In Brad Taylor’s The Polaris Protocol: A Pike Logan Thriller, Pike Logan and girlfriend Jennifer Cahill go up against Mexican drug cartels and terrorists determined to bring down the U.S. by destroying the international GPS system.
Eight years in Delta Force must have given you a lot of experience for Pike Logan to draw from.
Yes, it did, but probably not in the way you’d think. Sure, I learned a lot of real-world tactics, techniques, and procedures—a sort of tactical-level perspective—but more than that, I had the opportunity to travel around the globe and see the world from the perspective of other indigenous cultures, as well as learn how our own government functions at an operational and strategic level. These types of experiences are much more valuable to me, because they can’t be absorbed through Wikipedia or other Internet research.
Was there anything in your job as a member of the Special Forces that lends itself to a writing career?
A Special Forces operator is assessed and selected on his ability to apply creative solutions to asymmetric problems. I hate the term “think outside the box,” but that’s what’s required. This naturally lends itself to storytelling. As a commander, I would routinely develop training scenarios that were as realistic as possible, complete with an intelligence summary and backstory. I continue to do that today, only now instead of an Operations Order, I’m writing a novel.
Your plot hinges on the vulnerabilities of the worldwide GPS system. Where did that idea come from?
Straight from research. Believe it or not, the novel initially hinged on a pure human emotion problem, revolving around the capture of Jennifer’s brother by the Mexican drug cartels. I needed some way to get the Taskforce involved since it was personal, and not terrorism-related. I locked on to the use of drones along our border, and decided that a cartel would find some weakness in the UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] architecture that it could exploit for drug running. I then set out to find a weakness, eventually settling in on the Global Positioning System architecture. The more research I did, the more I realized how incredibly intertwined our everyday lives have become with the constellation of satellites above our heads. It ended up taking center stage due to the catastrophic nature of the threat.
Have you considered writing a standalone novel?
I have a few ideas for one percolating in my head, but right now I’m having too much fun with Pike and Jennifer. They have a hell of a lot of life left in them.
