Mike Maden
DRONE
Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.
This book is dedicated to you, Tom Lavin, my magnificent father-in-law, a combat-wounded, combat- decorated Marine. In 1952 you were just a kid hunting the enemy on night patrols with nothing more than a .45 in your hand and your head on a swivel, the point man on a zeroed-in path between rice paddies forward of the MLR. Overrun on the Yoke, bombarded on X-Ray, ambushed on Irene, you and your friends were outnumbered and outgunned, but you prevailed, unyielding in blood and valor. You did your job well, Pop, and so did your friends, the ones who came home from Korea and the ones who didn’t. You believed, and that made all the difference.
CHARACTER LIST
Troy Pearce — CEO, Pearce Systems
Udi and Tamar Stern — Husband-and-wife team; field operatives
Stella Kang — Former U.S. Army drone pilot; field operative
Judy Hopper — Pearce’s personal pilot
Johnny Paloma — Former LAPD SWAT; field operative
Ian McTavish — Director of IT operations/research specialist
Dr. Kirin Rao — Head of research and development
Dr. Kenji Yamada — UUV research and operation; oceanographer (whale researcher)
August Mann — UGV specialist; head of nuclear deconstruction division
Margaret Myers — President of the United States
Bill Donovan — Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security
Jackie West — FBI Director
Dr. Karl Strasburg — Foreign Affairs/Security Advisor
Frank Romero — U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Faye Lancet — Attorney General
Mike Early — Special Assistant (Security) to the President
Nancy Madrigal — DEA Administrator
Pedro Molina — Director of ICE
Robert Greyhill — Vice President
Roy Jackson — Head of DEA Intelligence
Sandy Jeffers — President’s Chief of Staff
Sergio Navarro — DEA Intelligence Analyst
T. J. Ashley, Ph.D. — Head of Drone Command
Tom Eddleston — U.S. Secretary of State
Antonio Barraza — President of Mexico
Hernan Barraza — The president’s brother and chief advisor
Cesar Castillo — Head of the Castillo Syndicate
Ulises, Aquiles Castillo — Cesar’s twin sons
Colonel Israel Cruzalta — Battalion Commander, Infanteria de Marina Mexicana
Victor Bravo — Head of the Bravo Alliance
Dmitry Titov — President of the Russian Federation
Konstantin Britnev — Russian Federation Ambassador to the United States
Ali Abdi — Quds Force Commander
AMISOM — African Union Mission in Somalia
AUMF — Authorization to Use Military Force
ARGUS-IS — Autonomous Real-Time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance Imaging System
ARSS — Autonomous Rotorcraft Sniper System
BMI — Brain-Machine Interface
DARPA — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DAS — Domain Awareness System
FISA — Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
JDAM — Joint Direct Attack Munition
JSOC — Joint Special Operations Command
LATP — Lima Army Tank Plant
RIOT — Rapid Information Overlay Technology
UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
UGV — Unmanned Ground Vehicle
USV — Unmanned Surface Vehicle
UUV — Unmanned Underwater Vehicle
WPR — War Powers Resolution
AUTHOR NOTE
All of the drone systems described in this book are currently deployed or in development. I have taken the liberty of simplifying and, in some cases, amplifying their performance characteristics for the sake of the story. However, I am confident that the “new and improved” versions I have described will soon be widely available.
MAY
1
El Paso, Texas
