Dragonflies: Shadow Of Drones Page 7

  They paused for a moment and it sounded like they were passing through some kind of checkpoint, and then it seemed like they’d entered some kind of garage, the sound of their tires echoing off pavement and concrete. The car rolled to a stop and one of her escorts shut down the engine and climbed out while the other opened the back door for her and gave her a hand to help her stand.

  The hood was removed. She blinked in reaction to the bright light and saw that she was back in the same indoor parking area from which they’d transported her, after hooding her, from the facility earlier in the day.

  “Welcome back, Ms. Sanchez. You made the right decision.”

  She looked up to Murnell, looking as handsome as ever, this time dressed more like the casual scientist in blue jeans and a sweater, approaching her from the landing above while her two guards a pair of men dressed casually undercover in blue jeans and jackets–melted into the background and disappeared through a side entrance.

  She hadn’t really thought through, until now, how skillfully and effectively Murnell had baited the trap, whetting her appetite to work with all of his gee-whiz techno-toys. But seeing the facility and him in person all over again put her on her guard. She wondered if, in addition to whatever technical work he was doing for Homeland, he’d had psychological operations training. He certainly had a knack for timing and for doling out the selective information.

  “I’m ready to get to work.” She told him the truth.

  “Good. So glad to hear it. Can we get you anything to eat or drink before we start rolling?”

  “Nope. I’m good to go. Let’s saddle up the ship.”

  “Spoken like a true pilot.”

  He led the way back down a series of corridors, passing two different pairs of armed guards along the way, to the same cavernous, empty room she’d seen several hours before. It looked no different now than it did then. The outside world could have been eating lunch at noon or sleeping at midnight–to the room and the sphere it was all the same. Once inside, the only reality existed on the screens, in the virtual environment, a full immersive world. Raina suddenly realized why such a thing appealed to her, drew her even. It was a chance to really feel like she was climbing back into the cockpit again, even more than she did with the dragonflies. She knew she missed flying her helicopter in person. She just hadn’t processed how much.

  “She’s all yours,” Murnell told her as he helped guide her into the chair inside the sphere. She also couldn’t help noticing how his hand seemed to linger under her arm a fraction of a second longer than necessary.

  For the next couple of hours, under his guidance and patient instruction, she learned how to control and manipulate a series of apparently different MAVs via multiple MAV-generated images. She loved the freedom Murnell’s drones seemed to give her, the sensation of the craft in her hands, responding instantly to her control as if she were actually on board. But the amazing thing was the vision. The information these drones provided was astounding, as close to being there as she could imagine. She wasn’t even sure what the drones she was flying looked like, except for his occasional reminder that there was more than one, all working in concert, from the desert in Nevada to the desert over Baghdad, from a city in Northern Africa to the mountains of Pakistan, eventually even, a live feed of a downtown section of Beijing, in all its splendor and smog, not too far from the Forbidden City.

  It was exhilarating, empowering, even a little frightening. While she sat in the near midnight darkness of Northern Virginia, on the opposite side of the globe hazy lunchtime sunshine filtered through a busy urban neighborhood.

  “Don’t the Chinese know we have this technology?” Raina asked.

  “Oh, they know,” Murnell said, “At least in principle. But for now we’ve managed to keep the details away from their prying eyes–no easy task, I can tell you, given the persistence and prowess of their cyber-snooping. To the rest of the world, most of these toys are years from being operational.”

  Yet here he was handing the keys to the kingdom to a disabled, retired Chief Warrant Officer. Raina wasn’t stupid. Something didn’t add up.

  “Why me?” she asked him again. “Why recruit me to fly these things?”

  “Because you fit the profile.” He shrugged, offering an impish grin. “We don’t normally like to work with former pilots. We’ve found they too often come with detrimental ingrained habits from logging too many hours in the air. But you’re a quick study, and–if don’t mind my saying so, CWO Sanchez–you come with the whole package.”

  She felt his eyes on her again, as if they were undressing her. It made her feel vulnerable. Not that having some guy hit on her was any kind of new experience–she just hadn’t allowed it to go on like this since Afghanistan. Was it only the flying and the rush of incredible technology she was after?

  “In fact.” His voice jolted her back to reality. “I think you’re about ready to solo.”

  His shadow moved away from the chair.

  “What?” She’d trained on a simulator under Major Williamson’s guidance for days before starting to work with the MAVs.

  “It’s all right.” He was already moving toward the door. “I’m going to step out of the sphere and leave the room for a few minutes, but don’t worry, I’ll still have an eye on you and you’ll still be able to hear me talking. Go ahead and try some different venues on for size.”

  “Different venues?” She wore no headset or other communications gear. “But how–?”

  She turned to look at the door, but Murnell had already exited through it.

  “Hello?”

  “I’m here,” he said matter-of-factly. “Can you hear me okay?”

  “Roger.”

  “Good.” The voice seemed to come above. “Now just relax.”

