Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones (15 page)

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Raina hesitated.

“What are you waiting for?”

The Afghani scene flickered for a moment and her pilot’s chair shuddered as a loud bang sounded just outside the trailer, followed by the rapid barks of automatic weapons. A speaker inside the trailer sounded an alarm and Murnell grabbed her wrist and tried to reach across the chair, but she used her free arm to elbow him in the eye socket.

Pushing up from the chair, she ducked away from the punch he swung at her face, catching only a glancing blow, and used her good heel to mash down hard on one of his open-toed shoes, and stepping away from him. He whelped in pain and crumpled to the floor, but not for long.

“You’re making it hard for me to keeping liking you, Raina.”

Limping, he tried to charge at her. Though her prosthetic wasn’t built to be used as a weapon, she threw all her weight on her other foot and turned to throw a kick, the carbon fiber appendage catching him square on the chin, the force of her own blow knocking her to the ground. This time Murnell went down for good.

“Like
that
,” she said.

More explosions and gunfire rocked the trailer. Wisps of smoke appeared from somewhere and the dim light continued to flicker. She pulled herself to her feet to climb out of the sphere, but the sight that greeted her stopped her cold.

The sphere was still operational. The screens no longer formed a composite multi-dimensional view of the mountains in Afghanistan. Instead, she was looking at several images at once, real time CCD camera and thermal images from outside the very trailer where she was sitting, figures running in the dark, charges detonating, and tracers flying. Of course, whatever kind of micro drones she’d just been piloting half across the globe would also be part of the defenses here.

The images dipped and moved and seemed to come from every possible angle and vantage point; you could manage an entire combat encounter, a whole army even, with such a tool, and she couldn’t help but watch for a moment, fascinated. Until her eyes came to rest on one lower portion of the screen. A shock of fear ran through her, for in this part of the battle at least, the images were like looking in a mirror–they were all looking down from different angles with cameras aimed at her.

Raina threw herself through the sphere hatchway and crawled along the floor of the dimly-lit trailer. Reaching the door to the outside, she stood and pushed it open.

The scene that greeted her might as well have been in Torah-Bora or Fallujah–night combat, a full-on mini battle.

A larger, not-too-distant explosion rocked the air. She looked for signs of Tye or Williamson, but it was impossible to tell just exactly who was attacking whom. The fight was no longer half way across the world, she realized. The battle was coming home.

She ducked low, stumbling down the trailer steps and charging into the darkness, while another blast ripped in close and the concussive whumps of incoming fire bloomed all around.

About the Author:

Publishers Weekly
has featured Andy Straka as one of a new crop of “rising stars in crime fiction.” His previous novels include A WITNESS ABOVE (Anthony, Agatha, and Shamus Award finalist), A KILLING SKY (Anthony Award Finalist), COLD QUARRY (Shamus Award Winner), THE NIGHT FALCONER (called a “great read” by
Library Journal
), RECORD OF WRONGS (hailed by
Mystery Scene
as “a first-rate thriller”), FLIGHTFALL, and THE BLUE HALLELUJAH.

Always fascinated with flight, Andy is a licensed falconer and co-founder of the popular Crime Wave at the annual Virginia Festival of the Book. A native of upstate New York and a graduate of Williams College, he lives with his family in Virginia.

Other Books by this Author:

Frank Pavlicek Novels:

A Witness Above

A Killing Sky

Cold Quarry

The Night Falconer

Flightfall

Thrillers:

Record Of Wrongs

The Blue Hallelujah

Connect with Andy Straka Online:

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AndyStraka

Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/558166.Andy_Straka

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Straka/220894891291320

Linked-In:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/andy-straka/10/356/754

Websites/Blog:
http://andystraka.com/
http://dragonfliesbooks.com/
http://dronereport.org/