“So no one is this advanced?”
“The Israeli drones can’t do a third of what the early versions of the Flighthawk could handle,” said Rubeo. “And I would use that as a measuring stick.”
“What about us?” said Reid. “Could we do it?”
Rubeo took another sip of his water, then set it down and leaned forward on the table.
“Have we done it?” asked the scientist.
“I don’t know,” admitted Reid. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”
“I see.”
“I’m concerned about the implications,” explained Reid.
“As well you should be.”
“Can safety precautions be built into it? The paper says that they would be ineffectual.”
“
Fair enough, thought Reid.
“There would be physical limitations, depending on the hardware. And different contingencies. I’m sorry to be vague — the portability issue is not trivial, but it can be overcome. Conceivably.”
“If it were up to you, would you allow such a weapon to be used?” asked Reid.
Now Rubeo’s lips curled up in the faintest suggestion of a smile — a rare occurrence.
“I don’t make those sorts of decisions,” he answered. “In my experience, it is a very rare weapon that, once created, is
Chapter 12
Danny jumped up an instant after the explosives blew out the panel. It was a neat penetration, a literal door for the Whiplash team to run through. The first trooper inside tossed a flash-bang grenade in the direction of the lone occupant. The man fell from the chair where he’d been sleeping; two Whiplashers reached him before the room stopped reverberating. One put his boot against the man’s back and his gun against his head, just in case he had any notion of moving. The other trussed his arms and legs with thick zip ties.
“Where the hell is the plane?” yelled Thomas “Red” Roberts, who’d been tasked to secure the UAV. “All I see is the pickup truck.”
Danny nudged Red out of the way. He was right. The only thing inside the building was the truck.
Danny flipped the shield on his helmet up. A single lightbulb near the front threw dim rays around the large room. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he pulled the signal receiving unit from his pocket and turned it on. The device was relatively simple — it beeped as it tracked the transmitter, the signals getting closer and closer together.
It was a solid tone.
He went over and peered over the back of the truck. There was a small jumble of what looked like debris near the cab. He picked it up — it was a hunk of plastic with some circuitry attached. Undoubtedly the tracking transmitter.
“Movement in Building Two,” said MY-PID.
“Two, three people moving to the front,” added Turk, who was watching the feed.
“Osprey up,” said Danny. “Red, Marcus — search this damn place.”
“Already on it, Cap,” said Marcus. He was another of the new recruits, a former Ranger, also trained as a helicopter pilot. Danny hoped to use that specialty in the future.
There was a burst of gunfire from the front of the building.
“Boston?”
“They ducked back inside,” said Boston. “Didn’t look like they had weapons.”
The Osprey’s heavy rotors pounded the ground as it approached. Red went to the passenger side door of the pickup truck.
“Wait!” yelled Danny. “Check—”
His warning was too late — the truck exploded as Red pulled open the door.
Chapter 13
The past was gone, erased and buried from his memory, shocked out of him, drugged away. The past was gone and the future was blank; only the present remained, only the present was real.
Mark Stoner shifted in his bed, staring at the ceiling.
What was the present, though? Working out? Getting better?
Better from what?
It was all a jumble, a knot of torn thoughts.
Zen. Who was Zen?
A friend. Someone he knew.
But why was he in a wheelchair? And what was a friend, exactly?
Someone he saw a lot.
What was he supposed to say to him? What was he supposed to do?
Stoner leaned to the side. Dr. Esrang had given him a radio. He turned it on and began flipping through the stations.
“… Two out, and here comes Granderson. He flied out his last at bat. The former Yankee is batting just.230 this year…”
The words were strangely familiar. Stoner tried to puzzle out what they meant.
Baseball.
He knew that. The game.
He knew everything about it, didn’t he? He could picture what was happening in his head. He saw the batter swing and miss.
A memory floated up from deep within his consciousness. He was at a game with his grandfather.
His grandfather!
There was a past.
Baseball.
Stoner folded his arms across his chest and listened as the game progressed.
Chapter 14
The explosion blew Red back into Danny. Both men fell against the floor. The explosive charge was relatively small, and their body armor absorbed most of the blow. Still, there was enough of a shock to knock both of them out for a second. Danny came to with Flash leaning over him.
“Cap, you OK?”
“Yeah,” managed Danny. He got to his feet with Flash’s help. Red was shaken, but uninjured except for some cuts and bruises — the biggest one to his pride.
