Lockdown

by Peter Jay Black

  Jack lifted up the tablet screen and stared at it. ‘What’s going on?’ he said.

  ‘Chill.’ Charlie’s voice came through the earpiece. ‘It’s OK. I reckon Slink’s just pulled the phone out of his pocket. That’s why you’ve lost the image. He would’ve disconnected the camera and headset.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Lux said.

  ‘He’s showing the guard his phone,’ Jack replied, relaxing a little. ‘Hopefully that’ll be enough and he won’t find the camera and wires.’

  They waited in silence.

  The minutes dragged.

  A couple of police officers glanced into the van as they passed.

  Jack couldn’t take much more. He reached for the door handle and was about to go after Slink when the camera view snapped back on.

  Slink was entering the lift with Cloud and five other people.

  Jack let out a sigh of relief. ‘Thank God.’

  Cloud stayed near the doors, while Slink, keeping his eyes down, made for the back corner.

  ‘Good work,’ Jack breathed into the headset.

  The lift went up several floors and Cloud got out.

  Just as the doors were about to shut, Slink snuck through and stood in the hallway, with the pizza box held in front of him.

  He pretended to check for the correct name and room number as Cloud walked a few doors along and knocked.

  There was a muffled reply and she entered.

  Slink tucked the box under his arm, jogged to the same door and pressed his ear against it.

  ‘What can you hear?’ Jack said.

  ‘Voices,’ Slink murmured. He looked up and down the hallway, then pressed his ear back to the door. A couple of seconds later he pulled back. ‘Can’t make out what they’re saying,’ he whispered.

  Jack leant in to the display. The name on the door said, ‘Chief of Staff, D.B. Whitaker.’

  ‘Chief of staff?’ Lux said, incredulous.

  Jack looked at her. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Second highest job in NYPD,’ Drake said.

  Jack frowned at the screen. What was Cloud doing visiting him?

  ‘What should I do?’ Slink whispered.

  ‘Next door down,’ Jack said.

  Slink hurried to the door and knocked softly.

  There was no answer, so he opened the door and peered inside.

  The office was empty, so he snuck in.

  Jack smiled to himself as he spotted a connecting door in the side wall. ‘To your right, Slink.’

  Slink tossed the pizza box on to the desk, hurried over to the door and pressed an ear to it.

  A few seconds later, he pulled back again. ‘Still can’t hear a word,’ he hissed.

  ‘Lie on the floor,’ Charlie said.

  ‘Huh?’

  ‘Next to the door, Slink. Lie on the ground.’

  Slink did as he was told and the camera view dropped.

  ‘Follow my instructions carefully,’ Charlie said. ‘Take off your headset and push the microphone under the door. Then listen to the earpiece. I’m going to record the sound the microphone picks up, but I’m also going to delay playing it back to your earpiece by a second or two, to avoid feedback. Understand?’

  ‘No,’ Slink breathed. He took off his headset, slid the microphone under the door, then turned on his side.

  A couple of seconds later, the voices came through everyone’s earpieces loud and clear.

  ‘… know any other way I can help you with that,’ a man’s voice said.

  That must be the chief, Jack thought.

  ‘David . . .’ Cloud said, in a soft voice. She had a posh accent. ‘You promised that you would ensure the police stayed away.’

  ‘I know. And you promised we’d correspond only by email. Look how that worked out.’

  ‘My employer has been more than generous over the years. If it wasn’t for him –’

  ‘I’m aware of everything he’s done for me,’ the chief said, sounding agitated yet under control, ‘and I appreciate it. I really do. And that’s why I’ve returned most of those favours. I just can’t see how –’

  ‘I’ve been instructed to tell you that another three hundred thousand is waiting to be transferred to your account. All it needs is our final authorisation.’

  There was a short pause and the chief sighed. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  There was the sound of heeled shoes on a wooden floor, then a scraping. ‘Oh, and David?’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Thank you for sorting out that little problem when we first arrived.’

  A door opened and closed.

  Slink pulled the microphone back, leapt to his feet and grabbed the pizza box. He opened the door to the hallway, peered out and watched Cloud as she stepped into the lift.

