Chapter 59

Mihail Kogalniceanu Military Air Base, Romania
April 19, 2006

The MAADS team had fallen into a regular routine after the hectic events of a week earlier. Charles had created a schedule, so someone was always monitoring the live images from the remaining MAADS system.

They had destroyed MAADS system D after Jackson had disabled all the robots. Charles had supported Fiona's proposal they fly the aerial vehicle back to System B. But the effect was to draw attention to the fact System B no longer had an aerial vehicle, and they were ordered to destroy it as well.

Captain Freedman justified the decision by saying, “Flying aerial vehicles around remote mountains, and out of communication, looks a good way to lose them. The Army doesn't want any more classified equipment lost.”

Fiona called Charles over, and said, “Look at this, coming from System A's aerial vehicle.”

Charles walked across and saw an infrared image from the aerial vehicle. It showed more than twenty red dots strung out in a loose line.

“What are they?”

“I'll switch to the visual image. You can just make out white shapes here and here. They are sheep.”

“Are there any shepherds?”

“The aerial vehicle is in the process of checking out each infrared target to establish which are people. It hasn't found any yet, but it has only just started. If you look back at the infrared image, these heat points here have a larger signature.”

“Do you think they are people?”

“No, I think they are horses, but I did get a glimpse of a dog a minute ago. Where there is a dog there is likely to be an owner.”

“Is System A's threat level still set to medium?”

“Yes”

“Then set it to low. If a shepherd appears, and he's armed, I don't want MAADS killing him. We can set it back if they are armed infiltrators.”

“Fiona typed on her keyboard. “OK, it’s done. I have a visual on those larger infrared heat sources. It's two men leading a number of pack horses.”

Charles said, “Pull the tactical robots back from the trail toward the control unit. Make sure they still have the trail in view, but are far enough away they should remain unnoticed. How far away are the men from the robots’ position?”

“They are about a kilometer away.”

“I need to get Captain Freedman.” Charles rose, and left the room.

He returned a couple of minutes later accompanied by the Captain.

Captain Freeman asked Fiona, “How close to the MAADS system are the men now?”

“They are about six hundred meters away. The aerial vehicle thinks it is tracking eight men.”

“Are any of them armed?”

“We can't tell from the aerial vehicle's view. We will have to wait until they come into view of the tactical robots, which should be in another two or three minutes.”

Captain Freedman said, “Charles told me, you have set the threat level to low and as a result MAADS will not use lethal force in any circumstances. Is that the only way to stop the system killing innocent civilians?”

Charles intercepted the loaded question. He had noticed over the last week that Captain Freedman had become progressively more antithetic toward MAADS, and Charles wondered what was in the reports he sending to General Waxley.

“With the previous settings, if MAADS detects an armed man who is not carrying an IFF, it concludes they are hostile. Setting the threat level to low will ensure MAADS does not harm innocent civilians.”

“How long will it take to reset the threat level?”

Fiona answered, “Thirty seconds. By the way, I checked the satellite schedule while you were away, and we have the satellite for the next three hours.”

Fiona, Charles, Richard, and Captain Freedman sat watching the alternating visual and infrared images transmitted from the tactical robots, waiting to see what happened next.

A number of sheep came into view, moving along the trail. More sheep appeared on the screen, and then two dogs, one on each side of the flock of sheep. The first person they saw was a boy about twelve years old. He was carrying a stick longer than the boy was tall. A man closely followed him with a rifle slung across his back. The man was leading a horse, then more sheep appeared, followed by eight heavily laden horses accompanied by four armed men.

Charles broke the silence. “My guess is they are smugglers.”

Captain Freeman responded, “Do we know what they are smuggling?”

Charles looked at Freedman. “Does it matter?”

“They could be smuggling weapons.”

Richard said, “This is a wildass guess, but I'd say they were smuggling sheep.”

Charles shot a look at Richard that said 'keep out of this'.

Charles said, “We have no way of knowing what is in the packs, but when the terrorist infiltrators came through it was obvious, their horses carried weapons. There is no sign of any weapons on these horses. We should let them pass unmolested.”

Charles looked pointedly at the Captain. “We have to assume these are civilians, even though they are armed.”

Captain Freedman didn't reply, but signaled his agreement by a slight nod of the head.

They watched the screens in silence as men, horses, and sheep moved along the trail, past the watching robots.

***

The following morning, Captain Freedman entered the project room and came directly to Charles.

“You are ordered to destroy MAADS system D immediately.”

“What happened to my proposal that we recover it?”

“Your proposal was evaluated, and rejected due to nonavailability of transportation and other necessary assets within the required timeframes.”

Charles had tried hard to persuade Captain Freedman of the importance of recovering the last remaining MAADS system.

“Is there any possibility, the decision can be reconsidered? We need to know the effects of the parachute deployment and several weeks on the mountain passes. There may be significant damage or other problems we cannot detect remotely?”

“Mr. Corrigan, we took those factors into consideration in making the decision. But you must understand that MAADS' failure to protect itself, the loss of the aerial vehicle, your inability to destroy the lost aerial vehicle, and then Sergeant Jackson disabling all of the System D robots, has resulted in the perception that leaving any of these systems deployed entails too many risks. Destroying the last MAADS system is a higher priority than recovering it.

“You must destroy the system as soon as possible.”

Even though Charles knew MAADS was designed to be disposable, it was still difficult for him to destroy the last remaining example of something he had spent more than two years working to create. He had made every effort to ensure the success of MAADS, and now he had been told to turn the last working system into a pile of burnt and broken metal that would rust away on a remote mountainside.

He reluctantly told the others to get the tactical robots and the aerial vehicle back to the control unit, and to prepare the system for destruction. The mood in the project room was melancholy, and no one said what all thought. This was the end of the MAADS project. It had failed or hadn’t succeeded enough to justify continuing, and all that was left was to tidy up the loose ends.

Charles thought they had learned a lot from this deployment, and it was a shame they wouldn't get to apply those lessons.

It was time to update his resume, and start calling around to see who was hiring.

Chapter 60