The following is a free sample o the new novel to be published in January 2012 by W.Addison Gast

                                  HAL- THE VIGILANTE UAV DRONE

Hal-The Vigilante UAV Drone

By W. Addison Gast

Also by Addison Gast;

Interdiction

Extraction

Reciprocity

The final Hunt for Osama Bin Laden

The Hunt for Meghari

The Patriot Hunt Club

Nightmare in the Cockpit

W. Addison Gast can be reached at his website at;

http://www.addisongastbooks.com

or Email; actionwriter@addisongastbooks.com

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Published by W.Addison   Gast, at Smashwords

Copyright © 2011 by Addison Gast.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Other titles by W. Addison Gast are on Smashwords. Com  See; http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/actionwriter

Chapter 1

Conference room of Ares Corporation Los Gatos California 0645 Monday

Karl Tait looked out the expansive conference room window on the top floor of the Ares Corporation as his mind drank in the majestic view of the company campus. Green rolling hills, a small picturesque creek with water running the full length of the distance from the top of the hill to the entrance of Ares. It was easy to forget that this scene was all artificial landscaping including the stream that consisted of water pumped to the top of the knoll from the small man made lake beside the parking lot. The scrub oak trees and the Monterey pines actuated the calmness that the scene created. All with the intent and purpose of putting the minds that looked out those large windows of Ares feel calm and at ease---even if their daily design tasks were often to create lethal weapons of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence  electronic warfare for the government. Karl had his lap top keyed into the audio visual network for the company presentation and his announcement. The smell of fresh roasted Hawaiian Kona beans mixed with a faint odor of Jasmine perfume invaded the conference room and stimulated Karl's olfactory organ as Autumn O'Brien entered with her usual array of communication devices.

" I knew it. Why did I even think that this second cup of coffee might get cold before you came in. How was your trip?"

"Thank you sweetheart. You know how to make the points. Even the right amount of cream. The trip? As enjoyable as can be expected for a guy to leave this beautiful environment and spend a week in snow and slush that has been diluted with highway salt that takes the shine off your shoes in a nanosecond. Overall, a gigantic success which I will tell you about along with the others within the next half hour."

"So you got the Generals to sign on the line?"

"I said; I'll tell you along with the others." Smiling at Autumn Karl took his cup of joe.

Within the following ten minutes the room filled with the chatter of weekend experiences, the NFL playoffs---and fifteen more employees of Ares Corporation executive design committee.

As the team sat their usual paraphernalia down in front of them on the conference table and plugged in their lap tops to the company network and ran a diagnostic check to make sure they could record, note and copy any of the screen shots that were to come from Karl's computer, they became quiet and looked to the end of the table at Karl.

"I can't tell all of you how good it feels to look down this table at all your smiling , relaxed faces and also out that window and see green--- not white."

A light chuckle came from the gathering.

"I thought it would be prudent to revisit where we have been on this project for the past eighteen months and recap our goals and how some of them have changed during that time.. As you all are aware, the original RFP---request for proposal from the Air Force requested  that we look into the possibility of equipping a UAV ---Unmanned Aerial Vehicle with a computer based artificial intelligence geosat navigation system that was completely independent of celestial satellite navigation. In plain terms; able to fly on its own to a predetermined target that was programed into it at the launch site. Ares considered that a no-brainer until the air Force added the requirement for weapons control. We accomplished that mission a full seven months ahead of schedule and the test of the program onboard the Raptor was a complete success. That system is now in production on the three types of UAV now in the operational system."

Karl was now watching  again the faces of the team looking at him. Some had been in conferences like this in their career where the president reviewed their success and then told them that the contract was finished and that there was no more money, no additional RFP for consideration and therefore, their jobs were finished. At that point the topic would then move to severance pay or the possibility of other companies in the valley that were looking for engineers.  He needed to bring the group back around and light up their faces with a new goal.

"I have just returned last night from a week in D.C. working with five of the top Air Force people in DOD purchasing and I want to give you what they have requested Ares to provide to them within the next thirty six months. This project award of course means that all of you are going to remain on this team and will receive an immediate bonus for your work thus far.

The room was alive with applause and high fives. Autumn was looking at Karl and could no longer contain herself.

"Ok Mr. Wizard of the valley, what have you tasked our little group to do for the Air Force this time? We are all waiting on what this new project is going to be and what we are going to produce." She made the hand motion come on.

"I need to preface this next part with a caveat for all of you. Our next project is going to be so highly classified; your "q" clearances with the DOD will be upgraded to the highest level security granted by the DOD. Some Congressmen and Senators do not share this classification. I'm telling you this so that when the FBI starts asking your friends and neighbors about you and your relatives---as they did when you were given the "q" clearances you will know what is going on. "

"All of you have worked with the systems on the Predator and its counterparts in the operational system. You know the subsystems and configuration designs of these birds from installing the ordnance and geo systems we designed. The Air Force concluded that with this experience, we were the group to attempt, design and make work the leading edge development of a drone with completely automated theory of mind. A bird that would use the ultimate sense---think---act paradigm."

"Same bird as before Karl?" Asked Denny from the middle of the room. They were already thinking design parameters.

"Not quite. We will be provided with the first RUAV to come off the line at the Boeing plant in Long Beach.. The person that will be our liaison for the project is due in here around noon. His name is  Tony Montalvo."

"New bird, new acronym. What does the RUAV  stand for? Let me make a stab---ROBOTIC Unmanned Aerial Vehicle?" Asked the kid next to Denny with the shoulder length hair.

"We are going to install, equip and design into this bird the most highly technical computer available today-- the Mintel Heilos model 1000."

 "When did Mintel announce a Heilos design? I have never heard of it. What is its profile? Can we get a look at this puppy?" The kid next to Denny was getting aggressive.

Karl looked at Denny and his long haired buddy and pointed a finger at them. The senior computer engineer at the end of the table then interrupted.

"Is this the new monster that Mintel has been working on for---what? Over a year? Don't tell me that we are going to do a clean-up on one of their designs just so we can use it." The question came from Ivan Kavlov who was the senior computer engineer for Ares for the past nine years since they were founded.

Karl Tait smiled and held his hands up in a hold on a moment expression.

"Gentlemen …and ladies," looking at Autumn and Sheila Watkins, "The Heilos unit we will work with has a capacity of …..SIX Brontobytes.  Ares will be making history as the first company to produce a completely robotic military aircraft."

At this statement, Denny looked at his pal and then at their boss Ivan who was speechless.

"Ok, I know I'm the computer intelligence deprived here so tell me what this Bronobyte thing is that this Heilos has?" Asked Autumn quizzically.

Karl was still watching the reaction from the group. He looked at Ivan and extended his hand in his direction.

"Mr. Kavlov will educate you Autumn as soon as he regains his speech. Ivan????"

The Russian looked at Denny and then at Autumn Obrien. He then stood up and went to the dry erase board.

"I'm not going to recite computer logic 101 here Miss Obrien. I'll just give you some comparisons so you can see the complexity of working with a computer of this magnitude. I assume you know what a gigabyte is in terms of available storage?" He looked at Autumn and the person next to her who were both accountants.

"Yes Mr. Kavlov. I store most of our information I need to do my work at home on one."

"Fine, Miss O'Brien. And do you know the capacity of those flash drives you use?"

"It is supposed to be the largest off the shelf unit I need Sir. I think that Denny said I'll never fill it completely and its about 16 gigabytes I think."

"Good. " Replied the senior engineer.

He then turned around and wrote on the board;

In data communications, a kilobit is a thousand bits (or 1,000 bits) and a megabit is a thousand kilobits (or 1,000,000 bits). These are normally used for measuring the amount of data that is transferred in a second between two telecommunication points. Kilobits per second is usually shortened to kbps and megabit per second is abbreviated as mbps.

Bits in data communications are discrete signal pulses. For example, 28.8 kilobits per second (kbps) is 28,800 bits per second.

"Your 16 gig flash drive that can carry all your company information on is in this range here;

Gigabyte = approximately 1000 Megabytes = 1,000,000 Kilobytes = Billion bytes (1,000,000,000 bytes)

Technically a Gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power (1,073,741,824) bytes.

