Page 53 of Edge of Honor

Each time he got up, he did a set of push-ups, air squats, or dips—anything that got his heart pumping and his blood flowing.

He was looking forward to handing over the watch to McGee, but that wasn’t until 4 a.m., an hour and twenty minutes from now.

Even though the coffee wasn’t technically doing the trick, it still fulfilled a psychological need and he decided to top off his mug.

Picking up the tablet, he swiped to the screen with all the feeds shown, just like on the TV. He then carried it into the kitchen, and propped it up on the counter between the two coffee machines.

There was only a little coffee left in both pots. He emptied the remains of each into his mug and started two fresh batches. As he worked, he kept one eye on the tablet.

Haney had been absolutely correct about the condition of the cameras. Not only were the acrylic domes that covered them filthy, but several of them were also partially obscured by spiderwebs, which bounced back a hot white glare in their infrared mode.

Harvath was certain, if Rogers was willing to make the investment, that Nicholas could get a team out same-day to install the latest in AI-boosted cameras that could not only detect motion, but also follow objects and determine whether or not they were a threat. But at the veryleast, he needed to get all of the existing cameras cleaned. There was no telling how long it had been. It was yet another recommendation he would make to Rogers.

With his mug in one hand, he reached for the tablet with the other, and that’s when it glitched.Again.

Setting his mug down, he tried to swipe through the different feeds, but they were all dead.

Quickly, he headed for the den to see if the cameras were still showing on the TV. Each feed had gone dark. All the boxes were still there, but nothing was showing inside any of them. As far as the outside property was concerned, Harvath and his team were officially blind.

With each second that passed, his certainty grew that the feeds weren’t coming back and that they’d been cut on purpose. Whatever had happened earlier had, in fact, been a test—someone probing.

Now that the cameras were down, they had to assume an attack was not only in the works, but in fact also imminent.

Activating his radio, Harvath said, “Break. Break. Break. Cameras down. Possible breach. Repeat. Cameras down. Possible breach. Prepare for contact. Repeat. Prepare for contact.”

As soon as his call went out, Haney and McGee reported in, and they activated their prearranged plan.

The first order of business was to get the Ambassador up and into his safe room. As Haney was on the second floor, that became his job.

McGee backed away from the windows and out of the living room, maintaining a position in the kitchen where he could still see everything.

Out of the care package that Nicholas had prepared, Harvath removed a small, all-weather case, opened it up, and pulled out a pair of tiny drones that looked like Dragonflies.

Powering them up, he did his best to stay hidden behind the drapes in the den as he cracked one of the windows, used his knife to cut a gash in the screen, and let them fly.

Closing and locking the window, he then headed to the kitchen to join McGee.

“Did you reboot the cameras?” he asked.

“Haven’t had time,” said Harvath as he pulled out his phone, whichNicholas had set up to act as a monitor for the tiny night-vision and thermal cameras mounted to each of the autonomous drones.

Unlike the Ambassador’s somewhat out-of-date security system, the Dragonflies were state-of-the-art. They would not just sit in one place waiting for movement—they would actively seek it out. If anything had breached the perimeter, they would find it.

“Friendly!” Haney announced in a loud whisper as he came down the back stairs and into the kitchen.

“How’s the Ambo?” Harvath asked.

“Locked up tight,” he replied, pivoting to the same question McGee had asked. “What’s with the cameras? Have we rebooted?”

Harvath nodded toward the tablet sitting on the counter and said, “Not yet. Be my guest.”

Haney took it and got to work, while Harvath watched the split-screen feed from the Dragonflies. It didn’t take long for them to detect and identify an intrusion.

The first thing the drones were programmed to do was to locate any other drones in their immediate vicinity and jam them. As soon as they were airborne, they found one and gave it a digital aneurysm, causing it to drop from the sky and crash to the ground below.

Next they scanned for human beings, and within seconds the first Dragonfly returned a hit.

“Jesus,” said Harvath, reaching for his tactical helmet and powering up his night-vision goggles. “We’ve got six hostiles, all of them armed, moving toward the house from the southeast.”

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