  The images surrounding her still put her on the street in Beijing. But now, at the edges of the street scene on all sides were a collection of other, smaller screens, showing different video from different parts of the globe. She feathered her fingers across the control pad and took control of whatever it was she was flying. It shocked her to realize that whatever form these MAVs took, their existence seemed to disappear from her consciousness. The drones were nothing more than a means to an end: secretly placing her in the heart of a foreign nation.

  “Fly straight along the street for a bit. Let’s see how you do.”

  So Murnell, wherever he’d moved off to, was seeing everything that she saw. Maybe there was another sphere or some kind of a master display where he could track her movements in real time? There seemed to be so much information pouring into her own environment, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to manage an even larger array.

  She did as he instructed and the images began to change, slowly or rapidly, depending upon how fast she slid her fingers. She could walk, she could run, she could zoom upward to fly. She wondered, if she decided to dive headlong into the pavement, if she could even crawl–maybe the drones under her control were so advanced they possessed such capabilities. But she was too new at this type of flying to make such a potentially risky move.

  “Excellent,” Murnell encouraged her. “Two streets ahead, you’ll be turning to the right.”

  “Copy.”

  After two more blocks the street opened into a wide intersection where it crossed a busy boulevard jam-packed with buses, bicyclists, and cars. She was high enough in the air to avoid hitting anything, but did no one take note of her presence? Were the MAVs she was flying virtually invisible like the tiny hover angels she’d been deploying with Tye?

  “Okay,” Murnell said. “We’re going to try something different. Remember, this is just an exercise…I want you to cross this intersection and once you reach the other side move to the sidewalk on the right hand side of the street. You’ll need to watch out for the buildings to your right. They’re taller here.”

  “I can see that,” she said.

  “Stay focused.”

  She flew as he directed over the in
tersection, entering a residential street lined with multi-story apartment buildings on either side. Swerving a little to the right, she began moving over top of the sidewalk.

  “Nice,” he said. “If you look ahead of you, you’ll see a man walking with his wife and two small children, a boy and a girl. Look even more carefully and you’ll notice they’re being flanked discreetly on all sides by secret police. Those are the guys doing their best to try to look like businessmen or tourists in dark suits.”

  “Who is the man with the family?”

  “For now let’s just say he’s a very high-ranking Communist party official. If you zoom in for a close-up, you’ll notice a seventy-thousand dollar Jaeger LeCoultre watch strapped to his wrist.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  She could make out the middle-age man approaching her on the sidewalk ahead, tall for an Asian, in a dark, expensive looking suit. The woman next to him was beautiful. The children were dressed like American prep school kids. They were laughing, as kids often do, especially the boy, but they remained a respectful distance in back of their parents.

  “All right.” Murnell’s voice seemed to drop an octave. “Weapons going live.”

  “What?” For a moment, Raina thought she must have been hearing things. “Are you insane?”

  “Relax, Chief. Remember, this is only an exercise. Focus on your flying.”

  No time to play twenty questions. Unless she was being bamboozled by some elaborate video game, this was as real as it gets. Like what she’d heard Predator pilots and sensor operators experienced, weapons hot, tracking a moving target–times ten. She nudged her drones a little to the left to avoid a building overhang.

  “Stay on target.”

  “You are certifiable, Murnell. Putting a newbie into a situation like this.”

  “It’s not a situation, Sanchez. As long as we don’t get caught. And you’re no newbie. Show me what you can do.”

  “What kind of weapon am I supposed to be carrying?”

  “That’s classified. But I will tell you it’s miniscule in comparison to the hellfire missiles our military drones are using. Every bit as deadly. Just a lot more surgical.”

  “Surgical. You mean as in assassination.”

  “Focus, Sanchez. The target is the tall man in the suit.”

  “What about his wife next to him and the two children?”

  “Do your job and they’ll all be mourning at his funeral.”

  An orange dot appeared in her field of vision.

  “You see the target finder?”

  “Got it.”

  “Move it left or right a little, but not too much. The computer is doing the heavy lifting. You’re there for the fine tuning.”

  Fine tuning, all right. Fine tuned to a kill.

  “Who’s making the call on the shot?”

  “That’s above our pay grade. Fifteen seconds out.”

  “But am I in the kill chain?”

  “Not yet. Keep the orange dot on the man in the suit.”

  The family filled the screen directly in front of her now, the dot jumping and darting with the micro-motions of the MAVs. Even the slightest movement of her fingers caused her to move slightly off target, but she focused all of energies on the man’s face, and it seemed to be working. Was she starting to get the hang of it?

  “Five seconds.”

  The woman was saying something in what Raina assumed must be Mandarin Chinese to her husband, the words faint but audible. She wore a tasteful pearl necklace and dark suit jacket over a stylish pencil dress, stockings, and high heels. Raina felt like an invisible murderer, walking right up to her husband with an invisible gun. She was so close she could see lines in the man’s face and the subtle pink shade of the woman’s fingernails.