"If, miss O'Brien, you were to be able to purchase a flash drive that would, say, be the next size up for storage purposes, it would contain perhaps ONE TERABYTE capacity which is……1,000 gigabytes. Pretty sizeable---right? Do you follow me so far."

"Yes sir. So this terabye drive is a really humungus storage thing. How does that relate to this Heilos computer?

"You are doing great Ivan. Please tell Atumnn how much larger a computer we are talking about here." Said Karl.

"A Terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. A Petrabyte is 1,000 Terabytes. A Extabyte is almost 1,000 Petabytes.  Let me pause here at the Extabyte description and tell you; It is estimated that if you were to type up every word ever spoken by every human being ever to live in all of the history of the world, the resulting file would be between 2 and 5 Exabytes in size. "

"That is amazing." Said Autumn.

"We have not even approached the Heilos yet. Let me continue." Said Ivan.

"A Zetabyte is 1,000 Extabytes. A Yotobyte is 1,000 Zetabytes. And lastly, and in finality, we get to the Brontobyte which is…..1000 Yotobytes. That is, my dear miss O'Brien in terms of bytes, 1 followed by 27 zeros. How big is 1 followed by 27 zeros? That would be the rough equivalent of the total number of atoms contained in all of the bodies of every person living in Indiana… give or take a few billion-trillion here and there… . The Heilos, as Karl has just informed us, has a capacity of  Six Brontobytes.

"O my God. " Replied the accountant.

Chapter Two

Engineering conference room Boeing Aircraft Space Aeronautics division Lakewood Blvd, Long Beach California 0830 Monday.

In another  conference room a thousand miles south of AGES campus  the group there was headed by Sam Carter who was pulling his group together for a briefing. This room was as different from the one at AGES that held the design group as night is to day. No windows, a comfortable air conditioned atmosphere the usual snack bar and refrigerator and the rest was all corporation audio visual---the very latest as a matter of fact. Not many corporations in America held a secure communication line with Washington in their work areas. There were more than likely only three others in the entire world that had access to a direct link to CENTCOM communications centers in Baghdad and Kabul. The High Res FLIR provided six fields of view, 19mm to 560mm. You could read directly from satellite links, what was being viewed as a target from whatever vehicle was over the target. In the case of UAV's, you saw what the bird saw as it approached the target or loitered over the suspect area. On the east side of the room was a large HD video screen that displayed data from the subject vehicle whether it was  a satellite, fighter aircraft or UAV. The datalinks available were C-band LOS,UHF and KU-band satellite data link. Radio relay was secured UHF and VHF frequency modulators that switched frequencies over fifty times per second. For special adaptations to test vehicles, Boeing used a Trojan Spirit 2 data distribution system. This was the "man cave" for this select group of engineers that were constantly spoiled by their mother corporation. They rightly should be treated with ultimate respect in the mind of  Carter. Sam knew how much these guys had contributed to the bottom line of the company in the past ten years. When the Boeing corporation had purchased the Douglas Aircraft division,  this group was treated as a "special asset" in the negotiations. The Boeing team never completely knew what they did, just who they were and that DOD had told Boeing; "That group of nine engineers should be considered worth the  combined value of most of your divisions."  That was enough for Boeing--they brought them all into the  purchase package and included some very lucrative benefits.

Sam Carter brought the group to attention much as a general would do entering the battle briefing room with; "Ok sports fans we have a big project in front of us and we need to stay heads-up while I give you the weekend results in D.C.'

The group settled in around the conference desk and became quiet.

"First of all, AGES got the contract for the Heilos installation  which is going to dovetail beautifully with our plans. This is one of the reasons Tony Montalvois not here with us this morning, right about now he should be getting off our company bird and on his way to AGES's green valley resort. We'll probably have to bribe him with liquor, women and drugs to get him back from there. How many of you guys ever been to that place of Karl Tait's?"

"Green valley" as you call it Sam is  the kind of place where the company should put us in the final ten years on the payroll. Think you can talk em into it?" Asked Tommy Rollins, Sam's MIT.

"Let's talk powerplant and flight controls this morning. Air Force wants us to use the same as on the Predator--the Honeywell TPE331-10 turboprop but that puppy is not going to provide the operational characteristics we will need for  Wizard. We will be working with Honeywell to incorporate their new meatgrinder they call the TPE661. Let me go over the differences that I like on this new Honeywell design."

Sam then turned on the audio visual and two line drawings of the turboprop engine appeared side by side. At the same time, an associate engineer passed out the first of the design package for the Wizard. Sam used the following two hours to outline the increased horsepower and shaft horsepower of the new engine and all the enhanced features over the previous design. The 661 could loiter for more than 160 hours as opposed to 30. It could fly at 320 knots and if required climb to and operate at a 80,000ft ceiling as opposed to a limited 50k for the present predator. Wingspan was to remain the 48 feet and length would be stretched to 56  feet from the Predator's 36 ft. It would still fit inside a C17 or a C5 Galaxy if required. Air to Air refuel and Honeywell's engine would still be able to perform on Jp4,JP5,JP1,Jet A,B,A-1 and even JP-8. The upgrade will have all the features of the previous engine plus some increased accessories for powering the computer .Sam then put up on the screen a line drawing for the Wizard showing the placement of the Heilos computer.

"All this added weight to be able to support a new computer design?" The question came from Bill Stokes sitting t Sam's left.

"The Heilos weighs less than your travel suitcase Bill. The increased upgrades are needed for the loiter time and the range requirement. We never went over that so I will here. The Predator has a limited range of 400 nautical miles and 30 hours endurance. The Wizard will have a range of…….6,000  miles and as specified previously, endurance of 120 hours at reduced engine RPM. I'm betting that if ever required and supported by air to air refuel, The wizard could stay airborne for over a million hours."

"That is a lot of longevity without maintenance Sam. What does this Heilos computer you talk about have in the way of microprocessor capacity or storage?" Asked Tommy.

"The Wizard will be running the Heilos 6 computer from Mintel."

"Never heard of it Sam. What does the "six" stand for?"

"Six Brontobytes. Tom."

"o my God." Replied the engineer.

Chapter Three

Mintel Corporation executive office of the President and CEO Mike Collins

Mike had the speaker phone on as he called his engineering department. It had rang three times thus far and no answer. He did not like that. He could visualize Pete Bradley's secretary telling someone on her blackberry that she had to go because the boss was calling. Probably chewing gum as well. God he hated the image some employees projected.

"Mr. Bradley's office."

"Good morning Alice. Please tell Pete I'd like to conference with him, Clark ,Peterson and O'Malley in the fishbowl in 30."

"Yes Sir Mr. Collins. He is in the Lab right now but I'll go run him down and inform him personally. Anything special you need for him to bring?"

"He will know Alice. Thank you."

Click.

He then pushed his intercom for his secretary.

"Terry--would you please set up a conference call for me with  Karl Tait of Ages and Sam Carter of Boeing. Tell them the subject is Wizard. Let me know when you have them on the line."

"I have their direct numbers Mr. Collins. Are they expecting your call?"

"Don't think so but if the Boeing engineer is at green valley about now, they will want to go over a few items I'm sure. And Terry?

"Yes Sir?"

"Don't offer a video connection. We can't use that wonderful tool any time I contact these people. Please remember that for the future."

A puzzled Terry Deck replied; "Duly noted Sir. I'll be back with you as soon as I have them on the line."

Mike reached over to the three thick green books on the corner of his desk and pulled over the one with Communications on the cover. The green books as they were called were technical manuals on the Wizard's and Heilos' systems that had been developed jointly by the three major companies that would put together this leading edge piece of aeronautical accomplishment. The only company that did not provide a green book on their system was Honeywell for the powerplant. Boeing reserved the rights of selection and design approval for the powerplant in order to manage and control the flight platform.  He turned the pages and reviewed the hundreds of sticky notes attached to the pages and also the colored highlighted areas. This was a major draft of the green book that would accompany Heilos to the Ages corporation for their use and it needed some copy edit and a lot of tweaking on the semantics as far as he was concerned in order for the partner engineers to fully comprehend the proper meaning. While he was waiting on Terry to call him and let him know that the partners in this adventure were  on the phone and ready to discuss the project, he thumbed to the area noted by a green sticky note. Text to speech has an intermittent pause when required to reset the logic gate for response. It is believed that this problem is more likely in the discreet components than with the integrated circuits. No effect on the computational capacity or higher level functioning. Engineering is looking at the direct gating receptor that fires the neurotransmitter or neuromodulator much the same as the synaptic responses in the human brain.

