Lost by Chris Jordan

Author:Chris Jordan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781408929292
Publisher: Harlequin (UK) Limited
Published: 2011-04-02T22:00:00+00:00

From the refuge of the tall grass he surveys the terrain through the NV goggles. It’s no accident that the landing strip doesn’t look like much. Just a slash through the pinelands, a mile in length but less than a hundred feet wide. From altitude it looks like a short stretch of unfinished highway, maybe, or the remains of some abandoned canal or drainage project. Years ago there were dozens of similarly camouflaged landing roads cut into the wilderness west of Miami. Even from the air they were hard to locate, mere slices in the firmament, but if the gravel was packed and graded properly a sizable aircraft could land and take off, provided the exact coordinates were known to the pilot. Some cases it wasn’t even necessary to take off again—the value of the illicit cargo was such that the aircraft could be abandoned, or dragged into the swamp to make room for the next flight.

This is no abandoned airstrip. There are a few weeds poking up through the compacted surface, but the whole thing has a groomed look that doesn’t originate in nature. Someone is actively maintaining the place. Let it go for even a few months and the scrub would take over.

Shane hasn’t seen them yet, but he’s betting there are hidden beacons—flicked on for only moments at a time—that allow night-landing pilots to make fine adjustments at the very last minute.

The secret landing strip is interesting—the only possible use is for illicit cargo—but what originally got his attention on the Google Earth image lies a quarter mile away, and as rushed as he is for time he wants to thoroughly surveil it before approaching. In the satellite imagery the anomaly appeared to be no more than a faint, roughly rectangular shadow, notable only because of its proximity to the mile-long slash that he’d recognized as a possible landing strip. In the lenses of the NV goggles its true form is revealed.

Hangar.

An aircraft hangar cleverly constructed and landscaped to look like a natural slope of ground, and therefore almost completely invisible from directly overhead. Palmetto and slash pine grow from the top of the mound, contributing to the effect, but on the side facing the runway there’s a vertical cut wide enough to accommodate almost any aircraft capable of landing on the narrow strip. As if the builder had been inspired by some of the old camouflage techniques from World War II where, say, what appeared to be a caravan trail in North Africa might actually hide a squadron of fighter planes under the dunes, ready to roll out at a moment’s notice.

This is scrub pineland, not desert, but the effect is the same: hide in plain sight by blending into the landscape. The hangar entrance has been obscured with palm fronds, but Shane can make out the vertical panels of a wide door. A shut-up hangar without cross ventilation, it must be hot as an oven in there.

What’s inside that needs hiding?

He’s approaching the hangar, intent on a closer look, when the high drone of a gasoline motor makes itself known.

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