Page 69 of The Lazarus Protocol

Marina said, “The railing up ahead, there are stairs down.”

“That might be good enough.” Adam tugged Steph to go ahead of him and glanced back.

The cops were almost to them now. One lifted his pistol and fired at the drone but missed. It descended rapidly in response to the shot. Which meant whoever piloted it was close enough they could see everything, or they had cameras.

Adam crouched at the rail. His right hand shook, and pain radiated up and down his arm. He switched to his offhand and let the injured arm fall to his knee. Squeezing the trigger left-handed, he corrected his aim through the first two shots and the third hit the drone.

It didn’t go down.

In fact, it seemed more like he pissed the thing off.

It swung low, flying toward him. Adam ducked and crouch-ran down the stairs, stumbling at the bottom. The engine of a boat revved to life, Steph behind the controls. “Let’s go!”

He ran to her, jumping in half expecting to get shot any second. Again, the drone didn’t fire at them. “You’re right. It’s herding us.”

“Let’s see it try to catch up.” She shoved the power lever to max and steered them away from the dock, navigating them around another boat.

Someone yelled from the dock.

Their boat scraped the other, and Adam tried to look apologetic. The older man shook his fist at them. “We owe that guy a boat.”

Marina said, “I can find out who it’s registered to, but later.”

“Any way to remotely disable the drone?” Adam watched it lower, following them about fifteen feet above the end of the boat. Like a wild animal, staring at them. About to pounce. “I wanna shoot it, but we’ll never fish it out of this river.”

Wind buffeted his clothes as they picked up speed.

He held on to the rail.

“I vote you destroy it anyway,” Steph said. “That thing will kill us.”

“Or you’ll move out of range of whoever is controlling it,” Marina countered.

Ice jumped in. “Drone retrieved.”

“I got the car,” Kai said. “I’m picking up Ice.”

“Jay and Dan can grab Steph and Adam.” Marina paused. “I’ll find you a place to dock, and they’ll pick you up.”

“Thanks.” Adam turned to Steph and caught the shift in her demeanor. “What⁠—”

She swung the boat around in an arc, cutting a wide swath across the river, in front of a dinner cruise boat. When everyone on deck yelled at her and the boat horn blasted, she waved her apologies.

“Where are we going?”

“To confront whoever is controlling these drones.” She pointed to a rusty ship moored on the far side of the river that looked like it hadn’t moved in years. The same ship that might’ve been what Johannsen was looking at from his apartment.

The drone lowered, firing at them. Following the arc of their trajectory.

“It thinks we’re going the wrong way.” Adam used the last rounds in his magazine, but he took the drone out. It splashed down, dead in the water. He got a fresh magazine from the pouch beside his holster and switched them out. “You’re sure about this?”

She pointed at the rusty ship. “Look at the antennas. And that satellite? Out of place.”

“Take us in, Skipper.”

TWENTY-FOUR

Steph powered down the boat, slowing their approach, but there was no way to come in close to the barge without bumping it and alerting everyone inside that they were here. Redbrick warehouses with smashed windows lined the bank on this side, and the boardwalk was deserted. Across the river, chaos still reigned as people ran from the scene even though the drones had been destroyed.