marty, I need you to use your kinetic reach to lift and throw as much sand into the air under the chopper as you can. The blades of the chopper should do the rest. If you can get enough sand up where the turbulence hits it, the chopper should help by creating our own personal sand storm…and that should give us enough cover to get to the chopper. Tony and I will carry all the bags, and you just work on making the biggest sand storm possible. Once were in the chopper its up to you Marty.”
“Well, as long as that’s all you want.” Marty didn’t look too happy with the responsibility of flying. He basically only had a few classroom sessions under his belt. But I was pretty sure if anyone could pull this off, it would be Marty.
“Do you want me to activate the guns we set up, Wilson?” Tony asked wanting to help in any way he could.
“No, we need them undiscovered to use later, I just hope whoever is up there shooting didn’t see us putting them up.”
“Marty can you do this, are we good?”
“Yeah, I got this. Just give me a minute to get enough sand in the air.”
Just seconds later the sand filled the sky with a huge dust cloud, it worked even better than I could have imagined. Sand rose hundreds of feet in the air like fifty Tasmanian devil’s were throwing a party.
Marty yelled. “Go, let’s go!” We all took off running, Marty still flinging sand up into the blades as we ran. Tony and I tossed our equipment into the chopper and quickly pulled the dead pilots body from the pilot’s chair and got him secured in back.
“Come on Marty. Get us the hell outta here!” Tony yelled.
“Hold on to something this might be ugly.” Marty, laughed. “Remember, you ask for this, Wilson.” I hated the first ride with the experienced pilot, so I had know doubt I would hate this a thousand times more.
“Just get us up and moving before that shooter decides to open up on the chopper!” I yelled out over the engines roar.
The engine revved up roaring with power, causing the chopper to leap upward. That was the good news. The bad news was, we were now above the sand storm we had created, and a target once again for the shooter.
Two more shots rang out over the engine noise… two bullets pierced the front windshield but not making contact with anyone or anything critical. Marty got the chopper tilted and moving forward quickly over the ocean… It only took a minute to be long out of range from the sniper.
“Give me a minute to get familiar with these controls.” Marty shouted back to us as the chopper leveled out but maintained its forward motion. The Chopper then rose and fell, turned right then banked left.
“Ok, I got this.” Marty said with a pretty confident reassuring tone. And it did seem that Marty was now in control, as the chopper turned and headed back toward land.
“Defiantly memory making, Marty, you kick butt man.” Tony shouted out, looking a little pale.
The adrenaline was racing through my veins as the water speed by under the chopper at an incredible pace. “Can you get us back to pick up the girls, Marty? And yeah its official, I HATE TO FLY!”
“I second that.” Tony said as his dinner went hurling out the side of the open chopper.
“You guys are going to give me a complex or something.” Marty laughed.
We found the empty lot where we had dropped the girls off and they were already back waiting on us. As the chopper slowly lowered the girls saw Marty in the pilot seat and the bullet holes in the windshield.
“Wilson!” Meea called out.
The girls were anxious to get to the chopper to see that we were okay, coming in much to close while Marty was landing. “We’re OK… stand back… way back!”
“Marty!” Stacy called, zooming up to the chopper the second it touched down. I bent down and lifted her out of her buggy setting her in Marty’s lap. She looked at the bullet holes and back to the dead body of the pilot. She squeezed her arms around Marty as tight as she could and started to cry.
“I’m ok, Stacy… really… it’s alright.” Marty said drying her eyes with his shirtsleeve.
“Every time I’m not with you, someone starts shooting at you!”
“Yeah, but they’re all really bad shots.”
“It’s not funny,” she pounded his chest with her tiny fist. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“It won’t… well, it probably won’t… as long as I don’t kill us landing on the yacht.”
“How did you fly this thing?” Stacy was wiping the tears from her cheeks again trying to get her tough composure back.
“I took a crash course.” Marty laughed again.
“Please don’t say crash…” Meea said, looking white as a ghost. Tony and I got the buggy tied down and everyone buckled in as quickly as we could. I told Tony and Marty I did not want to be on the ground too long in case we were being tracked.
“Ok Marty. Let her rip.” I called out. Marty lifted Stacy off his lap and sat her in the co-pilot chair. She noticed the two bullet holes that had hit the chair and gave Marty a questioning look.
“See how bad of a shot they are… they missed me by three feet.” Tears welled up in Stacy’s eyes again.
Crunch!! Tony slid out the left side of the chopper, the side that was tilted up at a thirty-degree angle due to the right landing gear hanging off the ships deck out over the ocean.
“Nice landing.” Tony called out.
“I couldn’t hel
p it. There was a wind shear I’m telling you.” Marty countered
“No, I meant it, good landing… hell I never really thought you would come close to landing on this boat.” Tony said as the rest of us laughed.
“Yeah, yeah… well if you can do better.” Marty said while straining to lift out the buggy from the chopper.
“Let me help you, Marty” I said after handing Stacy down to Meea on the ship deck.
“Marty… Tony was being serious… he did think you did a great job, he wasn’t being sarcastic.” Stacy said.
There was never any lying with Stacy around.
“Oh... Sorry. I just feel bad about messing up the chopper.”
“We can rig up something to get it back up on deck tomorrow, Marty, don’t sweat it. Without you today, we would’ve never made it away from the bridge alive.” Oops… I was sorry I said that out loud with the girls within earshot. I knew it was a mistake as soon as the words came out of my mouth.
“Did you get the shooter” Rachel asked as she was still looking at the landing gear wheel that Marty sat down on the side of the yacht.
“No, he was not as important as getting over to pick you guys up. We had no way to know if you were in danger of an ambush too.”
“It would’ve still been nice to get him” she shrugged as the ship’s captain and first mate pulled the dead pilots body from the chopper.
“Where is Melissa?” I asked.
The chef answered. “Steven put her to bed a couple hours ago with a story about Hansel and Gretel, they were two little kids that…
Meea cut him off… “And where is the tiger?”
“Same place… Melissa and that tiger are pretty much inseparable now, especially with you and Wilson not here.”
“I’ll go check on them and then meet you all in the living room to go over what we found.” Meea said as she kissed me quickly and took off.
“Can you cook up some food and bring down to us please?” I asked the cook
“Yes sir, my pleasure sir. It will be about twenty minutes. I’ll make the breakfast menu.”
Stacy pulled on my shirt. “It’ll take him 35 minutes or more… want to bet?
I turned to Marty, “How do live with this girl?”
“Easy… you just never, ever lie.”
“So no bet?” Stacy said smugly.
“I’ll hang on to my money this time thanks.”