A Murder of Crows (29 page)

He waited until he was under the dual underpass before he jerked the wheel to the right and skidded to a stop on the shoulder. The Buick stopped before the edge of the second overpass. He threw the car in reverse and backed up so the car couldn’t be easily seen from the air.

He put on his hazard lights so passing motorists would assume he was in some kind of trouble. Most would drive by without stopping. If a cop happened to pull over, he’d have to deal with it somehow.

He lowered all his windows and tried to listen. The constant sound of the cars speeding by echoed beneath the overpasses above, but not enough to drown out the high-pitched sound of the drone speeding by overhead. He heard the whine of the engine die off in the distance. He looked at the dashboard screen to see if OMNI had been able to track it on the map, but no luck. The damned thing must have been flying too high for his handheld to track accurately. The device’s sensors weren’t set up to track an aerial threat. He would make sure that changed when he got back to Twenty-Third Street.

If he made it back.

Hicks raised all the windows again to block out the traffic noise so he could better hear Jason over the speakers. “I need an update, Ace.”

“Stopping beneath the underpass threw them off. OMNI is tracking the drone heading north. It’s two miles away now and still going.”

“Whoever’s flying it knows what they’re doing,” Hicks said. “They’ll double back to reacquire me. It won’t take them long to figure out where I’m hiding. If a cop spots me here, he’ll radio in my position. The Barnyard will hear it, and I’m dead. You’ve got about three minutes before shit gets complicated.”

More clicks from Jason. “OMNI is hammering away at the source code for the drone’s navigation system, but it’s encrypted and complicated.” He heard a series of beeps on Jason’s end of the call. “Damn it. The drone is reversing course. It’s coming back your way.”

Hicks knew he was the perfect target for the drone. He couldn’t run. He couldn’t fight back, either. All he had was the Ruger. Even if he had a fifty-caliber sniper rifle in the trunk—which he didn’t—he’d be dead before the drone was within range.

He lowered the windows again and heard the whine of the drone’s engine over the sound of the traffic. It was a sound most people would have missed if they didn’t know what to listen for. Unfortunately, Hicks knew what one sounded like.

The engine sounded louder as the drone flew lower. Not low enough to skim the roofs of the cars but low enough to get a closer look at the roadway.

“Come on, Jason. The damned thing just buzzed me. It’s bound to have a visual on me after the last pass.”

More clicks. “Get out of there right now,” Jason said. “The drone’s targeting systems have gone live. Current trajectory shows it will be making a tight turn and coming in low. It may try to launch something at you under the underpass. Move now and confuse the targeting array.”

The Buick’s wheels spun and kicked up gravel as Hicks threw the sedan back into drive and hit the gas. The car lurched ahead and Hicks kept it on the shoulder. “Give me a bearing. Is it still heading south or has it banked north yet? Does it have a visual on me?”

“No visual yet, but it’s beginning to bank back north toward your previous location. OMNI’s still trying to hack it, but it’s not looking good.”

Hicks sped along the shoulder until he saw a wide enough space on his left and ducked back into traffic. He hoped he’d look like any other car on the road, at least long enough for OMNI to hack the drone’s system. “Get that bird on the deck, Jason. I’ve got a lot of people around me who’ll die if you don’t.”

Hicks’ dashboard screen flashed red again, faster than he’d ever seen it flash before.
WARNING. WEAPONS LOCK. DRONE INCOMING.

The far left lane was moving faster now. Hicks cut across two lanes of traffic and floored it. He knew he couldn’t hide any longer. He knew he couldn’t outrun the damned thing or even fire back. All he could do was hope he might make it miss.

And Valkyries weren’t designed to miss.

His windows were still down so he could hear the whine of the drone’s engine as he finally saw it in his side view mirror. Its narrow profile looked like crosshairs in the sky. He watched it barely clear the top of the overpass he’d been hiding beneath as it closed in for a strike. Whoever was piloting it wasn’t taking any chances on a remote hit. They wanted him dead, and they wanted to be sure about it.

A space opened up in the center lane in front of a Greyhound bus and Hicks glided over toward it. He imagined the civilian vehicles were the only reason why they hadn’t fired on him already. If he stayed in the thick of traffic, it might buy him more time.

Hicks had cut in front of the bus when he saw a small orange cloud explode high in the night sky behind him. He cut past the bus into the right-hand lane. In his rearview mirror, he saw headlights zigzagging in all directions as fiery debris rained down on the roadway.

Jason and OMNI had hacked the drone’s system after all.

“Nice going, Ace.”

“I had OMNI flood the drone with conflicting commands as it was ready to launch on your position,” Jason said. “The missile must have activated before the drone launched it.”

Hicks didn’t care about details. He was still alive. “Search for any other secure signals in the area. These bastards have already tried to kill me twice. Third time’s the charm.”

“I’m not picking up any in your immediate area. Civilian emergency frequencies are going crazy about the semi and now the drone explosion, but nothing seems federal. Do you want me to direct OMNI to wipe out all traffic cameras in your vicinity?”

