Free The Case of the Wilted Broccoli by William Hertling Page A

looked up. When he got to the fifth truck, the plate matched.
    "It's fifth from the left," he explained.
    "Got it," Willow said.
    Everything was ready, so they turned the drone on, connected the wireless, and checked the video feed on Willow's laptop. Elon overlaid the flight-planning software with a satellite map of the area. He marked their current location. He looked across the lot with binoculars, picked out a flat spot on the roof of Bannon's warehouse, then programmed that location into Willow's computer. He glanced at Willow, who nodded, so he clicked start on the flight plan.
    The copter's rotors spun, blades slicing the air with a startling loud whine in the night. Resisting the urge to watch the drone itself, he kept his eyes focused on the screen to watch the video feed from the camera. The drone flew itself toward the warehouse, but Elon kept his hands on the controls, ready to override the autopilot if necessary.
    The lights off the Bannon warehouse silhouetted the dark trucks parked in front. The copter flew past a truck, then rose up over the lip of the building roof, and settled down. As soon as the drone landed, Elon cut the throttle to save batteries and avoid noise. From the rooftop, it would be a short, quick flight into the building.
    Elon programmed the next set of waypoints, his fingers flying over the keyboard in the darkness. He knew roughly where the pallet racks were inside the warehouse, and he'd only need to take control at the last moment to land.
    They didn't have long to wait. Suddenly the far left loading-dock door began to open, a dull roar even at this distance.
    "Wait," Willow said. "They'll be looking at that door. Go when the next door starts to open."
    Elon nodded.
    When the door was halfway up, the next one started to open, and when that was halfway up, the third one opened.
    "Perfect," Linden said. "They've got twelve doors to open, so you'll have at least five minutes of noise cover to get into position."
    Elon engaged the autopilot, and it followed the waypoints he set. The drone rose up off the roof, dipped down as soon as it passed the ledge, and flew through the doorway. With no GPS inside the building, the drone would have to fly the last little bit using motion sensors.  
    They followed its progress on the laptop screen, watching from its point of view, as it swooped through the top of the doorway, then turned abruptly left, and rose up to within a few feet of the ceiling and flew forward thirty feet. Then it stopped, hovering in midair.
    "This is where I have to fly it," Elon said. He spotted a tall pallet rack a few feet away, flew up and over. He checked the telemetry window to make sure he was centered over a pallet, and set the throttle to zero. The copter settled down with a thump.  
    The big garage doors continued their rolling thunder as the video screen showed nothing but a blank wall.
    "It's facing the wrong way!" Willow practically jumped up.
    "Relax," Elon said. He set the altitude for three inches, then gave the rudder control short taps until the drone turned and faced toward the doors.  
    Now they saw the long line of open doorways on the right side of the screen. In the middle of the dozen doors stood a man flipping switches one by one and watching the doors open. He gave no sign of having seen the Silver Dragon enter. In the middle of the screen, a long row of forklifts sat parked. Toward the left side of the screen they saw the massive refrigerator.  
    "Perfect," Willow said in a hushed whisper. She started recording the video and turned up the laptop sound, so they could hear what was happening in the warehouse. For a few minutes more, they heard only the rumbling of doors.  
    When the last door opened, the figure walked away from the switches.  
    "Is that Mr. Hutchins, the foreman?" Linden asked.
    "I can't tell," Willow said. "He's just a little bit too far away to make out the details. Maybe he'll come closer."
    But he didn't come closer. In fact, he