Gregg Hurwitz - Prodigal Son

Tommy was next to show his face, the piercing eyes of his headlights rumbling into view, climbing the switchbacks of the dunes. His dually truck drifted toward them and parked nose to nose with Evan’s F-150.

Tommy emerged with a grunt, the earth jogging those old warhorse joints, and he circled to sit on his own trunk, for once not offering any sage Tommyisms.

They sat in the quiet, listened to the wind. It blew invisible specks of rain across Evan’s face, and for a moment the world seemed vast and peaceful and full of hope. But the awful responsibility of what was to come tightened his chest, reminded him that every breath was on borrowed time and fate could decide when she’d had enough with a snap of her fingers. Jake Hargreave had set this all in motion. One drone pilot trying to whistle-blow on a $500-million program for UAVs with their own programmed ethical adapters. A solitary man standing against a totalitarian future.

“Beautiful here,” Tommy said. “Could almost make you think there’s still some sense in the world.”

Wasn’t that how it always began? They heard the next vehicle before they saw it, an engine growling, big tires crunching over rock and mashing through mud. No headlights.

Tommy stiffened, but Evan said, “She’s with me.”

A shadowy truck neared, revealing itself to be an old Jeep Wrangler. It parked with its grille to their grilles, their vehicles forming a trefoil like a three-leaf clover, a Gothic church floorplan, a hazard symbol. The door swung open.

Candy McClure slid out.

Evan heard Tommy take a sharp inhale at the sight of her.

Orphan V was something to behold. Not just her looks—which were considerable—nor her body—which was a poetic blend of curve and muscle—but the energy she conveyed with every movement, an unspoken vibe that said she was the fullest version of herself, that she was possessed with all the composure and murderous skill the world had to offer, and that her presence before you was a privilege. That she was sparing you from her terrible, terrible powers, and if you could countenance her company with grace, she might add a drop of her potency to yours.

She winked at Evan and hoisted herself onto her trunk, sat cross-legged, and stared at them. She wore slouchy boots and a fuzzy sweater off one shoulder. Her hair had grown, falling well below the firm line of her chin, and she’d tousled it out a bit in keeping with the 1980s dream-girl vibe. Her eyes had that predatory gleam that made you want to curl up in surrender just to get it over with.

“Well,” Evan said, “that’s all of us, then.”

Candy lifted her chin, anointing him with her attention. “What happened to your arm?”

“I ran into a combat knife.”

She tsk-tsked. “Careless.”

Tommy couldn’t take his eyes off Candy. “We gonna do this, then? Or jaw around with fancy talk?”

Joey reached behind her to her backpack and tugged out her laptop. “Transport’s due to arrive at Creech North at midnight. A team of private contractors is providing security for delivery.”

“Why not real army?” Candy asked.

Evan thought back to the team Molleken had dispatched to the impound lot to clean the scene. They’d been ready to kill not just their targets but any witnesses or first responders as well. “Because these guys don’t have any ROEs,” he said. “They’re mercs ready to execute whoever gets in their way. Until these drones are delivered to the base, the hidden kill order is executed, and Andre and I are neutralized, Molleken is taking no chances.”

“Will he be on site?” Tommy asked.

“Yes,” Joey said. “Internal comms make clear he’s overseeing it personally.”

“The doctor goes down,” Evan said. “And his privately hired mercenaries. But not a single soldier.”

Candy wiggled her shoulders forward in a manner that seemed flirtatious; it took Evan a moment to realize she was pulling the fabric tight across her back to soothe the itching burn scars. “What if one of them looks at me funny?” she said.

“You’ll show restraint.”

“Hmm.” She licked her lips, considered. “Not my strong suit.”

“Base is closed,” Evan said. “Sunday-night crew is the leanest—essential personnel only. That’s why we’re doing this tonight. The timing is best for them to make a low-profile delivery, which also means it’s my best shot to get inside.”

“I have access to the Creech North network,” Joey said, “but I can’t remove the kill order for Andre Duran remotely. Altering any kill orders requires hardware-authentication tokens.” Joey dug in her pocket, removed a pluglike electronic device. “This is a Yubico FIDO2—a hardware access device I preloaded with the stolen system-authentication keys.”

“We know what it is, girl,” Candy said.

“I gotta teach to the lowest common denominator.” Joey tilted her head at Evan. “Once this is plugged in to a networked computer, this trigger has to be tapped.” Tilting the Yubico key to catch the glow from the headlights, she indicated a depressed button on top. “Once that’s done, it’ll perform the authentication. Then it’s simple. Pop in your run-of-the-mill Hak5 USB Rubber Ducky to inject code and wipe out the kill order on Andre Duran.”

“That’s pretty styley,” Tommy said.

Joey shrugged, her face coloring slightly. “Hacking is my love language.” She continued, “The good news? Creech North is like a smart city. Tons of interconnected devices, including surveillance cameras, security access doors, even wireless smart Hue lamps. All that stuff has vulnerabilities in their wireless stack that let me deliver an infected payload via a forced over-the-air firmware update that puts control via a backdoor in my hands.”

Tommy tugged at his biker mustache. “Like a video game.”

“That’s right.” Joey hoisted the laptop. “And this is my joystick. But the next-gen drones coming in tonight? Uh-uh. Those things are lethal, walled off from anything else once they get their marching orders.” She turned her gaze to Evan, and for the first time he sensed worry in her face. “If they lock onto you, you’re done.”

“Well, not entirely .” Tommy slid off his hood, walked around, and fussed in the back of his truck. He came back with a Pelican case in one hand and in the other a massive fat olive-drab gun with DRONEWRECKER stenciled on its side. “This is a little prototype I been playing around with.”

“Dronewrecker,” Joey said. “Who named it that ?”

“I did.” Tommy looked affronted but managed to regain his composure. “’Cuz it is. I brimmed it up with soft-kill countermeasures. Drones zero in on a target using electro-optical and infrared sensors. This bad boy throws off laser dazzle to overwhelm the EO sensor and blind the drones. Big ol’ flare like shining a flashlight into NVGs.”

Evan thought back to the impound lot when he’d done precisely that to the private military contractor wearing night-vision headgear.

“At the same time, it projects a diffuse wave of heat that’ll confuse the infrared sensors, throw ’em off your thermal signature, buy you a little time. And you got smoke, too, for backup here.” Tommy tilted the Dronewrecker to show off a red button, then regarded the weapon with pride. “It’s also a prototype, which means it ain’t in any of the weapons databases, so the drones can’t recognize it and identify it as a threat. Till you use it. Then you’d better hold on to your ass.”

He handed the weapon to Evan. Longer than two feet, weighing less than ten pounds, it resembled a science-fiction ray gun.

“And for the lady…” Tommy slung the Pelican case onto his trunk and unlocked it to reveal a rugged silver device about the size of a tennis-ball can. “This is a portable electromagnetic-pulse weapon. You’re gonna need to get inside the hardened concrete walls of the front guard station—according to Hacky Sue over here, that’s the nerve center for perimeter security.” He pointed to a switch at the base of the device. “Activate it by pulling this pin. It’ll fire a burst of high-powered microwaves that’ll knock out the whole goddamned perimeter, access gates, surveillance cams, and all. Everything electronic, toasted. It’s got limited range and takes about ten minutes to recharge, so don’t use it until you mean it. You’ll just need to figure out how to get in position.”