“No. If you make them all go dark at once, it’ll raise too much suspicion. Have Omni louse up their feed as I approach at random times. I don’t want Stephens to get an exact fix on where I am on the road.”

“Understood. I would advise you get off the highway as soon as possible, James. I know it’ll be slower going for you, but it’ll be harder for Stephens’ people to acquire you on local roads. I doubt even they can muster another drone so quickly.”

“I’m already on it. I’ll be in touch when I’m close to home base. And thanks for what you did back there, Jason. You saved a lot of people now, not only me.”

Jason was quiet for a moment. “Wow. That must’ve hurt to say.”

“You have no idea.”

Hicks killed the connection and got off the highway at the next exit. His onboard GPS told him he’d added two hours of travel time to the trip back to New York, but he didn’t care. Anything beat the deathtrap of the highway.

Hicks gave himself a few miles to calm down before he made the call he knew he needed to make. He’d narrowly escaped being killed three times in the past hour. Sweat popped on his forehead and back. He gripped the wheel as tightly as he could to keep his hands from shaking. He remembered his training and controlled his breathing. He wanted his voice to be clear and strong when he made his next call.

He used the back of his sore right hand to wipe away the sweat on his forehead.

When he was finally ready, he cleared his throat and hit the voice prompt button on the steering wheel. “Connect me to the previously hacked frequency.”

The Trustee’s female electronic voice responded, “Connecting.”

The dashboard screen showed the call had connected. He could hear Stephens talking. He sounded like he was on the phone. And he didn’t sound happy.

“You’re sure he got away?” Hicks heard Stephens say. “How the hell is that even possible? How the hell could he have taken down a drone? He was driving a fucking Buick for Christ’s sake!”

Hicks hadn’t hacked their system to listen in. He’d hacked their system to deliver a message. “Hey, Stephens.”

The sounds from within Stephens’ car went silent.

Hicks didn’t wait for a response. “You missed. You’re dead.”

Hicks killed the connection.

The left lane of the two-lane road opened up, but he stayed where he was. The slower pace of traffic suited him fine.

He’d had enough excitement for one night.

A
S SOON
as he got back to the Twenty-Third Street facility, Hicks killed all the lights in the bunker and meditated.

It had been a long time since anyone had tried to kill him twice in a single day. It was the first time anyone had tried to kill him with a semi. He’d survived errant drone strikes before, but this was the first time anyone had ever directed one at him. It was enough to give him pause. He needed peace and distance for a few moments before the rush of all of his responsibilities as Dean crushed him. Speed kills. Haste kills. He was outgunned and outmanned. Clarity was his only weapon.

What happened has happened. It was in the past. Focus on the present. Focus on the future. Get Jabbar. Burn Stephens. Keep the University intact. Stay alive.

Having cleared his mind as best he could, he turned on the lights and went to his desktop.

He ignored the hint of panic spreading in his belly at the sight of hundreds of priority alerts and search notifications in his inbox. Although the operations concerning Jabbar and Stephens were incredibly important, they were still only two of the hundreds of active operations happening throughout the University system.

Faculty Members positioned all over the globe were still gathering intelligence on white-collar criminals, drug lords, and weapons dealers. Dozens of University Faculty Members, Assets, and Adjuncts were extracting information from a variety of targets for a variety of purposes. Many of them had never had any direct dealings with the Dean and most never would. They didn’t care the previous Dean had died and Hicks had been named to replace him. Their missions continued no matter who was in charge as long as the money kept flowing from the Bursar account into their own.

Hicks was glad Jason had taken it upon himself to prepare a morning and evening breakdown of all the key reports and activities of all Faculty and Adjunct members. The report was categorized by region and importance, which made the information easier to digest. He may not have liked Jason, but he had to agree he was a pretty effective Dutchman.

After scanning through the more immediate highlights of Jason’s broader update, Hicks decided most of the projects could wait. He dug into Rahul’s evening report about Shaban from London. He wanted to know what their only link between Bajjah and Jabbar was up to.

“Our men trailed the suspect to the Paris suburbs via train where he met with a group of local radicals. A list of these radicals is attached at the end of this report. We learned French Intelligence has also been watching this group for over a year. None of the members have done more than spout rhetoric. They have supported terrorist actions carried out by other groups throughout the world, but have never directly participated in terrorist activity.”

“The meeting between Shaban and the group lasted a little over three hours where the suspect delivered parcels to some of the attendees. A later examination of the parcels by my men proved said parcels contained pamphlets against Israel and the West. No other paraphernalia was found. No other messages passed. A small bundle of one thousand Euros was the only thing out of place. Shaban was followed back to his London flat, where he remained alone and without incident on his computer for the rest of the night. OMNI’s standing surveillance of his computer provides details of his online activities and are attached to this report. It should be noted the suspect did not receive or make any calls or text messages on any devices upon returning from Paris.”