Page 83 of Bulletproof Jack: Hunting Lee Child's Jack Reacher

Hamilton, Ontario, CA

Five minutes into the hike, Liam realized he had underestimated how difficult this plan would be.

He’d chosen the location because it was remote enough, but not too far from Krause. He intended to demonstrate the Stiletto 100. He needed open space with no overhead wires and few, if any, people around.

The Devil’s Punchbowl had seemed to fit his requirements. It was a dramatic gorge with two waterfalls in the flatlands of Ontario, between Ottawa and Ancaster.

On the maps, the distance between the cabin and the gorge looked short enough to cover quickly. Reality was much worse than the map.

The old cabin was downhill and about a mile west from Devil’s Punchbowl. A large, wooded area covered most of the uneven ground between. Liam wasn’t much of an athlete. But he jogged a few miles now and then.

A one-mile hike, even uphill and through the woods while carrying the drone, wasn’t that far. He was in reasonably good shape. If Krause could do it, Liam could do it.

He hadn’t planned for a storm. He’d brought no rain gear for himself or for the Stiletto.

When the lightning finally stopped, he had struggled through the mud, pushing against strong winds. Long before he reached the flat grassy area near the observation point along the rim of the Devil’s Punchbowl, he was cold and soaked to the skin.

The Stiletto’s weight seemed to increase with every step he took. The muscles in his arms and legs began to ache.

He intended to test the Stiletto 100 under field weather conditions similar to what he’d face during the Ottawa parade tomorrow. He hadn’t expected to carry the drone so far. He’d planned to fly it after he cleared the trees. But the high winds and rain interfered.

As he approached the launch site, Liam squinted to see the parking lot off to his left where he would meet Krause later.

Between Liam and the ridge road straight ahead at the top of the bluff was the gaping maw of the Punchbowl. Almost a two-hundred-foot drop. Two waterfalls. A creek at the bottom. The rocky pathways along the gorge were slippery and dangerous.

The Stiletto would have enough open space to maneuver above the Devil’s Punchbowl. It was a perfect spot. The drone was functionally invisible to the naked eye of a casual observer, unlikely to be spotted.

Liam imagined he felt the stare of another early morning hiker piercing his back, but he shook it off. Not likely. The area was too dark, the terrain too rough for anyone else to be out here now, given the weather.

He looked at the ground. A wrong step and he might find himself more than a hundred feet down, splayed at the bottom of the ravine, bones broken, limbs akimbo, and no longer breathing.

When he’d cleared the trees, he chose a location to set up the Stiletto for launch. He watched the Stiletto lift into the air like a magnificent bird.

He felt better already. Krause would be astonished. Liam grinned.

Operating the drone soothed his agitation better than anything else.

The Stiletto performed perfectly even in bad weather. He’d expected nothing less. Still, the perfection of this baby impressed him like nothing he’d created before.

At the break of dawn, even with the heavy cloud cover, allowing the drone to fly was a calculated risk. Testing was necessary, but so was secrecy. Stiletto 100 was constructed of stealth materials which made it much less visible than other commercial and military drones.

But Brax wouldn’t like exposure to any unnecessary risk. Keeping the Stiletto 100 out of the public eye was essential. Not only for the test at the parade in Ottawa, but any deployment anywhere.

Until Krause perfected his competitor, or some other weapons engineer stumbled onto Liam’s proprietary and revolutionary technology, the Stiletto 100 must remain hidden under the tightest security.

In addition its technologically advanced target identification software, the Stiletto 100 was also a two-part system. It had a larger drone with range and power.

Stiletto 100 could spear the target with either a bullet or a bomb and make a clean escape.

Or the larger drone could deploy a smaller one to fly closer to the target and emit a deadly poison within a few inches of his nose. Or send a fatal dart into his jugular.

Both methods of attack would only be viable until the enemy learned Stiletto 100 existed.

Once discovered, the Stiletto 100 would inevitably be disclosed and its usefulness diminished or destroyed.

Which meant the Stiletto must stay out of sight as long as possible. Months at least. Years if possible.

Two bright halogen headlights turned off the north road into the nearby parking lot. Liam couldn’t be seen from the parking lot, but if the driver left his car he might see something he shouldn’t.

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