which is useful for finding people with fevers, like potential Ebola victims,” Stan said nervously.
“Or Lycanthropes,” General Creek said. His men were focused on Delwood and crew like laser beams.
I asked Caeco’s nannites for access to whatever electromagnetic frequencies they were monitoring. They dumped an overload on me, making my vision reel. Quickly, I revised my question to just new signals in this room. The rush of information faded to a handful of cell signals and one encrypted signal from the drone. I couldn’t break it but I could knock on its door.
“These thermal sensors are a new generation from FLIR, designed with just that application in mind, General,” Stan said, moving slightly closer to the DOAA people and farther away from the were pack.
I suggested a new idea to the drone’s software, just a slight tweak of its thermal targets. Instead of high temperature, I suggested greatest differences in surface temperature on a single target.
“How would you know the subject is a lycanthrope and not just a fever-ridden civilian?” Creek asked.
The drone slide down over the audience and refocused on a new subject—Erika. Her mini skirt and V-neck sweater left a lot of skin exposed, both to the advanced sensors of the drone and the lecherous ones of the middle-aged agents sitting near her. The wall monitor showed a closeup of her chest and legs behind Stan.
“Ahem.” Gina cleared her throat, interrupting Stan’s explanation of algorithmic diagnostics. He looked her way and then from her finger to the mildly disturbing display on the big screen.
“Oh God,” he muttered, flushing bright red and struggling with his tablet. The drone resisted his cease and desist command for a few seconds before flying back and taking up station next to him.
Erika had gotten over her initial shock at the drone’s approach and was now obviously happy with all the male attention she was getting. She was the only girl in the room in a miniskirt.
“Did you do that?” Jetta whispered to me, eyeing my hand holding Caeco’s.
“I might have made a suggestion,” I allowed. Three of the wolves, including Delwood, turned and looked at me.
The intel geeks missed the glances and nods, but Gina didn’t. She stared at me for a moment, then winked.
Stan moved on to other drones and other sensors including high sensitivity microphones and laser-based measurement systems. He talked about linked units of drones, all under the control of a single operator, able to swarm a single target or separate and attack multiples. He did, however, keep the drones away from the audience for the rest of his presentation.
The day turned out to be pretty interesting as we heard from some very qualified people and were presented with highly detailed analyses what was happening across our country and the rest of world.
On the one hand, it was pretty much along the lines of what we had discussed and discovered in Gina’s seminar, but with much, much greater detail. The FBI had uncovered seventy-two different radical groups since the demon problem was first surfaced. They covered the gamut from anti-were and vampire hate groups to groupies who wanted to worship the supernatural.
We learned of sixteen different proposed bills that were trying to legislate supernaturals, either to acknowledge their rights or remove them.
Presenters covered industries that had been destroyed by the emergence, and economic sectors that were soaring from it.
Oracle agents discussed improvements in the gate-closing technology as well as the development of gate-opening devices.
The CIA representatives showed a global analysis of the damage done on Halloween night, the current state of outbreaks, and a rough guess as to the dispersal of vampires and weres across the planet. They also showed a video from the Middle East of fundamental religious fanatics preparing to behead an accused family of werewolves. Numerous other people had been decapitated under the same accusation, but this time, they actually got a real family of werewolves. The result was a graphic lesson in why steel handcuffs and steel knives are of little use against pissed-off werewolf parents protecting their young. It was a bloody massacre.
Overall, everything was done very professionally and the speakers were polished. Understandable for people who made presentations for a major part of their living. The other part of their jobs was uncovering information, and that skill set showed up at lunch, dinner, and every break we had between workshops. The first morning, we’d been separate and distinct camps; by break one, the spies and cops were chatting up students left and right. Friendly,