Trying to keep him guessing, I interpreted the question as literally as possible. “It does not help me remember. What do you mean by faking ‘it’?”
Dr. Hansen began to move his left arm upward toward the gun, mostly likely to steady it so that he could shoot me. I had no time left to wait. I was just about to use the stealth suit (concealed as jeans, a long sleeved t-shirt, and a jacket) to lean forward and throw the desk at him, but I didn’t have to. Continue reading Loose Ends: Part 2
Haley and I stopped in front of Dr. Hansen’s door. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”
She squeezed my hand and stepped away to grab one of the chairs next to the wall in the engineering department. We weren’t the only ones there. The engineering department was a combination of a workroom, departmental assistant’s office, and common room. Ten or more professors’ had offices that surrounded the room.
The nice ones had windows. Dr. Hansen, as the department head, had a corner office. Continue reading Loose Ends: Part 1
Unsure as to how to fake being mind-controlled, I said, “No,” answering as if I didn’t know he’d asked a question I shouldn’t be able to refuse.
He paused, still scowling and then asked again. “You don’t know of anyone who wants to know about Higher Ground’s research or about the people who work for the company?” Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 11
Looking down at the words on my phone, I wrote back, “What?”
Three dots that indicated that she was writing appeared. I waited. Then more words appeared, accompanied by a beep. “There’s a file cabinet in Sandy’s office and he shoved a bunch of folders in there when I got close to his desk. Don’t know what’s in there, but he didn’t want me to see it.”
Even as I thought about my reply, she added, “Might not be the Nine, but it’s worth a look.” Continue reading Truth and the True: Part 10
Eventually, I finished signing all the papers. My hand didn’t hurt, but that was more of a surprise than an expectation.
When I signed the last one, I looked up, handed Dr. Hansen back his pen and asked, “I understand that you talked to friends in government about me, but what made me qualified for this? I mean, this is secret enough that only Dr. Strazinsky can read my internship reflection and that I have signed a mountain of papers saying that I won’t tell anybody about this except for people on my projects inside Higher Grounds or that have a top secret security clearance plus codewords that will be defined later.
“I’d be surprised if I have Top Secret clearance. I’m pretty sure they have to do some kind of investigation for that to even be possible. I’m not trying to get out of it or something, but it just seems too easy. You know what I mean?” Continue reading Hardwick Industries: Part 2
The next day, I got an email from Dr. Strazinsky and the Engineering department chair, Dr. Hansen. That interested me on several levels. First, because I’d been expecting an email from the department secretary with my internship information. Second, because while my engineering department adviser had to sign off on whatever internship I got, neither Dr. Strazinsky nor Dr. Hansen were my departmental adviser. Third, getting an internship meant getting information from a contact at the business, but didn’t mean a meeting with the departmental chair or anyone in the department once they’d accepted you and you’d accepted their offer.
If I hadn’t talked to Agent Lim, I’d have been worried, but as it was, I walked into Dr. Hansen’s office at the appointed time (three o’clock) with a good idea of what was going on. Continue reading Hardwick Industries: Part 1