Mike casually made a note himself on his yellow desk tablet that reminded him to talk to Pete Bradley about the progress in finding the solution to this glitch in the ability of Heilos to properly voice communicate. Ages intended on using this subsystem as a part of the diagnostics that personnel would run on the bird for maintenance.

His intercom came to life.

"Mr.  Tait and Mr. Carter on the line sir." Her  voice was calming and professional.

"Good morning, Sam, Karl. Everyone had their morning  Joe and low fat donut?"

"Long time ago Mike." Replied Karl Tait.

"Just finished my first six, Mike. Where do we start?" Sam Carter was always the organizer-leader in the group regardless where he was.

"As you guys are aware, DOD specifically required that we do not use televised conferences for this project because of security reasons.  General Frankel also told me that he would be more comfortable  if we held our meeting face to face. I'm suggesting we carve out a cave of some kind we can all use over at the shop."

"When was the last time you were over at the shop Mike?" Asked Karl.

"It's been some time Karl. Probably eight months ago when we did the final acceptance test on our last project. Why" Responded Mike.

"New construction and some new facilities have been completed there. Compliments of DOD and some whining Congressmen when they came to watch operations I guess. Anyway, we can move in there at any time after I call the SecDef and let him know what we want. I'll also inform him that the place is off limits to all VIP and Congress critters until we get Wizard operational."

"What say you Carter? Can you set aside the next week or so to get this off the ground?" Karl knew in his mind what the next question was going to be from Sam Carter.

"They have a decent golf course or driving range at the new facility?"

 "Of course."

" I'll be there this time tomorrow. You know that all our technicians are working out of there presently don't you? We are only doing the final design at this location. Our end of the project is being assembled as we speak at that facility."

"Your guy Tony Montalvo just walked in here Sam. I'll bring him up to speed and see you within a few hours. Am I right?" Karl's voice had a hint of anticipation to it.

"I hope those facilities are as opulent as you describe Karl. I hope I don't have to double up with

Sam. He snores." Said Mike.

They hung up the phones and ended the call.

As soon as the lines that were lit on Mikes phone went out, Terry called to announce that his design team was waiting in his outside office.

Mike got up from his desk and walked around to the front and faced his senior project engineer Pete Bradley and his project engineers as he spoke.

Wizard is being assembled in the area were fondly refer to as the shop over in Nevada. Tonopah is the closest image of a community  out there as you all know but this time we will be staying on base at their new facilities. I have to make some schedule changes but will be leaving here tomorrow about this time on the company bird. Any problems insurmountable that would keep any of you guys from joining me?"

"I packed my suitcase when I joined this company Mike. It hasn't changed. Count me in but give me some idea when I can tell my fiancé when I'll see her again. " Responded Jim Clark.

"Our bird will be making flights over and back almost three times a week Jim. No reason why you can't get a hop back over here every so often to see her. Will that work? We really need you there 24/7 if we run into any install problems."

"That will be fine Sir. Thank you."

"Bob, Troy?"

"Ready to go. Do we get the same deal as Jim?" asked Bob O'Malley with a chuckle.

"Sure thing Bob.

"Troy?"

"As you may know Mike, Paula is pregnant. She is only about three along at this point and doesn't need much help but if this goes on very long, I may need some consideration in respect to getting back here in a hurry."

"Not a problem Troy. We'll make sure you have that capability. Ok gentlemen, lets meet back here at the office at say 0600 and we'll have my driver take us to the airport. Bob, stick around for a moment if you will. Troy, Jim take the rest of the day off to gather your things and make sure your people know where to get you. Everyone---remember, this is top secret---our eyes only stuff so be heads up."

The two engineers left the office and Mike returned back to his seat behind the desk while Bob O'Mally sat in a chair in front.

"I have a note here about some problem that is listed in the green book on communications about a pause or skip in the text to speech diagnostic on Heilos? How we coming on a solution for that and how serious is it in respect to the overall function?"

Mike sat back in his chair and held his yellow notepad as he looked at O'Malley for an update.

"Not a problem in so far as functionality goes Mike. It is just that the response speech mechanism was giving some pauses on certain diagnostic questions which was anomaly from the common response times.

"An example would be……?"

The bird is set up for maintenance. Say something like a 120 hour flight check. The technician asks Heilos what the voltage requirement  variation is on the 45KVA genset and it immediately replies; Normal variation in output requirements have averaged less than .5volts under maximum load.

"Ok. So then you ask a logic question and what?"

"You read the report where we hold the logic gate suspect I would assume from your question-right?"

"I read it. Best guess Bob?"

"It's confusing. If you ask Heilos something on say, the ROE (Rules Of Engagement) programed into its weapon system, it returns the answer in a flash and it is directly from the directive from DOD or CENTCON updated within the last hour. If you ask it how many friendlies versus tangos were in a certain image, that is when it does the pause thing."

"How would that data be available?"

When CENTCOM issues an attack mission, they do one of several things to differentiate friendlies from foes. One, they can provide a face scan to Heilos or just say everyone in building XYZ. They can even program the Hellfire to select that building without the help of Heilos."

"So, when Heilos needs to make a decision that is not written in code and loaded prior to the mission into its databank, it scans the faces or what?"

"Exactly. It goes to the input scans, discriminates and replies. Normally, that process would only take less than a nanosecond. It is almost as if it was going to another sector for consulting before it continues the process."

"I think you are asking too much of Heilos in that scenario. Just  consider the damn thing had a brain fart and check it off. We need to get this unit accepted by Ages so we can get off of that freeking desert base before summer's  triple digit weather sets in."

"Ok chief. I'll sign off on the pause thing."

"See you onboard the aircraft tomorrow, Bob."

"Right."

Chapter Four

Tonopah Nevada Top Secret research hanger--45 days later

Karl Tait was walking around the Wizard and looking at every detail. It was polished and the graphite surfaces of the leading edge of the wings were as shiny and perhaps brighter than the special epoxy coated control surfaces and fuselage. This was a work of beauty that would make any aeronautical engineer proud to be with in the same hanger. One of the most proud  of the bunch was walking into the hanger now and approaching Karl. Tony Montalvo had been with Wizard since it was just lines on paper and technical design task books by the dozen. Tony knew Wizard like it was a brother.

"Good morning Karl. Talking to the Wizard this morning giving him a pep talk or briefing on what you want accomplished today?"

"Good morning Tony. Actually, I guess I was as a matter of fact. I was saying OK pal, two more days of hooking up wires and servos and you are going to get a chance to see if you are worth  the one and a half billion price tag."

"Well, if the Generals don't buy it, you can always make money on it in Vegas by letting the champion chess and checker players try to beat it."

"Pretty expensive competition for a chess player Tony, don't you think?"

" I was just going by what Ivan was telling me about the static backup computer for Heilos. Evidently he and his crew play chess against it almost every evening and they haven't won a game yet. Not even close."

"Ivan and his boys get their kicks in some strange ways I'd say Tony."

"The guys from Mintel say that when they punch in a request for an after action report on the game, it explains the moves they made that were wrong."

"At least they are testing the system for something functional.

My work notes tell me to meet you here this morning and leave the rest of the day free. What do you have for me Karl?"

"VIP briefing Tony. This will be only guy we will need to keep in the loop in respect to contract progress. General Watkins is the top guy in procurement and reports directly to the POUS so we give him what he asks for. He should be in the hanger in about twenty. You had breakfast and coffee?"

"Yes. Well actually Karl, I have not had a cup of mud in the past five or so years. I am a fond lover of the dried, exotic leaves blended with the right temperature of water. I drink tea."

"Whatever works Tony. Did your guys solve that little glitch we had with the trim tab sensors?"

"All taken care of Karl. We made the necessary revisions to the tech manual and the maintenance cards as well. As far as I know, after another five hours checking the gas charge in the landing strut ,we'll be ready for flight tomorrow early AM."

"Gas charge?"

