Mike Maden - Drone Threat

“Not as disruptive as their jets crashing all over the country,” Garza said.

“For how long?” Chandler asked.

“Twenty-four hours,” Pearce said. “We can always extend it.”

“Then what?” Chandler asked. “What does that get us?”

“Time,” Pearce said.

“Time for what? You just said that we can’t stop these things.”

“I was just out on a demo yesterday. Gave me an idea. There was an old plan that my colleague Dr. Ashley put together a few years ago. It was called Gorgon Sky. It was based on the Pentagon’s Gorgon Stare program.”

“Gorgon Sky was WAPS, right? Wide-area persistent surveillance?” Eaton asked.

“Exactly. We can put the entire nation under continuous real-time physical surveillance from fifteen thousand feet. See anything that’s out of doors, including small commercial drones that might be flying in for an attack.”

“How’s that even possible? And how long would it take?” Lane asked.

“We can loft our inventory of Predators, Reapers, and other persistent platforms. Some of them are already equipped with ARGUS-IS camera pods. We can retrofit the others. We’d have to roll them all out as units come on line, and it wouldn’t be completely comprehensive, but it would be better than nothing.”

“You’re talking about Total Information Awareness,” Peguero said. “I’m not comfortable with that.”

Pearce’s gut boiled. More PC bullshit from another liberal attorney. Pearce and Myers had deployed variations of ARGUS-IS when they took on the Castillo cartel and the Iranian Quds Force that came over the border, but since then the civil libertarians had shut the programs back down. Even the Domain Awareness Systems that connected citywide surveillance cameras for crime deterrence had been under legal attack all over the country.

“What exactly is your concern?” Pearce asked.

Peguero frowned. “Putting every American under surveillance means we’re going to observe many instances of questionable behavior, including criminal behavior.”

“And why is that a problem?” Lane asked.

“The Constitution forbids warrantless search and seizure. What Mr. Pearce proposes would be a clear violation of that idea.”

Pearce took a deep breath, trying to tamp down his rising anger. “Just so I’m clear, if we happen to catch a rape in progress, you don’t want to notify the local PD and stop it because we don’t have a warrant?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I was thinking more along the lines of drug transactions and other nonviolent crimes.”

“So you wouldn’t want to prosecute drug dealers even if you had the visual evidence?”

“Not without first obtaining a warrant.”

“Unbelievable,” Pearce said. He was thinking something far worse. His face showed it.

Lane leaned forward. “I brought in the attorney general just for this kind of insight, Troy. Whatever actions we take to stop this terror attack, we want to be sure we don’t tear up the Constitution while we’re doing it.”

“So you agree with her?” Pearce asked.

“I’m willing to at least listen.”

“The Constitution isn’t a mutual suicide pact,” Garza said. “This ‘security versus privacy’ debate is great for dorm room bull sessions, but right now we’ve got a real problem on our hands and Troy’s handing us the tool to fix it.”

Thank God for Jim Garza , Pearce thought. The former Green Beret had served the president well in the last crisis. Didn’t pull any punches. Myers was right about people like Peguero. Lane had been forced to surround himself with all kinds of political appointees who wouldn’t necessarily reflect the president’s best interests. But Lane wouldn’t be served by his trying to win a civil liberties debate with the AG. He needed to find solutions.

“Look, I don’t care what anybody does with the nonrelevant data that comes in. That’s for you all to decide. Maybe we can find a way to put the attorney general in the information loop.”

Lane turned to the attorney general. “That work for you, Julissa?”

Peguero shrugged. “I’m looking for safeguards. That’s all I’m asking.”

“I’ll have Dr. Ashley contact your office,” Pearce said. “You two can figure out some kind of system.” He turned to the president. “But I wouldn’t let that slow down the Gorgon Sky deployment if you want to get a visual on these drones before they hit, and maybe even their operators. It’s not perfect but this is about the best we can come up with right now.”

“Agreed,” Lane said. “But have this Dr. Ashley loop in Julissa at the earliest possible moment.”

“But there’s still one problem,” Pearce said.

“What’s that?” Lane asked. Pearce heard the tension in his voice.

“It’s crazy to think that drones are their only option.”

“You mean a conventional attack?”

“Yes. And possibly worse. The letter used the phrase ‘unquenchable fire.’ That might be figurative but I doubt it. No telling what they’ll hit us with next, or where. But it sounds like it’s leading up to something we don’t want to see.”

“Best guesses?” Lane asked the room.

“ISIS was talking about using drones as a delivery system for nuclear materials a while back,” Garza said.

“That’s right,” Chandler said. “I remember that now.”

Lane leaned forward. “What’s the likelihood of that, Jim?”

“All we heard were rumors. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it.”

“They could just keep hitting the airports,” Eaton said. “That would be devastating enough.”

Pearce shook his head. “But now we know they’ve done that, so they’ll assume we’re prepping defenses against it. They’ll try something else. Surprise is their best weapon.”

“They hit airports today. We all agree that’s an economic attack as much as a political one,” Eaton said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if other economic targets are next.”

“Ports, the power grid. Jiminy Christmas,” Chandler said.

“Another reason to put Gorgon Sky up fast,” Garza said.

“We have a list of key infrastructure facilities. We’ll quietly bump up the threat level. Get more locals out on the beat and deploy ours, too,” Eaton said.

“Good.” Lane turned to Pearce. “Troy, I’m putting you in charge of reviving Gorgon Sky.”

“Me? The Senate hasn’t even voted on me yet.”

“I don’t care. This is a national emergency. I’ll have an executive order drafted authorizing you to act on my behalf. Pull any piece of equipment you need from any department and put it up in the air as fast as you can. Anybody gives you grief, call me directly.”

“Yes, sir. But the word will get out now. Has to if I’m going to be pulling assets.”

“Do what you have to, but keep it strictly need-to-know, and tell them to keep quiet for now.”

Chandler shook his head. “Even when we get Gorgon Sky up, we’re still just playing defense. We need to go on offense.”

“Give me an option other than American boots on the ground,” Lane said.

Chandler fought back his desire to gloat. This was exactly the moment he’d been driving toward. “Ambassador Tarkovsky said the Russians are prepared to put their boots on the ground.”

“Are you kidding?” Garza said. “Why would we invite the fox into the henhouse?”

Chandler turned toward Garza’s image in the monitor. “We can’t beat these criminals with just airstrikes. We’ve been pounding them from the air for years. We need troops on the ground and we aren’t sending ours. Do you have a better suggestion?”

“Yeah. Let’s go straight to the source. Tell al-Mahdi or whoever the hell is in charge over there that sand turns to glass at seventeen hundred degrees Celsius, and we have the firecracker to make that happen if he doesn’t back off this right now.”