Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones Read Online Free PDF Page B

behind its miniature camera. She fought against the temptation to try to disassemble the board to examine the circuitry for fear she might damage it. The thing must have cost a fortune to develop. Had to be government. The CIA, NSA, or some other spook agency must be behind it. Or could it have come from overseas? Nothing on the units themselves or their components gave them away, unlike any other drone she’d ever seen. Hell, any Tom, Dick, or Harry could buy a little drone these days and fly them around their backyard using their smartphone as a controller. The off-the-shelf components were manufactured all over the world–China, Russia, Israel. But these little babies were way beyond that.
    Her experience as a pilot had given her a healthy respect for flying in combat, so she felt like she understood both the positives and pitfalls of weaponizing unmanned aircraft. She knew many foreign governments, not all of them friendly to U.S. interests, were continuing to develop and deploy their own military drones. In the armaments world it was nothing short of a drone frenzy.
    Even so, the camera system on this little baby was more advanced and of far smaller form than any she’d ever seen. When functioning properly, it could almost reconnoiter an entire space, looking at it from multiple different angles. She’d read articles about autonomous drone systems, employing advanced pattern recognition computer algorithms to fly independently, and she shuddered to think of the possibilities. Eye-in-the-sky, all-encompassing surveillance systems like the Army’s Constant Hawk or the Air Force’s Gorgon Stare were already changing the way military strategists looked at warfare.
    But the miniaturized MAV she held in her hands took things to an entirely different level. She could provide intimate surveillance of anyone, almost anywhere. She could infiltrate a corporate boardroom or someone’s bedroom. The possibilities were almost as endless as they were sobering.
    On the other hand, maneuvering undetected through suburban neighborhoods and even inside buildings was far from easy, as she was learning. It required a special set of talents she was being forced to develop as she went, beyond anything she’d ever had to worry about flying for the military.
    Feel the plane .
    She could still hear Major Williamson’s voice from only a few weeks before admonishing her through her headset to get control of her tiny drone, as if she were actually aboard the flight. She was finding she liked the challenge of piloting the tiny devices. The larger dragonflies were sometimes more fun to fly, zooming nap-of-the-earth or darting in and out among buildings. They were designed for use outdoors and could track far greater distances. But they also made more noise, a faint but persistent flutter. The hover angels, like the one she held in her hand, were especially effective indoors, but were more easily thrown off track by extremes in temperatures, a stiff wind, or even hot or cold air blowing from an air conditioner or room vent.
    “Best little private eye in the world.”
    “Oh,” she said, setting the drone back on the desk.
    “That thing in your hands, I mean…it’s a pretty good investigator.” Tye, all six-feet-four of him, leaned against the doorframe of her bedroom. His shirttail hung out. His jeans looked like he’d slept in them, which of course he had, and his short hair was pasted to one side of his head.
    “You startled me.”
    “Sorry. I heard you rummaging around in here and wanted to make sure you were okay.”
    “You look like hell.”
    “Good morning to you, too. Don’t you ever sleep?”
    “I slept…some,” she said, sounding a little more defensive than she’d intended.
    “You’re really obsessed with those things, aren’t you?” He looked at the little drone.
    “I am,” she admitted. “You have to admit they’re pretty amazing.”
    She picked up the MAV again. She was coming to consider the little drones as