Chapter 39: The Sterling Display
The flight telemetry on terminal two locked with a sharp green ping as Rowan Mercer adjusted the dual micro-switches on his controller. Outside, cutting through sixty-knot winds that would have torn standard recreational aircraft apart, Drone Lead banked against the descending squall and dipped twenty feet below the primary roofline of the neighboring property. Rowan isolated the craft from the automated triangular sweep, routing dedicated processing power to its optical gimbal while bringing the machine to a stable hover fifteen feet outside the second-story master suite of the Sterling manor.
The heavy glass panes of the tall sash windows were encrusted with thick, branching patterns of gray rime, but the multi-spectrum thermal sensor sliced cleanly thr