"We use an enclosed gas system for the landing gear because of the altitude capability of Wizard. Some instances of aircraft, namely the first U-2 designs, there was a lock in the gear when the bird made a rapid descent from close to the ionosphere. The skydrol or hydraulic fluid would freeze so we went to this argon gas design."

"I'm going to turn the general over to you for a one-on-one Tony. I think he will be more relaxed and open with you. From your experience with congress critters and military brass you know they don't like to ask what may be a foolish question in front of their contractors or press."

"I agree. We can handle it fine Karl. I have some audio visual set up in the training room over there and we'll use it for about an hour after the walk around. Will the general be here to witness the first launch tomorrow?"

"No, Tony. As a matter of fact, don't let him in on that unless he puts you in a corner then we will have to get clearance directly from the POUS to let him stay. If the CIC tells him no, that will keep us in good graces. If the CIC ok's it, we'll have to get him a front row seat in the control vehicle."

"Understood."

General Earl Watkins knew his way around the Tonopah hangers and was always interested and could tell you in ten words or less what had been constructed or put in operation since he was last there. He had to know. He was the guy that signed the purchase orders for everything and anything that was delivered to "The shop."

Brigadier General Earl Watkins entered hanger #4-57B precisely on the dot the clock struck0830. Dressed in an issued Air Force Flight suit with creases so sharp they looked like you'd cut your finger on one if you touched it. Only two badges were sewn onto the front of his suit. One, over his right shoulder was the Department Of Defense logo. Not just the issue DOD badge , this was one of the 16 that were issued to the POUS and his cabinet and directors. As a deputy director of AF purchasing, he wore the emblem with pride. On the opposite shoulder just above his  leather name tag indicating his rank and name, was the emblem Tony was surprised to see him wearing. It was the squadron patch for the first UAV squadron commissioned by the DOD. The emblem was the symbol of electrons and protons in an atom over a silhouette of  a UAV. Titled across the top of the emblem were the words "When you least expect Us".

The general was showing his ID to the security personnel at the entrance. The two airmen that were doing the security check should have been alerted that the general would be entering the hanger but evidently they were not. When the general placed his hand on the palm scan and the readout came back "Brigadier General Earl Watkins, deputy director of purchasing for the Deprtment of Defense" the two young men braced and snapped a salute as well as a "Welcome to Tonopah Brigadier General Watkins." The general smiled and chatted with the two airmen as Tony walked over to his area.

"Good morning General. It is good to see you again. I see you are still inspecting the security detail and trying to catch them off guard."

"Tony Montalvo. The Boeing wonder boy of aeronautics and diplomacy. How are you doing Tony?"

"Fine sir. It will be my pleasure to give you the guided tour this morning and answer any questions you may have after we finish."

"One-on-one ---eh Tony? Good thinking. When we finish I have some bean counter types from the department that will want to chat a bit with your company budget gods. They are all cleared security wise but they know nothing of the project outside of the code name Wizard. Tell your people when they meet with them, I'd like to keep their conversation just along numbers and dates, nothing more."

"It shall be General. They really won't get much from my guys, they are not accountants. They can probably put them at ease by just telling them it doesn't look at this time like there will be any overruns or unforeseen costs."

 The general and Tony walked over to the Wizard and started their conversation. Tony provided the general with the basics of this design and reasons why they updated from the Predator design. The general asked several questions in each of the categories Tony described in their first two hours of conversation.

"Does Boeing have any coffee corners in this hanger Tony? You are probably still drinking that stuff brewed  from weeds in the hills of Mandalay but this ol Tomcat still likes my cup of strong joe."

"Joe we have general. Right this way."

When the two sat down for their break in the coffee mess, they were alone.

"Is this Heilos unit mounted in the bird yet Tony?"

"Yes general, it is. We are running final config and specifications on its operation presently."

"Did you fly the bird before you mounted the computer in it Tony?"

"That would have been difficult to do Sir. The Heilos actually flys the aircraft and there are no controls other than the wires from the Heilos to the control surfaces and the servos."

"So you test flight will be twofold. You need to prove the flight characteristics of the bird and at the same time make sure all the controls can operate their  systems. Pretty big risk factor isn't it?"

"We have run simulated flights from this onboard unit as well as the static backup unit and found them to both be right on the money. I'm confident that we'll have Wizard ready for final evaluation flights within five months. That would put us 120 days ahead of schedule Sir."

"One of the design goals for Wizard was to have the mobility factor reduced to a twelve hour response. That means that you would have to transport the bird, complete with the control vehicle and all required GSE (Ground Support Equipment) to a designated area and launch the Wizard on a target mission and return. Are you confident that that capability exists in what you will develop here Tony?"

"With reservations in respect to the transport vehicle General."

"And what are those reservations?"

"We have not loaded Wizard into either a C17 or C5 Galaxy. Our mock-up fit perfectly into a cargo of the C17 but that was a model. As you know from your experience with Air Mobility, sometimes the logistics of models and the actual bird do not match."

"Do I ever." Remarked the general.

"The first time we loaded a CH47 with the rotors folded and all into a C5, we used some tie- downs that were designed for a much lighter bird--a Huey I think. Anyway the restraints broke    on the takeoff and the bird started rolling back and forth in the cargo compartment. It was like trying to catch and tie down a raging bull running thru the streets of Pampolano Spain with a string. It was going to tear the C-5 apart and make it crash. They had to fly out over water off the coast of California and open the rear door and let it roll out and fall free to the ocean.

"You have been in this business long enough Tony to know that on all these AF acceptance tests, the AF loves to come up with a little "added extra" requirement to close the deal so to speak."

"I have some stories I could tell my grandkids about that scenario General and your name would not be omitted. Where are you going here?"

"The next five minutes of conversation never happened Tony. Ok?"

"My memory banks are placed on hold general. I'm afraid to say go ahead."

"The folks over at Homeland security are real interested in the wizard design and what it could do in the border operations we have such a problem with."

"I thought they were presently using the Predator2 in some limited ops general?"

"They are and that is the problem. The border patrol is not the air force. They do not have the time or manpower to train their people to effectively use the Wizard. The Predator 2 requires about a hundred and fifty support personnel for each bird that flys. The Wizard, if accepted could do their operation without all that support requirement. It would be a walk in the park for Wizard to patrol the border area, report crossings ,supervise elimination of the illegal entry point and then conduct its own maintenance. You realize that it was a Predator2 that tracked Al-Awlaki the American born cleric, for two days in Yemen before they got him in a convoy out in the middle of nowhere? Now that is target selection and discretion logic in action. The bird actually followed the gomer until the risk of collateral damage and casualties were minimized.  The  good part about all this is, if we can prove to the HSA people this has merit, they will of course share the cost."

"What would the mission concept be for this test general?"

"I'm still in conversation with Cindy Baldanachi on that Tony but so far she is considering a routine patrol, spotting some illegals crossing, track and report, land, conduct some kind of maintenance check and return to patrol. Of course with the Heilos, Ms. Baldanachi would get a few thousand gigabytes of reports and take action requirements. She wants to keep this under the radar of Army and some others so she is assigning one of her best operatives and a computer guy to be her eyes and ears here. That makes only four people in Homeland Security that would know of the test and the results.

"Four people?"

"The forth would be Brigadier Jacobs. Baldanachi's deputy for counterterrorism and ops."

 Imagine if you will, Wizard reports to the boots on the ground, the number of illegals coming across, the gender of each as well as if they had been arrested before for illegal entry. That data would come from a face scan or audio intercept."

"I guess you know, with Wizard's 6,000 mile range, it would not be necessary to have a ground control vehicle. You could do the entire control scenario from Tonopah. No one would know that Wizard was in the area." Suggested Tony falling into step with the general.

"Great minds think alike buddy." Replied the general with a smile.

"We would still have to conduct the vehicle control tests in order to comply with the AF requirements for remote areas like Afghanistan."

"Exactly but you'd be a wing up on your corporate bosses if you could increase the order would you not Tony?"

Tony smiled and finished his cup of tea.

Chapter 5

Arlington office of Homeland Security. Brigadier General Jacobs office.

