“Because she’s batshit crazy?”

He growled and shot from his chair, knocking over half the other chairs along with his own. Then he grabbed her laptop and tore it in half amid a shower of sparks and the sizzle of dying capacitors. He threw the two pieces to opposite corners of the room.

Afraid that he would kill the insolent American if he had to look at her trollish face for one more second, he headed toward the partially-finished space that he and Zarina had chosen as their bedroom.

As he stomped his way out in a rage, he glanced back at Zarina. She still practiced her yoga positions, but now, there was a faint smile on her lips.

Chapter 86

Burke’s jaw clenched and his nostrils flared as he stared at the screens. Allanon’s massive display wall showed what looked like a fighter jet but was clearly an unmanned aerial vehicle, a drone. The design was a cross between the Northrop B-2 Spirit, also known as the Stealth Bomber, and the MQ-9 Reaper drone, currently in use by the military and CIA for intelligence gathering and ground strikes. Pilots sitting in trailers halfway around the world controlled the Reaper drones and used them to rain fire down upon America’s enemies.

“These amazing batteries aren’t being designed to power our homes or help eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels,” Allanon said. “The CIA is designing them to power their new toys.”

Burke felt sick to his stomach. “This kind of technology could make the world a better place. Help to stop pollution, global warming, our dependence on foreign oil, help bring power to impoverished nations, the list goes on … But, of course, our first thought is to use it as a weapon.”

“We’re already using drones to strike terrorists,” Nic said. “How does this battery change anything?”

Burke leaned back on Allanon’s glass desk, crossed his arms, with one hand stroking the stubble on his chin. “An American aerospace company recently developed a light-weight solar-powered drone that can fly at 65,000 feet for five years. But that’s only good for use as a sort of mini-satellite. It’s basically just a remote-controlled glider covered in solar panels. But this thing has teeth. Right now, there are drones being developed similar to the Reapers and Predators that can fly for eighteen to twenty-four hours without landing to refuel. But imagine something like this in the sky. Something completely invisible, the size of a stealth bomber, able to carry damn near any ordnance you want and equipped with the most sophisticated scanning and surveillance capabilities. If they cracked this battery technology, and it looks like they have, then the CIA could manufacture a fleet of drones that basically never has to land and can fly forever, undetected, whisper quiet, and rain hell down at their leisure. This is the real deal. Big brother. Eye in the sky. The CIA would no longer need aircraft carriers or military bases to launch drones for them. They could operate on their own with very little oversight or interference. Launch these suckers up from Langley and own the skies.”