Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [86]
They hadn’t counted on a surveillance drone discovering their presence on Callahan’s ranch before they could make their getaway. Now it was too late for second-guessing. All they could do was try to scatter the people caught on the bull’s-eye.
Parker and Callahan joined in on the yelling, too, shouting at the guests to move. Ford saw a sudden plume of smoke in the air near the drone and knew the missile was on its way.
“Incoming!” he roared. “Incoming!”
Screaming and yelling incoherently, the guests ran toward the barn as Parker waved them in that direction. They had only seconds, but at least they put some distance between themselves and the house before the missile came whistling in and slammed into the building. The massive explosion shook the earth, sent debris flying high into the air, and created a cloud of dust and smoke.
Ford and Earl were the closest ones to the blast. The impact knocked them off their feet. With his ears ringing, Ford grabbed Earl’s arm and hauled him upright.
“Are you okay?” he shouted.
“What? “ Earl was deafened.
“Okay?”
Earl must have read his lips, because the little scientist nodded his head.
The drone flew overhead and swung around for another pass. Ford knew some of the drones carried only one missile, but some were armed with two.
Just their luck, this craft was a two-fer.
As the drone lined up for a second missile run, Parker stepped out of the barn holding the RPG launcher that had been in the SUV belonging to the Federal Protective Service. He lifted the weapon to his shoulder, lined up the shot, and fired. The grenade streaked through the dusk toward the drone.
The second missile launched, but it had barely cleared the drone’s nose when the RPG struck it. Both of them detonated, and the huge, mid-air explosion was close enough to the drone to send it spinning crazily out of control across the sky. A couple of seconds later, the drone slammed into the side of a hill and blew up in a brilliant burst of flame.
Realizing that they had gained a few moments’ respite, Ford shouted to the stunned party-goers, “Move! Get in your trucks and get out of here!”
Everyone had arrived in either a pickup or an SUV. They were parked in the open area between the barn and the ranch house. The house was on fire now from the explosion. That was good, Ford thought. The blaze would confuse the footage from any heat-sensitive cameras pointing down at them from orbit. With a big, intense source of heat like that, it would be harder for the camera to pick out individual figures.
As scared people began piling into their vehicles, Ford and Earl ran over to join Parker and Callahan in the open double doors of the barn.
“Come on!” Ford said. “We’ve gotta get outta here now, while everybody else is scattering. Maybe they won’t be able to pick us out on the satellite footage.”
“Those sons of bitches!” Callahan said bitterly as he looked at the wreckage of his home. “They blew up my house!”
“Yeah, and they’ll figure out that you know who we are and what we’re after,” Parker said. “You’ve got to come with us, Rye. It won’t be safe for you to stay here.”
Callahan glared at him. “This place has been in my family for generations. I won’t abandon it.”
“You’re not abandoning it forever,” Ford said. “You’re just giving yourself a chance to stay alive so you can reclaim it later.”
“Well …”
“Come on, Mr. Callahan,” Earl urged. “We don’t have any time to waste.”
That was true enough. With the skidding of tires on gravel, the guests were getting the hell out of there while the getting was good.
“All right,” Callahan said abruptly. “I don’t like it, but I reckon you fellas are right.”
The four of them crowded into the pickup. They wouldn’t have made it if Earl hadn’t sat on Ford’s lap.
“I don’t like it any better than you do, you big ape,” Earl said.
“Remind you of sitting on Santa’s lap, does it?” Ford shot back.
“Shut up, both of you,” Parker grated from behind the wheel. He stomped the gas and sent