Point of Contact

Singh then introduced Jack to several of his top programmers and designers, all young. Like everyone else in Singapore, they were all fluent in English, no matter their ethnicity or mother tongue.

Jack quizzed them on the particulars of the projects they were working on, but they answered in technical jargon, pointing at the CAD diagrams or lines of code on their screens. He could follow their trains of thought, but he didn’t have the engineering or programming expertise to drill down further. It was clear they all knew their stuff, though. He thanked them and pushed on.

Dr. Singh then led Jack to the second part of the floor that was separated by a glass security wall — again, just like downstairs, but a blackout curtain was on the other side of it. Singh explained that his designers and programmers didn’t need access to the operations room, and that some of what was going on in there was strictly off-limits. “Privacy concerns,” he explained, as they passed through the curtain.

The operations suite was dark and laid out like a mini mission control room with workstations and video monitors all manned by technicians watching their screens and speaking into headsets.

At the far end of the room was a nearly wall-to-wall video screen displaying what appeared to be a live overhead shot of Singapore. It looked like a satellite video. There was a lone control station facing the screen, unmanned. Singh led them to it.

“This room is the heart of the Steady Stare operation,” Singh said. “Our Steady Stare UAVs remain on station for twelve hours at a time, and we put two in service every day, providing twenty-four-hour coverage.”

“What powers your drones?”

“Solar.”

“You’re able to fly for twelve hours on solar power?” Jack was incredulous.

“In theory, Google’s unmanned solar-power plane can fly continuously for five years without landing. Of course, theirs is a much larger platform. Our small airplane relies on our own solar cell and lithium battery storage designs — another example of the value we bring to the project. There is also a backup battery on board, and a small petrol engine for emergency use.”

“So the idea is that these drones fly over the city for twenty-four hours a day and provide video monitoring.”

“Exactly.”

“How do you manage that during monsoon season?”

“It’s a challenge for sure. We launch the planes with their batteries precharged, but even on cloudy days there can be a good deal of radiation.”

Jack frowned. “Why is your system of aerial observation particularly useful or unique, especially in civilian applications?”

Singh cleared his throat and shifted his attention to Lian.

“Aerial observation has many advantages,” Lian said. “But we provide a highly efficient, low-cost aircraft to perform it.”

“Do you have any idea how many hundreds of low-cost, high-capacity drones have been or are being developed?”

“We’re aware,” Lian said.

“Then you know you can’t make money in that business.”

“We’re not idiots.” Lian smiled.

Jack pointed at the video monitor. “Then what is it that your system does that would make me believe this is a revenue generator?”

Lian crossed her arms, thinking and clearly conflicted. Finally, she nodded toward Singh. “Go ahead.”

Relieved, Singh smiled. “Do you believe in time travel, Mr. Ryan?”

26

Time travel?” Ryan shook his head. “I like sci-fi as much as the next guy, but no. It’s not logically possible.”

“Actually, it is possible. Let me show you.”

Singh led Ryan to the back wall, then picked up a tablet from the nearby empty control station. The screen at the control station was a mirrored image of the wall screen.

“What you’re seeing on the screen is a live video feed of Singapore from five thousand meters — approximately sixteen thousand feet.” Singh tapped a virtual key and performance data appeared for altitude, speed, latitude, longitude, and the like.

“Can you fly your bird from this control station?” Jack asked, pointing to the one he was standing next to. There was a joystick, a keyboard, dual monitors, and a wireless mouse on the desk.

“In theory, we can fly our UAV from any of the stations you see in this room. In the future, we plan to fly multiple UAVs from each station. For now, the Steady Stare vehicle that’s aloft is being run from a control station at Seletar Airport—”

“At the Dalfan hangar?”

“Yes.”

Jack turned to Lian. “I’d like to see that facility when we’re done.”

“I’ll see what can be arranged.”

Singh tapped more virtual keys on his tablet. “Now let’s focus in more closely.” The camera zoomed in like a dive-bombing hawk. The image finally resolved on the Dalfan building in the center of the giant screen.

“There, do you see that delivery van that just pulled up at the security gate?” Singh asked.

“Yeah, but I can’t make out anything except that its roof is blue,” Jack said.