Hunter said, “I was at the airport, so I kind of know.”
David said, “Not that, well not exactly that.”
“Okay, I’m all ears.”
“Carlos, you tell her. You saw them.”
Carlos said, “I was in OJ, on the east side of town when I saw that bunch of small drones fly north over the border.”
Carlos had her full attention now. She said, “Go on.”
“Well, I knew drones usually land where they take off from, so I got my drone out of the car and waited for them. They weren’t really gone that long when I saw them coming back, like seeing a swarm of gnats by the water or something.”
David pushed at Carlos’ arm, “Tell her what you did.”
Carlos said, “I sent my drone high up and watched them through my GoPro. I had my iPad there, so I could see really good.”
“Get to the good stuff,” Lonny said.
?
?Anyway, I didn’t know their range, but I knew I didn’t have a full charge on my drone’s battery, so I stayed high so I could see them even if I couldn’t keep up with them.”
Hunter said, “How far did you follow them?”
Carlos grinned, “All the way to where they descended, then I lost ‘em.”
Hunter leaned back in her seat, “I don’t suppose you could draw me a map?”
David and his two friends thought that was funny. David said, “How about Carlos gives you a copy of his drone’s video so you can see where they go? Might be a little better than drawing stick figure people on a map.” The boys snickered and giggled at that, too.
“You guys are too cool, you know that?” Hunter said. “And I would definitely appreciate it if you could give me a copy of the video.”
“What’s your email address?” Carlos asked, and Hunter gave it to him. He said, “I’ll send it to you.”
“Today?”
Carlos said, “You bet. It’ll be at your home before you are.”
As she started to leave, Hunter said, “One thing, don’t you three go playing detective and snooping around to find the drones. There are some bad people involved. Did you hear about what happened at the airport today?”
“Some of it,” David said.
“Did you know they knocked a helicopter out of the air, then killed a man with poison gas?”
Their eyes widened, “We just heard they messed with a helicopter.” Lonny said.
“I was in it when they knocked it out of the sky. A friend of mine was hurt in the crash. It was a close thing, and then the drones attacked again, killing the other man with poison gas.” She could see the news had the desired effect. “So you can listen and watch around, but don’t go asking questions or snooping too much. Okay?”
All three said in unison, “Okay.”
She smiled at them, “Cool. I’ll talk to you soon,” and gave them the Hawaiian shaka hand sign for “hang loose” as she drove from the school.
At home, as soon as she watched Carlos’ video of the drones, she sent a copy to Art, then Ashton, with a note to Ashton saying, This is the group that murdered Lincoln’s son.
Art called her twenty minutes later, “How do you find out more stuff than anybody in the government, and we’ve got satellites and crap?”
“Just a hard working Border Patrol Agent, you know.”