Chapters (88)
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dear Reader …
- Also by Robert Muchamore
- PART ONE
- Walter J Freeman Adolescent Mental Health Unit – East Grinstead, UK
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- PART TWO
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- PART THREE
- Walter J. Freeman Adolescent Mental Health Unit – East Grinstead, UK
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- PART FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- EPILOGUE
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- Have you read KILLER T?
- 1 SLASHED RUBBER
- 2 NOT HARRY POTTER
Georgia began by fitting her First-person View (FPV) goggles and getting a feel for piloting the survey drone in an open space. The operating software had so many safety features that it was virtually crash proof, but the drone could barely reach thirty-five kilometres per hour when weighed down by two 4K video cameras and an impeller loaded with 2.7 litres of liquid.
Georgia made adjustments to get the swift-but-deadly attack they’d envisaged. She connected to a laptop, switched off safety systems that impacted performance, adjusted the trim for speed and wired in a second battery pack. Extra power would burn out the motors, but John Pack had designed survey drones to last years, while RAGS only needed a two-minute bombing run.
As Georgia tuned the survey drone into a sharp-handling 90kph monster, Gerard ran ground tests with paint and impellers, and Kamila skipped around cow pats as she dragged a quartet of shop dummies into the middle of a field.
Elderly ramblers cutting through a neighbouring field stopped to watch as Georgia flew different approaches, seeking a balance between speed and noise. Kamila cheerfully told the ramblers they were film students, practising drone camerawork for a documentary. Georgia was recognisable, so she stayed in the Volvo, wearing a Star Wars bobble hat and FPV goggles.
The final stage was testing, with the impeller unit powered up. While Georgia had doubled power to the motors, Zac had souped-up the impeller so that it erupted with a crack that sent birds shooting out of trees. Within a second of Georgia hitting the trigger, the blast of paint and air turned the dummies red and snapped a polystyrene arm.
The recoil from the impeller blast flipped the drone upside down, but the automatic stability system reacted in a hundredth of a second, saving the drone from a messy landing in cow pasture.
Gerard reloaded with green paint, so they could distinguish the effect of Georgia’s second attack run. A gust of wind meant only the top half of the dummies went green, but the result was still spectacular. On the downside, the shock from the impeller recoil killed one of the onboard cameras and Georgia felt horrible vibration on the return flight because a propeller had been knocked out of alignment.
‘The boosted impeller blasts are trashing the drone,’ Georgia told Kamila and Gerard. ‘I’d like to do a couple more practice runs, but I don’t want to wreck it.’
She flew two final runs with their back-up drone. The first made sure it worked the same way as the primary. Finally, Georgia simulated a jammed signal by launching the back-up, then pulling the battery out of the transmitter linked to her goggles. Gerard had written a program and the quad kept flying, before spraying the dummies and landing nearby.