Game of Drones Read Online Free PDF

knew precisely what targets to hit in order to achieve the means. They were well coordinated and highly sophisticated in their approach and execution.”
    The president closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, causing the muscles in the back to work. "How many of these attackers were killed?"
    "Two that we know of--the suicide drivers of the truck bombs; if more were killed, their bodies were taken with the combatants when they left with the drones."
    “How many casualties on our side?”
    “Thirty-six,” answered Rimaldi. “In addition to the barracks and the truck--two more at the main gate and four at the hanger."
    “This is a goddamn fiasco, isn't it?" He continued without waiting for an answer. "What about the rest of Shazad’s team? Who are they?"
    “They appear to be of Middle-Eastern descent. But that description is a hazard guess based on superficial appearances from the security footage rather than actual evidence.”
    “So we have a terrorist cell on our hands,” Carmichael added softly. “One that we helped create with our own military training.” President Carmichael stated this rhetorically, but Rimaldi answered him as if it wasn’t.
    “Mr. President, we know that Shazad is highly trained as a military specialist, one who achieved the rank of lieutenant commander as a Navy SEAL before he disappeared. He commanded SEAL teams into numerous delicate missions and saw them through. He's intimately familiar with the style and tactics of our most elite unit.”
    “And Naji Mihran is no slouch, either,” added Cayne. “He was an Army Ranger. God knows who the others in the team are or the skill sets they possess.”
    “Do we have a body count for these... enemy combatants , let's call them for now...as to how many were involved in the breach?”
    “Fourteen altogether,” Rimaldi intoned. “Including the two of those who dispatched themselves in the truck bombs, leaving a working faction of twelve.”
    President Carmichael sighed. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The assailants were American born--at least the two they knew something about--growing up under American values but greatly influenced by the fundamentalist philosophies of their religion. He mentally kicked himself. He should have known it would come to this. Now he would be lambasted in the media for failing to pay attention.
    Focus, Carmichael . He ignored the stares of his team while he thought.
    He mentally recounted the known precedents for this kind of thing: There was Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and military psychiatrist who was Muslim and motivated by jihadist leanings, a solid soldier until one day he fatally shot thirteen people and injured more than thirty others at Fort Hood. A similar incident took place when a U.S. soldier of Muslim faith, one who had pledged to serve his country, lobbed grenades into a tent full of American officers, severely wounding thirteen.
    How in the hell do you fight something like this? How do you weed out the extremists from the rest of the pack? Especially when the enemy was born, bred and raised as a flag-waving, apple pie-eating American.
    At length, he asked Rimaldi, “Are we privy to the motives behind this action?”
    “We’re assuming, since this is coming on the heels of Zawahiri’s arrest in Pakistan, that our demand for Zawahiri’s extradition was probably leaked through Pakistani subversives not in line with our interests. In response, al-Qaeda has activated a sleeper cell. We’re certain that demands are forthcoming.”
    “What can you tell me about these drones?” Carmichael asked, moving on.
    The attorney general responded in earnest. “Five modified Predator drones--Reapers--have been extracted from the site along with twelve MUAVs.”
    “MUAVs?”
    “Mini-unmanned aerial vehicles. They’re new add-on capabilities to the modified Predators.”
    “What exactly are we talking about as far as capabilities?”
    “For the Reapers, the MQ-10s have been modified