Captain "DJ" Jacobs and his friend of many years and classmate in high school, Abdul Matin were sitting in the two seats in front of the general's desk waiting on him to return from a meeting with the Director of Homeland Security Ms. Baldanachi . The general's secretary entered the office and as she approached  with a tray of coffee and pastry, she noticed they were speaking in a different language. It was Pashtu. A dialect of Arabic that was used in the hills of Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as India. She quietly set the tray on a table between them and smiled at the Captain.

"Sorry Alice. We were speaking Arabic. Abdul and I do not get to use the language as often as we'd like so we practice it when we do have some time together."

"Interesting. I understand from your father that you speak five different dialects fluently."

"It is not really that difficult Alice. Once you have the basic Arabic down well, the different dialects are about like learning the Southern accent of Georgia here and say, Texas lingo."

"Your Dad is on his way. He should be here shortly. Can I bring you anything else?

"We are fine thank you Alice."

A few minutes later the general entered the office. DJ and Abdul stood up from their seats and greeted him as he went behind his desk and at the same time tossed a green three inch thick manuscript with the words TOP SECRET in red on the front cover over in front of DJ.

"You two have been bugging me to work on a project together for the past six months since you captured your number one terrorist. Well, I think I have something that matches your skill profiles pretty well and is,….in a word, awesome."

"Do I dare look inside this green monster with the red warning printed on the cover?" Asked DJ.

"That manual was just given to me by the director just about an hour ago DJ. The person that gave it to her was no less than the POUS. That green monster is the only copy in this town. Are you sufficiently impressed Captain ?"

"Yes Sir, I am and I'm listening" The family congeniality suddenly turned to a very serious attitude between father and son.

"Air Force procurement is about to flight test a very special UAV out in Nevada and I want you two gentlemen to be observers for the flight and possibly act as a liaison if the Agency decides to partner up with the Air Force on this Wizard project. As you are aware we are presently using two UAV in our border operation. This bird will be definitely a whole new procedure. You'll see why when you review the manuscript there. DJ, you will also see why we called Abdul into the operation also because of his knowledge of computer science. I have a cabinet meeting to attend in ten minutes over on the hill so I am going to leave both of you here with that very precious piece of information to review in the hours until I get back. You will have the complete privacy of my office and I know I do not have to explain what top secret means. No copies, no notes no scanning allowed out of this office. Have Alice put anything you jot down on paper here in the shred and burn bag before you leave. I believe you can understand why and you will more so when you finish reading the first ten pages. Have at it guys. I'll see you in about three hours or more."

The general left the office with his lap top and a briefcase in hand and smiled back as he exited the room.

The two new recruits to the UAV project started reading the green technical manual on the Wizard. After the first five pages they looked up from the manual and both inclined back in their seats and started exchanging thoughts.

" I can see the logic in having a UAV that does its own maintenance. How that occurs without human hands-on physical operation will be interesting." Remarked DJ.

"I think the idea is more to  minimalizing the personnel required to support these birds DJ. Think of how many people it takes right now to just utilize the surveillance system output. As I understand it right now, these UAV return to their base with hours of tapes and radio intercepts that have to be analyzed by technicians and in most cases interpreted by language specialists. That is time consuming and if there is a hot bit of intelligence gathered that is in a foreign language, it increases the response time to react." Abdul was gesturing with his hands as he usually did only when he was excited.

"You're really getting off on this idea of a flying computer aren't you bud?" Remarked DJ smiling.

"Hey man, think about this for a second. These people are going to replace almost an entire military squadron and personnel with a single surveillance source  locked inside a gigantic microprocessor. You have any kind of clue how big a unit this 6 Brontobyte brain is?"

"I have not the slightest clue what a Brontobye computer does Abdul."

Abdul smiled at DJ's remark and then explained what the intelligence unit in the Heilos could accomplish and how fast.

"O my God" Remarked DJ.

"Yeah. Pretty awesome project potential if you ask me. I hope we can get a look at this Wizard as they call it pretty soon. Let me see the manual again. I want to look at the design of the actual UAV they are putting this in."

The two again looked at the manual page by page on the table between them remarking as they turned the pages.

"They can transport this to just about any place in a C17 or a C5 complete with the ground launch vehicle. " Observed Abdul.

I  can see why its longer than the Predator2 I think. It has an increased range to six thousand miles so it must be for the added fuel tanks. Beyond that, it has an air to air refuel fitting or whatever they call it on the top over the wing center." DJ was pointing to the line drawing of the Wizard.

"Here is where they locate the Heilos unit." Pointing at the forward part of the fuselage, Abdul made a note to find how they access Heilos from the ground for maintenance.

"Looking at the communications system , it would appear that the intelligence collected over the target is analyzed and decrypted immediately and the pertinent mission requirement data is transmitted back to the central command point. You were talking about the time it takes to interpret the languages that the Predator intercepted? Wizard does that onboard and transmits back to the command in encrypted code. "

"No pilot so there is no need for oxygen or personnel support systems. Remarked Abdul.

"May be a first on that note Abdul---the first aircraft manufactured for the military that doesn't have a relief tube." DJ was smiling but he could see that Abdul didn't know what a relief tube was.

"This design is all for reconnaissance. I wonder what would happen if they designed a stealth fighter with this capability? It would be interesting to see if a Top Gunn type fighter jock could win in a dogfight against it." Abdul  was tapping his finger on the green book.

"That would be a gem to ask the developers when we get to look at this Wizard. You know that they say you can't beat a properly programed computer at playing chess? So, if you programed the stealth Wizard with evasive moves and all the power changes, flight controls from another top fighter pilot, it would probably hold its own. We need to see how the border patrol is using the Predator2 in the present operation so we can properly evaluate the comparison when we meet Wizard Abdul. Remind me to ask the general for permission to make a heads-up recon before we go to wherever this bird is being manufactured."

"Good idea."

Some more reading and review of the specifications for Wizard only increased the curiosity of the two new member of the wizard team. When the General returned to his office they were ready for him with a hundred questions.

"The best thing you two can do right away is make a quick recon of one of the border facilities that are presently using the drone. I'd suggest Brownsville Texas as a start."

DJ looked over at Abdul as if to say; Great minds think alike.

"We can be ready in a short time Sir. If you have Alice arrange transportation we can leave this evening." DJ was obviously anxious.

"Big Bird is at your disposal for the next five days gentlemen. Just let the pilots have at least a few hours' notice as to where your mission is leading."

"When is this flight test scheduled in Tonopah Sir?"

"Three days from right now DJ. You'll have to get all your data you need from the Border patrol between now and then. I want you both in Nevada for the launch of this bird."

"We'll provide you with a full report in six days sir."

"Have a good trip gentlemen and stay in touch."

The general shook their hand and they left his office.

Chapter 6

On board  Big Bird  in route Brownsville to contact Border Patrol Headquarters

DJ and Abdul had secured all the information necessary to evaluate the possible use of the  Wizard  by the US border and were on their way to Brownsville, Texas to visually acquaint themselves with the present ground operation. Their conversation was now much more centered on the capabilities of the drone for this type of operation.

At the present time the border patrol is using the earlier Predator2 for surveillance and recon remarked DJ reading from a summary of the operations at the Corpus Christi flight center.. He read aloud the remarks by the area Border Patrol commander taken from a press release.

With the deployment of the Predator in Texas, we will now be able to cover the southwest border from the El Centro sector in California all the way to the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, providing critical aerial surveillance assistance to personnel on the ground,

  The  wizard would be dovetailed into the X-45C. This would be introduced into the new system that the Air Force was designing. In brief, the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems is the first unmanned system specifically designed for combat operations. It will significantly increase the warfighter’s effectiveness in missions such as persistent strike; penetrating electronic attack; suppression of enemy air defenses; and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. This would be the second phase of the overall design requirement for Wizard. All of this depended highly on the success of the flight tests at Tonopah and later on in Afghanistan. The border mission would take priority and come first as soon as possible.

Big Bird landed at NAS Corpus Christi exactly twelve hours after the conversation with the general. After checking in at the BOQ DJ requested a sedan from the motor pool to drive to Brownsville duty station of the  US Customs and Border Protection named Fort Brown after a U S Army fort that was located here during the Mexican American war.

"Your name and rank sir?" Asked the deputy at the motor pool dispatch desk.

