Day Seven
It tore through the air, blades a blur, racing straight for Raj. It took all his willpower not to run, and his teeth chattered with fear. If he blinked, she’d chase him, he knew. He had to stay calm.
A metre away, the heli pulled back, braking hard. It was too late: the plastic nose collided with Raj’s forehead, and he fell backwards onto the grass. The heli weaved around above him.
“Your response time sucks!” Raj called, getting back to his feet a safe distance away. Beth frowned at her iPhone, turned it sideways, started tilting it left to right, and the heli banked immediately.
“It’s not that, I’m just rusty,” she said. “It’s really incredible, seeing what you’re doing in realtime. So much better than a desktop app with a mouse.”
“Yeah, brilliant,” Raj grumbled, rubbing his forehead.
“It’s off-balance, though,” she noted, pulling it up and down. “We’ll have to add weights or something.”
He grabbed one of the landing rails at the bottom of the heli and tipped it sideways, careful to avoid the blades. The metal plating at the bottom was rough, screw holes showing shredded black plastic below.
“What used to be here?” he asked.
“Confidential stuff,” Beth replied, not looking away from the iPhone. “I can’t bring everything to a park.”
“Makes sense,” he nodded, letting it go. It swayed a bit more.
“Hide and seek,” Beth said, glancing up for a second — but only a second. “Run into the trees back there, and I’ll see if the infrared works on the glossy screen.”
Raj didn’t run into the trees. He crossed his arms, tilted his head.
“Why don’t we switch spots for a bit?” he asked.
“If you break the heli, do you have the twenty grand to replace it?”
“Do you?”
“My boss would understand I was testing things. He wouldn’t understand you testing things.”
Raj sighed and started off toward the trees.
“Faster!” Beth called. “Come on! Let’s do it!”
Raj started jogging, pushed through the bushes at the edge of the tree line, and ducked behind a big oak. There was a clearing nearby, strewn with bottles, McDonalds wrappers and needles. A middle-aged man in a filthy track suit and tired eyes watched Raj wordlessly.
His phone rang, and he slid it to his ear cautiously, feeling very alone all of a sudden.
“You hiding?” Beth asked.
“Hiding enough. Let’s get this over with.”
“Working on it.”
Raj looked around, trying to catch the sound of the heli approaching. He heard nothing at all.
“You heard from Sam or Laura yet?” he asked, making conversation while being hunted. “I really need that card back.”
“Not a peep,” Beth said, focussing on other things.
“How bout we head down tomorrow anyway. They probably just forgot to call.”
“Hey,” Beth said suddenly. “Look behind you.”
Raj turned around and nearly lost an eye to the heli’s blades. He stumbled back, tripped, and fell on a pile of cans. The homeless guy chuckled to himself.
“Infrared is flaky,” Beth said through the heli’s speakers. “But I love the way I can hijack your phone’s camera to spy on you.”
“Yeah,” said Raj, wiping soda from his pants. “Lovely.”