Saturday
Twenty minutes later, I was lifting skinny strings of mozzarella cheese and winding them around a slice of pepperoni pizza before I shoveled it all into my mouth. Which I washed down with a draft. The taste of spicy flavors, milky cheese, and cold beer was addictive. Pizza was my favorite cuisine. And no need for forks or knives.
“I understand you have some questions about counterdrone systems,” Grizzly said to me.
I held up a finger while I chewed and swallowed. Then: “I’m not sure if ‘question’ is the right word. Confession might be more accurate.”
“You may confess to me, young lady.”
“Thank you, Father.” I glanced over at Luke. He nodded. “I was told by a top executive at Delcroft that they’ve been working on a counterdrone system for over a year. This executive was testing it in Utah. She says the system is flawless.”
Grizzly took a swig. “I’m not surprised. Anti-drones use the same technology as drones. All you have to do is reverse engineer them.”
“What do you mean?”
“Most of them are controlled by old-fashioned radio signals.”
“Radio signals?” I knew a little about radio signals, ironically, because of the case through which I met LeJeune.
“Satellite GPS signals, too.”
“Okay.”
“As you probably know, the payloads on drones are either cameras and sensors for surveillance or explosives for attacks. Sometimes both. If I wanted to take control of a drone, I’d mimic and boost its radio signal. That way I could feed it misinformation about where to drop the bomb or what to spy on—they call them spoofing attacks—or just shoot it out of the sky if I wanted.”
I nodded, pretending I understood a lot more than I did.
“So, whatever system Delcroft is developing would probably have a sensor to detect and triangulate the targeted drone’s position. The counterdrone would fly over to it. Once it was within range, the guys on the ground would transmit a signal with new directions. The counterdrone would acknowledge the new input and do whatever it’s been ordered to do.”
“You make it sound simple.”
Grizzly waved a hand. “You know, I am curious about something, Ellie. Why is it supposed to be so flawless?”
“Something to do with artificial intelligence.”
“Really?”
“Does that surprise you?”
“I suppose it does. Radios and radars used to be built with hardware that could only transmit in certain ways. Today, there’s software that can change how they emit from moment to moment. For example, we heard that someone recorded one burst transmission—he didn’t say from where—that changed modulation eight times in two seconds. In order to do that, the thinking goes, it has to be controlled by a ‘cognitive’ computer—ergo, artificial intelligence.” He went on. “And if you do that, you’ve opened the door to all sorts of other things.”
“Like what?”
“Hacking into enemy networks. Placing malware on enemy systems.”
“NSA-type hacking?”
“You betcha. But from the air. Unmanned. Untraceable. It’s pretty amazing. Remember, Delcroft has the most advanced drone systems in the world. Hell, they even make an F-16 drone, and they’ve come up with a way to control drones from an Apache helicopter. So whatever anti-drone system they’ve come up with probably takes those issues into account. It’s pretty advanced technology. Not a lot of companies have the investment dollars to perfect it. Or make it flawless.”
“But Delcroft does?”
“What do you think?”
I took another sip of beer. “So, bottom line, assuming Delcroft has this bigger, better system, there might be ‘parties’ who want to get their hands on the technology.”
“Are you kidding? Of course. We’ve done a shitload of damage with our drones. Our enemies want to pay us back. Although, like I said, if the engineers of those ‘parties’ know what they’re doing, they might be able to figure out Delcroft’s technology on their own. You remember how the Iranians shot down a drone a few years ago?”
I nodded.
“That was a CIA drone.” His voice held just a trace of smugness. “The Iranians claimed they jammed the signals, reverse engineered it, forced it to land where they wanted, and lifted all its data.”
“Did they?”
“Who knows? Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. It’s not rocket science.”
“Funny.”
Luke got up and brought back a fresh pitcher of beer. I pushed the pizza plate toward him. One slice was left. He scooped it up.
“So what’s your deal with Delcroft?” Grizzly asked.
Luke and I exchanged glances again. Then Luke said, “Ellie has information that someone connected to Delcroft might be selling this new system to the Chinese government. Or military.”
“They’re one and the same,” Grizzly said. “So that’s why you wanted to meet off base. What’s the story?”
I looked around. The booth next to us was empty, and there weren’t any people close by. Still, I lowered my voice and explained about the video, Parks, the flash drive, Hollander’s suspicions, and the IED that blew up Dolan’s office.
Grizzly worked on his beer while I talked. When I finished, a tiny layer of foam coated the top of his lip. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth.
“Good old Delcroft. The military’s best friend. They know more about our country’s capabilities than your average brigadier general or admiral.”
“So if Delcroft is building a supersecret counterdrone system, people would know about it?”
“By ‘people,’ I assume you mean our enemies?” Grizzly asked.
I nodded.
“It’s hard to keep that kind of thing secret for long.” He wrapped his hands around his empty beer glass. “By the way, most of the counterdrone tests for the military happen at the navy’s Point Mugu, near China Lake. That’s in California, not Utah.”
“Are you saying Hollander lied about where she was working?”
“Maybe.”
“Why?”
“Because she can.”
I thought it over. “Wait a minute. If she lied about Utah, could she be lying about the artificial intelligence part of it, too?”
“It’s possible. Remember, our enemies aren’t stupid. They can take advantage of our technology and push it out fast. In some ways we’re still playing catch-up. It pays to lie. Confuse the situation. Make the enemy think we know or have more than we really do.”
My head was spinning. “Jesus. This is worse than going through the looking glass. Who do you trust?”
“No one.”
“But this is our country’s security we’re talking about.”
It was Grizzly’s turn to glance around. “Let’s blow this pop stand. Take me for a ride in your pickup.”
I frowned, but Luke promptly got up and went to the bar to pay.
Grizzly picked up his crutches and grinned. “I need to hang out with rich guys more often.”