“Of course you don’t,” Hail said. “You’re in a big metal box. How do you think a signal is going to get out of here?”
Hail reached into his pants pocket and took out his phone and handed it to her.
“Use mine,” he said. “It’s patched through the ship’s Wi-Fi to the satellite.”
Kara took the phone from him.
“Can I get that done to my phone?” she asked.
“You need to get permission from your boss,” Hail told her. “I’m sure he wouldn’t want us messing around with your phone without his permission,” even though Hail knew they had already messed around with it.
“You can still use your phone without us messing with it. You just need to be on the deck so it can get a clear signal to our cell tower uplink,” Hail added.
Kara dialed a number and it was answered in two rings.
“This is Pepper.”
“This is Kara,” she said.
“Are you on Hail’s phone again?” he asked.
“Affirmative,” she said.
“Am I on the speaker?” Pepper asked.
“No, but I am standing next to Mr. Hail, so we are on the record, so to speak.”
“Understood,” Pepper responded.
Kara said, “I wanted to let you know that I am looking at a live video feed of the dock at Wonsan.”
“Really?” Pepper said, sounding impressed.
“And I am also looking at Victor Kornev and it looks like the new Minister of State Security for North Korea, Kim Won Ding.”
Pepper corrected her, “Kim Won Dong.”
“Whatever,” Kara said. “Ding, Dong, Wang, Chung, Cheech and Chong, all their names are so confusing.”
Hail listened for something of interest, but so far he hadn’t heard anything.
Pepper asked, “How are you able to see the dock and the men?”
Kara looked at Hail and asked him, “He wants to know how we can see them.”
“Tell him that we dropped a drone down on top of the Huan Yue and it’s streaming the video to us.”
Kara repeated what Hail had told her.
“You have to be kidding me?” Pepper said. “How can a drone be sitting on top of the ship and not be seen.”
“The drone was designed to look like one of the navigation lights on the wheelhouse of the Huan Yue,” Kara said told Pepper.
There was pause and then Pepper asked, “Can you get a moment of privacy so we can talk.”
Kara turned and asked Hail, “Do you mind if I talk to my boss privately for a minute.”
“Make it quick,” Hail replied. “I’ve used up almost all of my long distance minutes.”
Kara gave him a funny look and Hail said, “It’s a billionaire joke. It really goes over great in the Indonesian comedy clubs. Trust me.”
Kara stepped away from Hail and began talking to Pepper.
“What’s the plan?” Hail asked Renner.
Renner reached out and grabbed his mouse. A cursor appeared on the big screen, superimposed over the video.
Renner explained, “What we want to do is release the magnets and fly the drone over to this truck and set down right here on top of the cab.”
Renner moved the mouse until the cursor was hovering over the top of the big truck’s roof.
Renner continued, “I think the best time would be when they start lifting the missile section out of the hold of the ship. That way everyone’s attention will be on the cargo and no one will be looking at the front of the ship or the front of the truck.”
“That makes sense to me,” Hail said. “It looks like they’re almost ready to start the lift.”
The truck’s crane was fully extended and pointing down into the cargo hold of the Huan Yue. A bright light was mounted on the boom-arm of the crane and pointing down at the ship’s deck, leaving the rest of the ship and surrounding area in relative darkness.
The video swayed to the left and then back to the right as the boat began to lean one way and then the other.
“They’re making the lift,” Renner announced.
“Retract the magnets,” Hail told Knox.
“Pulling up the magnets,” Knox confirmed. “We’re loose.”
Kara appeared to Hail’s right and handed him back his phone.
“Thanks,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” Hail said politely.
“Do we have a good line of site to the truck?” Hail asked his crew. “Are there any wires or telephone poles or any other obstructions in the way?”
“No. We are clear,” Knox said.
“Alright then,” Hail said. “No time like the present.”
“What are you doing?” Kara asked.
“You’ll see,” Hail said.
“Spinning up,” Knox reported and then the video began to move.
To Kara, it appeared the Huan Yue was getting higher as if being raised by a massive wave. And then she realized that the camera was flying. The video tilted to the right and Kara reached out and steadied herself by grabbing on to the armrest of Hail’s chair.
“Nice and smooth arc,” Hail told Knox. “Keep ELO in the dark as much as possible.”
“Will do,” Knox confirmed.
“What is ELO?” Kara asked.
“Electric Light Orchestra,” Renner answered. “We name each of the drones so we can keep them straight when we are flying more than one at a time.”
“That’s kind of a long name,” Kara said.
“That’s why we call it ELO,” Hail told her.
“Coming in for a landing,” Knox said, making small corrections on his flight controls.
The top of the truck’s cab was an insignificant white rectangle in the middle of the video frame. But as the small drone approached, the landing zone became larger and larger until it filled the entire field of view. For a moment, all anyone could see was the dull white top of the truck. And then the camera jerked to the right and became still.
“We’re down,” Knox said. “Engaging the magnets.”
Knox made another adjustment and the camera tilted upwards toward the front of the truck. The monitor showed nothing but a dark thick misty haze.
“Let’s turn the camera around 180 degrees,” Hail told Knox.
“Roger that,” Knox said, pressing a button on his pistol grip hand controller and twisting the handle to his right. The fuzzy dark image began to brighten as the camera rotated from the darkness and came to rest pointed at the lit Huan Yue. As the light flooded into the lens, the chip in the camera had something to work with and quickly sharpened the image. A clear image of the crane came into view. A massive cylinder wrapped in white plastic was hanging from the crane by several thick cables.
From this new perspective, both Kornev and Dong’s backs were now facing the camera.
Hail watched the men for a moment and waited to see if there was any sign that they had spotted the drone. Five minutes later, Hail said, “And it would appear that we were successful again.”
Hail looked at Mercier.
“As for the dismal statistics of success that you mentioned during our planning mission…” Hail said to the Frenchman.
“We have not completed the ride to where they are storing the part yet,” Mercier protested in his thick French accent.
“That wasn’t part of your statistics. You said that we couldn’t get the drone on the boat. I even threw in getting the drone off the boat and onto the truck. Now you’re saying that your crappy statistics included getting the drone to the delivery point?”
“It always did,” Mercier said with a smile.
“Bullshit,” Hail told him.
Kara spoke up and said, “I think it’s amazing that you guys got this far, statistics or no statistics.”
“Just good old American engineering,” Hail said.
Hail leaned forward in his big chair and rubbed the back of his neck. He then reached behind and rubbed his lower back, wincing at the pain.
“Are you ready for that workout, now?” Kara asked, watching the forty-year-old acting more like a sixty-year-old.