The Drone Pursuit Read online

  I slid to a stop and nearly stumbled as I spun around. I darted back to the stairs. I made it back to the first floor when I heard footsteps above me again. Great. Not only would I not identify the mystery person, but now I also had to dodge Mr. Conway.

  I sprinted down the first-floor hallway. Luckily, the floor was completely empty. Nothing more suspicious-looking than a kid running from authority figures.

  I ran to the first classroom I came to. The door was locked. I scrambled to the next one. It was locked too. Mr. Conway’s footsteps grew louder and I knew there was no way I was getting to the end of the hallway before he made it to the first floor. I tried the third door—my first-period algebra classroom.

  It was open!

  I slipped inside and pulled the door closed behind me. I crouched and quietly turned the lock just to be sure. I stayed motionless as the footsteps grew closer. I held my breath as Mr. Conway jogged by. When the footsteps were gone I breathed again.

  “You’re a bit early for tomorrow’s class, aren’t you, Mr. Swift?” asked a voice behind me.

  I almost yelped in surprise as I spun around. My legs flew out from under me and I slumped to the floor.

  Ms. Talbot sat at the teacher’s desk. Her hands were poised over the computer keyboard and she glared at me over the rims of her glasses.

  “Oh, I—” I stammered, scrambling to my feet. “I was just . . .”

  “What?” she asked. “Playing hide-and-seek with your friends? Aren’t you a little old for that sort of thing?”

  “Well, uh . . .” My mind raced for something to say. “Actually, I was . . .”

  Ms. Talbot smirked. “I suppose when your name is on the school you can get away with all sorts of things.”

  I frowned. If this lady weren’t a substitute teacher then she would know things were the exact opposite. When I first attended this school, it was all I could do to prove that I wasn’t going to get special privileges because there was a “Jr.” at the end of my name. Sure, I get access to some of the equipment at Swift Enterprises (as long as it’s not classified), but so do some of the other students—and not just the ones whose parents work there. That was the great thing about this school. I opened my mouth to protest but Ms. Talbot cut me off.

  “Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll forget I saw you if you’ll forget that I was here.” She pointed to the mound of folders and books on the desk. “And the fact that I’m woefully unqualified to teach algebra. I’ve had to stay late just to familiarize myself with Mr. Jenkins’s lesson plan.”

  I wanted to argue, I really did. I wanted to let her know that I don’t get special treatment from anyone. But a little voice in the back of my head told me to let it go. I was getting a pass on this one. I wouldn’t have to lie and make up some lame excuse about running through the halls. I could just walk out of there and Mr. Conway wouldn’t know it was me he was chasing.

  I bit my lower lip. Yeah, I was really tempted.

  “Okay, thanks,” I said finally.

  I unlocked the door and left the classroom. I walked out of the school with my pride a little tarnished as I texted my dad for a ride.

  11

  The Incursion Inversion

  “SO THERE ARE THREE HACKERS in on this?” asked Noah.

  “It seems like it,” I replied.

  We sat alone in algebra class the next morning. We were so early that we were the only ones there.

  The four of us had agreed to get to school early to spy on the server room. Noah and I had texted each other, coming up with some modifications to the hacker tracker. First of all, Noah had worked on a new controller. He had boosted its range so we wouldn’t have to hide under the basement stairs. With Noah’s new controller, we would be able to operate the drone from anywhere in the school. The interference from the servers wouldn’t be a problem.

  I, on the other hand, had come seriously close to telling my father. The thing that finally stopped me was the same reason as before—lack of physical evidence. So I decided to modify a computer tablet to not only see what our VR headsets saw, but also to record what we saw. I connected it to an external hard drive to hold all the video data. We now had a couple of terabytes to hold evidence against Mr. Conway or Shadow Hawk or whoever he was, and his accomplices.

  Sam and Amy entered the classroom. “I saw Mr. Conway out in the hall,” Sam said as she set her backpack on her desk.

  “Good,” I said. “That will give us time to reposition the drone for the best view of the computer screen.” I made some final adjustments to my VR headset.

  Amy sat her stuff down and joined us. “Can I copilot again?”

  “Hey, that’s my gig,” said Noah. “It’s our drone, remember?”

  “That’s true,” I said. “But Amy was great last time.”

  Noah pointed to the tablet. “Yeah. But we’re recording everything now,” he said. “We don’t need a photographic memory.”

  Amy, Sam, and I exchanged glances.

  “I really think you should let her do it, man,” I said.

  “Why?” asked Noah.

  “He’s trying to tell you that we don’t need one of us throwing up during the mission,” Sam said.

  Noah shook his head. “It’s gonna be like that, is it?”

  “Please,” Amy pleaded. “It was so cool last time.”

  Noah sighed and handed her his headset. “Fine.”

  While she geared up, Sam and Noah crowded around the tablet.

  “Let’s hope the range extender works,” I said. “I don’t know how all four of us would fit under the stairs.”

  “It’ll work,” said Noah. “And don’t remind me about cramped places.”

  I turned on the headset and then powered up the remote. I flicked the camera switch and the server room flickered into view.

  “Told you it would work,” said Noah.

