“Kind of ballsy, don’t you think?” Jake asked. “And who exactly is going to fly the gliders?”
“It’s been a long time, but I’ve flown a glider before.” Kaplan said. “I’m sure it’ll come back to me.”
“Okay, for the record, I’m not flying with Gregg.” Jake said. “Who’s going to fly the other one?”
Wiley ignored Jake. “Scott, I can have Jake and the two gliders in Aden by tomorrow evening. We’ll arrive shortly after dark. The gliders will be ready within a couple of hours after we arrive. I’ll need you to make arrangements for two tow planes at Aden. George and I can work out the details of mission planning.”
“Alright E.W. I’ll take care of it.” Bentley said. “Gregg, we’ll be in touch soon so wait for instructions. Jake, control yourself, do I make myself clear?”
Jake paused. He knew the number one priority was to rescue Isabella. “Yes sir, I promise.”
Wiley interrupted. “Jake will be fine, Scott. You have my word.”
The monitor blinked then went blank.
Jake looked at Wiley. “How did you think of all that stuff so fast?”
“Fifty years in the business. That’s where experience trumps youth.” Wiley pushed up his glasses, swiped his hair, and smiled. “You’re not afraid of heights, are you?”
CHAPTER 19
Wiley pressed the intercom button, “Have Kyli meet us in the RF lab.”
“RF lab?” Jake asked.
“Radio frequency. How soon we forget.”
“That was fast thinking.” Jake said.
“You haven’t seen anything yet, junior.” Wiley smiled. He opened the door. “I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.”
The RF lab was a side room with Plexiglas walls adjacent to the main electronics lab floor. One wall was a showcase of gadgets MEtech had created. On the top shelf was a device Wiley called the spook radio. A device that monitored as wide a frequency band as possible targeting only signals of interest, which allowed the operator to identify and track the signals while remaining anonymous.
Kyli arrived at the RF lab door the same time as Jake and Wiley. She slid her key card through the reader, opened the door, and entered the lab. Jake followed. Wiley was speaking to someone in the electronics lab when the door closed — another soundproof room.
“I assume you’ll be leaving soon.” Kyli said.
“I think so. I don’t really know yet.” Jake smiled. “I guess I’m not part of the fraternity yet so I haven’t been given the key to Wiley’s cryptic communication.”
“Don’t worry, you’ll catch on soon enough.”
Moments later the door clicked and Wiley entered. He walked over to the showcase wall, removed a box, and laid five items on a table in the center of the room. “Kyli, I need you to bring Jake up to speed on the RTI. When he’s got it, bundle it in the backpack. We’re taking it with us tomorrow. I’ll be in my office. After you finish, you can take him back to his hotel. Why don’t you show Jake around town tonight but make sure he gets in early, tomorrow’s a long day.”
Wiley turned and left before Jake could verbalize the questions formulating in his mind.
“This must be big.” Kyli said.
“Why is that?”
“We haven’t used the advanced RTI in the field. We’ve done dozens of tests under different scenarios but never a live mission. It’s still in the experimental stage so this is very exciting. You get to be the first.”
“What is RTI?”
Kyli grabbed Jake’s hand and pulled him toward the worktable. “Radio tomographic imaging. It will allow you to see through walls, literally. You will be able to locate and track moving people or objects in a given area.”
“I like this toy already. It’s like Superman’s x-ray vision.”
“It’s not that simple.” Kyli held up four ball-shaped objects. “First, you have to put these in place. One at each corner of the structure you want to look into. Radio transceivers — they transmit and receive radio signals.”
Jake picked up one of the balls. He noticed the thick rubber studs protruding from its surface. “Might be easier said than done.”
“Not really, but I’ll get to that in a minute.” She took the ball from Jake’s hand and placed it on the table with the others. “You know, the Patent Office is full of some really good ideas that just haven’t been perfected to their full potential.”
“Wait a minute.” Jake said. “You’re telling me that Wiley raided the Patent Office and stole someone’s idea. That’s illegal.”
“Steal is such an insensitive word, Jake. Borrow is more appropriate. Borrowed concepts are never used commercially. If Mr. Wiley comes across an idea he and a few others feel are commercially viable products then we kind of leak a better way of doing it back to the originator and let them perfect their invention. Wiley likes to make ideas work and understands there is no need to reinvent the wheel.”
“So, where did he borrow this idea?” Jake asked. “Or should I not ask?”
“No that’s fine. You should know.” Kyli smiled. “This idea came from the University of Utah. But their computer display and software were lacking. They used transceivers spaced roughly six feet apart lining the entire perimeter. So many, in fact, that it was impractical for real world application. For an average sized building, they might need dozens, perhaps hundreds of transceivers. Grossly underpowered and inadequate to do the job. And their monitor display was almost illegible. Each person showed up as a blob on the screen. It literally served no useful purpose in the covert world, so Wiley improved it.
“The concept is the same but our design far surpasses anything they had considered possible. We use four transceivers, one on each corner. Radio signals are bounced off targets and the returning echoes provide the target’s location and speed relative to the transceiver. The data from each transceiver is received by the computer and displayed on the screen. Individual targets are distinguishable by their mass and frequency. Our program has a database that allows you to mark and label each target and the computer will monitor their movements allowing us to track each target individually.”
“Do the targets ever get confused?”
“Not a chance. Not with Wiley’s design. Everything and everyone has its own distinct frequency signature, so once you tag a target, the computer will always distinguish it from all other targets.”
Kyli flipped on the computer. “Because RTI measures shadows in radio waves created when they pass through a person or object, our display will also accurately depict stationary objects.”
“What if the building has multiple levels or a basement?” Jake tapped on the monitor. “Can it account for that?”
“That’s the beauty of these.” She picked up a transceiver ball. “First these are shock-proof, so you can throw them where you need them. That allows you to place them discreetly reducing your odds of being detected. You just need to make sure they are at least ten feet away from the structure. Second, they are self-orienting. They operate with a tiny gyro inside, they automatically level themselves then locate their siblings — the other transceiver balls. But the best feature of all is what happens next. When initiated by the computer, the transceivers will literally draw a 3D model of the building on the display. At ten feet from the building, we can deliver two sub-levels and four above ground levels. At twenty feet spacing, six above ground levels, and so on. You get the picture. We’re always limited to two sub-levels though.”