He Who Dares: Book Two (The Gray Chronicals 2) Read Free Page B

ferried two large boxes up to the officer while he read and signed the requisition documents, in triplicate of course. Mr. Tottenham last act was to hand Mike a key chip before he waved happily, and thumped back down the stairs.
     
    “I wonder what this is all about.” Gable mused.
     
    “Something definitely odd, those are top secret security boxes.” Adam said, running his hand over the top of one.
     
    “That’s what this is for, to unlock them.” Mike murmured, looking at the key chip in the palm of his hand.
     
    “Yes, I wouldn’t try opening them without it.”
     
    “How come, Adam?” Mike had never seen anything like this before.
     
    “The lid has a very powerful electromagnet built into it, any attempt to open the box without the security key and it zaps the data pads. Either wipes them clean or garbles the data.”
     
    “But why the secrecy?”  Gable asked.
     
    “That is something we are still trying to work out, Gable.”  Mike carefully inserted the data key, hearing a faint humming sound as he did.  Then he opened the box to reveal six data pads, nestling in foam cutouts.
     
    Each box had three layers of pads, and six pads per layer.  That was a lot of data, and after unpacking them, they laid them out on a worktable.  None of them contained the long hoped for ship design, or drawing, just the design specification for all of their new equipment.  Mike passed several of the pads to Gable and Adam and began reading.  The pads were long on engineering specifications, and short on explanations, even so he waded through each of them in turn.
     
    “Oh my lord!”  Adam exclaimed.  “Have to see these new power plants?”  He looked up, excitement written all over his face.  “No, no, of course you haven’t, silly of me.”  He dived back into the data, laughing to himself.
     
    Mike went through each of the data pads, committing the basic information to memory.  For three days he didn’t nothing but read, driving Conner to distraction trying to get him to eat.  He took the pads back to his digs, and it wasn’t unusual to find him still sitting at the table in the morning staring into space, or scribbling furiously in a note pad.  On the third day, hollowed eyes and looking drained, he and Conner arrived at the office and Conner was thankful that at least he didn’t have his nose stuck in a data pad any more.  Now he just looked distracted.  They entered the office, and Conner immediately put the coffee on to brew, as he turned away from the machine, something caught his eye, and he stopped.  All four of them made it a habit to kick off their overshoes when they came into the office, so as not to track snow and mud all over the place.  This morning was no exception, so why were there wet footprints tracking across the office.  His eye’s flicked around the room, his suspicion deepened when he saw a wet spot under Mike’s desk.  He checked Mike’s shoes, and even in his present mood, he’d still kicked off his overshoes.
     
    “Excuse me, sir, but I think we may have a problem.”
     
    “What?”  Mike looked up.  “What problem?”  In answer, he pointed to the wet spot under the desk, then at the other wet footprints around the office, but Mike was so distracted he failed to grasp their significance.
     
    “I think we’ve had a visitor, sir.”  He said, seeing Mike’s blank look.
     
    “A visitor?”
     
    “Yes, sir, someone was here last night.”  Mike looked at the footprints again, his face brightening.
     
    “Damn!”
     
    “Coffee, sir?”
     
    “What?  Yes, of course, but...“
     
    “I’m sure it was just the cleaning crew, sir, nothing to worry about.”  Mike shot him a puzzled look as he sat down.  “Oh, by the way, sir.  We need to go and have a word with Mr. Harwood before we do anything else.”  Even in his present distracted mood, Mike didn’t fail to pick up on the name.
     
    “Yes, I agree, he should be in the shop by now,