The bright halogen lights of an SUV bounced into the tree line, inching its way along an unlit path in the snow. Pearce couldn’t be sure who it was from here. Bath had a network of wet-work operators. Even dead, she could get her revenge if she was vindictive enough and had signed the right kind of contracts.
Pearce had gone completely off the grid at the cabin, no electronics of any kind, including surveillance. After Ian had filled him in on all the details of his hacking op against Bath and the others, Pearce decided it was time to go back to basics, at least out here. Fireplaces, axes, well water, dried fish. He went completely off the grid at the cabin, no electronics of any kind, including surveillance. Connectivity meant vulnerability. He preferred the sound of chopping wood to laser printing anyway. He had all of the electronic gear he needed in the RV, and at his condo in Coronado, not to mention Pearce Systems headquarters in Dearborn. But out here was his solitude and silence. This was his desert.
The SUV cleared the tree line and approached the cabin. Pearce squinted in the harsh lights. Tossed his coffee and set the cup down on the rough-hewn table. The SUV lights snapped off.
Heavy doors slammed shut. Two figures in hooded parkas exited the SUV. Dark shadows crunched in the snow, trudging toward him. A figure emerged into the firelight from the window flickering in the snow. She pulled down her hood.
“Troy.”
Pearce nodded. “Glad you made it.”
Myers looked good. Radiant, actually.
Pearce stepped off the porch and gave her a hug. Myers pointed at the man standing next to her.
“Troy, this is Congressman David Lane.”
“Just Dave,” Lane said, shaking Pearce’s hand.
Myers trusted Lane. That was good enough for him.
It was time to serve again.
Time to get back in the fight.
ABU — Airman Battle Uniform (Air Force “fatigues”)
AFRICOM — Africa Command
AFB — Air Force Base
AMF — Aviation Mission Fellowship (fictional)
Ansar Dine — “Defenders of the Faith”
ANT — Advanced Network Technology [a division of the NSA’s TAO]
AQS — al-Qaeda Sahara (fictional)
BDU — Battle Dress Uniform (Army “fatigues”)
BMI — Brain Machine Interface
BOQ — Bachelor Officer Quarters
COMPASS — Chinese version of GPS
CTD — Counterterrorism Division (FBI)
CXS — Communications Exploitation Section (FBI CTD)
DARPA — Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (US)
DDoS — Denial-of-Service attacks
DNI — Director of National Intelligence
DPV — Desert Patrol Vehicle
FAE — Fuel-Air Explosive
FAV — Fast-Attack Vehicle
GAD — General Armament Department (a PRC/PLA version of DARPA)
GCHQ — Government Communications Headquarters (the British version of the NSA)
GCS — Ground Control Station (drones)
GPS — Global Positioning System
HSD — High Speed Data
HFT — High Frequency Trading
JDAM — Joint Direct Attack Munition
JTRIG — Joint Threat Research and Intelligence Group, the GCHQ’s anti-hacktivist division
LARs — Lethal Autonomous Robotics
LS3 — Legged Squad Support System
MAST — Micro Autonomous Systems and Technology
MAV — Miniature Air Vehicle
MGV — Miniature Ground Vehicle
Mil-Spec — Military Specifications
MNLA — National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad
MSS — Ministry of State Security
NSA — National Security Administration
OPSEC — Operational Security
PDB — Presidential Daily Brief
PLA — People’s Liberation Army
PRC — People’s Republic of China
PROCEED — Programming Computation on Encrypted Data
REE — Rare Earth Element
RPV — Remotely Piloted Vehicle
SAD/SOG — Special Activities Division/Special Operations Group [the CIA’s special forces unit]
SCADA — Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition
SPAN — Self-Powered Ad-hoc Network
sUAV — Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
STOL — Short Take Off and Landing
SVR — Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service)
TAO — Office of Tailored Operations (NSA)
TERCOM — Terrain Contour Matching
UAV — Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
UDC — Utah Data Center
UGV — Unmanned Ground Vehicle
USAFE-AFAFRICA — U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa
VPN — Virtual Private Network
VTOL — Vertical Takeoff and Landing
TYPE — MANUFACTURER, AGENCY, OR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
A-160T Hummingbird — UAV (transport) — Boeing Advance Systems
Bio-Bot — Living organisms fitted with hardware and software for automated control — North Carolina State University
Hybrid Quadrotor — UAV (attack) — Latitude Engineering
LS3 — Legged Squad Support System (transport — for now) — Boston Dynamics
Naro-tartaruga — UUV (research) — ETH (prototype)
Silent Falcon — sUAS (surveillance) — UAS Technologies
SmartBird — UAV (surveillance) — Festo
Snake — UGV (surveillance) — Tohoku University (prototype)
