Antivirus (The Horde Series Book 1) by Michael Koogler Read Free Book Online Page B

handshake.
    “Can you tell us what’s going on here?” Jackson asked, his voice wavering but holding his ground. 
    “Well, Mister Jackson, that’s what we’re trying to ascertain,” Alders replied easily. “Would you mind telling me what your boy was trying to sell?”
    “It’s a prototype,” he explained, placing a hand firmly on Kat’s arm to keep her quiet. “It’s a wireless version of a technology that allows the user a unique perspective on dealing with computing issues such as viruses and software failures. That’s all we can tell you about it right now.”
    “Must be some tech,” Alders said, “if it’s strong enough to kill someone and worth that much money to another country.”
    “That’s just the thing,” he continued. “It shouldn’t kill anyone, but it’s also a prototype and untested in the field.”
    “But worth a lot of money?”
    “You could say that,” he answered. “We just demo’d the product for a major corporation two days ago. Rumored acquisition price would have been pretty substantial.”
    “Making everyone a lot of money.”
    Both Drew and Kat nodded.
    “But a lot of money wasn’t good enough for Mister Edwards here, it would appear,” Alders added.
    “Apparently not,” Kat said quietly, ignoring Drew’s look. She was clearly agitated. “Can you tell us what happened?”
    “It’s not a big secret at this point,” Alder shrugged. “I’m assuming that because the equipment is still attached to Mr. Edwards, our foreign friends do not yet have what they wanted.”
    “Unless the deal was for technical specs only,” Kat pointed out, looking around the room at the stacks of papers, much of it company classified and definitely not supposed to be in the personal home office of one of their techs. “My guess is that this was just a demonstration.”
    “That’s probably correct,” Alders agreed. “Anyway, we’ve been tracking the movements of this target organization for several years now, particularly since they have shown extreme interest in acquiring new technologies coming out of the States and they seem to have an unlimited bankroll.”
    “Who are they?” Drew asked sharply.
    “I’m not at liberty to say right now,” he answered. “But it seems your boy made the deal and then died demonstrating it.”
    “Or he was killed,” Kat added thoughtfully. They were dealing with an incredibly new technology and she had no doubt that it could be put to dangerous use in the wrong hands.
    “We haven’t ruled that out, either,” Alders said. “But I’m going to need to hear a lot more about this technology before we can make any deductions. How much can you tell me?”
    “As long as we aren’t giving you technical specifications, we can probably answer most of your questions,” Drew replied after breathing out a long sigh. “The technology isn’t a big secret, at least the general concept. Lots of companies are researching it. FutureTek simply turned out to be the first to make it work.”
    “Let’s go outside where we can talk, then,” Alders said.
    “How’s Danielle doing?” Kat asked.
    Alders offered her a sad smile. “She just found out that her recently-dead husband was engaged in industrial espionage that would have branded him a traitor in the eyes of the United States. My guess is she’s not doing well at all.”
    Kat shook her head and looked at her boss. “This is getting out of hand, Drew. We are in way over our heads.”
    “I take it there’s more to this story, then?” Alders said, picking up on her inflection. “If you have additional information, I would greatly appreciate you sharing it with me.”
    Drew nodded. “Let’s go talk, Agent Alders.”
     
     

Chapter 7
     
    FutureTek Headquarters, Helena, Montana: Kat closed the door to her office and then fell into her chair, nearly numb with fatigue. With Jon still missing and Perry dead after apparently selling them out, exhaustion was quickly beginning to catch up to