Chuck turned to Kaifong and Randall and pointed at the drone, riding high on Randall’s back. “What do you guys think?”
Randall looked at Kaifong. “It’s almost dark, chickadee,” he said.
“I think we still have time, if we move fast.”
Randall studied the sky, his hand resting on the control console at his waist. “Okay,” he said. “I’m with you, babe.”
Kaifong removed the drone from its frame and stood at the center of the meadow with the copter held out before her. The tiny video camera hung between her hands, attached to the bracket at the bottom of the drone.
Randall faced Kaifong at the edge of the trees, working the control console. The drone’s four rotors spun to life, a low-pitched whir climbing to an ear-splitting whine as they sped up. The drone lifted from Kaifong’s hands and hovered ten feet in the air. She pulled a tablet computer from a nylon pouch affixed below the frame on Randall’s back. After tapping at the tablet, she held it in front of Randall. He glanced from the drone to the glowing computer screen as he adjusted the console’s controls. The drone climbed straight up until it was a dark blob against the evening sky, then darted northward above the treetops and out of sight, the scream of its rotor blades diminishing as it departed.
“I didn’t notice how loud your drone was when you herded the dog with it,” Lex said.
Kaifong propped the computer screen with both hands, acting as a stand for the tablet. “Hovercrafts require lots of force to stay airborne,” she said.
Randall bent toward the screen, fingers working the console.
“A lot of times,” Kaifong continued, “the noise works in our favor. Like with Chance. The sound is new to animals. They’re not sure what to make of it. Often, they’ll stop to check it out.”
“It’s wild,” Randall added, his eyes on the screen. “They’ll even come out of the trees into the open sometimes, just to see what’s making all the racket.”
The members of the search team gathered behind him, looking over his shoulder as he controlled the drone. A live-streaming view from the drone’s video camera showed treetops sweeping by beneath the speeding aircraft.
“Right toggle—throttle,” he explained to his onlookers.
He thumbed the toggle to the side. On the tablet screen, the view of the trees beneath the drone shifted as the copter rose higher into the air. He moved the toggle the other direction. The treetops neared as the craft descended.
“Left toggle—direction,” he said.
He pressed the lefthand toggle to the side with his thumb. The view of the forest canopy on the computer tablet spun as the drone turned 360 degrees.
As he watched, Chuck felt his stomach spin, too. “Whoa,” he said. He tilted sideways, nearly stumbling.
Randall chuckled. “Happens all the time. Especially to gray-hairs.”
“Thanks,” Chuck said.
“There,” Randall said, his eyes on the screen. “See? Next meadow. Bigger.”
On the video feed, grass replaced the treetops.
Kaifong shifted the tablet to hold it in her left hand. The fingers of her right hand hovered over a row of glowing buttons at the bottom of the screen. “I’m in charge of the camera,” she explained. “It’s attached to a motorized swivel.” She asked Randall, “Okay if I do some panning?”
Randall nodded. He said to Chuck out of the side of his mouth, “Get out your barf bag.”
Chuck watched through squinted eyes as Kaifong tapped the buttons lined below the video feed. The scene through the drone’s camera turned to one side, then the other, taking in the pine trees lining the meadow but revealing no sign of wolves or grizzlies or any other creatures lurking in the deepening shadows.
“I’m going to lift the view a little,” Kaifong said to Randall, “so we can look ahead.”
“Just make sure I’ve got the bottom axis at all times.”
Kaifong tapped at the buttons along the base of the tablet screen. The scene shifted as the camera angle rose and the drone climbed above the meadow. A small, red light appeared in the upper corner of the computer screen.
Kaifong’s voice grew tense. “We’ve got movement.”
The red light went dark.
“Think it was legit?” Randall asked.
“It’s not in this meadow, that’s for sure.” She pointed at the top of the screen. “We could have picked up something in the next one.”
“Okay,” Randall said through compressed lips. “Let’s go there.”
The drone sped above the treetops.
“That’s something we just added,” Kaifong explained. “Randall programmed the camera to pick up animal movement, like a motion detector in an alarm system.”
The red light reappeared on the tablet.
“One,” Kaifong said. “No. Correct that. Two.”
Toby gasped. “They’re still together?”
“They’re heading for the trees,” Kaifong told Randall. “Go, go, go.”
“Speed’s maxed,” he replied. “Still at least half a mile. I don’t think we’ll make it.”
“I’m getting a sense of size,” Kaifong said. Her fingers tapped at the base of the computer screen. The camera zoomed in, focusing on a clearing in the forest still well ahead of the speeding drone. Two specks appeared on the screen against the lighter color of the grass in the opening. The specks moved toward a dark wall of trees.
“That’s them,” Kaifong declared. “It’s gotta be.”
She tapped the lit buttons on the screen below the video feed. The camera zoomed in and the moving objects disappeared.
“Too much,” Randall hissed. “We’re flat-out, remember? I’ve lost gyro. Zoom out! What’s our elevation?”
“One-twenty,” Kaifong reported, her eyes on a changing set of numbers in the lower left corner of the screen. “No. One-ten.” Her voice shook. “You’re dropping. Bring us up. Bring us up.”
“I’m trying!” Randall cried. “Zoom out, zoom out! I can’t see anything. I told you, I’ve lost my bottom axis!”
His thumbs moved the toggles as Kaifong tapped at the buttons. The camera pulled back, showing the approaching edge of the meadow and a particularly tall tree, its top rising several feet above the rest of the forest canopy, directly ahead of the speeding drone.
Randall cursed as the drone flew straight into the top of the towering tree. The copter spun crazily. Chuck’s stomach spun along with the drone as sky, trees, light, and shadow flashed across the computer screen.
Then the video feed went dark.