“That’s racist,” said Doria. She’d been summoned from the Annex to help with the search for Sisal’s boat.
“If it’s true, is it still racist?” asked Granite. “I knew Cheezpuffs would work for seapony bait.”
Doria glared at him, but took another mouthful of the crunchy treat from the bag that had been bought from a gas station.
Arc, Roxy, and Granite crouched near the edge of the seawall in the twilight of the setting sun. Doria was under an overhang, hidden from anypony who might happen to go by.
Back to business, Doria said, “We have some leads on boats that could be the one we’re looking for. It’s a little more difficult with some Gryphon and Minotaur ships in the bay for a visit right now. Give us a few hours and we might be able to narrow it down.” She wiped some orange “cheez” dust from her lips. Wadding up the empty snack bag, she threw it at Granite and dove beneath the water.
“What do we do while we wait?” Arc asked.
“Give me a little time,” Granite replied. He went to his kit again and began conjuring up another spell. It was slightly surprising that he could work in the fading sunlight, although perhaps he had memorized things to the point that he didn’t need light to rummage among his spell ingredients.
“What are you doing now?” Roxy asked.
“We know Sisal or somepony from her crew has been here,” Granite said. “It won’t hurt to look for residual magic. Maybe I’ll even pick up Smoke Screen’s signature.”
“You can tell that there’s something distinctive about her magic?” Arc asked.
“It was on the truck. There was a little at the garage. If she’s done anything nearby, I can pick it out. If anypony else has done magic, I’ll at least be able to detect it.”
Granite’s brow furrowed in concentration. Based on work and ingredients, this was apparently a more complicated spell than before.
Giving him space, Arc and Roxy stood together near the edge of the water. Forelegs around each other, they watched the sun set. It was a rather exposed position, but Arc didn’t see any potential sniper nests nearby, and the setting sun would soon shroud them in darkness. Bringing it up wasn’t worth concerning his wife.
Roxy could feel the tension in his body, and realized she had some of her own. The warm sunset was nice, but they were both still far from relaxed.
True to Doria’s words, there were a few unfamiliar ships around. The Gryphons and Minotaurs weren’t fighting each other here, and hopefully nothing would happen to change that.
“Here we go,” Granite announced. He stood up and unceremoniously threw a hoofful of powder into his face. Coughing, he blinked through the dissipating cloud.
“What was that?” Arc asked, eyebrows raised.
Granite gestured to his face, eyes beginning to water. “Just a little bit of perception enhancement. There are a lot of ways to crack the magic nut. I could use something external, like the pointer from the last spell, or I could use my own senses with some enhancement.”
“Why not use that all the time?” asked Roxy. “If it gives you more awareness?”
“Because right now it’s all I can do to keep from overstimulating myself.” Granite’s eyes were nearly squeezed shut, and he visibly reacted to the slight breeze that stirred the air. “Damn. I think I made the mix a little too rich this time.” He took a deep breath. “On the other hoof, Smoke Screen’s definitely been here.”
Eyes still closed and horn glowing slightly, Granite pointed down the wharf back towards where Seabreeze had been grabbed. “We don’t even have to go back to where we started. I can read it from here. It’s some sort of mental magic. Smoke Screen might have put your sailor to sleep or something.”
“The place where we started is over a kilometer down the waterfront,” said Arc. “You can tell from that far away?”
“Like I said, this batch is a little bit much.” Granite abruptly turned towards the seawall and bobbed his head, throwing a little bit of magic from his horn. A measure of water obediently leaped from the surface of the bay and splashed his face.
Blinking, Granite wiped his fetlock across his face and turned back to Arc and Roxy. “The seaponies will find out where your sailor is soon. They kidnapped her for some reason, and I’ll bet before this is over Sisal and her gang will be back to this base. You two stay here for that. I’ll call somepony and get a ride. My work here is done.”
He started to turn away but Arc said, “Wait a second, how do you know? Couldn’t you stay here and figure something else out?”
Granite stared at Arc. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t know; something!”
“Exactly. And I can do that better elsewhere. Have fun, you two.” He turned again and walked away, leaving Arc and Roxy alone with each other.
“Well, at least he left us in good company,” Roxy said, brushing a wing over Arc’s shoulder.
Arc smiled. “He sure did.”
They stood for a few minutes and watched the horizon grow darker. The sun was fully down and twilight was starting to fade into night.
Ruining the moment, Roxy’s cell phone rang. She paused for a sigh before answering. It was Carbon.
“Roxy, I’m glad you answered. I was doing some digging and I found something strange at the lab.”
That got her attention. “What is it?”
“It looks like a big chunk of shaped glass or crystal. It was wrapped in cloth and buried outside our window.”
Despite talking through the phone, Roxy made a face of confusion. “And how did you find it?”
“Well, I’ve been spending a lot of time at the lab trying to put things back together. I saw some fresh dirt outside and wondered why it was disturbed.”
“But why were you outside?” Roxy asked.
“I’ve been trying to figure out the who/what/why of the crime,” Carbon admitted. “I was just having a look at everything, including the outside of the window.”
“You aren’t the police,” Roxy reminded him. “Did you tell them what you found?”
“Sure. They didn’t know what to make of it either.”
“Well, thanks for telling me.”
“Sure. Have a good night, Roxy.”
Arc had caught most of the conversation and traded glances with Roxy after she hung up. “That sounds a lot more important than he realizes.”