  ‘Go back,’ Jack said.

  Slink pulled into the office again. ‘What?’

  ‘Look around a moment. Do it slowly.’

  The camera view panned across the room and Jack’s eyes soaked up every detail of the office – pictures, filing cabinets, the air conditioning vent, the windows.

  ‘OK. Done.’

  Slink slipped into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

  As he hurried back to the lift, Jack’s eyes scanned the walls and ceiling. There were cameras, heat sensors, smoke alarms . . .

  Slink hit the button for the lift.

  Jack leant back in his seat and let out a slow breath.

  ‘Well?’ Lux said. ‘What was all that about?’

  ‘No idea, but we need to find out.’

  • • •

  A few minutes later, Slink hopped into the van and Drake pulled away from the kerb, following Cloud in the taxi again.

  It took a left and waited at a red light.

  ‘Where’s she going now?’ Slink said.

  ‘Looks like they’re heading to Brooklyn,’ Drake replied.

  Sure enough, they were soon driving across the Brooklyn Bridge.

  Slink leant forward and looked at the river on either side. ‘What’s in this Brooklyn place?’

  Drake gripped the steering wheel. ‘Could be anything.’

  When they reached the other side of the bridge, they turned right, travelled for another five minutes or so and eventually stopped next to a pontoon that jutted out into the river.

  Cloud stepped from the taxi, dropped a duffel bag into a bin, then strode along the pontoon to a waiting speedboat.

  Jack leant forward in his seat and squinted at the giant man standing behind the wheel of the boat. ‘That’s Monday.’

  Cloud got on board.

  ‘They’re getting away.’ Slink went to climb out of the van, but Jack stopped him. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘They’ll see us,’ Jack said.

  ‘So?’

  ‘We’ll lose the element of surprise.’

  They watched as Monday turned the boat around and sped away.

  When they were out of sight, Jack got out of the van and hurried over to the bin. He glanced around, then reached inside and pulled out Cloud’s bag.

  He hurried back to the van and climbed in.

  ‘What’s in it?’ Lux said.

  Jack opened the bag. Inside was the circuit board and other parts from the apartment. In the bottom were bits of paper, some screwed up, some torn and tatty. He showed the others.

  ‘Great,’ Slink said. ‘She’s left a load of rubbish.’

  ‘Maybe we can get something from all this,’ Jack said.

  ‘I can tell you exactly what you’ll get from that,’ Slink said. ‘A freakin disease.’

  Jack pulled out one of the pieces of paper and examined it. ‘It’s a delivery note.’ He held it up to his hidden camera. ‘Charlie, you getting this?’

  ‘Yeah, I see it. It’s for Bluconn processors. Fifty of them.’

  ‘Fifty?’ Slink said. ‘Why would Hector want fifty processors?’

  ‘They’re high-end too,’ Cha
rlie said. ‘They would’ve cost a lot of money.’

  Jack’s eyes moved over the other scraps of paper in the bag and he sighed. They’d been so close to finding Hector and now he’d slipped through their fingers again.

  It was so frustrating.

  No, it was beyond that – it was infuriating.

  Jack balled his fists. Now all they had to go on was a bag filled with rubbish. The only other – He snapped his fingers.

  ‘What is it?’ Drake said, glancing around.

  Jack yanked the tablet PC from under the seat and connected to Serene’s computer again.

  ‘What are you doing, Jack?’ Charlie said in his ear.

  ‘I’m hacking into that D.B. Whitaker guy’s computer. I need to see if there are any clues to where Hector is hiding out.’

  ‘Are you nuts?’ Obi said. ‘They’ll definitely trace us this time. They’ll be on alert after the last attack.’

  ‘Not if I’m fast enough.’ Jack flexed his fingers, took a quick breath and set to work.

  He was relieved to see the police network engineers hadn’t had time to change their security yet. They were probably still scratching their heads, wondering —

  ‘Jack,’ Obi said. ‘They’re on to you.’

  ‘Already?’ Jack navigated to the main email system and scanned down the addresses.

  ‘You’ve got ten seconds.’

  Jack’s eyes moved down the list. ‘Come on.’

