Drone (A Troy Pearce Novel)

by Mike Maden

  “First, is a vital national security interest threatened? The answer is yes. The extraordinary human and financial costs have just been explained. But let’s not miss the obvious, either. The recent attack on the Houston oil facility was conducted by members of the Bravo drug organization. The drug lords have long waged a war of terror on their victims—fear is one of their chief weapons. Burnings, beheadings, torture, kidnap, rape—these have all been used by the Mexican narcoterrorists against Mexican citizens. Increasingly, they’re being used against American citizens on American soil as well. As the commander in chief, I am responsible for the protection of American lives and property, and I intend to carry out my responsibility in full. It is my considered judgment that the narcoterrorists pose a national security threat. This is not a war on the government of Mexico or the people of Mexico. It is a war against the narcoterrorists, wherever they may be found.

  “Second, do we have a clear, attainable objective? Yes, we do. Every patriotic American felt a justifiable sense of pride and accomplishment when SEAL Team Six put a bullet in the skull of Osama bin Laden, the man most directly responsible for the death of three thousand Americans on 9/11. We have destroyed al-Qaeda’s capacity to attack us at home because we have killed the leaders of that organization.

  “I propose the same strategy that was employed by both the Bush and Obama administrations in regard to terrorists, which also enjoyed wide congressional approval. My administration has drawn up a most-wanted list of the fifty most powerful and violent drug lords and drug dealers in both Mexico and the United States. Eliminating the key leadership will cripple the production and distribution networks in Mexico and the United States, and serve as a warning to those seeking to succeed them.

  “My policy is simple. You deal, you die—or you go away forever. For Americans, the choice is equally clear. Either you are for the narcoterrorists or you are against them. There is no middle ground.”

  —

  Diele fumed at the television screen. “You mean, either I support your militarized drug policy or I’m an enemy of the state? A narcoterrorist? Bullshit!”

  —

  Myers continued.

  “I understand it’s not possible to completely eliminate the sale or use of illegal drugs but that is not our goal. Our goal is to curtail them significantly. History has shown that this approach is difficult, but effective. There is no drug dealing when the dealers are dead. Dealers are no longer considered criminals in my administration. My administration considers them to be enemy combatants and terrorists.

  “Let me raise a few more salient points. Everything I’ve discussed tonight will be posted on my website, and I’m asking Congress to meet in an emergency session as soon as possible so that these new policies can be put into law. Until then, however, I will be using executive orders in the exact same way my two immediate predecessors, Barack Obama and George Bush, used them to prosecute the War on Terror.

  “My first executive order is to declare the fifty members of the most-wanted list as terrorists and enemy combatants. That gives them the same legal status as Osama bin Laden, who killed three thousand Americans a decade ago. The fifty drug terrorists on the most-wanted list and their evil empires are responsible for ten times as many American deaths each year in our country as Osama bin Laden murdered on that terrible day.

  “My second executive order is that no American service members will be put on Mexican soil. This would be a clear violation of existing bilateral and international treaties. However, just as we’ve used drones in Yemen to kill American-born terrorists, we will use them wherever we find the drug terrorists we’ve targeted. Because I am not deploying American troops on foreign soil, the War Powers Resolution does not apply. If Congress attempts to cut off funding of this operation in the future, I urge voters to contact any representative who is aiding and abetting the drug dealers that are killing our children and express their concern.

  “My third executive order provides for an immediate review of federal prisons. Any prisoner who is guilty of only nonviolent drug-related crimes will have their case reviewed and, if possible, they will be not only released but also pardoned, and their records expunged if they are not arrested again for any other reason and they remain drug-free for three years. This will result in enormous cost savings for the federal government. I urge states to follow my example.

  “My fourth executive order concerns the addiction problem itself. Through the cost-saving measures of the pardon program, my administration will make medical resources available free of charge to any indigent drug addict or hard-core drug user who genuinely seeks a cure through a program of strict and guided supervision.

  “My fifth executive order is to end all federal regulations against the private use and possession of medically supervised marijuana for individuals over the age of twenty-five. This clears the way for states to decide for themselves what policies they want to enact in regard to private marijuana use. As a former governor and strict constitutionalist, I believe the federal government has exceeded its authority in regard to the states. States are the great laboratories of democracy, not federal bureaucracies. As an aside, as president, it is not appropriate for me to decide this issue, but if I were still a governor, I would have actively opposed the legalization of marijuana in any form in my home state of Colorado.

  “My final executive order is in regard to our borders. Our long-term goal is to create a border that is open enough to allow for the free movement of capital, labor, and goods, but secure enough to prevent unwanted persons or materials from crossing. One of the primary ways to accomplish this balancing act is to keep track of who crosses our borders. I have authorized the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency to begin immediate implementation of retinal, fingerprint, and DNA documentation for any person entering our country, and those records are to be maintained for future reference. Known criminals, undocumented workers, and former deportees will be denied entrance into our country. I am also activating National Guard units to enforce the current laws on the books already passed by Congress to secure our borders. I invite Congress to change the current laws if they deem them too restrictive or punitive.

