Holding Their Own: The Toymaker Read Online Free PDF Page B

when the drone’s propellers began spinning, gasps sounding when the small robot shot skyward like a rocket.
    The area where the girls had been harvesting was over a mile away from the square, well within the distance Hack’s radio could transmit and receive signals. He didn’t need the connection to fly the device, its route having been pre-programmed with waypoints and GPS coordinates back at the cabin. What Hack and the gathering elders waited to see was the video link.
    With fingers tapping and swiping the tablet, Hack noted the men gathering to peer over his shoulders. He raised the small screen higher to improve their view.
    The computer’s image changed, a live video feed now streaming from the drone’s camera. Again, a buzz of side conversations spread among the gathered men.
    Adjusting a control, he ordered the hovering drone to point its gimbal-mounted camera downward, the square and gathered assembly below coming into view.
    From 150 feet above their heads, most of the crowd was in focus. “We look like ghosts,” noted one of the tribesmen.
    “Look at the heat escaping the kiva,” noted another. ”I told you we needed to fix that roof.”
    “Hopefully, the missing girl’s body heat will stand out against the cooler background of the desert, and we can locate her quickly,” Hack explained for the benefit of anyone who hadn’t seen his machines function. “Just like when we hunt elk.”
    Hack tapped the screen, and the drone increased its altitude to 500 feet and then zoomed away, flying rapidly toward its first waypoint. “It will be over the area in a few moments,” he informed the gathering. “I ordered the drone to fly a search pattern. All that we can do now is wait and watch.”
    The pounding of several horses sounded in the square, a party of 15 riders galloping around the corner and pulling up in front of the crowd. They were all men, all brandishing rifles, all wearing paint on their faces and arms.
    “I formed a party of our best hunters,” the uncle informed the toymaker. “If your metal hawk spots my niece, these men will ride to find her.”
    All eyes returned to the small screen, several of the men pointing as the drone passed over familiar landmarks. “Look, there’s so and so’s house,” came one comment, another man noting a nearby bridge and a pool of water beneath. “That looks like we might have a beaver damming up the creek,” he remarked, impressed with the detail of the video.
    “Approaching the search area,” Hack announced, hoping to soothe some of the local nerves.
    For the first two waypoints, only two rabbits and a groundhog town showed hot on the display. Hack could sense a hopelessness building in the surrounding men.
    The flyer was readying to begin its third turn when a group of white spots appeared in the distance. “What the hell?” Hack whispered, his fingers working to change the drone’s direction and altitude.
    A group of men slowly came into focus, at least three bodies surrounding the pulsating white of a campfire.
    Ordering the drone to approach slowly, the image began to show more and more detail as the camera moved closer.
    The strangers were armed… heavily armed. Hack could make out load vests, military grade weapons, helmets and other equipment that identified the trespassers as military or law enforcement. “I don’t know who these interlopers are, but they have come prepared for a war,” the toymaker mused.
    And then a fourth hotspot showed on the screen, this one smaller, just outside the camp.
    “There she is,” Hack declared, pointing at the clear outline of a small female in a crouched position. “She’s right next to their camp…. What is she doing?”
    One of the men examining the screen from the edge of the crowd shouted, “They’ve taken her prisoner!” 
    Another spectator had a different point of view, countering with, “No, it looks like she hid from them and has gotten trapped. They’re too close for her to