  But just before she passed over top of the target, everything disappeared.

  Raina blinked and found she was staring through the glassine surface of the sphere into the dark emptiness of the surrounding space. She looked around the chair and ran her fingers back and forth across the touchpad, trying to bring the images back, all to no avail.

  “What just happened?”

  There was no response.

  “Murnell?”

  “Nothing good,” he finally said.

  14

  Tye awoke with a start at dawn. He’d fallen asleep on the couch again, but the one in his own apartment this time. Stretching his legs and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and looked around at the Spartan furnishings.

  He had no plans for staying here, so why add anything? Out of habit, he dropped to the floor for his morning AFPT calisthenics. As his thoughts came together about the day and the mission at hand, something wasn’t sitting right with him.

  He was nervous about continuing to work with Raina–no use denying it. The idea made him uncomfortable and he tried to push it away–maybe because he felt such an attraction to her–but she was definitely keeping something from him. Something had gone on yesterday morning when she disappeared, and she had lied to him about it.

  Taking down Kurn may not have been quite the same as going to war, but in many ways it wasn’t all that different, and one thing Tye knew for certain: you don’t go into battle with soldiers you don’t have faith in to watch your back. Raina had breached his trust and they needed to have a frank discussion about it.

  He finished up his exercises and went in to use the bathroom and shower. His watch read six a.m. and Raina’s apartment was just across the complex. Was it too early to call? He unplugged his mobile phone from the wall where at least he’d remember to charge it the night before, scrolled to her number and punched the button.

  She answered before the second ring.

  “Hey.”

  “Good morning, Sergeant,” she said with a hint of mocking familiarity. “How’d you sleep?”

  “We need to talk.”

  “I know. Big day ahead.”

  “No. I mean we need to talk about what we’re doing before this whole thing goes any further.”

  “Oh.” She seemed surprised. “All right. Is something wrong?”

  “Yes. And I need to talk to you about it in person.”

  “Okay.” She hesitated. “You eaten yet?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why don’t you come on over? The coffee’s on and I’ll throw together some scrambled eggs and toast.”

  “Thanks. I’ll jump in the shower and throw on some clothes.”

  As the hot water revived him he thought about everything that could go wrong tonight at the fraternity.

  Derek Kurn might already be wise to their plan. Maybe the kid was smarter than his old man gave him credit for. Tye figured he could pass himself off well enough as just another student–after all, that’s what he still was–but when the time came to confront the younger Kurn with his crime he’d be relying on Raina’s mobile spy video to give him an edge. Take it away and the risk of something going south would be greatly amplified.

  He knew he could handle himself in a fight, but Tye had no training as a detective or law enforcement officer. The bottom line was if he and Raina were going to pull this off they needed one another.

  Meeting him at the door minutes later, Raina looked concerned.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Not really”

  “Come on in. Eggs are ready.”

  He followed her inside and they sat once again at her kitchen table, this time eating and drinking coffee in silence.

  “All right,” she said after a couple of minutes. “I think I know what’s eating at you. This is about yesterday morning, isn’t it?”

  He considered his words carefully before speaking. He took a deep breath and looked her in the eyes. “You’re lying to me.”

  She looked back at him for several moments before nodding. “You’re right, and I’m sorry.”

  “What’s going on?” He cupped his hands against his chin and leaned his elbows against the table.

  “Listen.”
Raina looked around. “Come into the bathroom.”

  “What?”

  She made a circular motion with her fingers, indicating he should say no more, and pushed away from the table. This was growing stranger by the moment.

  Once they were both inside the small bathroom, Raina stuffed a towel into the crack in the door. He also noticed there was water in both the sink and the bathtub with the drain plugs closed.

  Raina sat down on the edge of the tub. “I swept this room before you got here. We should be able to talk without being heard.”

  “Are you saying we’ve been bugged?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m not taking any chance. Some important people are on to at least some of what we’re doing against Kurn with Major Williamson.”

  This was not good news, not good at all.

  “What kind of important people?”

  “Homeland Security.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  She nodded. “I’ve been talking with them.”

  “Homeland? You’ve been talking to Homeland? And you didn’t think you needed to share any of this with me?”

  “I know. I’m sorry. But trust me, it didn’t start out by choice.”

  Tye thought back to the torn label he’d found yesterday between her couch cushions.

  “They drugged you,” he said.

  She looked at the floor and nodded again.

  “You sure these people are from Homeland?”

  Her eyes turned to meet his gaze. “That’s what they said, and from what I’ve seen so far, they’ve got all the resources and tools to back it up.”

  Tye took a deep breath. If their activities were running afoul of Homeland then they really were pushing out on a limb. Did Williamson know? Was he a part of it?

  “How much do they know about Kurn?”

  “I can’t say for certain. But they must have a fair amount of information about something. Why else would they come after me and know exactly where to find me? They’ve also been making vague references to what we’ve been doing. Nothing too specific, but enough to make me worry.”