by T M Caruana
“Trouble that needs hacking?”
“You bet. Big time. Would you help out an old friend?”
“Is it legal?”
Alfred hesitated to answer his question, but in the end felt he had no choice.
“I wouldn’t be calling you for a favour if it was.”
“Is it at least a little challenging?”
“For me it would be impossible, for you, child’s play.”
“Hah, you didn’t even find the location of the keys on the keyboard. Let me be the decider then. What is it?”
“Government files.”
“Shit. Scary stuff. Is it traceable?”
“I have no clue. Probably.”
“That is a lot to ask of me mate.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Got a family now.”
“Really? I thought you were doomed to spend your life with your gadgets in your computer cave. Good for you.”
“My ‘Mancave’ is now a nursery for baby Charles. I only have a wardrobe of electronics. The Mrs shoves everything in there when I’m not tidy. It gets messy.”
“That’s what women do to you.”
“Is that what has happened to you? Trouble because of a woman?”
“Sort of. I put her in the trouble though, and now I regret it, and want her out of her…operation, safely.”
“I would do anything for my Camille.”
“Even sacrifice your ‘Mancave’.”
“Yes, even that.”
They both laughed at how they had grown with time and their priorities had changed.
“I’ll help you mate, but you owe me big-time for this.”
“Thank you, Burt. I reallydo appreciate it. You can recall the favour anytime.”
“What is your IP address and network name?”
Burt worked away as he received the required details from Alfred. After an hour the screen flickered and Alfred nearly bounced off his chair, as he saw the ‘Skyway’ folder open.
“Bingo!” Burt called. “Now you’re all set. I would say you have about forty-five minutes until they know which computer the breach is coming from.”
“Thanks a million, Burt,” Alfred greeted and was about to hang up the phone.
“And Alfred,” Burt bellowed.
“Yes?”
“Stay safe, okay?”
“Thank you. Can’t make any promises on this occasion, but I will try. Take care.”
“You too.”
The phone went dead and Alfred tossed it on the side without placing it on its base. He didn’t want to be interrupted. Any caller might as well think he was otherwise engaged.
Alfred started to click around in the sub-folders. The folders and files seemed to date back fifteen years. He decided to start investigating a folder called ‘Soft Launch’. Right-clicking on it to find its properties he could see that the person creating the folder was called Miriam Bruncklyn. Alfred had never heard that name before. It wasn’t anyone who currently worked in his department. He opened up a search engine and entered her name. The heading that jumped out at him was ‘unexplained death’. Apparently, she used to work for the government within special projects, in the same department as Sir John.
Alfred looked around in the folder again and found a group photo, where at the bottom of the picture, it stated the names of the individuals from left to right. He researched all their names and all the hits came back with words such as ‘gone missing’, ‘fatal accident’, ‘sudden heart-attack’, ‘moved to unknown location’, ‘early retirement’, ‘died in fire’, ‘drowning accident’ and ‘suicide by hanging’. The only one who was still alive in the picture was Sir John. There was also some handwriting stating that a K. Ascory-Vince had been unable to attend for group photo.
He inspected another photo where Sir John was sitting next to Anne and her father in a trench in a desert landscape. Possibly in a war zone from the looks of their camouflage overalls and their helmets. Anne’s father died just over ten years ago so they must have known each other for quite some time.
Alfred clicked on a document named ‘EU Funding’. It read that the EU disagreed with the Green Skyway project and would retract support and funding if it made it to hard launch, before further research had been conducted. Further down it stated why they disagreed. They wouldn’t want to be associated with the scandal caused by the nuclear reactor failure and the loss of hundreds and thousands of lives. The information about the pollution should have triggered action to prevent the extent of the pollution if the government had adhered to their previous advice. The action to sanitise the environment at this point would mean a complete clearance of any materials that currently added to pollution. This would take several decades during which time the people would have to live extremely primitively. The standing of the United Kingdom and Europe would be greatly devalued in comparison to the rest of the world and Europe would end up becoming an underdeveloped continent.
Alfred especially looked at the last paragraph that read: The government of the United Kingdom must ensure that any details relating to this project are kept highly confidential and avoid any attention being drawn to it at ANY cost.
This was the reason Anne and Sir John were so frightened when Liz had mentioned the Green Skyway project. All other individuals who knew about it had been eliminated. Alfred wondered why. To prevent them from speaking about the true poor air quality as a result of the pollution? Was it still making people ill? If it did, and the government didn’t do anything about it, the people would start a civil war if they found out. The economy of Great Britain would go into a decline and the EU had threatened to withdraw funding. There were plenty of reasons to ensure the participants were silenced forever.
