Neon Cop's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

The cliff road ran up toward the fuel wharf. Neon Cop stopped at the base of the hill. He could see a gate near the top, and a fence, and nothing else. He didn't know how many men waited inside. He didn't know the wharf's shape. Walking up blind meant walking into a trap. He needed eyes over the wharf before he set one foot near that gate. He turned back toward the marina. The tidy rows of sheltered docks sat quiet in the morning light. He remembered a sleek motorboat moored at the far slip, one Grimsby had pointed out as his own. He climbed the loft stairs and knocked again. Grimsby opened the door. "Back so soon." "I can't storm that wharf," Neon Cop said. "I need to see it first. Every man, every door." Grimsby scratched his beard. He crossed the loft and pulled a canvas cover off a shape in the corner. Under it sat a small silver drone, twin rotors folded flat. "Coast guard left it after a survey. I kept it running. Flew it over the reef for fun." "Will it reach the north cliff?" "If the wind holds." Grimsby handed him a battered controller with a screen. "Fly high. Bander's men look for boats, not birds." Neon Cop carried the drone to the dock. He set it on the planks and thumbed the stick. The rotors spun. The drone lifted, wobbled, then steadied. He guided it up the cliff, over the fence, over the gate. The screen filled with the wharf. He counted men. Four near a shed. Two by the water. He turned the drone slow along the pilings and saw why Bander guarded this place. Tied to the dock sat a long black hull, jagged fins along its spine, a shape built to look like a deep-sea monster. Its hollow eye caught the light. A smuggling boat dressed as a sea beast. Crates covered its deck. Neon Cop counted the doors, the guards, the paths between them. He mapped the whole wharf on the small screen. Then a guard below looked up. He pointed. Another raised a rifle. Neon Cop pulled the drone back hard. It banked over the fence. A shot cracked. The screen jumped. One rotor died. The drone spun down and hit the water off the cliff base. He lowered the controller. The screen went black. But he had already seen it all. Six men. Two guarded exits. And that black-finned hull carrying Bander's cargo. Grimsby came out on the porch. "They shoot it?" "They did." Neon Cop pocketed the dead controller. "They know a bird was watching now." He looked up the cliff road. The wharf was no longer a blind wall. It was a map in his head. But the men up there knew someone had found them. Whatever Bander planned to ship, he would move it fast now. Neon Cop started for the motorboat at the far slip.