by Anh Do
The call ended.
‘Thank you, Agent Jensen. You may go,’ said Bonner.
Ethan felt the phone being carried back out of the room, and returned to the other agent’s phone.
‘Agent Ferris, you need to do something very difficult,’ said Bonner.
‘I’ll find that robot, sir,’ said Ferris. ‘You can rely on me.’
‘I hope I can rely on you, but that’s not it,’ Bonner replied. ‘I need you to look like you’re trying everything to find Arachnatron, but not actually succeed. At least, not in time for the contest. I wish I had thought of stealing that stupid spider! If Harkland doesn’t get its precious toy back, the Prime Minister will be so furious that they will declare war on us! I get the war I want without having to start it, which means the world’s sympathy will be with us. This is perfect!’
Ethan pulled himself back to Penny’s side and said, ‘This is bad.’
‘What?’
Ethan took a deep breath. ‘Arachnatron’s been stolen and Harkland has threatened Bonner if it’s not found, so Bonner is sending agents who are supposed to pretend to look for Arachnatron, but it’s better for Bonner if they don’t find it ’cause then he’ll get the war he’s after anyway.’ He took another breath. ‘Did you get all that?’
‘Yes,’ said Penny. ‘It means we have to find Arachnatron ourselves.’
‘Can you find anything from the security cameras?’ asked Penny.
‘The system is huge and complicated,’ said Ethan. ‘The cameras there are still down, so I can’t follow the trail from them into the network. I could be hunting for ages before I found the right video files.’
Penny tapped her chin. ‘Arachnatron is huge. They must have some plan for getting it out of the arena, because every inch of this place is going to get searched. We need to see if there are any big trucks around.’
Ethan looked around and found a Channel 8 camera nearby. He concentrated on it and saw the streams flickering from it to the rest of the TV station’s setup, including up to their helicopter.
He rode the silver stream high into the sky and into the camera on the Channel 8 chopper. Looking down from such a height made his head spin.
Penny saw Ethan’s body sway and took his hand, leading him out of the standing section and to a bench inside the stand. She sat him down and quietly said, ‘What can you see?’
‘Lots … my stomach isn’t happy about this … they’re cordoning off the streets around the arena … police cars are everywhere … ambulances are coming … there’s even a few fire trucks … well, two fire trucks are coming. One’s leaving.’
‘What? Why would one be leaving before the others arrive? Do you see any other fires?’ asked Penny.
‘Gimme a sec,’ replied Ethan. He saw which way the fire truck was headed and looked further beyond. ‘No, can’t see any fire or smoke ahead.’
Penny bit her lip. ‘Does it look like it’s hurrying?’
‘Hard to tell from … yeah, it just put its lights on and ran through a red light.’
‘Arachnatron is in that truck!’ said Penny.
Inside the cab of the fire truck were two men in firefighter uniforms. Both were wearing earpieces, and winced as a loud beep told them that they were about to get a message from their boss.
‘Turn off the lights and sirens this instant,’ said their commander.
‘You did say that we needed to hurry, sir,’ replied the man driving the fire truck.
‘You are getting far too much attention, you are not actually travelling to a fire, and the correct response when I give an order is “Yes, sir,” and then to comply,’ said the boss.
The driver’s face turned pale at the thought of upsetting the man giving the orders. He immediately switched off the lights and siren. ‘Y-yes, sir,’ he said.
‘You are to head to the warehouse, wait until nightfall and then drive to the docks. Our ship will be waiting. As I can’t be sure what evidence you’ve left behind in the truck, we will need to take that as well.’
‘With … um … with all due respect,’ said the passenger, ‘we won’t be able to hide something as big as a fire truck from a Customs search.’
‘There will be no Customs search,’ the boss replied. ‘I, and the ship, have diplomatic immunity. I am an invited world leader, after all. Now, do either of you wish to harm your reputations further by continuing to doubt me?’
‘No,’ the driver said quickly. ‘No, sir.’
Ethan told Penny the numberplate on the truck as they ran, and she memorised it.
‘We need a car,’ she said as they entered the carpark.
‘Something fast,’ said Ethan, his eyes lighting up.
‘Well …’ said Penny, then gave a sigh. ‘Yes.’
‘Something like …’ Ethan pointed.
A bright red blur wove through the traffic. Neither Ethan nor Penny knew much about cars, but this one was sleek, swift, and had state-of-the-art computerised systems that had opened up to Ethan like they’d been waiting for him.
‘Can you still see the truck?’ asked Penny, who was driving much faster than she was comfortable with.
‘No, it’s out of range of the camera in the helicopter. It went this way, though,’ said Ethan.
Penny slowed the car to the speed limit. No point rushing if we don’t know to where, she thought.
Ethan wished he’d taken a bigger car. He slumped down uncomfortably into the seat so that the low ceiling didn’t crush the antenna on his helmet. He looked up at a set of traffic lights, and saw a camera on top. He pointed it out to Penny. ‘What’s that connected to?’
Penny leant forward against the steering wheel so she could see where he was pointing. ‘Probably the city’s traffic monitoring and control system.’
‘Control?’ said Ethan. ‘As in traffic lights?’
