“Warn me when we get close to the other Hunters. I do not want any jumpy Americans shooting us by mistake. And tell me when the police arrive so we can get back to the boats.” Klaus had better things to do than be detained by American law enforcement. His last experience with them hadn’t gone too well.

“I will warn—wait! I’ve got something. Franks is heading your way. He is one hundred meters to your northwest on the other side of those train cars.”

They were all on the same band. The point man immediately took a knee and aimed his rifle in that direction. There was a brilliant flash of lightning, and Klaus caught a brief glimpse of that section of the yard. A building had once stood there, but it had burned down years ago, so all that remained was the skeleton of metal girders, now covered in creeping vines. The thunder followed a moment later.

Reger’s voice was excited in Klaus’ ear. “He’s crossing the ruins now. He must be trying to escape by sea. You’ll need to move up or he will pass by.”

Klaus gave several quick hand signals, and the men who had been behind him spread out and hurried forward. From what he understood of Franks’ physiology, they would need to concentrate fire and hit him repeatedly to have any chance of bringing him down quickly.

“Wait . . . He’s stopped. Franks is looking right at the camera. He’s heard the drone! He’s aiming a pistol. Damn it! The feed is lost. I repeat, the feed is lost.”

Franks had to be a very good shot to have plucked their tiny eye from the sky. Now they had to do this the old-fashioned way. If they held, Franks could slip past, or worse, the other Hunters might catch him first. Klaus signaled for all of his men to move up. They’d sweep the ruined building and either catch Franks there, or flush him out. They had an MG3 on one of the Zodiacs. “Reger, move your boat and be ready to intercept him if he gets past us. If he tries for the water, use the machine gun. Everyone go to Lucie.” Then Klaus let go of his radio and rushed to keep up with his men.

The full moon that had been so helpful on their approach had been obscured by the black clouds rolling in. He flipped down the LUCIE night vision in front of his eyes. The world turned into green and grey pixels. It ruined his peripheral vision, but it had become so damned dark in the last few minutes that without it they’d be tripping over themselves.