On Fire by Thomas Anderson
Ciaran looks down at his laptop’s screen. It’s a night vision capture from Cetron’s fake cop drone, and it’s showing two figures standing on a sidewalk in a neighborhood of Palo Alto. Unfortunately, this drone doesn’t have a long distance listening ability. The kids stop for only a short time before the GPS signal drops out. The operator of the drone continues to follow them but Ciaran already knows they are heading to their friend Ethan’s house not far away. He knows this because he has Zak’s phone feed available to him and that shows him, just as it does for Zak, the map to Ethan’s place. They might as well be broadcasting it on live TV.
Ciaran has been watching Palo Alto go down for some time, but Lonnie James, who is running it, is calling in. Ciaran picks up and puts Lonnie on speaker. There’s no one else in the house, hasn’t been since he divorced and found himself subsequently with no life.
“Before you say anything, your guys did the best they could,” Burris tells Lonnie.
Ciaran didn’t use the frequencies necessary for a car override because that would have involved bringing in local law enforcement, not really an option.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Normally this is not a problem,” Lonnie replies.
It was too bad that Gray had been too out of position to get the drive chip from Wang at the beginning of this whole affair. Now, whatever was on the chip that Wang thought was so important is out in the open, getting more irretrievable all the time.
Ciaran Burris weighs this. What he wants and what he can have are becoming two quite different things. Black Ops inside the country are a red flag and it was good of Lonnie to try it. Burris took it as Cetron’s quid pro quo for the use of agency resources to get Gray out of China. Nothing more.
“How’d they do?” asks Burris.
“Got away clean. Corporate cover, no blowback.”
“Look. Thanks. ”
“We’re glad to do it. Night buddy.”
“Night.”
Ciaran closes the laptop and tosses it on his bed, unable to escape the regret that this didn’t come to a better conclusion.
Chapter 32
Ciaran has been watching Palo Alto go down for some time, but Lonnie James, who is running it, is calling in. Ciaran picks up and puts Lonnie on speaker. There’s no one else in the house, hasn’t been since he divorced and found himself subsequently with no life.
“Before you say anything, your guys did the best they could,” Burris tells Lonnie.
Ciaran didn’t use the frequencies necessary for a car override because that would have involved bringing in local law enforcement, not really an option.
“I’m sorry it didn’t work out. Normally this is not a problem,” Lonnie replies.
It was too bad that Gray had been too out of position to get the drive chip from Wang at the beginning of this whole affair. Now, whatever was on the chip that Wang thought was so important is out in the open, getting more irretrievable all the time.
Ciaran Burris weighs this. What he wants and what he can have are becoming two quite different things. Black Ops inside the country are a red flag and it was good of Lonnie to try it. Burris took it as Cetron’s quid pro quo for the use of agency resources to get Gray out of China. Nothing more.
“How’d they do?” asks Burris.
“Got away clean. Corporate cover, no blowback.”
“Look. Thanks. ”
“We’re glad to do it. Night buddy.”
“Night.”
Ciaran closes the laptop and tosses it on his bed, unable to escape the regret that this didn’t come to a better conclusion.
Chapter 32