The question that puzzled Alfred, and that had brought him to this situation in the first place was, how did Liz know about the project? She wouldn’t even have been ten when the soft launch was in progress; the soft launch, which seemed to be the initial plans on how and when to turn off the nuclear reactors and power plants, cease the use of motor driven vehicles and shut down factories. The plan was written by K. Ascory-Vince, the same man who hadn’t been available for the photo.
Alfred glanced at his watch. He had already browsed the folders for more than thirty minutes. He didn’t want to cut it fine, as he also needed to make it down the thirteen floors and out of the building. Additionally, he needed to reach Tasha and go into hiding before they were on his trail. He just wanted to make a final search for Liz’s surname; von Wisehouse, before leaving.
The result came up with her father’s name George von Wisehouse. Many of the hits stated ‘missing from mission in Eastern Europe in April 1986’. The biography told about a man dedicated to his work as the right hand of the CEO, Mr Knightsworth; Anne’s father, of the FAO.
Something definitely smelt rotten here. If Anne, Sir John and Liz knew about the project’s history before having taken up Alfred’s challenge, why hadn’t he already been disposed of? Had he become their toy? They were all still alive because Sir John must have been friends with Liz and Anne’s fathers and at their deaths promised to keep them safe. Alfred had no such shield. Sir John only wanted to suck out money from him while he was still alive, before he had to kill him. That was why he wasn’t concerned about having four signatures to release the funds from the trust, Alfred’s wouldn’t count if he was dead.
He suddenly noticed some movement through the blinds of his internal wall’s windows. Several of the employees were rushing down the corridor and there was smoke coming from the staff kitchen. Were they onto him? Was this how they were going to get him? Fire. He needed to get to the garage, two floors below ground floor, so the lift was his best option even if it was the most exposed one. He carefully sneaked towards the lifts, but was stopped by a fellow in a yellow reflective west without any logo on. Odd.
“This way Mr Quinton,” the man said and gestured towards the emergency stairway.
“No need to worry, sir. The smoke i
s only from the toaster in the kitchen. I have an urgent appointment I can’t miss,” Alfred lied, trying to get away from the guard.
“Unfortunately I can’t let you use the lift during a fire.”
“But the fire alarm hasn’t even been activated,” he stated before he realised that this was no ordinary guard.
The guard had no clothing with a logo connecting him to the government service department and Alfred had never seen him around before. If he resisted, he was only going to give away his position and inspire violence. He knew of another emergency exit on the other side of the kitchen and made a mime suggesting he was going to find out what was going on and help put out any fire. He could see in his peripheral view that the guard was slowly following him. He needed to make an unexpected manoeuvre if he wanted to get out of the building alive. To prompt a hectic stampede from the majority of employees who had stayed seated, he crushed the glass to the fire alarm and pressed the button. The guard was pushed further back towards the lifts by the panicked employees, and Alfred could escaped in a ‘staff only’ lift that no one took notice of in the panic.
Alfred understood how urgently he needed to extract Tasha. She was the means by which they could get to him. But he also knew that she had two knives in her hands and in her pressured state, probably wasn’t afraid to use them. What more, she had every right to be angry with him for placing her in a situation, which he had known would get her killed. Forgiveness wouldn’t be easily earned.
Arriving at the supermarket he slammed on the brakes, which made his Mercedes spin round on the gravel. He jumped out and headed determinedly round the back of the building. He ran down the corridor that lead to the back door. He unlocked it as silently and slowly as he could and peered in through the small gap. He immediately spotted Tasha a few metres in, and frenetically waved at her, trying to get her to come over to him. She looked shocked at first before getting her bearings and then ran to embrace him. He was relieved to see that his face symbolised joy rather than hatred. He felt happy that she was still alive. He grabbed her arms to look at her tousled hair, lifeless eyes and dry cracked lips. She smelled of body odour and her skin was greasy. She looked utterly undone. He had done this to her.
20
EXTRACTION
Alfred pulled me away from his embrace and stared straight into my eyes, holding the weight of my body that I feared would collapse.
“Listen,” he murmured, as he closed and locked the door to the supermarket.
“No, don’t lock it. There are more of us alive in there.”
