CHAIN REACTION: A Technothriller by Gerald M. Kilby

Author:Gerald M. Kilby [Kilby, Gerald M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Outer Planet Media
Published: 2022-04-25T16:00:00+00:00

18

A STING IN THE TAIL

A gust of wind buffeted the tiny drone, causing it to increase power to its fragile wings so that it could maintain its track high over Louis II stadium—home of the Monaco Football Club. It had entered into an elliptical cross vector search pattern as it tried to locate its target, Inspector Madelaine Duchamp, who had disappeared somewhere in the crowd of people entering the soccer grounds a little earlier. Its cameras now scanned the multitude of faces on the stands and sent data back to the servers on board the Helios where fractal-based pattern recognition algorithms processed the information looking for a dominant percentage equivalence—otherwise known as a match.

It was easier to follow a target once the drone had a fix on them. By using predictive inference modeling, it could extrapolate the direction and speed of the target and literally keep one step ahead. However, that was a fat lot of good to it at the moment, as it needed to locate the target first. It was time to get serious. Since it now had no need for visual depth of field, it released its dual super hi-res cameras from stereoscopic duties and split them up to scan individually. All it required now was raw visual data so the servers could do their job and find the target.

“But Mom, you promised.”

“I know Leon, I know. We’ll go to McDonald's after the match, I promise.”

“Okay, thanks, Mom.”

Madelaine ruffled her twelve-year-old son’s hair affectionately.

“Stop that, I’m not a baby.” He patted his hair down again, sucked on his drink, and took in his surroundings. He could barely contain his excitement. “This is so cool. Do you really think they will win?”

“Oh, of course they will.” In reality, Madelaine didn’t know much about soccer. But according to Leon, Monaco FC were the best team, and were second in the French league, and if they beat Toulouse in the next match, they would be top of the table, and Valdez, their star striker, was the best player in the whole wide world.

However, what she was certain of was the delight in his eyes when she told him she had tickets for this special charity game this morning and he could bring his best friend, Pascal. It was not one of the big-league games, which was why she’d managed to get tickets for it, but this didn’t seem to dampen the boys’ enthusiasm. Madelaine sat back and took in her surroundings, the sound, the people, the anticipation—it felt good to be a mother for a change.

She had no great interest in soccer, nor any sport for that matter, but she had maintained a passing acquaintance in it for Leon’s sake, as he had become a fanatical supporter over the last few months. She supposed this was probably a good sign, the sort of thing young boys do.

As they watched the game unfold, Leon and Pascal kept her informed of the brilliant play by Monaco, and especially Valdez. “See how he just went past those two guys.

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