Penny nodded.
‘Pull over,’ Ethan ordered.
Penny pulled the car to the kerb as Ethan closed his eyes and reached up to the camera. It was weird, looking down on himself from above, but he had no time for that. He spread his concentration to the whole network. It was as if he was seeing the city as connected silver strands, like a cosmic spider web.
Ethan let the camera’s signal carry him to its destination, the Traffic Control Centre. As he explored the centre’s operations, he found a server named Emergency Vehicles. It was secure against most forms of hacking, but Ethan’s powers eased past the security programs without a blip.
‘Get this,’ he said. ‘Each fire truck has a transponder that lets the Traffic Centre know where it is, in case they need to change the traffic lights to give them an easier run.’
‘So does that mean you know where the truck is?’ asked Penny.
‘That’s the thing,’ said Ethan. ‘All the trucks are either at the Robofight Stadium or at their stations. This one’s a fake.’
‘We can get the police looking for a fake fire truck – they could get Arachnatron back,’ said Penny.
‘Phone in an anonymous tip?’
Penny shook her head. ‘Even if they believed it, they wouldn’t follow up quickly enough. Can you send out a message using their network?’
Ethan nodded. ‘Get me close enough to a police car.’
The only place that Penny could be sure would have a few police cars right now was the stadium.
She turned the flame-red sports car around and drove back, while Ethan sifted through the video feeds coming into the Traffic Centre. He mumbled something about a needle in a haystack.
‘It helps that the needle is huge and red,’ said Penny.
‘Yeah, but the haystack’s the size of a city!’ said Ethan.
Penny inched the car forward as it came near the stadium. There was yellow police tape everywhere. Ethan suddenly looked nervous and slumped down in his seat.
‘What? What is it?’ asked Penny.
‘Agent Ferris is right there!’
Penny looked closer, and saw several agents talking to
uniformed police. One of them was Agent Ferris.
‘I’d better be quick,’ said Ethan, staring hard at one of the police cars.
Each police car had an onboard computer, in case the officer needed to look up an ID on someone they were talking to, or a number plate. Ethan crept into the police system, sneaking past tight cybersecurity into the police communications system.
‘What was the number plate?’ Ethan asked.
Agent Ferris was talking to one of the uniformed police officers.
‘Be thorough, and keep things quiet,’ he said. ‘We can’t let this go public and create an international incident.’
Suddenly, all of the police radios crackled with an announcement. ‘All units, be on the lookout for a counterfeit fire engine, I repeat a counterfeit, non-official fire engine, last seen leaving Robofight Arena heading north, number plate 8BX73QS. Suspected to be carrying combat robot named Arachnatron.’
Ethan’s announcement boomed across the network. Agent Ferris looked to the sky. So much for quiet, he thought. He turned to two of the police officers and shouted, ‘You heard the call. Get in your cars and head north, now!’
The officers ran to their cars and sped off, sirens wailing.
Ferris shook his head. The President will not be happy if this hits the press. A red sports car caught his eye. That thing looks expensive … wait, the woman driving, she looks like … and is the guy with her wearing a helmet with antennae?! That’s Doctor Cook and E-Boy!
‘You three!’ Ferris yelled to the three nearest police officers. ‘That sports car contains two known fugitives! Get them now!’
Penny sped their car away from the arena. Sirens blared behind them as three police cars gave chase. She grimaced as she drove, terrified at the speed they were doing.
‘Ethan, I can’t do this for long! I’m not a great driver! You need to find the safest way you can to get those cars off our tail!’
Ethan didn’t know much about cars. ‘I’ll try,’ he said.
The police cruisers following them were quite modern. Ethan looked through their electronics and found that each car had something called Electronic Fuel Injection, or EFI. That sounds like something I can mess with, he thought. He chose the car at the back of the pack, figuring that if things went badly it would be less of a catastrophe, and seized up the EFI.
Fuel stopped running into the police car’s engine, and it slowed to a stop.
‘Was that you?’ Penny asked frantically.
‘Yep! Two to go!’
The remaining police cars dropped away as their engines ran dry.
‘Yes!’ screamed Penny, slowing down straight away.
‘Now we just need to see about that fire engine,’ said Ethan.
As the police cars turned their sirens off, a black muscle car sped past them, flames painted up the side, its engine loud and rattling. As it got closer to the red sports car, its siren started blaring.
‘What?’ said Penny. She looked in the rear-view mirror. ‘Is that Ferris?!’
Ethan turned around to look out the back window, and saw Agent Ferris closing in. ‘That car has to be at least forty years old!’
‘Can you do anything?’ said Penny.
‘I can’t slow it down, but …’
Agent Ferris smiled. He took the radio handset from the communications computer.
‘All units in the vicinity of … all …’ His smile disappeared and he let out a grunt of frustration as he read the computer screen.
YOUR RADIO IS DEAD. FORGET ABOUT US. THE ROBOT IS IN THE FIRE ENGINE.
Penny’s voice grew panicked. ‘He’s getting closer, Ethan! Is there anything else in that car that’s electronic?’
‘I don’t … just the stereo.’
‘CRANK IT!’