  “In conclusion, one of the most important tenets of the Powell Doctrine is that actions such as I have taken tonight should be supported by the American people. If you support this new War on Drugs, then I urge you to contact your elected representatives and tell them that you support our efforts to make our nation more secure and more prosperous.

  “I know that some, or perhaps all, of what I have proposed this evening will not be popular, but I did not become president in order to be liked. I became president in order to do what is right for the American people. I came into politics because there is a conflict between good and evil in the world, and I believe that, in the end, good will triumph if we fight for it. Only the brave are free.

  “May God bless you all, and God bless the United States of America. Good night.”

  —

  The camera lights shut off and Myers stood up from behind her desk, motioning to Jeffers to follow her to her private study.

  “So that’s what a Hail Mary looks like,” Jeffers said, beaming.

  “That was just the throw. Let’s wait and see where it lands.”

  41

  Toronto, Canada

  Fifteen minutes after President Myers’s broadcast had concluded, Vice President Greyhill picked up his cell phone and dialed an unlisted number.

  Senator Diele picked up after the first ring.

  “Gary, we need to talk,” was all the VP said.

  Washington, D.C.

  Senator Diele stood at his picture window admiring the lights of the city. He was on his cell phone, grinning. Alliances were quickly forming. Myers had finally gone too far.

  “Yes, Mr. Vice President. I suppose we do.”

  San Pedro Garza García, Mexico

  Ta
rget 03 lived in a quiet, tree-lined suburban city just southeast of the Universidad de Monterrey, one of Mexico’s finest institutions of higher education. Separated from the great sprawling metropolis of Monterrey a few miles to the east by the Rio Santa Catarina, it was a safe and tranquil place to raise his family away from the terror and carnage of the cartel turf wars.

  Until tonight.

  Target 03 had been visually acquired three hours prior. The drone operator was waiting for everyone in the sprawling house to settle down for the night. Infrared sensors onboard the MQ-9 Reaper verified his location and, more important, the location of the rest of the family. Drone Command orders were to minimize collateral damage if at all possible.

  As soon as his wife and four children were bedded down, Target 03 stepped outside by the pool. The sharp flare on his image indicated he was lighting up a cigarette. He then dialed his cell phone. The call to his mistress was recorded for a voice confirmation.

  The drone operator checked the time again. 10:59:57 p.m. EST. The president’s speech would begin in three seconds. She watched the seconds tick off, then armed the Reaper’s two laser-guided 70mm Lockheed Martin DAGR rockets, which were much smaller versions of the more famous Hellfire missiles and were intended to minimize collateral damage. The operator was given authority to fire at will.

  She did.

  The operator’s screen erupted in a halo of white-hot flame. When the halo dimmed, she recorded the result.

  A smoldering crater.

  Smashed concrete and tile.

  Chunks of warm meat that glowed white with heat in the cold rectangle of the pool.

  “Mission completed,” she added.

  —

  Twelve extended-range (ER) MQ-9 Reaper drones had been deployed that night, fanning out all across Mexico from private airfields just across the border. Mounting two extra fuel tanks on hard points originally designed for weapons, the modified Reapers had nearly double the range of their predecessors, allowing them to strike deep into Mexico. Most fired rockets, others were specially fitted with rotary weapons for low-altitude strikes. Both kinds of weapons systems proved equally effective, achieving similar results to the Target 03 mission, most within a few hours of one another.

  A speeding convoy of three armored Chevy Suburbans racing for Nuevo Laredo was strafed with armor-piercing rounds. Targets 09, 11, and 13 were shredded in the assault along with a dozen unidentified armed associates.

  In Guadalajara, a 70mm DAGR rocket smashed through the plate-glass window of Target 04’s twenty-fifth-floor penthouse suite. She and the two men she slept with were turned to smoking chum by the white-hot fléchettes of molten glass from the initial strike. Had they survived the first blast, the explosive round would have finished the job.

  Incendiary slugs ignited the gas tank of a seventy-foot bay cruiser anchored a half mile off of the coast of Veracruz, burning Target 25 to death, along with his heavily armed crew.

  Target 08 drowned, trapped inside his vessel when it sank to the bottom of Lake Chapala, strafed by radar-controlled gunfire.

  Targets 05 (Campeche) and 20 (Durango) were believed critically wounded by separate Reaper strikes, but confirmation of death was still pending.

  Squads of commandos handpicked by Cruzalta took out six more targets with old-school wet work (blades, garrotes, semiauto pistols) while off-duty Marina snipers transformed the brain pans of three other targets into puffs of pink mist.

  But not everything went according to plan that night. Target 01—Victor Bravo—was located at a fortified compound in rural Chiapas. Two extended-range Reapers were dispatched for the high-value target; rockets were loosed. Bravo escaped, miraculously, when the first rocket misfired and veered off course, alerting him to the attack. Three unidentifieds were killed.

