Free Game of Drones by Rick Jones, Rick Chesler

benefits for using NSA resources to locate information about her child abducted during a custody battle with her ex-husband. She was, by all appearances, frumpy and scholastic-looking, wearing Lennon-like glasses and a short, conservative haircut. Her expertise: fourteen years of experience in computational forensics.
    After meeting with Sunderland and Shah, separately, it occurred to Tanner that between even the three of them, they could do a lot of damage. They had none of the red tape to deal with, no cross-agency roadblocks. They could do what they wanted, when they wanted. He began to think seriously about forming his own unit. And the contacts kept coming, some from unexpected sources.
    One of the most battle-hardened of Tanner’s fledgling outfit was Liam Reilly, twenty-six, an elite special warfare operator and former member of SEAL Team 6, who was dishonorably discharged for writing a book about his role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. He stood six-three and was sizeable at the chest and shoulders. It goes without saying that he was superior militaristic fighter, but he was also skilled in the martial arts with notable proficiencies in American Kenpo and Aikido.
    Liam told Tanner about an old friend of his, Chancellor ‘Chance’ Zanetti, who was also a warrior, a former Delta Force operator whose primary tasks were to engage in CT tactics, national intervention operations, and to take part in various high risk missions such as hostage rescues, extractions and clandestine raids. Chance stood at five-eleven with raven hair and eyes so blue that they were both piercing and electric. His body was lean and cut, the man designed for quickness, and he was especially deadly with double-edged weaponry in one-on-one enemy engagements.
    Next into Tanner's world came Naomi Washington, a thirty-six-year-old African-American female and love interest of Chance. She was an ex-Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Special Agent who was dismissed after being placed on administrative leave for two years following her role in a whistleblower scandal. She was tall and quite appealing to the eye. With long legs and a tapered waistline that evoked something exotic about her, she moved with great economy. Her skill-set in Tanner’s league was that she had under her belt thirteen years experience as an explosives and arson investigator.
    Tanner wished to keep his team small and agile. He was thinking about not taking anyone else on board when he was introduced to Dante Alvarez, a man whose name was placed in an envelope along with a generous check from a senator who felt Tanner had received the short end of the stick and figured he could ease the pain a little. "Thanks for all your help in the past. I know you'll do good work going forward. Your country needs you more than you know," read a scrawled note on a Post-it.
    So Tanner had proceeded to meet with Alvarez. At thirty-two, the ex-Secret Service Special Agent was dismissed after his involvement in a prostitution scandal abroad. He stood six-five with dark hair and deep brown eyes. His face was long and thin with somewhat of a Simian cast to it. Slim and wiry with ropy muscles, he possessed surprising nimbleness and speed. Alvarez often proved his skills and ability in jujitsu by showcasing his talents in dojo challenges, winning more often than not. At the time of his termination, he had served eleven years as a member of the Presidential Guard detail as well as being a seasoned Fraud Investigator.
    With these six people painstakingly vetted over the course of a year, Tanner came to the conclusion that he had a stellar group he could move forward with. A team with which he could restore his faith in himself and his country. A team of outcasts. In the end they had become the exiles and pariahs of their organizations, a team of rebels with skill-sets that made the Outcast Operators--or "double-O's" as Tanner liked to call them--a unique and highly qualified