“He said that the drones themselves are useless without the controllers.” He raised a brow. “They have hardly any security. The controllers, on the other hand…”
“Let me guess,” Lisa added. “Locked up in a secure vault somewhere that only the brass can access?”
Bridger nodded.
Slippy spun his laptop around and smiled. “All I need is a control interface and I’m ready. I’ve got their specs, my transmitter is keyed to their frequencies…”
“So what are you saying?” Mauk asked.
“I’m saying, go get something to eat and by the time you get back, I’ll have a control interface mocked up that even a caveman could understand.” He glanced at Mauk and pouted. “I guess that means that you’ll have to study REAL hard to figure it out.”
“Fuck you, too,” Mauk grumbled as he turned for the door. “I got your caveman hanging right here.” He cupped his crotch and shook it at Gregg.
“Beat it.” Gregg waved him off. “I’m working here.”
“You heard the man.” Bridger came to his feet and reached for the door. “Be back in two hours.”
“What happens then?” Lisa asked.
Bridger fought the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Then we steal a couple million dollars’ worth of assassin drones and skip town.”
Mauk grunted. “Somebody better tell Laughlin. I’m not really fond of the fucker, but I’d hate to leave him swinging in the wind with a pissed off military.”
Bridger glanced through the reinforced glass wall and spotted Blake in his office. “Something tells me that not all of them will be pissed.”
Langley Virginia
Robert Ingram, Acting Director of the NSA’s F6 Division stepped off of the elevator just as Director Jameson pressed the button. “You’re just the man I need to speak with.”
Jameson feigned surprise. “Whatever for, Robert?”
“I think you know why.” Ingram crossed his arms and stared at him stoically.
Jameson sighed then turned back towards his office. “Fine. Follow me.” The pair crossed through the secretary’s “buffer zone” and Jameson pushed open his office door. He waited until the door was shut, blocking sound to the exterior then turned on the younger man. “This had better be important for you to use that tone with me.”
“Why would you have me call in favors to get you an armed UAV over Mexican air space if you were going to undercut me?”
Jameson set his briefcase down carefully and gave the man a blank look. “I’m not certain I follow.”
Ingram’s jaw quivered slightly as he continued. “I reached out to my sources only to find out that another U.S. governmental agency was laying the ground work for a cartel WAR!” He clenched his jaw and glared at the older man. “Why didn’t you bring me in on your little plan before sending me out there to deal with this with my own assets?”
Jameson sighed and sat on the edge of his desk. “To be honest, Robert, I didn’t think you had it in you to get the job done.” He pulled his glasses off and absently cleaned them with a handkerchief. “So I did what I thought was best.”
“By starting a war within the cartels themselves?”
“What better way to get what we want without directing attention our way?” He slid his glasses back into place and took a deep breath. “We get air support for our future asset, ensure his teams safety, and in return, we have complete deniability.”
Ingram’s jaw quit twitching and he narrowed his gaze at the man. “And what does this anonymity cost us?”
Jameson shrugged slightly. “A few munitions.” He stifled a fake yawn. “Maybe a drone.”
“A drone?” Ingram’s eyes widened. “You want to give a Colombian drug lord, rooted in the mountains of Mexico just south of our border, a fucking drone?”
“I didn’t say it would be a good one.” Jameson smiled. “Look, Robert, when dealing with people of this caliber, one expects a certain amount of…distrust.”
“You plan to back out on the deal?”
Jameson chuckled, “Of course not. No, when dealing with a foreign asset, even an asset as unpredictable as a cartel leader, one must keep up one’s end of the bargain.” He slid from the corner of his desk and stepped around the edge, sitting gently in the overstuffed leather chair. “However, as no detailed ‘clarifications’ were specified…who is to say what kind of drone they might receive?”
“You’re gonna rear end them on a technicality?” Ingram chuckled as he fell into the chair opposite. “That sounds an awful lot like playing with fire.”
“I am an active Director within the CIA. Do you really think that some drug cartel thug is going to be able to reach me?”
Ingram leaned forward and raised a brow. “They’ve bought entire cities south of here. They’ve bought politicians, police forces, hell, they’ve even bought off large chunks of the military. Do you really think that you’re untouchable?”
Jameson shook his head slightly. “I didn’t say untouchable, Robert. But if they feel that I am beholden to them in some small way, isn’t that worth something?”
“Probably not as much as a dedicated UAV.”
“True.” Jameson smiled again. “But where will they get the armaments for that machine? The pilot interface? The training to operate it?” He shook his head again. “I can supply them with a drone. It won’t be shiny and new and it won’t be armed, but it will fly. If they can figure out how and get someone qualified to do it.”
Ingram came to his feet. “That still doesn’t explain why you cut me out. You should have told me the groundwork you were laying.”
“Perhaps.” Jameson came to his feet and picked up his jacket and briefcase again. “But I couldn’t be certain that my plan would pan out. It really was a shot in the dark.”
Ingram clenched his jaw and nodded slightly. “Well, from my resources, it certainly sounds like your plan worked. The same officers that owed me, regretfully informed me that their assets would not be available for the immediate future.” He locked