  “The lights are already on,” Amy observed.

  “Mr. Conway must’ve just left the basement,” said Sam.

  “I’m going to test the microphone,” I said. I flicked another switch on the remote and the white noise of the hard-drive fans hissed through my earbuds.

  “And we have sound,” said Noah.

  “I can barely see the computer screen from here,” said Amy.

  The computer screen was in the bottom left side of the footage. A blurry black shape obscured half of it. It must have been part of the dark fabric on which the drone was placed.

  “Hey,” Noah said. “We were in kind of a hurry to get out of there. I aimed the camera as best I could.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “I’ll reposition it.”

  From our angle, I could see that no one was sitting in front of the computer. It was safe to power up the drone.

  I pushed up the left joystick to engage the drone’s motors. The view shifted as the drone raised an inch off the shelf. I adjusted the right joystick to rotate the drone to the left. Now the entire computer screen was dead center. I released the left joystick and the drone settled back down on the shelf.

  “What’s on the screen?” asked Amy. “Is that a weird screen saver?”

  The computer screen was black except for lines of green type. The lines appeared row by row from the top to the bottom. When the screen was full, the type disappeared and new lines appeared from the top again.

  “That’s not like the one we saw before,” said Noah.

  “Can you zoom in on it?” asked Sam.

  “This camera can’t zoom,” I said fixedly. “But I can move the drone closer.”

  I worked the controls again and the drone rose off the shelf. The computer grew in the viewscreen as the drone drifted down toward it. Having been in the server room already, it felt surreal piloting the drone there. It seemed as if I was back in that room all over again. Goose bumps raised on my skin as if I could feel the room’s frigid air.

  The drone hovered closer to the screen, close enough to make out what was happening.

  “Dude, that’s co
mputer code,” said Noah. “It’s moving so fast, I can’t tell if it’s compiling, transferring, or encrypting data.”

  “We’re recording, right?” I asked him.

  “As soon as you turned on the camera,” Noah replied.

  “Good,” I said. “You can analyze it later. Frame by frame if you have to.”

  Although all of us were decent programmers—it was one of the first classes they taught at the academy—Noah was the best programmer I knew. If anyone could make sense of the code, it would be him.

  “Just hold there a few more seconds, then,” Noah instructed. “I want to collect a bit more.”

  I let the drone hover in place for a few seconds longer.

  “Wow,” said Amy. “Do you think they already hacked into your father’s company?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “I hope not.”

  I felt a knot in my stomach. What if we were too late? What if they had already stolen Swift Enterprises’ secrets? I could have stopped all this. I could have told my father, convinced him somehow that this was real and not some wild conspiracy. I took a deep breath and told myself that at least we now had evidence that something fishy was going on. We just had to get Mr. Conway and his accomplices on video . . . in the act.

  “I’m going to put the drone back,” I announced.

  I pulled the drone away from the computer and made it hover higher. I wasn’t a skilled enough pilot to simply back it onto the shelf the way it had flown down. I’d have to turn it to see where I was going. I nudged the right joystick to rotate the drone to the right. A large smiling face came into view. It was the tall, thin man from the day before.

  We were face-to-face with Conway’s accomplice.

  12

  The Imminent Predicament

  WE WERE STUNNED INTO SILENCE. I don’t know about everyone else, but I froze as if the man in the server room could actually see me. He stared directly into the camera, so it felt as if he were looking right into my eyes. I held my breath.

  “What have we here?” the man asked, his voice coming through my earbuds. He pointed to the drone. “I see you have a directional microphone there so I’m betting that you can hear me.”

  Now I really did feel as if I were in the server room with him. The shock of being caught like that made the room feel ten degrees colder.

  “Tom,” whispered Noah. “What do we do?”

  “I don’t know, man,” I whispered back.

  The man cocked his head. “How long have you been spying on me?” he asked. “I wonder if you guessed what Joshua and I have been up to down here.”

  The man stepped forward. Instinctively I pulled the drone back, and felt myself leaning back with it.

  The man grinned. “But I bet you don’t know that I have a piece of equipment here that can capture your control frequency and track it back to your location.”

  Amy gasped. “Can he really do that?”

  “Crazy hacker stuff,” said Noah, his voice pitched higher than usual. “Who knows what he can do!”

  The man took another step forward and I edged the drone back.

  “Of course, I’ll have to crack open your drone first,” the man said. “Pull out the components I need.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” shouted Noah. “Do not let him break our drone, Tom!”

  The man inched forward again. I was about to move the drone back again when he lunged at it. I threw the joystick back and the drone flew backward, just beyond his grabbing hands.

  “Back wall, back wall,” Sam said.

  I saw the back wall loom closer in the rear camera. I released the joystick just before the drone slammed into it. The man was still coming so I increased power. The drone rose up toward the high ceiling, just out of his reach.

  I aimed the microphone back at the man. “Of all the stupid, idiotic things!” He leaped into the air and grabbed for the drone. We were just out of reach.

  “How long will that fresh battery last?” asked Sam.

  “Not forever,” Noah answered. “Four motors running simultaneously, transmitting video and audio. These batteries are made light as it is. They aren’t built for long flights.”

