Read Online Carnosaur Crimes by Christine Gentry - Free Book Online Page B

drop toward the ground. Eventually they leveled off. Even with the moonlight, Ansel was unable to define any landmarks. Only the flashing movement of the tallest rock formations five-hundred feet below were visible as the ground rushed past the undercarriage. The fine details of spiring pinnacles, fallen boulders, and hidden cutbacks were impossible to see. Her anxiety heightened several more notches. Flying didn’t bother her, but they could run head-on into a precipice and never see it coming until it was too late.
    â€œHow easy is it to land in the dark like this?” she asked, peering into the darkness.
    â€œDon’t worry. We’ve got a state-of-the-art GPS/navcom unit tied to a TCAM system, which is great for street or low altitude patrols and warns of nearby aircraft. There’s also a radar altimeter transponder. I’m going to turn on the Night Sun, too. It’s a searchlight that will guide us down so we don’t hit rock.”
    Standback carefully watched the control panel, monitoring RPM’s, turbines, rotors, altitude, and airspeed. The ground reached up for them as they continued to descend, then the aircraft evened out again at one-hundred feet. He reached for an independent control box with toggles and flicked a switch. Thirty-million candlepower of light sliced through the darkness in a blinding flash as the fifty pound spotlight mounted on the helicopter’s belly flared.
    Ansel blinked against the sudden daylight glare illuminating the rocky, boulder-strewn hills and barren brush-laden ground, then bouncing the rays back into her eyes from gray-banded shales, mudstones, and siltstones.
    He glanced at her. “We’re going to come down alongside a hill. The terrain is flat, open, and easy to maneuver so we shouldn’t have any unexpected surprises.”
    â€œWhat kind of surprises?”
    â€œThe criminal type. Since the spotlight makes us visible for miles, everyone knows we’re cops. That makes us sitting ducks for anybody out here with a gripe against law enforcement.”
    â€œPeople would shoot at us? If you’d told me we were coming here and this was going to be dangerous, I’d have brought my Colt pistol.”
    Standback cocked his head curiously but said nothing. Ansel enjoyed the moment. Obviously he hadn’t expected that answer from a female civilian. And she meant what she’d said. She had quite an experienced working knowledge of firearms. More than she liked.
    They passed alongside a small bluff, and the searchlight beam zig-zagged across a banded strata of cliff wall riddled with deep fissures caused by winter runoff and occasional thunderstorm washouts. Next the searchlight flickered so quickly over a group of vehicles parked beside the hill that Ansel almost missed them completely. There were lights down there, too.
    Ansel pushed her face against the passenger window. “I see people.”
    â€œERT members,” Standback responded.
    Soon after, he expertly maneuvered the helicopter into a tight turn by pivoting the entire fuselage beneath the spinning rotor and beginning a fast, steep-angled rush toward the ground and into the wind. Ansel cringed, believing they would crash at sixty miles per hour, but Standback bled off the airspeed, and slowed the craft into a perfect ten foot hover before quickly setting the skids gently down on a level grade of shaley ground.
    â€œWait until I cut the power before getting out, Miss Phoenix.”
    Ansel nodded. “Can I take off this helmet? It’s driving me crazy.”
    Standback laughed and began shutting down the mechanical beast, spotlight included. “Sure. Hope you enjoyed the ride because we’ve got a return trip.” His eyes met hers, relaying more than just a gentlemanly attention to her presence. He was actually flirting with her.
    â€œI’m looking forward to it, Agent Standback.”
    Ansel unstrapped the helmet and pulled it off. It was a