Read Online The Loch Ness Legacy by Boyd Morrison - Free Book Online

propellers reaching maximum speed even before Zim could take his finger off the button. It zipped away on its fatal mission. Zim repeated the process, and the copter that had been below it followed suit. Within a couple of seconds, all four copters were buzzing toward their victims, one each for the two nearest guard towers and two toward the site of the prison melee.
    Even an expert marksman would find it almost impossible to hit such a swift target. But Zim didn’t have to worry. Not one guard got off a shot as they simply watched the danger whizzing toward them.
    The first copter went straight through the window and blew up in the middle of the tower room. A guard’s body went flying across the yard, landing like a rag doll next to the fence.
    The second copter turned its target guard tower into a smoking ruin.
    With the guard towers no longer a threat, the helicopter shot over the external fence as the final pair of quadcopters plowed into the crowd of men in the yard and detonated. Their screams were drowned out by the sound of the explosion. Those who weren’t felled in the carnage scattered in all directions, prisoners and guards united in a frightened stampede toward a safe location.
    Time to leave.
    The Bell Jetranger set down in the yard next to Zim, who jumped aboard while ducking automatic weapon fire now coming from the more distant intact guard towers.
    As the helicopter lifted off, smoke billowed from the back. Zim saw the choking black soot and thought there could be no other conclusion than that the engine had been hit by a stray bullet.
     
    * * *
    Tyler and Harris were just turning onto the I-5 entrance ramp when Harris’s phone rang.
    “Harris,” she answered, followed by a short pause, then “What? How?” She dropped the phone into her lap and hit the brakes so hard that Tyler was thrown against his seatbelt. Harris turned in her seat and shifted into reverse to back down.
    “What the hell are you doing?”
    “There’s an escape in progress at the prison.”
    Tyler felt his stomach clench. “Zim. How?”
    “Helicopter landed in the yard. One of the guards thinks he hit it.”
    “Did they see which way it went?”
    “North. The sheriff’s office is scrambling their air assets.”
    “Then why are you backing up?”
    “The Coalinga airport is northwest of the prison. Zim will know that the state patrol will set up roadblocks for miles around the prison. His best chance of escape is by air, and the helicopter will be too identifiable, especially now that it’s smoking.”
    Tyler thought about it and knew Zim would be more careful than that. “The Coalinga municipal airport is too obvious. He’s got to know that the police would hurry to lock it down.”
    “Then where is he going?”
    Tyler remembered passing Harris Ranch on the way down. “There’s a landing strip by the inn. He must be meeting someone there.”
    Tyler unrolled his window and stuck his head out. Sure enough, a Cessna was on final approach.
    “Go!” he yelled. “We might have time to intercept them.”
    Harris put the Suburban back in drive and floored it, activating the vehicle’s lights and siren. The SUV screamed up the ramp and hit seventy by the time they were on the freeway.
    The Cessna buzzed past. It was only a few miles to the runway. If they didn’t reach the rendezvous in time to stop Zim, the Cessna could fly below radar into the Sierras, where it would be impossible to track. It could then land on any flat piece of land, and Zim would drive to freedom at his leisure. Alexa would never be safe until he was caught or killed.
    Tyler scanned the sky to his left to see if he could spot the helicopter. It would be coming in low over the orange groves. For a minute he saw nothing. But he heard it. A low throb grew from the west.
    The whirring rotors of the chopper appeared above the trees, and Tyler could see smoke streaming from its rear.
    As it approached the highway, the helicopter flew erratically, dipping