"Capt. D J Jacobs of the Homeland Security Agency" replied DJ

"Sir, we have a vehicle assigned to you presently with a driver.  He is waiting on you and your assistant at the Brownsville International airport. His name is Lt. Gomez. I will send a driver to the BOQ to take you to operations where you can catch your chopper to the Brownsville airport. Will you be returning to the base at the end of the day or will you be staying at another location overnight?"

"We intend on returning here deputy. If that changes, we will release the driver and make the necessary accommodations ourselves. It may be easier to just assign a vehicle to us for this use. Both myself and my assistant have government drivers licenses."

"USCBP  policy sir. We require the use of our driver who is a Spanish speaker and knows the area well and is trained in security procedures."

"Very well deputy. I almost forgot where we are. We will be ready in about twenty minutes."

"The driver will be waiting for you in front of the BOQ sir. Have an enjoyable day."

"When I talked to the base commander at Brownsville Abdul, he said that the uniform of the day is BDU for army and as for you, he said they would issue you a set. You give them your size requirements and you will look just like the rest of us in a jiffy Pal."

"I have my own BDU DJ. The agency issues duty uniforms for us. They are rather non-descript compared to your army duds because the Agency frowns on wearing badges and department patches but they are accepted uniform of the day at any military base. "

"Guess I'm still in the learning curve syndrome Abdul. Let's change and meet our driver."

As DJ and Abdul walked out of the Fort Brown BOQ a Humvee pulled to the curb and a BP Lieutenant came around the front of the vehicle and saluted DJ.

"Capt Jacobs Sir, my name is Lt. Worthy and I'll be taking you to the field to catch your chopper for Brownsville. Welcome to Corpus Christi. Do you have any luggage or gear with you that we need to place in the rear compartment?"

"Just my lap top Lt. and I'll keep it with me. We can get underway when you are ready."

The drive opened the door to the Humvee and they were on their way. At Brownsville they were greeted by their driver Lt. Gomez and taken to the base commander's office for a briefing on the area operations.

The border patrol base commander was Colonel Raul Cruiz,  a friend of DJ's dad from when they were both stationed in South Korea.  After greeting the two new arrivals he invited them to attend a briefing he was about to conduct with his sector commanders.

"Feel free to ask any questions you may have at the end of our session here Captain and my team here will be glad to answer any questions about procedure or engagement." Cruiz was trying to be as helpful as possible. The commander then started his briefing update for his team while DJ and Abdul listened intently and took notes.

Cruiz started his presentation by displaying a map of the region he commanded on a large HD video screen.

 "We have just over 1,969 miles of US Mexican border to patrol. The Canadian border is around 3,987 miles. Texas is the largest area to cover with 1,242 miles of border as compared with New Mexico's 179, Arizona's 372 and finally, the 140 miles that border California. Our area of responsibility here at Brownsville covers three sectors that secure the Texas Mexican border from Brownsville to El Paso. We are presently using two Predator-2 UAV and one raptor UAV. Earlier in the program we tested a RQ-4 Global Hawk which is a RPA (Remote Piloted Aircraft) without much success due to the required constant control from the remotely located pilot. The UAV series with its preprogramed flight mission is more adequate for our needs as obviously, the Border Patrol is not an Air Force organization. We alternate the control points for the two Predator birds known as eastbound eagle and westbound hawk from NAS Corpus Christi and El Paso International. Each bird is doing a fifteen hour flight operation which provides six round trips from each launch point. This gives the agency a near constant surveillance of the entire border area. The launch times and recovery events are discretely varied for security reasons. This flight configuration requires a very detailed interface with the FAA along these routes and we have personnel assigned at each end of the mission route to work with the FAA towers and departure control centers. Thus far in the program I am pleased to say, we have not had any near misses reported or experienced with military or general aviation aircraft. Last week we started the first tactical use of the smaller Scan Eagle UAV. The SE is a smaller UV, only four and a half feet long and a wingspan of just ten feet. We are using this bird in the swarm sequence of intruder engagement where two SE coordinate the apprehension of the intruders with the ground forces in the area. A typical scenario of using these in a swarm op is, the westbound hawk detects a possible breach or intrusion from its surveillance altitude of 27,000 feet and relays the data to mission control. Mission control alerts the ground force and sets a communication relay code encryption between the SC's and hawk.  In this event, the hawk can continue on its mission path and the Scan Eagles can effectively coordinate the capture. If the intruder exploit terminates and goes back over the fence, the mission control notifies the Mexican authorities who hopefully will apprehend the illegals on their side of the border for the attempt."

The commander gave some additional operational techniques for the use of the swarm birds and where they were based. Because of their size these smaller birds were very Mobil and can be transported on special designed trailers towed by the Border patrol vehicles. The launch does not require special trained support personnel and the bird's after launch sequence is immediately acquired by the mission control personnel.  Commander Cruiz then moved into the after action reports and intelligence bulletins from the past twenty four hours.

"At approximately 21:50 hours yesterday Hawk reported a RV type vehicle off the road in the Mexican desert heading north and approaching the US border. The vehicle remained approximately one quarter mile south of the border and stationary. Because the area was approaching the limit of area surveillance for Hawk, the data was relayed to Eagle which was due to enter the event area within minutes. When Eagle acquired the suspect vehicle image from Hawk, it was in motion toward the border and at approximately 22:10 hours, illegally entered the United States at the Texas border. Agents from the sector bravo one launched two Scan Eagles in order to release Hawk for continuance of its mission flight path. The two SC acquired the suspect vehicle and reported cell phone transmissions emanating from the RV as it continued north for approximately another mile and then moved over to a dirt road continuing northbound. On orders from sector bravo sensor controllers, the birds initiated electronic emission control to block the cell phone transmissions from the RV. Within the next ten minutes, agents made visual contact and subsequently apprehended five Mexican illegals transporting thirty seven pounds of cocaine and three hundred pounds of marijuana . Three of the five were later identified as members of the Vega cartel based in Nuevo Leon. With the exception of the detainment of two illegal Costa Ricans trying to cross the border at Reynosa carrying explosives, there was no other category one alerts. Questions?"

An agent raised his hand and was recognized by the commander.

"The suspects in the RV that were known Vega cartel people? How did we ID them as such? Those gomers are pretty close mouthed as a rule."

"These characters were evidently really proud to be a part of the organization down there. They all had the Vega cartel tattoo and bragged to another prisoner in the cell that they worked out of Nuevo Leon for the last year or two.  In addition to that bit of data, they all had previous records so their fingerprints and face scans were on file."

DJ raised his hand and was recognized.

"The face scans and fingerprints--you  had to bring the suspects to the duty station to run those or did they have  access to that data in the swarm control vehicles?"

"During processing at the station Captain. We do not have that infield capability presently."

"Beyond the identification of the tattoos and the information derived from the cellmate, is there any reliable reference that these suspects are indeed Vega cartel members? "

Be aware Captain that your question requires discussion of confidential and secured information not to be used outside this room. Yes, we have a code encryption on their records indicating their connection or no connection with any of the over two hundred drug cartels operating in Central and South America. These guys were active and wanted for some really nasty behavior by both Mexican and US governments."

DJ scratched a note on his pad and showed it to Abdul; Does Wizard have face scan capability?

Abdul took the notepad and wrote back; According to the green task book, it has the very latest Spatio-temporial image processor which means the image is refined close to photorealism

Abdul wanted to ask some operational questions in relation to the  required programing and pre-mission data that was loaded into the UAV's mission onboard computer. The Commander answered several of his questions and then asked DJ if he wanted to accompany the team on their nightly patrol of the immediate area. DJ answered in the affirmative and the team headed for the mission briefing area next to the flight line and control trailer that housed the communications equipment and the safety pilot. On the way to the trailer and briefing room, the Commander explained  that evenings mission to his two guests.

"Eagle has been fueled and preflighted in El Paso and is now eastbound to our location here. It will not land at either location for another 27 hours. Hawk has just finished refueling and you will have a chance to see it go airborne from that strip right over there." The Commander pointed at the hanger where the UAV was just being towed out to the taxi strip.

As DJ and Abdul looked over at the UAV, the commander contacted the ground crew to hold the bird until he had a chance to show his visitors the actual UAV that they would be watching that evening on radar and from satellite images as well as direct camera views from onboard.

