SICILY

A NEW INTELLIGENT assassin drone may further change the nature of warfare, it is claimed.

The Terminator, as it’s nicknamed, was originally developed by the Sicilian Mafia and its sister organisation, the Calabrian N’Drangheta, to target specific individuals.

“It’s tiny,” says Oliver Juice, a technology consultant to organised crime, who is now in the American witness protection program. “About twice the length of a small bullet. And that’s what it carries, a single explosive small-calibre round. It’s really an airborne pistol. But it looks like a large insect when flying. Its real cool, though, is the high-tech brain that controls it. A quantum microchip with all the information there is on the target. The battery inside is so powerful that it can remain airborne for weeks, just stalking its prey. And while it’s doing this it’s constantly receiving information, updating all the time. It’s autonomous right up to the moment of the kill. That’s controlled from base. Once it gets the go signal, it slips in behind the target, close in …. and bang! The poor bastard doesn’t know what hit him. As far an anyone nearby is concerned, he’s been hit by a sniper. Or better still, one of his own men turned on him.”

The US Government is said to be bidding for The Terminator in a deal which will see the production of an initial run of 10,000 units. The price is said to be in both cash and immunity, and other unspecified favours for Italian organised crime families. The Lucchese Family in New York is thought to be the mediator.

“Believe me, it’s worth it,” says Juice. “The cost of production of each of these little bastards is about $10. It goes down the more you manufacture. The Ukrainians are crying out for them; the Russians may or may not have the technology – or something like it – themselves. And every guerilla, terorist, fundamentalist and looney tune on earth wants it. The race is on.”