vehicle. Ledge placed rocks around the edges to hold the cam in place and
folded down an extra piece from the roller to cover the side of the SORV. He
walked around surveying his handiwork and was satisfied that they were pretty
much undetectable from a reasonable distance.
“They are about 5 clicks South East, stationery. We need to go get eyes
on them and see what’s going on,” Ledge was pretty stoked with the excitement
of the chase.
“I’ll get the bird out,” said Mickey opening panels in the back of the
‘mobile armoury’.
Bill said, “Bird?”
“We’ll show you in a minute when we get set.” Mickey was wrestling a
large box from the vehicle.
“The ‘bird’,” he said, somewhat triumphantly, revealing what looked
like a model plane with the wing stowed along the length of the fuselage. He
pulled out the wing and clipped it into place, turning a screw to lock it. He
filled a tank under a flap, where the cockpit should be, from a plastic bottle
and placed it on the ground. He pulled a control unit out of the box and pulled
out a telescopic aerial and switched it on.
“Ah! An aerial camera. But is this model plane
able to get up to where they are? Won’t they hear it, or see it?” Bill was not
yet convinced this would work.
The control unit was blank until he clicked a switch on the fuselage,
then it glowed to show the dusty ground the bird was sitting on. He used a
bulky torch-like device with a cog at the front to start the “bird’s”
propeller.
“We’ve used this bird many times and it’s quite a bit more than a
‘model plane’. Think of it more like a scaled-down drone.” Mickey was
confident. “Once we get enough height, we mute it down and it basically glides
along until it loses too much altitude and we have to unmute it, but if we get
it right, we can let it glide all the way back here. Come on, let’s get this
up.” Mickey sensed there was urgency handing the controls to Ledge.
Ledge got comfortable in their vehicle and Mickey lifted the bird and
shouted to Ledge, “Ready? 1-2-3,” and threw the bird forward and it rose
abruptly into the air, whining, but not as loud as Bill had anticipated. It was
certainly much more highly engineered than a ‘model plane’.
He watched as Ledge flew the Bird and it gained height by circling around
ever higher until Bill couldn’t see it or hear it any longer. Bill went over to
stand at the door of the vehicle and watched Ledge steer the Bird up the
valley, taking note of the height that showed on the display and marvelling at
the camera zoom capability and the clarity of the image he could see.
Ledge did a few more circles to gain height and then Bill realised that
when the camera zoomed back that the Bird was already very high indeed.
“OK you should be getting close to where Bone stopped,” Mickey
chimed in.
Ledge had starting scanning back and forth up the road using a joystick
on one side to operate the camera. It didn’t take long to locate the two
vehicles since they were two of several that were congregated inside a walled
compound off the road.
Ledge zoomed in and started recording. A red “REC” message flashed on the
control unit, bottom left and Bill noticed that there were strings of numbers
changing as the GPS coordinates of the Bird were displayed.
There were three of the typical pickup utility-type vehicles; one that
looked like it had a 50 Cal mounted on it; a four-wheel-drive, that Bill
thought looked like Bone’s; a closed in van and a commercial sized
truck, maybe two tonne, with a flat deck. All off-white coloured.
A row of ant-like figures were moving, what looked like black plastic
sacks from the flatbed truck and placing them into the van and the
four-wheel-drive.
Ledge zoomed right in to a western-dressed man at one end of the truck
apparently rummaging in one of the plastic sacks. Bill was sure it was Bone .
He was handling black bricks and seemed to be examining them.
“Ah!” said Bill,
folded down an extra piece from the roller to cover the side of the SORV. He
walked around surveying his handiwork and was satisfied that they were pretty
much undetectable from a reasonable distance.
“They are about 5 clicks South East, stationery. We need to go get eyes
on them and see what’s going on,” Ledge was pretty stoked with the excitement
of the chase.
“I’ll get the bird out,” said Mickey opening panels in the back of the
‘mobile armoury’.
Bill said, “Bird?”
“We’ll show you in a minute when we get set.” Mickey was wrestling a
large box from the vehicle.
“The ‘bird’,” he said, somewhat triumphantly, revealing what looked
like a model plane with the wing stowed along the length of the fuselage. He
pulled out the wing and clipped it into place, turning a screw to lock it. He
filled a tank under a flap, where the cockpit should be, from a plastic bottle
and placed it on the ground. He pulled a control unit out of the box and pulled
out a telescopic aerial and switched it on.
“Ah! An aerial camera. But is this model plane
able to get up to where they are? Won’t they hear it, or see it?” Bill was not
yet convinced this would work.
The control unit was blank until he clicked a switch on the fuselage,
then it glowed to show the dusty ground the bird was sitting on. He used a
bulky torch-like device with a cog at the front to start the “bird’s”
propeller.
“We’ve used this bird many times and it’s quite a bit more than a
‘model plane’. Think of it more like a scaled-down drone.” Mickey was
confident. “Once we get enough height, we mute it down and it basically glides
along until it loses too much altitude and we have to unmute it, but if we get
it right, we can let it glide all the way back here. Come on, let’s get this
up.” Mickey sensed there was urgency handing the controls to Ledge.
Ledge got comfortable in their vehicle and Mickey lifted the bird and
shouted to Ledge, “Ready? 1-2-3,” and threw the bird forward and it rose
abruptly into the air, whining, but not as loud as Bill had anticipated. It was
certainly much more highly engineered than a ‘model plane’.
He watched as Ledge flew the Bird and it gained height by circling around
ever higher until Bill couldn’t see it or hear it any longer. Bill went over to
stand at the door of the vehicle and watched Ledge steer the Bird up the
valley, taking note of the height that showed on the display and marvelling at
the camera zoom capability and the clarity of the image he could see.
Ledge did a few more circles to gain height and then Bill realised that
when the camera zoomed back that the Bird was already very high indeed.
“OK you should be getting close to where Bone stopped,” Mickey
chimed in.
Ledge had starting scanning back and forth up the road using a joystick
on one side to operate the camera. It didn’t take long to locate the two
vehicles since they were two of several that were congregated inside a walled
compound off the road.
Ledge zoomed in and started recording. A red “REC” message flashed on the
control unit, bottom left and Bill noticed that there were strings of numbers
changing as the GPS coordinates of the Bird were displayed.
There were three of the typical pickup utility-type vehicles; one that
looked like it had a 50 Cal mounted on it; a four-wheel-drive, that Bill
thought looked like Bone’s; a closed in van and a commercial sized
truck, maybe two tonne, with a flat deck. All off-white coloured.
A row of ant-like figures were moving, what looked like black plastic
sacks from the flatbed truck and placing them into the van and the
four-wheel-drive.
Ledge zoomed right in to a western-dressed man at one end of the truck
apparently rummaging in one of the plastic sacks. Bill was sure it was Bone .
He was handling black bricks and seemed to be examining them.
“Ah!” said Bill,
Similar Books