  Finally he found Chief Whitaker’s stored emails and opened the folder.

  ‘Five seconds,’ Obi said.

  ‘Jack,’ Charlie said, sounding agitated, ‘we can’t get Serene into trouble. If they trace the signal here –’

  ‘I know.’ Jack moved down the emails, looking for any that might be from either Cloud or Hector. ‘I need a few more seconds.’

  ‘You don’t have a few seconds,’ Charlie said.

  Jack’s gaze locked on to an email from ‘CACloud90046’.

  ‘Jack.’

  He went to click on it, but the screen vanished. ‘What the . . .?’ He tried reconnecting, but it was useless – the connection was dead. ‘What’s happened?’

  ‘I pulled the plug,’ Charlie said in a quiet voice.

  ‘You did what?’

  ‘I disconnected the line,’ Charlie said. ‘They were about to trace us.’

  ‘That’s just great.’ Jack threw the tablet into the footwell. Then he took a deep breath, composing himself. He glanced at the others. ‘Sorry.’ He adjusted his mic. ‘Sorry, Charlie. I didn’t mean to snap at you.’ She’d just been watching his back, and she was right – they couldn’t risk getting Serene into trouble. Not with everything she’d done for them.

  ‘It’s OK, I understand,’ Charlie said. ‘I want to get to Hector too, remember?’

  ‘I know.’ Jack looked at Drake. ‘Could you please take us back to the loft?’

  ‘What are we doing now?’ Slink said as they pulled from the kerb.

  ‘The only option we’ve got left,’ Jack said.

  ‘What’s that?’ Lux asked.

  Jack stared out of the window. ‘We’re going to break in to New York City’s police headquarters.’

  • • •

  Jack, Slink, Lux and Drake walked into Serene’s loft.

  Charlie was sitting at the dining table, waiting for them.

  ‘Mind having a look at what we’ve got?’ Jack said, striding towards the gadget room.

  As he walked past the office, Jack saw Obi and Wren sitting in front of the computer. He stopped.

  ‘It looks like a normal plane hangar from above,’ he was saying to her in a hushed voice, ‘but underground there are at least ten more levels.’

  Jack looked at the monitor in front of them. It showed a satellite image of some kind of airfield in a desert.

  ‘And there’s aliens down there?’ Wren said, her eyes wide.

  ‘Yeah.’ Obi clicked the mouse and brought up a black-and-white photo of a grey alien on an autopsy table. ‘The American government have seven of them down there,’ he said, as if stating a fact. ‘Five are dead – they have them frozen – but the other two are alive.’ He glanced at Wren. ‘Where do you think all our technology comes from?’

  That was all Jack could take. He cleared his throat.

  They jumped.

  ‘What are you two doing?’

  ‘I’m teaching Wren stuff,’ Obi said.

  Jack’s eyebrows rose. ‘Teaching her what?’

  Wren straightened in her chair. ‘American history.’

  Jack rolled his eyes and pointed at the screen. ‘How is that history?’

  Obi opened his mouth to answer, but Jack cut across him, ‘Come on, I need you two to help with this,’ and he went into the gadget room.

  Once everyone was gathered around the Think Desk, Jack unzipped the bag and upended it.

  ‘What’s all that?’ Wren said.

  ‘Clues.’ Jack held up a couple of receipts. ‘We need to organise these so we can work out what Hector’s been up to.’

  Charlie waved her hand over the desk and it sprung to life. She took one of the pieces of paper and pressed it face down on the surface. There was a soft beep, and when she lifted the receipt away, there was a perfect copy underneath it.

  Charlie then tapped on the digital copy of the receipt and moved it around the display.

  ‘This is a giant screen?’ Slink said, stepping back and looking underneath it.

  ‘Yes,’ Charlie said. ‘And a scanner. And a computer. Serene showed me – you can copy everything digitally.’

  ‘It’s awesome.’ Wren leant over, touched the corner of the digital receipt and spun it around.

  Jack turned back to the Think Desk. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Let’s scan all this stuff.’

  Within a few minutes it was done – every receipt and scrap of paper was scanned into the Think Desk.

