Chương 43: Chapter 40: Eye in the Sky

With me behind the wheel, the van rolled toward our destination in absolute blackout mode, our headlights cut to avoid drawing a single eye. Dropping down into the unpaved easement between the housing development fence line and the edge of the almond orchard, I kept our pace slow and the engine low, crawling east along the shadows of the wood line. When we were roughly a city block away from the western edge of the school property, I brought the vehicle to a halt and cut the ignition.

I left the keys hanging in the tumbler, though—if things went completely sideways, Isadora and the boys would need to crank the engine and punch out of there in a hurry. I shifted in my seat, turning back to face everyone.

"Alright, boys. Do your thing." Joe leaned over, sliding the side door open just enough to create a small gap, working with meticulous care to keep the metal rollers silent. He reached out into the cool air, grabbed the frame of each quad-copter, clicked their power switches on, and set them flat onto the van's roof. He slid the door back into place, leaving it unlatched so they could hear the ambient noises outside.

In the back, Travis and Jace gripped their modified controllers and pushed the thumb-sticks forward, sending both drones whispering up into the night sky. Knowing the boys had spent years walking these exact hallways as students, I instructed them to, "Keep your patterns split. Start at the small gym. Travis, work your camera clockwise toward the back property line. Jace, go counter-clockwise toward the front entrance."

En route to their designated zones, both lenses swept over the dark expanses of the football stadium. The bleachers and turf looked completely barren. Jace was the first to break the silence.

"I've got eyes on the big gym. Two sentries. One is dug in, up on the roof line, the other one is pacing the ground floor near the main doors."

"Got the rear covered," Travis reported a second later.

"I've got one guard posted on top of the Ag sciences building, but the ground looks clear. Wait, scratching that—I've got another look at the eastern classroom wings. There's a single sentry stationed on the roof of the third building north from the science wing's grass field."

"Two more positioned at the main approach," Jace chimed in, adjusting his camera tilt.

"One is sitting directly above the administrative office roof, and there's another body on the ground right in front of the main lobby doors."

"Copy that," I murmured, mapping the positions in my head.

"Jace, hover your rig over the southwest corner, right between the big gym and the front office. Stay high enough to clear their acoustic detection, but keep those ground sentries in your frame. Travis, push yours dead-center. I want a clean look at the interior quad." Travis tilted his joystick, guiding his quad-copter over the ridge of the roof line until his lens looked directly down into the school's central open-air courtyard. The monitor instantly flickered with the low, orange glow of wood fires.

"I'm seeing a heavy concentration in the middle of the quad," Travis said, his eyes glued to the screen.

"People are moving around, cooking over open flames. I can't get an exact head count because they're clustered too tightly. Man, if we just had an infrared sensor on this thing, it'd be a piece of cake."

"I'll make sure to put in an order for a thermal lens before the next apocalypse hits," I replied with a dry chuckle.

"Just give me a ballpark figure."

"Looks like ten to fifteen active bodies in the courtyard," Travis estimated.

"Hold on... I've got two more figures tucked beneath an overhang near the southern classroom block facing the field. Let me swing around to pull a better angle. Yeah, confirm two sentries standing watch at a structural doorway. First entrance closest to the quad, south side of the building." I turned my head to look back at Joe in the dim light of the cabin.

"What's your tactical assessment?"

"It's a decent-sized opposing force," Joe said, his thumb tracking along the receiver of his rifle.

"But if they don't possess the kind of coordinated firepower we're bringing, and we maintain a total element of surprise, the math is on our side. We just need to commit to an insertion point."

"Check the front gates," Jace interrupted, zooming his digital lens straight into the massive double gates separating the main office from the large gym.

"Look closely at the hardware. There's no padlock on the latch mechanism. They just wrapped a heavy chain around the bars a few times to make it look secure from a distance."

"Front gate it is," I decided.

"We still have to cross that open pavement without alerting the roof sentries," Joe countered, leaning forward.

"And that's going to be a tough pull in the dark."

"Alex and I can clear the lane," I answered, reaching down to check the tension on my bow string.

"We're utilizing bows. We'll infiltrate the shadow of the big gym, neutralize the ground guard and the roof sentry, and then work our way clockwise to clean off the remaining lookouts. Once those sight-lines are clear, you guys can advance to the cover of the gym while Alex and I pivot to handle the front office guards." This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Alex shifted nervously in his seat.

"Dad, I don't actually have the [Sneak] ability on my sheet."

"You still know how to move quietly, don't you?" I replied, meeting his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Just because the System hasn't officially stamped a passive skill modifier onto your status screen doesn't mean your physical body forgot how to use basic human caution."

