Hail asked, “Can one land mine set off another one like a chain reaction?”
“Not if they are spaced correctly,” Nolan said. “But if those are land mines on the photo, they have them planted pretty close to one another.”
“Um,” Hail said, still trying to put a plan together in his mind.
Renner commented, “I wish we could see more. You know, get closer. It’s the details that make something like this work.”
Hail asked Kara, “Is it possible to get closer shots from your satellites?”
“It would take some doing,” Kara responded. “How much time do you have?”
Hail waved off his request and said, “We could probably do it faster.”
Hail asked Renner, “Gage, do we have any assets near Lagos?”
Renner thought about it for a minute. “Don’t we have the Hail Proton delivering railroad ties and steel in Lomé, Togo?”
Hail replied, “Yeah, I think we do. How far away is Nigeria from Togo?”
“Not far,” said Renner.
Kara was already Googling it.
“It’s 275 kilometers,” Kara said.
“Beautiful,” Hail said.
“Why is that beautiful?” Nolan asked.
“It’s beautiful because they have just completed work on a new project in their drone lab. The Hail Proton’s captain, Mitch Nichols, e-mailed me about it the other day. He wanted me to fly over to look at the project,” Hail said.
“And what would that be?” Nolan inquired.
“Just a seagull,” Marshall said, with a note of deviousness in his voice.
Unlike Marshall Hail, Mitch Nichols was the real captain of the Hail Proton. Many of Marshall Hail’s crew referred to Hail as captain, but Hail did not pilot the Hail Nucleus. Their ship did have a real captain. He remained in the wheelhouse much of the time, unless he requested to be relieved by one of his other officers on board.
It had taken the group in the conference room less than five minutes to get Captain Mitch Nichols connected to a video conference. On the screen, Captain Nichols of the Hail Proton even looked like a captain. He wore a white button-up uniform that had the Hail logo embroidered onto the breast pocket. On his head was a white captain’s hat. A golden rope rested on the black shiny brim. Golden leaves were stitched into the visor, and the Hail insignia was stitched into the front of the hat.
When the Hail Proton’s captain appeared on the screen, Hail greeted him, “Hi, Mitch.”
The captain responded, “Hi, Marshall, Gage and Kara.” He didn’t address the person he did not know.
Hail said, “This is Lt. Commander Foster Nolan. He’s a Navy jet pilot on loan to us from Gen. Ford.”
“Nice to have big friends in high places,” Captain Nichols said.
As was Hail’s way, he got right to the point.
“I know that your lab was working on a prototype of the reconnaissance drone, Seagulls?”
“Yes,” the captain said.
“Have you tested the drone? Is it prime time?”
“From what I understand, we had some problems with the lift, because Seagulls’ wings are smaller than Eagles’ and the falcon’s wings. But I think, between your engineers on the Hail Nucleus and ours on the Hail Proton, they figured it all out. It’s my understanding that the drone is ready to fly.”
“That’s great news,” Hail remarked.
Mitch looked at the group on the Hail Nucleus for a moment and then asked, “Do you want us to deploy the bird somewhere?”
“Yeah, I think we do,” Hail said. “How much flight time does the bird have?”
“Continually on station, not as long as drones Bad Company or Eagles. My best guess would be about twenty-four hours.”
Hail looked at the team assembled around the table in his conference room. It was an inquisitive look.
Renner nodded his head and said, “That should be enough.”
Hail, still talking among his own people, made a statement that could be interpreted as a question, “Then it’s just a question of when and how?”
Renner asked Captain Nichols, “What do you have that is ready to fly that can drop Seagulls near Snake Island in Lagos, Nigeria? It’s about 200 miles from your current location.”
The captain of the Hail Proton thought about it for a moment before responding, “We’ve got Foghat. It has the range and is submersible. It could also wait on station and retrieve Seagulls when the mission is over.”
Hail knew exactly what type of drone he was talking about. They had two identical drones on the Hail Nucleus, with the code names Prince and Queen. Both drones had performed flawlessly in their previous mission — the task the CIA had dubbed Operation Hail Storm. Since those drones were already battle-tested, there was no reason to assume that Foghat would have any problem completing the mission.
“How soon can you get both drones airborne?” Hail asked.
“When do you need them airborne?” Nichols responded.
Hail looked at his crew and said, “I’m thinking we drop Foghat at night, maybe an hour or two before the sun comes up. That would give us the entire day to shoot video with Seagulls, before it runs out of rocket pellets. Does that sound reasonable to everyone?”
Renner reminded the group, “There’s a seven-hour difference between Lagos, Nigeria, where it would be 5:00 a.m. and it would be 12:00 p.m. at our current location.”
Hail readdressed Captain Nichols over the video link. “Mitch, once you get Foghat in the air with Seagulls attached to its belly, can you hand off both drones to my crew in the mission center on the Hail Nucleus?”
The captain looked disappointed, but said, “Yes, no problem.”
“OK, let’s shoot for tomorrow morning. I would like to have Foghat in the air no later than 3:30 a.m., your time, just to be on the safe side.”
“Understood,” Captain Nichols said. “Just keep in mind that one of these days, my crew would like to get into the mix as well. I have a lot of young pilots that are itching to fly these drones.”
Hail smiled and felt a wave a guilt.
“Yeah, I know you guys work hard, and your staff built some amazing drones. Your pilots will get a chance to fly them, I promise.”
The captain looked less than thrilled with Hail’s words. Nonetheless, he was a team player, and he understood that he had little choice in the matter.
“Sounds good,” he said.
Hail asked his own group, “Am I missing anything, or are we good to go?”
Kara, Gage and Foster looked at one another and shrugged.
“OK, then,” Hail said. “Thanks again, Mitch. We’ll talk tomorrow. As soon as you guys get Seagulls back on board, dump the video and get it uploaded to my NAS as soon as possible.”
Hail used the words as soon as possible instead of ASAP, because he thought that sounded crass.
“Roger that,” Captain Nichols responded.
“Good luck,” Hail said, and he ended the video connection.