The Drone Incident (Part One)

Somewhere in a secret underground military complex, “The coordinates are set and ready to launch Drone Seek and Destroy, sir.”

“Authorization to launch is a GO, specialist.

Lifting the guard from the launch switch and pressing the green launch button the specialist acknowledges the officer in charge, “Drone Seek and Destroy has been launched sir and is on course for target at latitude and longitude as designated.”

Looking at the digital clock reading on the launch control panel the specialist calls out “it’s 18:40 hours zulu time sir, Drone Seek and Destroy should reach target at 03:00 hours zulu time.”

“Specialist, have telemetry reports recorded every 15 minutes for any potential course adjustments needed for it to reach target, even a minor change could bring disastrous results if it goes off-course and impacts in a populated area.”

“Yes sir.”

A gray panel van with two men inside parked not far from the secret underground military complex slowly pulls out onto the road. The man in the passenger’s seat dials a number on his cell phone. Listening intently he can hear the sound that is made by a fax number as it connects to his cell phone, once connected he begins to type numbers and letters that are unintelligible and then presses enter on the keyboard. Smiling, he turns to the driver as the van gains highway speed. “Success, we now are in control of the navigational system of the drone just launched,” and then begins to enter more numbers.

Back at the underground military command center the specialist that had just launched the drone calls out to the officer in charge. “Sir, something is wrong, I have lost control of the drone,” he says as he excitedly tries to input data into the guidance system. “Someone has infected the program with a virus and it has overridden our system and is changing course.”

“Can you determine the new course of the drone, specialist?”

“Yes sir, fortunately we can still get a directional reading, but what is puzzling is two new courses have been programmed into the drone, one is latitude 40-44’58” North and longitude 073-58″ 04″ West. “The other course is 38 degrees 53′ 53.3″ North latitude and 77 degrees 02′ 09.9″ West longitude.”

Entering the two courses the specialist had just read off into one of the NSA’s satellites the officer in charge gasps, “my God, those are the coordinates for the United Nations Building and the White House! “The President is scheduled to attend a meeting of the UN Security Council in about three hours, we have to contact him immediately and stop him from going to the U.N. as that is the drone’s primary target.”

“Sir, even if we are successful in alerting the President about the imminent threat of a rogue drone attack on the United Nations building and he is still at the White House and its longitude and latitude have also been programmed into it as the secondary target.”

“How long do we have specialist before the drone reaches its target?”

“We only have two hours until impact in New York and 90 minutes until it reaches the White House, Sir.”

“Specialist, do everything you can to regain control of the drone, I will alert the Pentagon of the impending crisis and to get the President to safety. “Also, have your team trick chief contact the air defense headquarters and have them ready to scramble a squadron of F-16’s upon the orders of the Pentagon. “If we can’t regain control of the drone we will have to shoot it down before it reaches either target.”

“Mr. President and the United Nations, soon you will regret your very existence,” the hacker mutters as he sets the drone’s target coordinates continuing it on its destructive path.

To be continued


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