New Guard (CHERUB) - Robert Muchamore Page 0,70

less than ten grams, but has an HD camera,’ James explained. ‘Battery lasts three kilometres in flight, and transmits a picture for up to twelve hours. You just program coordinates, after which it’s totally autonomous apart from the landing. In flight, it looks like an insect. Chances of it being spotted in situ are very slim and the plastic is corn starch, so after a couple of days the structure and rotors dissolve and the remaining components look like plastic scrap from a kid’s toy or something.’

Ryan picked it out of the box.

‘Don’t break it,’ James smirked. ‘That’s twenty-seven thousand pounds’ worth.’

‘Whoa!’ Ryan said, thrusting the device back at James.

‘Two will give us complete video coverage over the well site,’ Tovah said. ‘As long as it doesn’t rain.’

37. SURRENDER

At 13:05, Ryan lay chest-down on stony ground, sixty metres from the oil derrick. Two bearded men stood outside, using a crowbar to open a crate. When the plywood side panel snapped free, a torrent of Styrofoam packing peanuts subsided to reveal the side of a reconditioned Offshore Marine control console. He looked across at James.

‘See the gouge in the side panel?’ Ryan said. ‘I’d swear I saw that exact machine in Uncle’s warehouse five weeks back.’

‘Probably did,’ James agreed, wiping sweat off his brow as Kam Yuen stepped down from the control cabin.

Kam had grown a wispy beard and walked with a slight limp. He spoke to the guys unpacking, as Gordon Sachs stood around the back talking to the electrician. But while the two engineers were running the repair job, a trio of bulky armed guards never let them out of sight.

‘Heavy,’ Ryan noted of Sachs. ‘Ten kilos at least since the last photos we saw.’

But James was distracted, speaking to Tovah through his in-ear com unit. ‘I have both targets in plain sight. Three bodyguards; Ryan and I have clean shots at all of them.’

‘Understood,’ Tovah said. ‘Drone is in position. Lauren and Bruce are in position. Is it a go?’

Ryan looked across as James felt like his chest was being crushed.

‘It’s go,’ James said.

Back at the supermarket, Kyle stood guard while Tovah activated a half-metre-square quadcopter drone, which Lauren had placed on the ground two hundred metres from the well. The rotors spun up and the craft took off for a pre-planned coordinate, thirty metres from the hut. While the direction was pre-programmed, Tovah used a targeting screen with facial recognition capability. It had picked out Sachs, Yuen, the electrician and the three bodyguards.

Tovah used the touchscreen to green-light the three bodyguards’ faces, then pressed T on the keyboard to make them active targets. As soon as the In Range icon flashed up, Tovah pressed the Q and W keys simultaneously.

Out by the well, James instinctively covered head with hands as the drone skimmed overhead. Its final approach was the last thing the bodyguards ever saw, turning their heads as a pair of drone-mounted machine guns blew them apart.

As Sachs, Yuen and the electrician dived for cover, Lauren and Bruce moved from the opposite side of the derrick towards a line of parked vehicles. Bruce shot the driver of the equipment delivery truck through the head as he stood smoking a cigarette. The two Mercedes that Sachs and Yuen had arrived in had armoured glass, which made them more problematic.

As Lauren lobbed a grenade under the equipment truck, Bruce fatally shot the driver of the first Mercedes as he stood by his car making a call. The second car was an ML-class four-wheel drive people carrier. There was a reserve bodyguard asleep on the back seat, but the driver was at the wheel and got the engine running.

The tyres were reinforced, so Bruce targeted the passenger side window, taking chunks out of the bulletproof glass as the driver hit the gas. Bruce was almost through the glass, when he saw the bodyguard open a port in the side window and take a couple of shots back.

‘Shit!’ Bruce shouted, starting to run as the Mercedes roared off and the grenade under the equipment truck exploded.

While Lauren and Bruce dealt with vehicles, James and Ryan approached their targets.

‘Come with me,’ Ryan said. ‘We’ve got bikes to get you out of here.’

James covered the electrician. ‘Wrists together,’ he shouted, as he pulled out a set of plasticuffs. ‘Put these around. We won’t hurt you if you don’t give us shit.’

‘Where’s the boy?’ Ryan asked, referring to a lad of about thirteen who’d been running back and forth helping the electrician.

‘I think