"Fair point," Alex nodded, taking a steady breath.

"Listen to me closely," I continued, keeping my voice low.

"There are a dozen dead vehicles scattered across the front parking lot. We're going to take our time, bounding from bumper to bumper, utilizing the metal frames for cover. The moment a lane is clear, I'll take the point position and move up. Once I secure the next spot, you slide directly into the cover I just left behind. We grind our way forward until we're within fifty yards of the ground guard. You draw down on the target on the pavement; I'll lock eyes on the sentry up on the roofline.

We release at the exact same instant. Can you do that?" Alex swallowed hard, then gave me a firm nod.

"Good. When you line up your pins through that peep sight, use your top fiber-optic marker. That's your fifty-meter hold."

"I know, Dad," Alex sighed, rolling his eyes slightly.

"We've practiced this a thousand times."

"Hey," I snapped, my tone turning instantly sharp as stone.

"This isn't a weekend archery tournament. This is dead serious. I know you had to defend the property out at your grandmother's house, but that was a reactive, defensive fight. Tonight, we are the intentional aggressors, and they outnumber us by a wide margin. Cut the attitude, take this strictly seriously, and listen to the tactical instructions. That applies to every single person in this vehicle." I looked back, seeing Travis, Jace, and Isadora all instantly straighten up and nod their heads in silence.

"I'm sorry, Dad," Alex muttered, looking down at his boots, genuinely embarrassed.

"I get it. I do have a practical question, though. Do we have to run all that heavy radio jargon while we're moving?"

"No," I said, letting a small smile soften my face.

"We're using plain text tonight. Speak normally, keep the updates brief, and drop the 'overs' and 'copies.' But remember—Joe, Pete, and Johnny don't know this campus map like we do. When you give directional updates, use clear compass points like north and south. Avoid using school-specific building names whenever possible." I settled back against the headrest.

"I suppose we only have two more administrative boxes to check before we kick this pig."

"What's that?" Pete asked from the back.

"First off," I started, "something we completely overlooked when we cleared the precinct. Once you cross Level 5, the System unlocks the option to form a structured five-person party. Before we hit that threshold, my immediate party was automatically sharing experience point gains because we were in close proximity, but I don't know how the math distributes if we don't have a formal group established.

We're going to be pulling a massive amount of EXP out of this engagement tonight, and I want to make sure every single person gets their cut. Plus, I need to officially share the primary base-acquisition quest line with the rest of the roster."

"Hold up," Joe said, tapping his fingers against his knee.

"I have a passive warrior ability called [War Leader]. At my current level, it allows me to promote a secondary squad captain to establish an auxiliary cell, effectively boosting our maximum party cap to nine slots instead of five. I just have to manually assign the organizational roles. Let me spin up the master party, promote you, and then you can pull Jace, Alex, and Isadora into the second loop.

We'll register the kids under an 'Overwatch' designation so they draw an even split of the experience pool while they hold down the vehicle."

"Nice," I said, watching the glowing blue system notifications populate the upper corner of my vision.

"That's a hell of a utility." Joe executed the commands, seamlessly linking our screens until a unified eight-man party indicator stabilized in our displays. I accepted the captaincy, officially shared the high school conquest quest across the entire network, and checked the clock.

"Alright," I murmured.

"One last piece of business. We need to buff our stats before our boots hit the road."

"Another buff?" Joe asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We already ran through your wife's cooking and locked in that ten percent physical modifier." Instead of answering, I pointed a finger over at Isadora and gave her a solid nod. Isadora took a slow, deep breath, closing her eyes for a brief moment to gather her focus. When she opened them, she didn't speak—instead, she began to sing a soft, hauntingly beautiful melody.

The words were entirely foreign, sounding like some ancient form of traditional Gaelic or Celtic verse, the notes vibrating strangely within the cramped, uninsulated metal frame of the van. The moment the final cadence faded into the quiet interior, a sharp chime echoed through my head: [Skill Activated: Verse of Warding] Effect: Target party members are granted +15% damage mitigation against all incoming magical attacks and +15% damage mitigation against all incoming melee/physical attacks. Duration: 1 hour.

"Oh, man," Jace muttered from the back row, instantly dropping his face into his hand.

"She's a literal Bard!"

"What the hell is a Bard?" Joe asked, looking entirely perplexed by the sudden physical tingling of the defensive spell.

"It means she's someone who has the potential to become incredibly dangerous, and is currently seriously underrated," I grinned, catching Isadora's eye in the mirror and giving her a quick wink. She returned the look with a quiet, knowing smile. I cut a sharp glance back at Jace, giving him a hard shake of my head to let him know he needed to shut his mouth and keep his gaming commentary to himself.