HIGHER TECH (Complete Novel)

Chapter 16 -Government Officials

      Sink sighed as he checked with his team monitoring activities at the Whitehouse. The secret service guys were very cooperative. So far, nothing of concern had been reported. However, the Hard Force meeting had strongly emphasized to him that today at ten am there would be a meeting of top government officials and the chance of an attack by Arnold Hatcher was very high. In fact, Mark, Dean and Kyle were also on sight. It was expected that this time Arnold and his friend would try to operate in secret. They would blame the attack on terrorists.

      Perhaps, this time would be the best opportunity to catch them. They wouldn't be able to get close with their fancy PW-3. Security this time, was just too tight.

      It was possible that they could somehow smuggle their armor and weapon into a nearby building. That thought worried him. He knew what that weapon had already done. What else could it do? No one knew. So, now they were walking the streets looking for anything suspicious. He felt almost helpless in a way. This feeling was amped by the other feeling that something bad was about to happen.

      It was a hot morning. The sun shone down from a partly cloudy sky. Some of the apartment buildings were very old still without central air conditioning. Most of the individual apartments had air conditioners attached to their window's. The ones that didn't, had all of their windows open.

      "Okay, five minutes until the beginning of the meeting. Sink, tell your team to be alert at their positions."

      As he did so, Sink noticed Dean looking up at one of the buildings. He seemed to be deep in thought.

      "Hey Mark, Dean's staring off into space again."

      "Thanks for the heads up, Sink. What's on your mind Dean?"

      "I was just looking at the open windows and air conditioners."

      "Okay, and what about them has caught your attention?"

      "Well, every apartment that doesn't have an air conditioning unit has the windows open."

      "Makes sense."

      "Yeah, but not every apartment that has one, has it's windows closed. Look at that one there, on the... ninth floor."

      "Maybe it's broken."

      "Maybe, but why have it in the window, if it doesn't work?"

      "It could have went kaput yesterday."

      "Yes, but it must be as hot as a furnace in there. Wouldn't they remove it right away, so they could open that window too?"

      "I see your point. Maybe you and Kyle should go check it out. Sink, you and I will watch the window. If they send anything out that looks suspicious, we'll take it down."

      "Come on Kyle. Let's hurry."

      "You got it."

      Fortunately, a tenant was entering the building, so they just followed him in.

      On the ninth floor, they paused and listened outside the door to the apartment for that window. There was a humming sound coming from within, like the sound of a large fan. Then a voice talking loudly, above the sound of the fan. "Okay Darren, she's ready, send her out!"

      Dean looked at Kyle. They both recognized that voice. Arnold Hatcher.

      "Kyle, we need to get in there now."

      "Yeah, let's break down the door. With our weapon's drawn."

      They both kicked the door hard. It flew open, along with part of the ancient door jam.