Dragonflies: Shadow of Drones by Andy Straka

size.”
    “Different venues?” She wore no headset or other communications gear. “But how–?”
    She turned to look at the door, but Murnell had already exited through it.
    “Hello?”
    “I’m here,” he said matter-of-factly. “Can you hear me okay?”
    “Roger.”
    “Good.” The voice seemed to come above. “Now just relax.”
    The images surrounding her still put her on the street in Beijing. But now, at the edges of the street scene on all sides were a collection of other, smaller screens, showing different video from different parts of the globe. She feathered her fingers across the control pad and took control of whatever it was she was flying. It shocked her to realize that whatever form these MAVs took, their existence seemed to disappear from her consciousness. The drones were nothing more than a means to an end: secretly placing her in the heart of a foreign nation.
    “Fly straight along the street for a bit. Let’s see how you do.”
    So Murnell, wherever he’d moved off to, was seeing everything that she saw. Maybe there was another sphere or some kind of a master display where he could track her movements in real time? There seemed to be so much information pouring into her own environment, she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to manage an even larger array.
    She did as he instructed and the images began to change, slowly or rapidly, depending upon how fast she slid her fingers. She could walk, she could run, she could zoom upward to fly. She wondered, if she decided to dive headlong into the pavement, if she could even crawl–maybe the drones under her control were so advanced they possessed such capabilities. But she was too new at this type of flying to make such a potentially risky move.
    “Excellent,” Murnell encouraged her. “Two streets ahead, you’ll be turning to the right.”
    “Copy.”
    After two more blocks the street opened into a wide intersection where it crossed a busy boulevard jam-packed with buses, bicyclists, and cars. She was high enough in the air to avoid hitting anything, but did no one take note of her presence? Were the MAVs she was flying virtually invisible like the tiny hover angels she’d been deploying with Tye?
    “Okay,” Murnell said. “We’re going to try something different. Remember, this is just an exercise…I want you to cross this intersection and once you reach the other side move to the sidewalk on the right hand side of the street. You’ll need to watch out for the buildings to your right. They’re taller here.”
    “I can see that,” she said.
    “Stay focused.”
    She flew as he directed over the intersection, entering a residential street lined with multi-story apartment buildings on either side. Swerving a little to the right, she began moving over top of the sidewalk.
    “Nice,” he said. “If you look ahead of you, you’ll see a man walking with his wife and two small children, a boy and a girl. Look even more carefully and you’ll notice they’re being flanked discreetly on all sides by secret police. Those are the guys doing their best to try to look like businessmen or tourists in dark suits.”
    “Who is the man with the family?”
    “For now let’s just say he’s a very high-ranking Communist party official. If you zoom in for a close-up, you’ll notice a seventy-thousand dollar Jaeger LeCoultre watch strapped to his wrist.”
    “I’ll take your word for it.”
    She could make out the middle-age man approaching her on the sidewalk ahead, tall for an Asian, in a dark, expensive looking suit. The woman next to him was beautiful. The children were dressed like American prep school kids. They were laughing, as kids often do, especially the boy, but they remained a respectful distance in back of their parents.
    “All right.” Murnell’s voice seemed to drop an octave. “Weapons going live.”
    “What?” For a moment, Raina thought she must have been hearing things. “Are you insane?”
    “Relax, Chief.