Sky Zone: A Novel (The Crittendon Files) by Creston Mapes

not.”
    Derrick punched in their names.
    Jack scanned the hall. “I better get going. Clarissa doesn’t like us talking to the press.”
    “I hear Everett Lester’s here,” Daniel said.
    Jack nodded toward room 5-A. “Right through that door.”
    “Dude, that is sick ,” Derrick said. “Can you get us in there?”
    Jack searched the hall again, wondering what was taking Cole so long. “No way … not right now.”
    The door to Sterling’s room opened down the hall, and out came Shakespeare and a sharp girl Jack recognized as one of Sterling’s assistants. She wore a well pressed gray pinstriped suit and had a large gray radio in her hand. It looked a lot nicer than those the EventPros were issued. Shakespeare and the girl were followed by three security guys in dark suits, with Sterling right in the middle of them. Chico brought up the rear.
    Shakespeare gave a nod to Jack as they headed toward him. “We’re coming over to your place.”
    The long-legged girl in the suit took the lead, strutting down the hall as if she was leading a fire drill. “Hello, Derrick, Daniel … Excuse us.” She reached in front of Jack and opened the door to room 5-A.
    “Jenny, can I come in?” Derrick said.
    She looked back at him as if she’d smelled a skunk. “Later, maybe.”
    Shakespeare started in, and Jenny held up a hand like a traffic cop. “Okay, Shakespeare can come in, but no other arena staff. No press.” She looked at Jack. “You, wait right here. We’re expecting Reese Jenkins, Clarissa Dracone, and the head of SWAT.” She craned her neck. “Ah, there’s Mr. Jenkins now … good. Derrick, we’ll give you an update in a few minutes. Hang tight.” She entered the room, and the door closed behind her.
    Jenkins, CEO of the arena, was lanky, tan, and distinguished. A short, plump woman with black glasses and a briefcase walked beside him. They barely acknowledged Jack as they made their way into the last-minute powwow.
    Karen stepped out of the room, looking a bit pale. “Where’s Cole?”
    Jack had forgotten. He looked down the empty hallway and was overtaken by a pang of anxiety. “I’ll go check on him.”
    “How long can it possibly take to get a pack of gum?”
     

10
    Washington, DC, six weeks earlier
    “Senator Sterling, can I talk to you for one minute?” Derrick wiped the August sweat from his forehead as he followed the senator and his bulky security guard through a maze of desks and file cabinets toward his cramped office in the Hart Building in downtown Washington, DC.
    At the doorway Sterling turned to face Derrick; the security guard awkwardly ducked out of the way, straightening himself in a military stance off to the side.
    “Good grief, Whittaker, you’d think the AC wasn’t working in here the way you’re sweating,” Sterling said.
    Derrick followed the security guard’s eyes down to his own armpits, where his neatly pressed light-blue dress shirt was soaked with two huge dark blotches of perspiration. “I know, sir. I’m not used to this humidity. It’s hotter here than it is at home.”
    “Well, come in a minute.” Sterling went into his office. “Sit down, get cooled off. We Buckeyes have got to stick together.”
    “Thank you, Senator.” The only chair besides Sterling’s had stacks of papers in it.
    “Just set that stuff on the floor.” Sterling dropped his notebook atop reams of paperwork spread across his desk like a mountain range. He tossed his dark suit coat onto a small table stacked with books and journals, went around, and dropped into his big leather chair. “Do you know how much reading this job entails? I could read sunup to sundown and never get to half of it.”
    “I believe it, sir.” Derrick plunked into the chair, wiped the sweat from his upper lip, and flipped to the questions he’d jotted down during Sterling’s speech to the Senate an hour earlier. It wasn’t only the humidity that was getting to him; he still got nervous around