Blue Warrior

The bright halogen lights of an SUV bounced into the tree line, inching its way along an unlit path in the snow. Pearce couldn’t be sure who it was from here. Bath had a network of wet-work operators. Even dead, she could get her revenge if she was vindictive enough and had signed the right kind of contracts.

Pearce had gone completely off the grid at the cabin, no electronics of any kind, including surveillance. After Ian had filled him in on all the details of his hacking op against Bath and the others, Pearce decided it was time to go back to basics, at least out here. Fireplaces, axes, well water, dried fish. He went completely off the grid at the cabin, no electronics of any kind, including surveillance. Connectivity meant vulnerability. He preferred the sound of chopping wood to laser printing anyway. He had all of the electronic gear he needed in the RV, and at his condo in Coronado, not to mention Pearce Systems headquarters in Dearborn. But out here was his solitude and silence. This was his desert.

The SUV cleared the tree line and approached the cabin. Pearce squinted in the harsh lights. Tossed his coffee and set the cup down on the rough-hewn table. The SUV lights snapped off.

Heavy doors slammed shut. Two figures in hooded parkas exited the SUV. Dark shadows crunched in the snow, trudging toward him. A figure emerged into the firelight from the window flickering in the snow. She pulled down her hood.

“Troy.”

Pearce nodded. “Glad you made it.”

Myers looked good. Radiant, actually.

Pearce stepped off the porch and gave her a hug. Myers pointed at the man standing next to her.

“Troy, this is Congressman David Lane.”

“Just Dave,” Lane said, shaking Pearce’s hand.

Myers trusted Lane. That was good enough for him.

It was time to serve again.

Time to get back in the fight.

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ABU — Airman Battle Uniform (Air Force “fatigues”)

AFRICOM — Africa Command

AFB — Air Force Base

AMF — Aviation Mission Fellowship (fictional)

Ansar Dine — “Defenders of the Faith”

ANT — Advanced Network Technology [a division of the NSA’s TAO]

AQS — al-Qaeda Sahara (fictional)

BDU — Battle Dress Uniform (Army “fatigues”)

BMI — Brain Machine Interface

BOQ — Bachelor Officer Quarters

COMPASS — Chinese version of GPS

CTD — Counterterrorism Division (FBI)

CXS — Communications Exploitation Section (FBI CTD)

DARPA — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (US)

DDoS — Denial-of-Service attacks

DNI — Director of National Intelligence

DPV — Desert Patrol Vehicle

FAE — Fuel-Air Explosive

FAV — Fast-Attack Vehicle

GAD — General Armament Department (a PRC/PLA version of DARPA)

GCHQ — Government Communications Headquarters (the British version of the NSA)

GCS — Ground Control Station (drones)

GPS — Global Positioning System

HSD — High Speed Data

HFT — High Frequency Trading

JDAM — Joint Direct Attack Munition

JTRIG — Joint Threat Research and Intelligence Group, the GCHQ’s anti-hacktivist division

LARs — Lethal Autonomous Robotics

LS³ — Legged Squad Support System

MAST — Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology

MAV — Miniature Air Vehicle

MGV — Miniature Ground Vehicle

Mil-Spec — Military Specifications

MNLA — National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad

MSS — Ministry of State Security

NSA — National Security Administration

OPSEC — Operational Security

PDB — Presidential Daily Brief

PLA — People’s Liberation Army

PRC — People’s Republic of China

PROCEED — Programming Computation on Encrypted Data

REE — Rare Earth Element

RPV — Remotely Piloted Vehicle

SAD/SOG — Special Activities Division/Special Operations Group [the CIA’s special forces unit]

SCADA — Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

SPAN — Self-Powered Ad-hoc Network

sUAV — Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

STOL — Short Take Off and Landing

SVR — Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service)

TAO — Office of Tailored Operations (NSA)

TERCOM — Terrain Contour Matching

UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UDC — Utah Data Center

UGV — Unmanned Ground Vehicle

USAFE-AFAFRICA — U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa

VPN — Virtual Private Network

VTOL — Vertical Takeoff and Landing

DRONE AND OTHER SYSTEMS

DRONE SYSTEMS

TYPE — MANUFACTURER, AGENCY, OR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN

A-160T Hummingbird — UAV (transport) — Boeing Advance Systems

Bio-Bot — Living organisms fitted with hardware and software for automated control — North Carolina State University

Hybrid Quadrotor — UAV (attack) — Latitude Engineering

LS³ — Legged Squad Support System (transport — for now) — Boston Dynamics

Naro-tartaruga — UUV (research) — ETH (prototype)

Silent Falcon — sUAS (surveillance) — UAS Technologies

SmartBird — UAV (surveillance) — Festo

Snake — UGV (surveillance) — Tohoku University (prototype)