Aftershock: A Donovan Nash Novel (A Donovan Nash Thriller) by Philip Donlay Page A

is your position within Eco-Watch?”
    “I’m in charge of logistics,” Buck replied instantly. “I’m sort of Mr. Nash’s go-to guy.”
    “Ah, I see. We should all have someone like that in our life.” Murakami turned back and faced Donovan. “Well. What do you think?”
    “I’m intrigued,” Donovan said honestly. “Why don’t you give us a walk-around, but first, I’m curious about the name.”
    “
Scimitar
was a name chosen by my graduate students at the university. They likened the project to cutting through the darkness, which is exactly what the
Scimitar
will do. A round-the-clock, scientific sword if you will.”
    “Perfect,” Donovan said, as he touched the ceramic-based covering that protected
Scimitar
. The UAV was big; it was almost forty feet long with a wingspan of sixty-six feet. It had a nine-hundred horsepower turboprop engine mounted aft, which pushed the
Scimitar
through the air at speeds close to two hundred thirty miles per hour. Aerodynamically, the tail was V-shaped, a proven design with the benefits of less drag. The graceful wings were built like a glider’s—long and straight, for high endurance and maneuverability. The one characteristic that Donovan couldn’t get used to, no matter how many times hiseyes swept across the carefully constructed airplane, was the fact that there were no windows, no cockpit. The
Scimitar
was going to be flown by a pilot who may have never actually flown a real plane. The operator sat in a mobile control room and flew the
Scimitar
from miles away.
    “This is, of course, the business end of the aircraft.” Professor Murakami gave the
Scimitar
a gentle pat on the nose. “I won’t bore you with all the technical specifications, but suffice it to say, we have a full-color nose camera that the pilot uses for navigation. There is also a variable aperture camera, which is not unlike a television camera that functions as
Scimitar’
s main set of ‘eyes.’ We also have low light or night viewing with the infrared camera, as well as SAR, or synthetic aperture radar, for seeing through smoke, clouds, or haze. Each one of the cameras can produce either video or still frames. As for the particle sensors, we carry a sophisticated mass spectrometer to sample gases directly from the plume. We can read the amount of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, water vapor, and hydrogen sulfide. As we measure the gases, we also log the winds aloft to keep a running calculation of where the gases are headed.”
    “Impressive,” Buck said. “Has any of this been done before?”
    “No, not at the level we’re about to attempt.
Scimitar
will actually be able to loiter in and out of the plume for hours, measuring changes and showing trends about what’s happening deep within the mountain. We haven’t yet installed the necessary satellite uplink capability. We’re still working on that issue. Antennas don’t react well with the caustic ash and gas from a volcano. That’s where Eco-Watch comes into play. We need a set of eyes to help guide the
Scimitar
in real-time
and
maintain a line-of-sight data link. Our pilot will be in the back of the Eco-Watch Gulfstream controlling the
Scimitar
. We’ll also have the advantage of the Gulfstream flight crew looking out the window, sort of like a mother ship.”
    “Well said,” Malcolm nodded his approval. “The abilityto monitor a volcano, day or night, without being hampered by clouds, or even steam and ash, is unprecedented.”
    “How did you solve the problems of keeping the engine free of ash, and protect it from the high temperatures?” Buck asked. “We all know volcanic ash is a deadly mixture of rock and glass fragments. I remember a Boeing 747 that flew into an ash cloud over Alaska, and all four of its engines shut down. They almost crashed before they could restart enough engines to make an emergency landing.”
    “That was the first of many problems we needed to address,” Murakami said. “There are elaborate