Ferris had just about decided which manoeuvre to use to force the sports car to the side of the street when the stereo lit up. He watched open-mouthed as it selected a radio station on its own. From the speakers came Dance, dance, you can dance! Take to the floor and take a chance!
Ferris watched the volume meter get higher.
Dance! Dance! You can dance! Find yourself a new romance!
Ferris jabbed his thumb into the off button, then the volume-down button, then all the buttons.
DANCE! DANCE! YOU CAN DANCE! DON’T JUST STAND THERE WITH THE PLANTS!
The windows started to rattle and Ferris’s head began to pound with every drumbeat. Why do they make stereos that get this loud?!
DANCE!! DANCE!! YOU CAN DANCE!! ROCK OUT IN YOUR UNDERPANTS!!
Ferris shook the steering wheel in fury, and gave a shout that was drowned out by the music. His head hurt so much that his eyes started to blur, so after one last punch of the stereo he pulled the car over to the side of the road. He fumbled for the key and turned the engine off, but the stereo kept blaring.
It must be running off the battery, he thought, scrambling from his seatbelt and flinging the car door open. As soon as he was out of the car, he slammed the door to muffle some of the noise, and grabbed his phone from his pocket.
‘This is Agent Ferris, authorisation ten-delta-seven. I need all police to be on the lookout for a red sports car heading north on Main Street. Driver is fugitive Doctor Penny Cook, passenger and accomplice known as E-Boy.’
‘I’ll put out the call, Agent,’ said the police dispatcher, ‘but all available units are either at the Robofight Arena or busy with the fake fire engine.’
I have to contain this, or Bonner will fire me! ‘The fake fire engine,’ replied Ferris, ‘isn’t real. That was a fake alert created by E-Boy to distract police from finding him and Doctor Cook. Cancel that—’
‘Um, the fake fire engine has been located.’
‘What?’ said Ferris. ‘Where?’
‘A warehouse near the eastern entrance of the international freight dock. Police have it surrounded right now.’
‘No one leaves until I get there,’ shouted Ferris. ‘Tell them!’ He hung up without waiting for an answer, and noticed that his stereo had switched off. He opened the car door carefully, but there was no sound from the speakers, so he jumped in and sped towards the dock.
William James’s men sat in the cab of the fire truck and looked at the ring of police cars surrounding them. The men squinted at the red and blue flashing lights.
William’s voice spoke quietly through their earpieces. ‘Isn’t this a mess,’ he said. ‘Time to open your black packages.’
Each agent from the North Kingdom had been given a black box at the start of a mission, to be opened if they were about to be captured. Both men in the fire truck reached under their seat and grabbed their box, ripping them open in a hurry to see what escape plan was inside.
Instead, they found documents written in a language they didn’t understand, including passports that had their own photos in them. In one corner of each box was a small glass sphere.
The agents sat and stared at the contents, confused.
‘Gentlemen,’ said William James, ‘we can’t have the world knowing you work for me. These documents identify you as being from Harkland. The authorities here might not believe them, but you will not say anything to confirm their doubts.’
The sphere in each box started to glow, and then flash in different colours.
‘In fact,’ William’s voice continued, ‘you won’t have anything to say at all. Look at the globe in your box. When it cracks, you will have no memory of anything. Who you are, how you came to be here, nothing at all.’
Both men slumped in their seats. William James’s voice sounded further and further away. Like all of the North Kingdom’s agents, the two men had been hypnotised during their training, and now that hypnosis was being activated.
‘Now,’ William continued, ‘please take out your earpieces.’
The agents did so, holding them in their fingertips. They watched as the earpieces turned to ash.
‘Thank you, gentlemen. A shame you can’t join me on our departing ship, but t
hose are the risks. Goodbye.’
Each globe gave a loud CRACK, and broke in half.
Agent Ferris drove up to the circle of police cars just as the men stepping out of the fire truck were being handcuffed. Ferris held his ID up and called out, ‘Who’s in charge here?’
A police officer walked up to him. ‘Sergeant O’Brien, sir,’ he said.
‘Good work, Sergeant,’ said Ferris. ‘Come with me, please.’
Ferris led O’Brien away from the rest of the police and said, ‘Sergeant, this is a delicate situation. Things are tense between us and Harkland – there’s talk of a possible war. If it got out that our security let this robot get stolen, lives could be lost. We need to get it back to the arena quickly and quietly. Can you help me, and your country?’
O’Brien looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, ‘Yes sir.’
‘Good. There’s an underground carpark at the arena that leads to the robot storage. Drive the truck back and I’ll make sure someone there guides you to the right place.’
O’Brien nodded and walked away. Ferris returned to his car and tried his police computer. It was working again. He picked up the radio and said, ‘This is Agent Ferris, authorisation ten-delta-seven.’
‘I am ordering a total media blackout on the fire truck by order of President Bonner himself. No one talks to anyone about what happened here. Ferris out.’
He started his car and headed back to the arena.
Ethan opened his eyes. He and Penny had been sitting in the red sports car, tucked away in a tiny alley, surrounded by bins. Penny hadn’t stopped looking around, convinced that at any moment they were going to be surrounded by agents with guns drawn.