Page 91 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

THE FIRST SIGN of the kidnappers: the sound of whirring blades cutting through the calm of the desert.

“Everybody, quiet!” Jeff Penney said over the comms. “You hear that, Gordon? They’re arriving an hour after they told us to be here. They’re screwing with us!”

“Yeah, I hear that.”

The chopper emerged from the dark, speeding toward Sargent Field.

But it was hard to make out details, at least from where Nicky was sitting in the Sandbox.

It looked like a blur in the night sky. Maybe the digital image quality wasn’t the best. Or maybe this helicopter was built for stealth so it would be tricky to follow.

That wouldn’t be a problem, since the task force had access to long-range radar. Now that the chopper had made itself known, the flight tracker revealed that it had been following a path that originated in Nevada.

Nicky wondered if the kidnappers were actually based in Las Vegas or if they simply wanted the task force to think so. The former was a good possibility, considering dead ex-con Rubin Padilla’s ties to their suspects.

But they wouldn’t know anything for certain until the kidnappers picked up the ransom, flew back to their home base, stripped naked, and started rolling around in those four pallets of cash or engaging in whatever kind of celebration they had in mind.

They’d do that right up until the task force showed up and slapped handcuffs on every last one of them.

You can’t just grab a billion dollars and expect to disappear off the face of the Earth.

Although One planned on doing precisely that.

The chopper drifted closer to the airstrip. The pilot didn’t seem to know anyone was down there watching; Jeff Penney and his team were doing a good job of staying out of sight.

“The bogey has all lights off,” Jeff said. “This guy is good.”

“Anybody know the make of that chopper?” Mike asked over his mic. “Hard to tell in the dark, and I’m no expert.”

“Looks like a Bell 407,” Jeff said over the comms. “We had those until air support started cycling in the AS350s.”

The helicopter turned on its lights as it began descending to the airstrip, illuminating the four pallets of money and case of jewels below. The image reminded Nicky of a dozen bad science fiction movies where a UFO beams something up into its cargo hold.

“This guy is probably a former military pilot,” Jeff said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

The Bell 407 lowered itself to the tarmac swiftly and efficiently, touching down within a few yards of the ransom. All the kidnappers had to do was load the money and jewels, and Randolph’s billion would be theirs.