Escape from Endeavor

by Daniel A. Jones

  ***

  Jim was skimming twenty feet above the trees when he first saw the glow of the fire. He had switched to thermal vision and the heat of the smoke marked the location of Sara’s camp like a signal flare. He slowed the skimmer as he got to within three hundred yards and armed the skimmer’s weapons system. The skimmer was a civilian vehicle, so it only had non-lethal weapons which would be good enough. He didn’t want to kill anyone—at least not yet. He flew forward and up, slowly, getting a better view of the campsite. When he reached one hundred yards he launched a full salvo of stun grenades into it.