The Commander walked over to a small vechicle that resembled a jeep but had no fenders and was open top design.

"Hop in gentlemen and we'll do a quick walk around on our ultimate  jumper catcher before it launches."

"Jumper Catcher? " Quized DJ.

"Illegals are sometimes called border jumpers. These smaller desert dune buggy designs here we are riding in  are used to catch the illegals as they attempt to cross the desert. When the UAVs starting coming on the base one of the agents commented that they would be  the ultimate jumper catchers. The nic pretty well stuck."

As they approached the bird with the ground crew adjusting the final settings on the electronics and wiping the camera screen of clear plexiglass it appeared as if the bird was a queen being prepared for a ritual. The only area that was not painted a  shiny light gray was the area in front there the camera housing and the geosat equipment were located. It had the usual USAF model numbers and  registered designations on the tail. In a large decal on the front of the bird where normally the cockpit of the aircraft would be was a huge decal of the Homeland Security Agency and beneath it the words. Hawk.

"Not as large as I thought it would be. It looks like an oversized model airplane. " Commented  DJ. As those words left his mouth, DJ immediately wished he had not made the comparison. One of the ground crew wiping the leading edge of the Hawk's wing gave him a stern look and then continued wiping his pride and joy.

"Twenty seven feet long, forty eight foot wingspan and only six foot nine in height but I'll bet you have never seen a model that could carry two hell fire missiles DJ." Replied Abdul.

The ground crew stepped back and as the tow bar was disconnected, the bird came to life as if there was a pilot in a cockpit of the bird. As the engine started the airman disconnected the ground power NC5 cable and the Hawk's red and white anti-collision lights started  flashing and it began to taxi to the take off area. It rolled from the area where they were watching, turned at the blue taxi lights ninety degrees and proceeded to the end of the runway and stopped. Thirty seconds later the Hawk was airborne and climbing to its assigned patrol altitude. The next forty five minutes were spent watching the two UAV on different cameras in the control trailer as they cruised at nineteen thousand feet for westbound Hawk and twenty one thousand feet for eastbound Eagle.DJ had just gotten his first cup of coffee  when he heard the overhead speaker sound a dual tone that was obviously an alert as everyone in the trailer took their respective operation stations. It was westbound Hawk. The UAV was over the section between Del Rio and Fort Stockton Texas and had spotted activity along the border on the US side. DJ watched as the night vision camera split the screen in front of the sensor operator and showed two images. The one on the right screen was a map of the area with the longitude and latitude numbers changing as the bird continued west with its  camera zeroed on the suspect area.  The image on the left screen showed a white van that had come across the desert and parked about fifty feet from the border fence. The camera then showed two men get out of the van and stand facing the fence. One of the observers in the room asked the sensor operator to zoom in on the van closer and when he did, the observer announced to the room; "Stand down guys, its two of our guys. The van has our decal on the side."

At this the room relaxed and the conversations resumed.

All except one. The Commander was still looking at the image of the two outside the van.

"Charlie---call sector three and ask them if they have any agents at the location. Do it on the secured line---don't use the radio and tell him not to use his radio to see if there are any of his guys at that geosat location."

"Roger Commander"

DJ was looking closer at the image on the screen now as was everyone else in the room. In a minute, the agent that the Commander asked to make the call gave him the report.

"Sector three watch captain reports no patrols anyplace close to that location Commander."

"Contact sector two watch commander and tell him to launch the two scan eagle birds and give him the encryption code for both Hawk and Eagle so they can triangulate a fix on these imposters over there. Do not approach until we see what they expect to get coming through that fence. I'll bet it’s a carload of illegals and some drugs just to make the trip worthwhile."

The commander then looked over at his two visitors who were taking this all in and making notes as fast as they could write.

"This is a fairly new twist--impersonating agents and disguising the van to look like our guys transporting a bunch of illegals. It worked for them about two years ago and they made it all the way to Escondidio California before a California CHP unit pulled them over for speeding."

"What made you suspect of these guys  commander?" Asked Abdul.

"They have on the jungle type ruk hats like the SEALS wear first of all and secondly the vehicle was not properly marked. WE have the motor pool location and vehicle number painted on the bottom of the door in three inch high letters. There is no vehicle number on this vehicle and the occupants are wearing different hats. Our guys all wear ball caps."

"Sector three has an image from scan eagle alpha commander. Shall we release Hawk to proceed west? It is presently orbiting the area coordinating the scan eagles."

"We have the image from scan eagle now, release Hawk." The Commander was watching three screens intently now.

"Company coming Commander. They just made a breach in the fence with it looks like five or six individuals all carrying boxes."

"Affirmative. Tell the sector three agents to make the bust. We'll watch from here unless they require assistance. It does not look like these border patrol wannabees are armed but never hurts to be heads-up."

DJ and Abdul observed the bust of the illegals who were also carrying drugs. It was a very productive evening in respect to observation of how the Border Patrol functions with the UAV and the scan eagles.

DJ and Abdul returned to their BOQ at Corpus Christi and got ready for the flight the following morning that would take them to Nevada where they would meet the wizard.

Chapter 7

Outside hanger #4-57B, Tonopah Air Base, Nevada early the following morning.

D J and Abdul had been met at the airstrip by Tony Montalvo the Boeing Representative and brought directly to the hanger where wizard was being preflighted. In addition to the green book that DJ and Abdul had been given to read by the General, they were now provided with a complete technical manual on the Wizard. It was necessary to leave the green books in the general's office but these manuals, also considered top secret were issued to them for their use while on the Tonapah base. Tony had used the time between the aircraft and the hanger to update the new visitors on what was going to be the first real time test of the wizard today---the first flight.

"We have prepared a special area in the hanger for you and Abdul to work with the wizard in respect to the language encryption Captain. I hope it is  not too inconvenient to work next to the bird while it is still in the hanger. We do not want to take the wizard's main computer unit  out of the flight platform  and then replace it again before and after your sessions. That would require some extensive labor and calibration measures each time."

"Not a problem Tony. I understand the hanger is heated and air conditioned---right?"

"Yes sir. We have a small desk and some additional computers you may use as well as a secured line for phone communications.  As you know the hanger is classified top secret so there will be an airman assigned to secure your work area at all times."

Inside the hanger Tony made all the introductions around so that DJ and Abdul felt welcome into the group and were well accepted.

When DJ was introduced to General Watkins he saluted the general and was somewhat surprised when the general shook his hand and pulled him closer and put his arm on DJ's shoulder and said to him in a low voice that was not heard by the others;

"in the next few days Captain, I want to hear the complete after action report of your meeting and award ceremony you and your parents just returned from in Israel. I might add my congratulations on the Israeli Medal of Valor young man."

"Thank you sir. I wear it with pride but obviously not on my BDU I am wearing. May I ask how you knew of the award?"

"Your Dad is very proud of you DJ. Now, let's see if this million dollar computer can fly an airplane without running into an airliner passing overhead."

Tony started his presentation to the group as the wizard was towed to the air strip and lined up for takeoff.

It was a beautiful looking creation that started to taxi to the end of the strip where it stopped just short of the launch area. In the morning sunlight, the bright surface of the wings and the tail reflected and made the bird look almost gargantuan. There it stopped while Tony Montalvo gave the group the description of the test they were about to witness.

"We have the control vehicle that will enable us to watch wizard once it is launched from this location. The wizard will be under constant surveillance by cameras on the three chase planes that will accompany it on this maiden flight. After takeoff we can enter the tent here around the control vehicle. Inside the tent we have connected several large television screen to the control consul so that you may watch the instrument read out panel on the wizard as well as the instrument panel on the control vehicle. Speakers have been mounted here also so that you may hear the complete communications between wizard and the controllers. Before we launch the wizard, are there any questions?"

"What altitude will it go to today?" Asked the General.

"It will take off and climb to 15,000 feet today General. This flight is to verify the flight controls and geosat capabilities mainly so we will not be doing any fancy aerobatics or attempting to set any altitude records."

"You described the sensor technicians as controllers. Will wizard be doing any of this mission under its own program?" It was Karl Tait asking the question.

"Once the landing gear is retracted Mr. Tait, the wizard will be completely under voice command. The technicians will not override the autonomous control of wizard unless there is a flight emergency or another problem that will require controller command."

