Mike Maden - Drone Threat

Grafton leaned back in her chair, folding her manicured hands in her lap. “Is my work history going to be a problem for you?”

“You’re clearly more than qualified for the babysitting job Chandler handed you. If this is what it takes, well, it’s what I signed on for, isn’t it?”

She flashed another smile, nodded. “Faint praise, Mr. Pearce, but good enough for me. Let’s get to it, shall we?”

Pearce leaned back in his chair. “Fire away.”

“Your first hurdle is going to be Senator Floyd. He’s practically a hood ornament for the aerospace industry. He’ll try to wear you down by playing stupid — which he isn’t, I assure you — and he’ll start with some innocuous question like, what is Drone Command exactly?”

“Drone Command is a new unified combat command within the Department of Defense. Its purpose is to oversee the acquisition of all new drone and drone-related systems for both military and civilian applications within the DoD and all other federal agencies. Though Drone Command is technically a Defense Department entity, it would be the only unified command headed up by a civilian.”

“I.e., you.”

“Yes.”

“Good answer.”

“Of course it is. You wrote it. I just loaded it in here.” Pearce tapped his forehead.

“From there Floyd will start drilling down into the minutia of the organizational plan, personnel, et cetera, et cetera. I strongly recommend you just refer him to the appropriate addenda included in the same report I sent you.”

“Works for me.”

“But that’s the easy stuff. It’s the ‘why’ of Drone Command that will be the heart of the battle.”

“The ‘why’ is because those money-sucking vampire squids won’t do the right thing on their own. An independent, autonomous agency with the sole authority for development and acquisition is the only way we’re going to avoid the massive maldistribution of scarce resources.”

“Let’s steer away from ‘vampire squids’ and lean more toward ‘efficiency, economy, and efficacy.’”

“What part of ‘to tell the truth, the whole, truth, and nothing but the truth’ does ‘money-sucking vampire squids’ not satisfy?”

Grafton sighed, shaking her head. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”

“Didn’t realize that was part of my job description.”

She pursed her lips. “No, I suppose not. But it would help me do mine better.”

Pearce shifted in his chair, studying Grafton’s frozen stare. “What else do you need from me?”

Grafton pulled up a page on her laptop computer. “I did a little digging myself — legally. I’ve managed to find a few public statements you’ve made over the years.”

“Such as?”

“Foreign policy stuff.” She looked away from her computer screen and back toward Pearce. “I’m surprised a fighting man like you would be an isolationist.”

“I’m not. But either you’re all in to win or you’re out. You can’t take the middle ground.”

“And in regard to the Middle East?”

“Like I said, all in or all out. Since we won’t commit to all in, I think it’s better to get out.”

“But you’re a smart guy. A master’s degree in security studies from Stanford. You know we can’t withdraw from the world.”

“I didn’t say withdraw from the whole world. But maybe it’s time to let that part of the world take care of its own problems and spill its own blood.”

“We’re the strongest military power on the planet. Who else can stabilize the region?”

“After nearly twenty years of military intervention, do you seriously believe the Middle East is more stable and secure than before we went in? That we are more secure?”

Grafton’s frozen stare betrayed nothing.

“But we have important allies in the region. The Saudis are vulnerable. They can’t possibly defend themselves without our help.”

“The Saudis are a royal dynasty teetering on the edge of collapse.”

Grafton shrugged. “Desperate allies are more reliable.”

“They don’t share our values. It’s practically a dictatorship.”

“Sounds like you’re channeling Jimmy Carter.”

“They’re not our friends. They’ve been the power behind the OPEC cartel, screwing with our economy and politics for decades.”

“They pursue their own national interests, just like we do.”

“You know that ISIS sells a lot of its sex slaves to Saudis, right?”

“All the more reason to take out ISIS as quickly as possible.”

“Why not stop the Saudis from buying them?”

“We’ve already raised the human trafficking issue with them. It just can’t be the top priority right now.”

“It would be if you were the sex slave.”

She shrugged. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a realist.”

“So are the women being trafficked, believe me.” Pearce sighed, frustrated. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.”

Pearce leaned forward. “If fifteen of the nineteen terrorists that took down the World Trade Center had been ethnic Russians, do you think we would have given the Russian government a pass? Called them friends and allies in the War on Terror?”

Grafton’s face hardened.

“Me neither.”

“The Saudis have powerful friends on the Hill, and especially on the committee. If you say anything like this to them, you’re dead in the water.”

“I won’t lie if I’m asked.”

“Then it’s my job to make sure they don’t ask, isn’t it?”

Pearce nodded. “Guess so.”

Grafton was feeling cramped in her spacious office. “Speaking of the Saudis, Senator Kelly will want to know your position on Saudi drones,” Grafton said.

“It’s a bad idea.”

Grafton drew a measured breath, clearly trying to calm down. “One of the biggest drone manufacturers in the country is headquartered in his state and they’ve been approached by Riyadh. A ten-year, billion-dollar contract for MQ-9 Reapers.”

“Anything we sell to the Saudis will eventually wind up in the wrong hands. If an internal rebellion doesn’t overthrow the princes, the Iranians will overrun them eventually with Iraqi help, and maybe even the Russians.”

“Warts and all, the fact remains the Saudis are our most important ally in the region right now.”

“Don’t you mean Israel?”

“Israel can’t help us stabilize the situation. You know the reasons.”

“The ‘reasons’ are why our Mideast foreign policy has been a Hungarian cluster dance for the last forty years.”

“If the Saudis are on the edge of falling, doesn’t that prove we need to bolster them?”

“Drones won’t be enough to save them.”

“You do realize that Saudi Arabia is one of our largest defense customers? Their defense purchases put a lot of Americans to work.”

“Especially high-dollar lobbyists.”

Grafton threw up her hands. “I don’t get you.”

“Maybe you’re not supposed to.”

Her features softened but her eyes were searching. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

Pearce shrugged. “Sure.”

“You and the vice president have a history. Care to fill me in?”

“He’s an asshole.”

“Vice President Chandler is the second most powerful man in the world.”

“Then that makes him the single most powerful asshole in the world.”

“If Chandler heard you say that, he’d run you out of D.C. on a rail.”

“Call him. I’m happy to repeat it. Hell, I’ll even draw him a picture if that’s easier for him.”

Grafton laughed. Her eyes raked over him again, sizing him up. “I’m starting to like you.”

“Are we done?”

“That was the easy stuff. Let’s cut to the chase.” Grafton opened up a file on her desk. “You passed your FBI background check with flying colors. Unfortunately, some of your record has been redacted.” She held up one of the file pages. Three-fourths of it was blacked out entirely.