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“As far as we know, they haven’t been spotted,” Raven said, handing up the last of the ammunition Now there was barely rooot into the front seat beside Gomez while Raven and MacD squeezed into the rear All of them put headsets on

“Everyone buckled in?” Gomez asked

They all said yes, and he started the engine and engaged the five-bladed rotor Within seconds, it was up to full speed, and he deftly lifted off froon He wheeled around and sped down the fjord, waving to Hali and Murph as he flew over, each in his own Zodiac

Gomez coul

d have chosen a direct flight path froon to the Deepwater, but instead he flew overland as much as he could to minimize the chance that he’d accidentally pass over the Portland If her anti-aircraft on, Tate could easily blow him out of the sky

He passed over one last mountain and saw the Deepwater anchored in the isolated cove The sole ay into it was so tiny that he gave the captain credit for squeezing through successfully If the Portland tried the saed in place

He circled the Deepwater once so they could see he was froon Then he dived down and hovered over the bow landing pad, settling onto it so gently that it was hard to tell they’d even made contact

Toot out He couldn’t hear as said a them because he didn’t stop the rotor, but each of the woiven to her and slung the weapon over her shoulder Raven and MacD carried the rest away toward the bridge

Linda came back over and spoke into the headset

“We don’t want Tate to knoe got here,” she said “If they see the chopper on the pad, they’ll be wary about approaching We want to catch theon”

“Roger that,” Gomez replied

Linda closed the door and backed away As soon as she was clear, Gomez took off

When he neared the top of the mountain, he noticed movement out of the corner of his eye

It was a drone The quadcopter was just cresting the ridge to the south The only reason he saw its gray body was because it stuck out against the white snow on the mountaintop It had to be from the Portland

He radioed the Deepwater about the drone, but he didn’t hear a response He was too distracted by the flare of atoward him over the mountain from behind the drone