The speaker emitted a small, short beep beep and then a digitized voice came over the speakers around the group who were now all outside the tent watching the wizard turn onto the duty runway and stop.

Boeing X4579 in position and ready for takeoff . Came over the speakers

Roger Xray4579, cleared for takeoff. Climb and maintain 7,000 feet heading 120.

The engine on the wizard now emitted a very high pitched whine and the bird immediately raised slightly as the brakes were released. The wing flaps were set to thirty degrees and the engine was now at an even higher pitch whine as wizard moved down the centerline of the runway still on the ground. At approximately six hundred and fifty feet the nose came up and the wizard assumed a thirty degree nose up attitude and continued to fly. The gear came up and the bird continued to climb as the flaps were retracted. At about fifteen hundred feet, the wizard made a slight turn to the east and continued to climb rapidly.

Tony's voice came over the speakers;

"Wizard has made a preliminary course correction to depart the area at the 120 degree course as instructed by the tower and controller. This was on its own as well as all the flight control adjustments you just witnessed. "Therein followed a tremendous applause and a bunch of high fivers between the technicians and the CEO's of the three companies.

The speaker came alive again.

X4579 request technicians observe engine TIT and advise. Continuing at climb power unless advised different. Presently passing through 10,000 feet to assigned 15 thousand feet.

"Well son of a bitch. It monitors the engine performance on takeoff just as a freeking flight engineer would." Was all the general could say.

Roger Xray4579. Technicians advise not a problem. The TIT will fall inline when you come off climb power. If  not advise.

X4579 Roger.EGT is slightly elevated as well as TOT but remains constant and not red lined which would coincide with the TIT anomaly.

Roger X4579 noted and accepted into flight characteristics databank.

Abdul looked over at Tony and asked; "I need to ask you---that was wizard explaining the engine operation and doing a diagnostic of what was occurring? Was that autonomous or was there data sent to wizard that we did not hear? Also can you explain what those acronyms were that wizard spoke of?"

Tony smiled and looked back at Abdul and moved closer so that he was not confusing the others with his explanation.

"The engine has three main sections that consist of intake combustion or power and exhaust. The temperature at these locations is critical in a turbine engines, therefore it is monitored by sensors that transmit data to the panel. Wizard has no panel because there is no pilot to look at it during flight so it just goes into the flight recorder and digital control. The TIT is Turbine Inlet Temperature. This is the gas going into the power section from the combustion or "hot" section of the engine. The EGT is the gas temperature coming out of the engine turbine or Exhaust Gas Temperature.   In respect to your last part of your question?---Yes--that was all autonomous from wizard. In addition to the data that we are hearing over the speaker, wizard is also sending flight data to our ground system relating surface skin temperature---the temperature of the metal surface on all of its control surfaces, airspeed and friction across thirty seven different fuselage locations and a multitude of other data that we will review when the mission is completed"

It was all DJ could do to keep his jaw from dropping as he heard Tony relate the happening.

X4579 on assigned altitude of 15,000 feet. Reducing climb power to first power reduction for cruise.

Roger X4579. Continue on heading and altitude for ten minutes then execute a 360 degree turn and  report over base.

X4579 Roger;

Tony took the following ten minutes to acquaint the group with what the following test was going to involve.

"Our test mission today has resulted in some excellent data being recorded detailing the flight characteristics of wizard. I am pleased to forward that information to all of you briefly as follows;

X4579 executed a perfect take off and climb to altitude. During this first part of the mission test all data was recorded and compared, analyzed and subjected to structured qualifications for evaluation. The results were, in a word, fantastic. Wizard stayed completely on course, never deviating from the assigned flight path as much as a single tenth of a degree. The flight data that wizard has sent back indicates that the engine that powers wizard is a welcome guest in this airframe. As a result of this data, we will now take wizard to a different environment and monitor the results. Gentlemen, we are going to take wizard to an elevated altitude of 80,000 feet and reduce engine power to the loiter mode and see how it will perform. During this period we will also test, in a manner of speaking the cameras and radar avionics onboard by having wizard make a video of the climb to that altitude."

The group was heard to exclaim its mutual amazement at the extent that the engineers were confident enough in the design to take it to the extended test requirements on its first flight.

The wizard was seen returning over the Tonopah base and as it passed overhead, the controllers instructed it to climb to the test altitude of 80,000 feet. In order to obtain this altitude and not interdict scheduled air routes of commercial airliners, wizard would have to execute a circle type climb that would encompass only fifteen square miles. It would have only fifty seven minutes to make the climb and assent.

Tony continued the presentation to the group while wizard was climbing to the assigned altitude.

"We have some relatively new communication equipment installed on wizard that is worthwhile noting. To achieve the information dominance called for in Joint Vision 2020, wideband data must be exchanged rapidly and accurately through battlefield networks to allow friendly forces to quickly assess and effectively respond to threats. Wizards -certified tactical common data link (TCDL) does the job quite well and secure. Wizards TCDL transmits encrypted wideband data and code to command and control centers. Typically, the data rate of previous systems, Predator and others, the point -to- point communications was at 10.71 Mbps. As a result of IRAD and LAMPS research, this unit is transmitting to us here at a rate of 274Mbps. Clear as a bell as the saying goes and all data is obviously top quality. This improved system was a requirement on wizard because of the data transmitting power of the Halos computer. Considering that wizards microprocessor is superscalar and can execute more than one instruction per clock cycle, the improved wideband capability is necessary for real time target analysis. More on that tomorrow when we demonstrate wizards weapon system. We will give this an additional test at the 80,000 altitude in moments."

"Abdul, as soon as we complete these High Altitude Endurance (HAE) system checks, we will be bringing wizard back to the hanger and you can get started on the language indoctrination aspect of the evaluation. I'll instruct you on the method we have been using to input data--a rather primitive keyboard and wizard encrypts and stores it. We also have a text to speech that is an astounding piece of software. Karl Tait of Ares, who you meant a few moments ago as well as Mike Collins of Mintel think that the text to speech,--- really code to speech--- because the data is coming directly from wizard's CPU, would be preferred because we want the closest pronunciation as possible."

"Tony, are you telling me that wizard can learn to talk with a dialect?"

"Funny story here. I told you earlier that the guys had been playing chess in the evening with wizard-right?"

DJ moved closer to the conversation at this point, listening intently.

"Well, Denny Prewit, the tech from Ares that has spent the most time with wizard so far on a one-on-one basis, is from Austin Texas. He has been giving most of the speech prompts to wizard in their chess conversations. The scenario goes something like this, wizard commands; Move knight to E-3

The knight is moved to the requested location.

"With Ivan and a few others watching and making comments, wizard evidently incorporated their conversation into its learning scenario. It would sometimes ask for the definition of a word."

"Really?" Remarked DJ.

"After the match, it was common practice to ask wizard to evaluate where his opponent went wrong in their chess moves. They did this the other evening and wizard replied:"

Ya'all moved your pawn at the wrong time.

"So, yes---you can expect wizard to pick up any dialect you use in your instructions."

The command control tent became quiet when wizard reported in when it reached altitude for testing.

Wizard, execute engine loiter operation at this time and report stability performance. Requested the sensor.

Roger,  Engine reduction to 47,340RPM maintain course.

Wizard, initiate high altitude surveillance  cameras and transmit data on channel 54 with all operating data on the receiving screen here at base.

Roger. Cameras now transmitting requested geo images.

Test IR and RF capabilities using the base control trailer as a target. Analyze and record for the next five minutes.

"Roger. IR functioning well and images are recorded. Review RF transmission is not functioning as specified. Suggest the data link for audio is not calibrated to the broadband frequency match for TDCL. Advise action.

Roger wizard, duly noted and we will squawk that on the flight eval sheet.

Another fifteen minutes of high altitude tests were conducted and wizard was returned to base making a perfect landing and taxi to control sensor location and then executed an engine shutdown as outlined in the operations manual without incident or a miss in the procedure.  The ground crew towed the wizard to the Boeing research hanger and performed the after-flight the inspections and required maintenance. They finished their work and left DJ and Abdul with Tony to explain how to communicate with the wizard.

 END OF PRE- RELEASE

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ON DECEMBER 15,2011

Chapter 8

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