"Sir, it's launching!"
'I do see that,' Rowley refrained from barking out loud. The shadowy black cobra lifted off the pad without permission, an act that would normally earn a fatal response.
"Get that weapons system online," he ordered, somehow not surprised at the lack of response in the dock.
He was going to get away, after ten years living under their noses, he was now going to get away. The girl and the evening's operations were no longer on Rowley's mind.
"Wow, that thing accelerates like ..."
It shot off towards the exit just as the weapons system came back online. Too late, as Rowley knew it would be.