Roxy nodded. “I’m going to call it in.”
She dialed Tammy and explained the situation.
Tammy, apparently still at work despite the late hour, assured her that Granite would be tasked to take a look at whatever Carbon had found.
She asked Roxy, “Who is he, by the way?”
“He’s somepony I work with.” Roxy gave her Carbon’s full name.
“Hmm, we may have to keep an eye on him.”
“He hasn’t done anything wrong,” Roxy pointed out.
“I understand,” Tammy soothed. “Just keep an eye on him and report if he finds anything else. We may make the decision to read him in to the organization if that is deemed beneficial.”
Ending the call, Roxy put away her phone and turned to Arc. “The idea of recruiting somepony else feels almost as weird as joining up in the first place did.”
He nodded in agreement. They both glanced at the skyline. It was almost completely dark now, and the moon hadn’t risen yet. A few sodium vapor security lights lit the piers with pink light, but even just a few feet over the edge of the seawall, the water vanished into blackness, the waves heard more than seen.
It was appropriate, then, that the sound of a helicopter reached them long before it appeared ou of the night.
Aircraft had been operating from the naval air station across the bay. Only a few miles away, their lights were clearly evident. The chopper that came swooping down on the wharf was blacked out.
Arc grabbed Roxy’s fetlock and hauled her down behind the car. Either they weren’t spotted or the aircrew were not concerned about them.
It soon became clear why. The helicopter flared into a hover over a lone destroyer moored down the way. Several ponies dropped out, landing on the ship’s deck. Machine guns rattled, muzzle flashes lighting up from within the helicopter’s doors.
Arc would have thought it was suicide for a small group to try attacking a Navy ship, but your average terrorist didn’t have the advantage of aircraft or fire support.
The helicopter kept the ship’s security forces at bay. Working quickly under fire, the ponies that had landed on the deck finished their work and then scrambled back aboard the chopper. The aircraft lifted into the air, cables trailing from the belly down to the deck of the ship.
A tightly focused explosion detonated, small enough that Arc almost mistook it for a malfunctioning grenade. The flash over the ship’s missile tubes alerted him that it was something else.
Gaining altitude, the helicopter pulled a few of the missile tubes free, lifting them clear of the ship. The metal that had previously held them in place had been neatly taken care of with small, strategically placed charges. Still firing guns to keep the ship’s crew pinned, the helicopter turned laboriously with its load and began to fly away.
It was the perfect time to have a missile launcher in the trunk, and Arc was already going for it before the helicopter had even finished its lift.
Opening the trunk and grabbing the HU-7, Arc checked the battery and slapped it into its plug. Removing the tube covers, turning on the power switch, and flipping up both the primary and secondary sights, he hoisted it to his shoulder and stepped from behind the car.
The helicopter had already vanished into the night. “Tell me where to look!” Arc called, sparing a hoof to gesture at Roxy. “I can’t see it!”
She was slightly stunned at seeing the missile launcher come out, but recovered quickly, turning towards the sound of the departing helicopter. Concentrating as well as she was able, she raised a hoof and pointed, based on what her sensitive ears were telling her.
Arc lined up the weapon on her cue. Squeezing the trigger halfway, a small light lit up on the rear sight and the launcher sounded an electronic buzz to indicate that it had locked on. Adjusting his aim a final time, he fired.
The missile popped out of the tube, its rocket motor igniting to begin its supersonic journey to the target. The light of the scorching exhaust was blinding, but that was nothing compared to the explosion that blossomed in the sky a moment later. Burning and breaking up, the helicopter fell into the bay. A slick of fuel remained on the surface of the water, still on fire.
Arc was slightly stunned that he’d instinctively remembered the translated manual on how to operate an old Hooviet missile and had actually hit something with it. Roxy was somewhat stunned herself, and for exactly the same reason.
Remembering where he was, Arc turned stiffly and carefully placed the empty tube into the trunk. “I can’t believe I just did that!” he said, looking decidedly paler than usual, quite a feat for a white pony.
“I think maybe we should get out of here,” Roxy suggested.
Arc nodded and they got in the car. Remembering the situation, Roxy quickly dialed HQ.
It took more than a little explaining, but by the time the whole story had been transmitted, Arc had found a dark place to park, away from the scene of the attack. Roxy hung up the phone after securing a promise that help was on the way. The two of them sat there for a moment in the darkened car.
Roxy put a hoof on Arc's shoulder. “Arc, are you okay? That was…” she had to look away for a moment. When she turned back she saw an unreadable expression on his face, and his eyes were wide.
“I’ve never done anything like that before,” Arc replied. “Not many walk away from a helicopter crash, especially after being shot down into water. Not only that, but I’m pretty sure it was illegal.”
“You had no choice, love. They would have gotten away with the most dangerous haul I can imagine.”
“Maybe,” speculated Arc. He paused and took a deep breath. In a different tone, he said, “I wonder if this is the endgame. Stealing weapons from the Navy could have been their plan all along. And with us stopping it...”
There were a few more moments of silence as the two of them had time to come to grips with the situation.
“In that case, we’re awesome.” Roxy grinned.
“We do make a good team,” said Arc, matching her smile. “Whether husband and wife or spotter and shooter.”
Roxy leaned across the car and kissed him. “Call us whatever you want. I’m just happy to be with you.”