“I tried. Somehow they’re scrambling our phone signal. Even my cell stopped working when you got here.”
Hunter studied the single drone for a minute, “I can shoot that one down, might make them leave, but I doubt it.”
Buck looked out the window again, then at Hunter. “That things moving around a good bit, and you think you can hit it?”
“I think so. Somebody’s guiding it, so there’s a little delay for them to see something and react to it. I think I can open the door and get a quick shot with my pistol and take it out. Maybe.”
“I’ve got this shoulder weapon.” He held out his 30-06.
“You have a shotgun?”
“They’re all in Odessa, getting re-blued and ready for dove season in a couple months.”
She thought about it, “I’ll have to be quick, make the shot before they react. A pistol may work better, and it’s only about twenty feet.”
“You want to use my .45?”
“I’m used to mine.”
The old veteran nodded and said, “Let’s try it.”
Buck went to the door, standing where he could open it and those outside couldn’t shoot him. The boys huddled, kneeling on the floor of the master bedroom so they could watch out the door. Hunter had the pistol in her hand, holding a good grip. She took a couple of deep breaths to calm down, then nodded at Buck.
The door jerked open and she shot, then Buck slammed the door.
He couldn’t see outside because the closed door blocked his vision and he said, “You get it?”
“Uh-huh. It blew apart and fell.”
Buck grinned, “Wonder what they thought about that?”
~*~
Seeing the drone explode stunned Hiyoki. He had been in the van, maneuvering the camera drone, catching glimpses of those inside
the house and feeling like a cat with a trapped mouse, and sure this would all be over in a short time, and that damned woman would be history.
He watched through the camera and saw the door jerk open and the woman fire so fast he couldn’t react. His view turned black. It had happened in an instant. She shot the drone out of the air. How could she do that? And it had been moving, too. He felt something like a cold finger tracing down his spine, thinking she was deadly, shooting like that. Be careful, he thought.
Hiyoki said to Rodolfo, “They shot my camera drone down, the woman did. With a pistol.”
Rodolfo said, “We saw it. She’s good.”
Hiyoki gritted his teeth saying, “Are you better?”
“Seguro. Better than anyone. But why don’t you ram those drones of yours against the windows? They’ll eventually break through and the ones following can fly in and gas them, kill them all.”
Hiyoki said in a slow, measured voice as if he was holding in his patience, “Because I cannot make more drones. The assembly area was destroyed. These are all I have, and we still have much to do with them. They are valuable.”
“And we’re not?”
“Of course you are valuable.” Hiyoki heard the anger in Rodolfo’s voice and said, “More valuable than they are, but we have to use you, or them, and you are better at this than me using something the size of a small bird to do it.”
Rodolfo seemed mollified, “Okay.” He looked at his men and said, “I’ve got an idea, if you can keep their attention off us for a few minutes.”
“Do what you need to do. I’ll distract them with the drones.”
“Don’t gas us, okay?”