HIGHER TECH (Complete Novel)

Chapter 18 -World Influence

      Reema Mahmoud was shocked by the events of late. She, like everyone else, had not expected that all their efforts would fail. She thought that missiles would surely stop the invaders. It was unbelievable that the military might of an entire nation, with help from the US, was not sufficient. Their mission, her mission, had failed. Now, she faced the frustration of her mom and dad's nation. After all, the two individuals responsible for the terrible destruction were from the States. She was viewed by everyone here as being from the States too. She knew she was in a very bad spot and just wanted to leave.

      Arnold, Darren and their now apparently indestructible PW-3 had hovered over the King's palace and delivered their intimidating message. It was a declaration to the King and the whole world. Get their acts together -for humanity, was the general gist of it.

      As she watched the ever rising black smoke rise up into the atmosphere she shook her head sadly. The world would never be the same again. Other countries would react in fear by cutting oil production. The prices would skyrocket out of control.

      "Come on Reema, we better board now."

      "Okay, thanks Sink, old friend." Good ole Sink, he was like a big brother to her. "I really don't want to be around when the royal family starts to look for someone to blame."

      "I hear you. I don't want them looking in our direction either. Something tells me that the bad relationship between our two countries, did not improve by what's happened."

      "Yeah, you'd be right about that."

      On the plane, they all seemed troubled. What could they do now?

      A week later, Reema was at headquarters, still sifting through the footage, trying to find something useful. The sun had long set, she was desperate, anything that could help in their ongoing battle against seemingly insurmountable odds would be helpful. The rest of the Hard Force team were assigned to different places that were thought to be high threat areas across the country. Not that they could do anything about it. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She heard a faint low pitched noise, so she looked out the window of her office. A bright beam was destroying everything in its path. It was quickly moving toward her side of the building.

      "Oh no!"

She stood up and started to run for the door, but she never made it. She knew she wouldn't. There was no time, not even enough for her to utter the rhyme her father taught her so long ago. Thankfully, for Reema, there was no pain before the end. She only had a fraction of a second of panic. She was instantly disintegrated like everything else that the beam touched. There were others though, that didn't fare so well.

***

      The Hard Force meeting the next day was a very somber one. Dean looked into Sink's bloodshot watering eyes. It was easy to see that the man was deeply fuming over what had happened. No one dared to say anything to him about his friend Reema.

      Mark was saying something about the fact that there were only 7 casualties and that it could have been much worse. Suddenly, Sink cleared his throat, causing the whole room to go silent. Even Mark stopped talking.

      "How did they know?"

      "What do you mean?"

      "Come on Mark! How did they know where she was?"

      "Oh... How did they know that... I don't know what to tell you, Sink. It was either a coincidence, or he did know. If he did know, we certainly don't know how... We.."

      "He did know. I know he knew."

      "How do you know that?"

      "From his perspective, it makes perfect sense to kill the one that helped with all the arrangements for defense. He paid her back for her interference. Mark, this guy he... he is taking it personal. He will just keep on going. He needs to be stopped. Stopped now."

      "Listen Sink... I know this hurts you the most. More than the rest of us, but believe me when I tell you, these two will be stopped. I suppose you're right about him knowing where she was. He could have destroyed this whole place, but he didn't. It was a surgical strike. Do you know why it's hard for me to accept this? It scares me. There were hundreds of people in that building. Yet, he knew exactly where she was. I didn't even think he knew who she was, let alone where she was. I can't help but wonder, what else he knows about us. So, people I am open to any insights or suggestions. Don't hold back. Speak up like Sink."

      Silence.

      "We need to send one man in, incognito to sabotage them from the inside out."

      "Interesting idea, Dean. How do you think we should proceed with such a plan?"

***

      Dean crouched beside the unkempt hedges that lined the courtyard of the abandoned warehouse. All of their intelligence gathered so far, pointed to this place. Many others had one-by-one, been scratched off the list as unsuitable. Of course, Mark decided that since he had experience as a detective and had actually discovered the perpetrators before, he should be that one man operating out of sight. This was... not an easy thing for him to do. He remembered that the last ordeal was not what anyone would call 'a fun time.' But then again, he did meet Susan Edwards. Good thing she didn't know he was here doing... this.

      He crept a little closer to a small window. "Man this place is ancient!" he muttered under his breath. The window sat on top of two other smaller windows. Someone had slid one of the smaller ones to the other side. So, there was a screen letting in the polluted humid air of the industrialized area. Great. He leaned closer. It was dark inside. He couldn't make out a thing. Putting his ear to the screen, he could hear what he thought was metal scraping metal. So, someone was here after all. He looked at the screen and decided that it was his only way in. Taking out his pocket knife he cut the screen along the edge on the sides and bottom. It was like a flap now. After he crawled through, it fell back into place. As long as the wind didn't pick up, no one would notice. He slid a chair over a little to block it's view from the doorway. He was in a small office. The furniture was dusty and old. Very old. He peered through the doorway. The sound was louder now. looking around the open warehouse, he decided to find a place to hide. He spied a fixed metal ladder to his right and smiled. This was just what he needed. An elevated view. He climbed it to a mezzanine level that had skids with old boxes piled on them. The perfect place to hide. He could see everything from up here. Although the lights were all out, some of the office doors were open, spilling in light from the day outside. He would wait until a few hours after dark, when everything was quiet, before he would make his move. He waited, while the world outside let its rage burn like millions of gallons of oil. It seemed like an eternity.