  A total of nineteen of the twenty-five primary Mexican targets had been eliminated. The rest were on the run.

  The attacks in the U.S. were equally successful. Seventeen of twenty-five primary targets were taken out with no civilian collateral damage, including Bravo’s top lieutenants in Washington State, Texas, and Louisiana. In the end, there was surprisingly little protest over the use of drones themselves against American citizens. The public understood that it ultimately made no difference if the American targets were killed with bullets fired from manned or unmanned vehicles. Bad guys were bad guys and dead was dead.

  Pearce had selected a strike team for ground operations to take out targets not accessible by remote control. But he held his own people in reserve for a snatch-and-grab of Ali Abdi in the event they ever located him. Privately, Pearce was concerned that Ali had somehow slipped the net and made it back to Iran.

  By any measure, the initial decapitation strike had been a brilliant success—better than they could have hoped. What it led to next, however, nobody could have foreseen.

  San Diego, California

  Pearce was stuck in traffic. Again. It fouled his already lousy mood.

  “Still no leads on Ali?” Pearce grumbled. His tech wizard Ian was on the other end.

  “The problem is too many leads. I can’t process the data flow fast enough.” The million-square-foot Utah Data Center was gushing a torrent of data—billions of bytes per hour—and all Ian had, comparatively, was a sippy cup to catch it with.

  “Thanks. Call when you have something.” Pearce signed off.

  The San Diego–Coronado Bridge was jammed in both directions and so was Harbor Drive. Unless he wanted to abandon his car in the middle of the road and walk over the bridge, he’d just have to sit here and enjoy the view. California dreamin’.

  There were worse views in the world. God knows, he’d seen them. Had even caused some of them. But his frustration was at an all-time high. He knew that almost any code could be cracked given enough computing power and time. Ian had the computing power—backed by the limitless resources of the federal government. Unfortunately, it was Pearce who had the time on his hands, and waiting for a breakthrough was killing him. Ali Abdi must have been one hell of an operator. He certainly knew the first rule of the game.

  They can’t hurt you if they can’t find you.

  Pearce’s one consolation was the electronic billboard flashing up ahead. A slideshow of most-wanted listers, their faces, names, and stats rolling past, each slide ending with the promise of a $100,000 reward “for information leading to the arrest of . . .” He’d seen them all over Southern California. They’d been posted all over the country as well. There weren’t many names left. Right now, Pearce hoped that one of those asshats would get captured or turn themselves in and spill the beans on Ali Abdi. That was as likely as this traffic jam clearing up anytime soon.

  42

  Myers’s startling national address triggered several responses with astonishing rapidity. Of course, the radio talk-show pundits were gibbering about it within minutes after it had aired, and while the majority of those shows had conservative hosts and audiences, even they had mixed reactions, at least initially. Of course, few people actually saw or heard the live presidential telecast because it had aired so late.

  The chattering classes went into overdrive the next day on television and radio; satellite, cable, and network stations were inundated with nothing but the Myers announcement. The Christian Right was particularly incensed at the thought of “legalized marijuana,” though technically, Myers hadn’t legalized it. In fact, it had been a rather cynical ploy on her part. Every governor she had ever worked with had demanded greater state autonomy from the federal government so she was only giving them exactly what they wanted. Besides, only Colorado and Washington had legalized recreational marijuana in 2012; every other state—including liberal California—still considered it an illegal drug outside of medicinal usage.

  The few liberal talk shows that were still on the air teed off on just about every other issue she raised, but the idea of targeted killings was the
hammer that rang the most alarm bells for them. Those self-same moralists didn’t raise an eyebrow when President Obama had taken credit for personally selecting human beings as targets for drone strikes—including the killings of four American citizens who had been neither tried nor convicted of any crime—nor had they complained when President Clinton had thrown cruise missiles around the Horn of Africa like a wobbly drunk playing a game of darts at the King’s Head pub back in the ’90s.

  Cries of another Nixonian “imperial presidency” were leveled by liberal critics for Myers’s excessive use of executive orders to bypass Congress, conveniently ignoring the over one hundred EOs issued by President Obama. They also didn’t seem to mind President Obama’s use of dozens of unelected and unapproved “czars” who issued thousands of new regulations that carried the force of law.

  Conservative pundits who applauded Myers’s use of executive orders to carry out her actions, however, were screaming tyranny when President Obama had used them previously. And where were they when President Bush had issued 291 executive orders during his two terms of office? But then again, Bush was a slacker compared to Bill Clinton’s record issue of 363 executive orders. If Myers was guilty of an “imperial presidency,” it was because she stood on the shoulders of the elected emperors from both parties who preceded her.

  But that was just the beginning of the debate. Hours and hours of heated exchanges about sovereignty, globalism, executive powers, free trade, the causes of drug abuse, the failings of the criminal justice system, and just about every other aspect of modern American life were discussed ad nauseam. It was a national town hall, but most of the speakers seemed to suffer from political Tourette’s syndrome.