When they finally managed to catch up with Túlio, he was standing on the edge of the soccer field. He was looking, amazed, at an immense aircraft, which occupied almost half the area of the field. It was something none of them had seen before — a secret very well kept by the Imperial Aeronautics Institute of Technology.
The aircraft consisted of four rotors with its blades measuring fifteen meters from end to end. Each rotor was on the end of a lattice structure, which served as their support, connecting them to a semi-circular central area with twelve meters of diameter, where passengers and the crew were lodged. Indeed, the sight of that metallic monster was astonishing.
Túlio noticed that between the floaters which supported the aircraft while it was on the ground was a small glazed “turret,” a cylindrical protuberance coming out of the center of the fuselage and descending more or less one meter. Inside, a chair with some kind of “control stick,” and under the structure, two rotating machine guns, mounted on the same articulated arm. That was the only visible weapon.
“That thing… doesn't have wings? Does that fly?” asked Airu, already suffering in advance.
“I had already read about the Aeronautics’ secret development program, but never thought those things really existed…” said the Professor, also visibly impressed.
A sliding door opened on the center of the aircraft and from it came a few officers together with Captain Barthel, with a grin on their faces. Airu wished strongly that he would trip.
He approached the group and asked, “So, what do you think? It's fantastic, isn't it?” As none of them managed to utter a single word, the Captain continued: “That is our newest weapon: the first rotating-wings aircraft! Some engineers have nicknamed it the ‘quadcopter.’ This wonder will allow us to land and take off from the ships, besides hovering exactly above the enemy's armada, where their cannons can't hit it. It's our great trump! I myself was the greatest encourager of this project, which will show us what it's capable of in this war that's coming.”
Airu, despite noticing the satisfaction with which the Captain spoke and even knowing she'd be ignored, couldn't help but retort:
“How will something half the size of a soccer field manage to land on a ship? And even if there is a large enough ship, how many of those will it be able to carry?”
Captain Barthel, at first, didn't bother with what the Indian had said. He kept looking joyfully at his newest toy. But little by little, his smile gave place to an expression of concern, almost sadness. With a nervous laugh and an uncontrolled blink of his eyes, the color of his face began to change into a red shade and, right afterwards, bluish purple. Some soldiers who were doing maintenance on the airship stopped, concerned, and began to go help him. But the man exploded, yelling at full lungs, “And what do you know, you bugra, to judge the War Ministry's projects? You barely even know what an airplane is! You… you… you ignoramus! Your people have never been capable of building anything besides stone hatchets! It's not a surprise you were almost extinct! But I will take care of that myself as soon as this war is over, you hear me? And you? What are you standing there for? I want this aircraft in the air now or you'll spend a month in solitary confinement, you hear me?” And he stomped of towards the arsenal.
Airu grinned as she asked her companions, “Was it something I said?”
The Professor, with an amused expression, just limited himself to saying she should be more careful with the Captain. He didn't seem like the type of man who took things lying down.
They stood on the edge of the field watching the soldiers check the quadcopter, take care of its fueling, load it with portable weapons, ammunition, and provisions. After some time, they were called to take their places in the monster's belly.
Airu was the last to enter. She was reluctant to fly in something that didn't even have wings.
Túlio preferred to sit next to a window, leaving the Professor between him and the girl. Despite the excitement with that technological novelty, he still hadn't forgotten the fiasco of the previous night. Trying to fill his head with something else, he observed the aircraft's interior: there were a few rows of seats and a cargo area. At that moment, even the tight seats of the Inconfidência's Economy Class would have felt luxurious.
In the cargo area, several wooden boxes with the Imperial Army emblem could be seen. The soldiers who would accompany them didn't seem tense, just the opposite — some were making balls with their chewing gum, some checking their weapons, while others were telling jokes. To them, that was a Giant Wheel ride.
A warning sounded through the loudspeaker system warning them to buckle their belts. The Commander also sounded very happy to pilot the War Ministry's new jewel and reminded everybody that the cruising speed would be of three hundred and twenty kilometers per hour, at five thousand meters of altitude. They would arrive in Ouro Preto do Oeste in two and a half hours, “if everything went right.”
Airu felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
Captain Barthel walked in through the sliding door and signaled to the pilots that they could already take off. He closed the door with an abrupt movement and sat in front of his men, away from Airu, to whom he didn't even turn his eyes.
The engines were activated and little by little the four propellers began to spin. Túlio noted that two of them spun clockwise, and the other two counterclockwise.
The noise started to become unbearable, making Airu and Túlio take their hands to their ears in a vain attempt to suppress the sharp sound. One of the soldiers, seeing the situation, yelled at them and pointed at something above their heads. They realized there were headphones, one for each seat, of the type that covered the whole ear. From the base of the headphones came a strap with a small microphone on the tip: those were intercoms.
Túlio, Airu, and the Professor put on their headphones and the relief was immediate — the noise lowered to bearable levels and they now could also hear the conversation between the pilots and a few soldiers. They were talking about navigation charts, cumulonimbi, and codified intercom channels. Túlio paid attention only to some parts of the conversation, which weren't about anything too interesting — “…restricted communication, tower… perfect, five bar five… encryption key on position A-2… A-2… do you have the keys booklet on you?… attention back there, guys: this aircraft is not like a common plane that takes off by accelerating on the airstrip to then going up in an acute angle. We'll simply go up… making an angle of ninety degrees with the ground. It can be a little… uncomfortable.”
When the quadcopter took off, going up horizontally, Airu's stomach felt like it had been left stuck to the floor. The feeling was more than uncomfortable, and she tried desperately to breathe normally, unsuccessfully. She clasped her hands and closed her eyes, wondering how the next two and a half hours of her life would be.
As they went up, the nervousness that Túlio had also been feeling gave place to incredible admiration — the people, the cars, the buildings and the city of Cuiabá itself were left behind, becoming dots that were lost in the vastness of the soil.
In little time, they reached cruising altitude and the vertical acceleration diminished. The Professor's ears felt “capped” with the abrupt change in atmospheric pressure.
“Professor, do you hear me?” It was Captain Barthel, talking through the intercom system. The Professor waved with his hand.
“Great. Our plan of action is to refuel at the Air Base of Ouro Preto do Oeste and we'll depart right afterwards to the mouth of the Padauari river. From there, we'll fly over the river looking for the pyramids.”
“You see, Captain… supposing we find the pyramids on the first overflight… they will be surrounded by closed forest. How will we manage to land?”
“Contrary to what some think, Professor, the Empire's engineering is excellent and forethoughtful. Have you noticed that our aircraft has floaters? We'll land on the river and continue by foot after we have identified the location.”
“Indeed… but… what if the pyramids are too far from the river?”
The Captain let out a brief laugh, where Airu could clearly identify a tone of satisfaction. “Under each seat is a backpack, Professor. In the worst-case scenario, we'll skydive. And don't worry — it's very easy. Even an indian could do it.”
Túlio, even though he didn't want to, felt a twinge of contentment upon imagining how Airu must be feeling hearing that. He quickly pushed that thought away when he remembered that he himself had never done anything like that and that he wasn't comfortable at all. He forced himself to ask the Professor, “If we've managed to detect that radiologic activity of the pyramids, can’t we get their precise location?”
“Unfortunately no, Túlio,” the Professor replied with discouragement. “It's necessary to have a gigantic device aboard an airship to detect the radiologic emissions. And three airships are necessary to get a notion of the geographic location of the emission. Still, the farther from the spot the airships are, the less precise the location is… so we know it's around here, but that's all. At the end of the day, nothing can replace a pair of well-trained eyes!”