  The man glanced around the room. He grabbed a broom from the corner and spun it around.

  “He’s got a broom! He’s got a broom!” Noah warned.

  “I see it,” I said through gritted teeth.

  I jerked the joystick hard to the left as the man swiped at the drone. The broom head seemed to miss the drone by inches. The view wobbled as the air current from the near miss destabilized the drone a bit.

  He swung the broom again, going high. I dropped the drone just in time and the broom flew by overhead. The man put so much force into the blow that he spun around, almost falling down.

  “This is nuts,” I said. “I don’t know how long I can keep this up.”

  The server room wasn’t the biggest place to begin with. There were only so many times I could dodge his attacks. And if I got the drone backed into a corner, it would be dead.

  The man regained his balance and began stabbing at the drone. The short jabs were harder to anticipate—all I could do was try to get away. I began backing up the drone, nearing the rear wall again. Soon, I would run out of maneuvering room.

  I tried to not think about my sweaty palms slipping on the controller grips or my shaking hands flubbing the joystick. I clenched my teeth and concentrated. I had to keep everything smooth and steady.

  Suddenly, the door swung open. Mr. Conway’s eyes widened as he took in the surreal scene. “What in the world . . . ?” he asked.

  Distracted, the other man turned to look at Conway. I flew straight toward the custodian at full speed.

  “Hey!” Conway shouted as he ducked out of the way.

  “Close the door!” the other man ordered.

  It was too late. The drone flew over Mr. Conway’s head and into the hallway. I banked left and soared down the long corridor.

  “How are you going to get out?” asked Sam. “There’s the security door.”

  I had forgotten about that. I just saw an opening and went for it.

  “What’s the combination again?” asked Noah.

  “Eight-three-eight-four,” replied Amy.

  I heard rustling nearby. “Just keep them busy,” said Noah’s receding voice as he ran out of the classroom.

  The drone reached the end of the hallway and the locked security door. I spun it around to face Conway and Broom Man.

  “That . . . thing’s been spying on us!” said the man. “Don’t let it get away!”

  Mr. Conway glanced around and shrugged his shoulders. “There’s nowhere for it to go.”

  “We’ll see about that,” I mumbled.

  I felt way more confident flying in the open hallway. After all, I had already piloted a high-speed drone chase through hallways full of students. This would be like the casual mode of a video game compared to that.

  I jabbed the joystick forward and the drone flew right at them. Mr. Conway tentatively raised his hands but Broom Man was ready. He snarled as he held the wooden broomstick like a baseball bat.

  I aimed the drone for Broom Man’s face. It was as if he and I locked eyes as he grew larger in the viewscreen. Then, just as he swung the broom, I cut the power by half. The drone dropped and the broom swiped above it.

  “Sa-wing, batta!” said Sam.

  Mr. Conway had to duck to keep from being hit by the broom. With Conway in a crouch, I throttled up and put the drone into a steep climb. It soared over the custodian’s head.

  “Whoa,” said Amy.

  “Are you okay?” I asked. “Motion sickness?”

  Amy laughed. “No way! This is amazing.”

  I spun the drone around to face the two men. I slowly backed it away as Broom Man inched closer.

  “You know they’re blocking the only way out, right?” asked Sam.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “But I didn’t want them to see this.”

  In the b
ackground, I spotted Noah through the security door window. He punched in the code and slowly opened the door. The two men didn’t notice him. Then Noah slid a nearby trash can and propped the door open. He ran back up the stairs.

  Sam giggled. “Way to go, Noah!”

  “Can you get past them again?” asked Amy.

  “I did it once, didn’t I?” I asked.

  Just then, Mr. Conway ducked into a nearby room. Now there was only the other guy.

  I smiled. “Even easier,” I said, inching the drone forward.

  Then Mr. Conway emerged holding two more brooms and a mop. “Here,” he said, handing the mop to Broom Man.

  Both men held up their cleaning implements above their heads and began waving them about. They slowly moved forward.

  “Oh boy,” I said.

  I brought the drone to a halt. I didn’t know how I was going to get past them now. I backed the drone away from the approaching men.

  “What are you going to do?” asked Amy.

  “Come up with a plan,” I replied.

  “What’s your plan?” asked Sam.

  “I don’t know! I haven’t come up with it yet!” I replied.

  It looked as if my system of coming up with a plan on the fly was not going to work this time. I had no idea what I was going to do. I scrambled for some semblance of a plan, grasping at straws as the two men inched forward.

  13

  The Malfunction Maneuver

  AS I CONTINUED TO MOVE the drone down the hallway, I heard Noah run into the classroom. “Are you out yet?” he asked.

  “Far from it,” replied Sam. “Look.”

  “Are you kidding me?” asked Noah. “How are you going to get past all that?”

  Sam swallowed. “I . . . I don’t think he is.”

  Noah groaned. “Our drone is so dead.”

  It really looked like we were out of options. If I tried to fly through, it would be smashed to bits. I might be able to back down the long hallway for a while. But sooner or later, the drone’s battery would be dead. Dead is dead either way.

  That was it!

  “How does the battery look?” I asked.