With anyone but Felicity, Nick would have said, no shit Sherlock, but Felicity didn't deserve it. She was working hard for him, she worked hard for everyone.
He was passing the entrance elevator. Smoke was drifting down from the top.
"It wiped out John's shack and your vehicle. I don't know how, but someone followed your vehicle up to the Grange. The guy's good, Nick."
"Yeah." He didn't want to think too closely about someone good at being bad targeting Kay. "Can you tell how many more missiles the drone has?"
"Negative," Felicity said sadly. Metal's bass tones rumbled in the background. "We can't see the belly. However, my guy-who is usually right-guesses the drone only has one other missile to shoot, given the size. But this is outside my wheelhouse, Nick, and Metal doesn't like the thought of you paying the price if he's wrong."
"I trust Metal. Do you think the drone has FLIR?" Meaning, would it have infrared and could its cameras see him if he hid in the trees.
Metal's voice came on. "It's a drone model I've never seen before, a little smaller than a Watchkeeper. Act as if it has FLIR, that way you're safe. Anti IR blankets in the armory."
"Altitude?"
The keyboard clickety-clacked. "He's in a circular flight path, counterclockwise, at about a thousand meters."
Nick did the calculations in his head. Hard, but doable. "Speed?"
Another moment of clacking. "About 80 mph."
He hit the armory and came out with comms, an IR cloaking blanket, Kevlar-plated body armor and a MacMillan TAC-50. Jacko was in charge of gear, always, and Nick had no doubt at all that the rifle would be in perfect working order.
It was a damn pity that he'd left the DD in the SUV. Nick would have kicked his own ass if he could have reached it. He'd been so keen to get Kay into the Grange that he hadn't unloaded the vehicle.
Fuck.
Nick grabbed a few grenades and ran to an auxiliary exit.
"I'm headed to the north exit since the main exit is destroyed. When the drone is facing away from me, give me a heads-up." The photographic equipment would be in the nose.
"Roger that," Metal said.
Nick rode up to the ground but held back on opening the elevator doors until Metal gave the okay. "Hundred meters north-northwest," Metal said. "I estimate you have about four minutes." Nick punched the buttons. The doors opened silently and he stepped out. A lot of work had gone into surrounding the unassuming entrance to the Grange with unassuming security.
There was a clear area with a forty-meter radius around the shack that looked like beaten earth. Actually, it was filled with motion sensors. Laser beam emitters were mounted on what looked like overly tall light poles.
For another forty meters back, all around the shack, the area was clear, but had camouflage netting that was indistinguishable from canopy from the sky. Nick had a clear view if he could make himself invisible.
No problem.
He ran to the outer edge of the perimeter and held up military-grade binoculars, scanning the sky. There! A small metal frame, maybe ten meters long. It was dull metal, non-reflective, but he saw it nonetheless. You had to look hard, but there it was. It was probably only semi-visible to radar but that was the thing about stealth. You couldn't make something invisible to the naked eye unless it was dark. But right now, a bright sun shone as it sank to the west. And the drone was slowly circling east. Cool. Its cameras could compensate for sunlight shining directly into the lens but the resolution would be compromised.
Nick came to a stop under the camouflage netting and looked for a hide to set up. His internal clock told him he had a little under three minutes. Okay. If he couldn't find or make himself a hide in three minutes, he deserved to have a bomb dropped on him.
He walked quickly south, checking the perimeter where the forest started, and almost immediately found a perfect hide among the massive roots of an ancient oak, a real rarity this high up.
He spread a thin foam mattress over the root, stretching it out on the ground, put the TAC-50 and ammo carefully on the right and sat down cross-legged, the thin foil blanket over his head and shoulders.
"Wow," Felicity said over the open line. "Just lost sight of you, Nick. Except for a small heat signature which might be your nose. But would probably be read as an animal. Well done."
"Take out that bastard," Metal growled.
"Roger that." Nick settled in, making sure nothing bit into his backside.
He carefully perused the immediate area. The shack was blown to bits, a blackened crater, with rubble emanating from it like a starburst around a black hole.