  ‘Wow, yeah, really great,’ Slink said, frowning at it all. ‘Now we’ve got a load of digital rubbish too.’

  ‘Not rubbish.’ Jack reached over, dragged a sketch of a circuit diagram towards him and spun it the right way up. ‘Charlie?’

  ‘Looks like some kind of mainboard.’ She glanced at the other pieces. ‘Wait, look at this.’ She dragged over a receipt for memory sticks and another sketch of what appeared to be a network of some kind. She put the three next to each other.

  ‘What is it?’ Lux asked.

  ‘Looks like Hector’s had another custom board made.’

  ‘What for?’

  Charlie’s eyebrows knitted together. ‘I don’t know yet.’

  Jack stared at the display a while, then motioned for the others to leave Charlie to it. This had now turned into a technical issue – something that only Charlie could understand – clues that only she could put together, and, right now, he had a mission to plan.

  As they all left the room, Jack glanced back at Charlie and he was glad they had someone as clever as her on their side.

  As they walked into the main room he said to Obi, ‘We need everything you can get on the police building.’

  ‘I can help,’ Lux offered, joining them. ‘This is what I do.’

  ‘You can get us a plan of the building?’ Jack asked her.

  ‘Leave it to me.’ She went into the office, sat down and started typing.

  ‘I’m hungry,’ Obi said.

  ‘Me too,’ Wren said.

  ‘Me three,’ Slink added and they went to the kitchen and started opening cupboards.

  ‘I’ll help,’ Drake said.

  Wren smiled. ‘Can you cook?’

  ‘I’m great at burning things.’

  As they prepared dinner, Drake said, ‘So are you guys homeless?’

  ‘We’re not homeless,’ Wren said. ‘We live in a bunker.’

  Drake’s eyebrows rose. ‘A bunker? Under London?’

  ‘Yep.’

  ‘How did you find that?’

  ‘Noble gave it to us,’ Slink said. ‘He al
so funded us in the early days. We look after ourselves now though.’

  Drake nodded. ‘And how did you get so good at all that free-running stuff?’

  Slink started peeling potatoes. ‘A few years back, when I still lived with my mum, we had, like, no money. She was always missing the rent and the landlord was this really nasty guy. Every time I went to school, he’d corner me and threaten us with eviction. So eventually I had to start climbing out of the window. I taught myself parkour because I had no choice really.’

  Drake took the potatoes from him and cut them up. ‘Wasn’t that dangerous?’

  Slink shrugged. ‘Guess so. Mum didn’t like it, but she quickly realised she had no way to stop me.’ He wiped his hands on a kitchen towel. ‘So whenever she needed something – like food or medicine – I’d climb out of the window, shimmy along the ledge, then jump across to the roof of the block of flats next door and drop down behind it.’ He looked at the clock on the wall. ‘That reminds me – I need to call her and see how she’s doing.’

  Jack leant against the wall and watched them, though he wasn’t really paying attention – he was trying to work out how they would break in to One Police Plaza.

  It was no good trying to hack into their computer systems – they’d be on high alert now. And they were unlikely to fall for the pizza delivery trick again. Besides, Slink had got past that guard and the barrier easily enough, but that was during the day. To get a good look at Chief Whitaker’s computer, they’d have to go at night. That also meant a more physical approach was needed.

  Charlie shouted, breaking Jack out of his thoughts. He looked over at her.

  ‘I’ve got it,’ she said. ‘I know what Hector’s done.’

  Jack hurried into the gadget room as Charlie stepped back from the Think Desk with a look of utter excitement on her face. She pointed at the display. She had linked and arranged most of the scrap bits of paper.

  ‘That was quick,’ Jack said, his eyes roaming over everything. ‘What is it?’ To him, it still looked like nonsense.

  ‘A computer.’

  Jack cocked an eyebrow. ‘That’s all?’

  Charlie reached to the corners of the Think Desk and brought her hands together. The image shrank, revealing a sophisticated technical blueprint. ‘This,’ she said, waving a finger at the image, ‘is a custom, one-of-a-kind computer.’

  ‘Like Proteus?’ he asked.

  Proteus was a quantum computer they’d destroyed. It was what had started all of this mess with Hector and his father.