“Tasha,” Alfred moaned. “Connor and Jaden murdered Alexandre and Wallace, Joanne is involved in the Organisation and Sarah and Jolie are spoilt bitches. And Tony – he has a lot to answer to me for,” he explained, ending on a jealous note.
“But…but,” I disagreed.
“Come! We must go now or we won’t make it. There are people who have been ordered to have us killed.
What was he saying? Why? What did I have to do with it?
As I followed him I noticed a bunch of envelopes. I stopped as I was stepping over them, and bent down to pick them up. These were all the letters that the contestants believed they had sent to their families. No one had touched them. They lay in a pile where they had originally been dropped; without collection or delivery.
Alfred grabbed hold of my arm and started pulling me to the docking bay where he had parked a black car with the driver’s door still open.
I pulled back, and looked angrily at him.
“You put me here. This is all your fault!” I spat as I had just realised the connection.
At first I had just been so happy to see him. To hope for a way out. To be saved. I had forgotten that he had been the one who had put me there in the first place. He had known. He’d deliberately used me and knew it would cause my death.
“I’m sorry!”
Sorry? As if that was going to cut it. I had been treading on the line between life and death. Because of him!
I started to cry.
“You are sorry? After all the things I have gone through, you are sorry?”
“Sorry, doesn’t begin to explain my feelings, but we won’t have any feelings at all to talk about soon, if we don’t move. I have rebelled against the government and ruined my life to fight for what is right. It doesn’t excuse my past actions, but I want to make it right. I will explain everything as soon as we get somewhere safe. Please get into the car.”
I obeyed and Alfred started to drive out of the capital. I was slumped against the door, as I was too exhausted to sit up straight.
At the first out of the way petrol station we came to, Alfred ran in to buy a sandwich and an energy drink and handed them to me.
“Please can you search two names for me?” he asked softly, and tossed his mobile onto my lap.
His entire attitude had changed. His posture wasn’t as proud as before, his face didn’t look as confident either and his eyes looked at the world as if he was fearful it would consume him rather than him conquering it.
What had happened to the Alfred I knew? Something had devastated him.
I nodded and picked it up.
“The first one is for Liz. Her name is Elizabeth von Wisehouse. Have you got it?”
I typed it in.
“Yes, there are some hits that have to do with her contribution for animal rights.”
“Never mind that. Does it state her date of birth anywhere.”
“Wait, I will search and see…yes, here. Fifth of December 1986.”
“Have a look on another site. Search for a government page. One of those where you can research family ancestries.”
I kept scrolling down and eventually found the page Alfred had described and punched in the data it required; full name, place of birth and parents’ names – as per Alfred’s instructions.
“What email address do you want them to return the data to?”
“I have my private e-mail that I can check on my phone.”
I entered the e-mail address that Alfred gave me and I hit the submit button on the form. Not long after there was a ping from the phone, indicating an e-mail had been received.
“That was quick,” I commented, impressed.
“If you go to the main menu there is a blue icon in the corner. Check it please.”
“Yes it is from them.”
“What date does it say?” he asked, as he overtook a slow moving van.
“Here it says something else. Fifth of March 1987.”
He glanced over to me, but quickly returned his eyes to the road.
“I knew it.”
I looked at Alfred awaiting a response.
“What?” I prompted curiously when he didn’t explain himself.
“I hacked into some confidential government files at the office…”
“You hacked secret information?”
“Yes, people were dying…and you could have died,” he mumbled.
I now started to ponder about why I had been so important to save. He hadn’t saved anyone else.
Why me?
I could almost not let myself think it. Did he care for me more than as a friend? But if he did, that would be completely confusing. He had just thrown me into a wolves’ den only months ago. I wasn’t sure I could ever forgive him for that.
“One more or less. You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble if you would have left me in there too,” I commented indifferently.
“I know. I could have. I had options. I chose you over me. It turns out I can’t live without you,” he said and now his stare was focused on the road to avoid looking at me.
I could almost see his chest pounding from his unsettled nerves. After a period of awkward silence, with him staring forward and me not being able to make sense of things, I asked;
“So what is all this then?”
“There were documents explaining a project called the Green Skyway, that remained in the soft launch stage in 1986, due to multiple human d
eaths as a result of pollution. The funding required was too great and the project was therefore put on hold. All the individuals who had been working on the project have since died from suspicious or unexplained deaths. And now they are trying to kill us for the same reason, to contain the knowledge. Something must have gone wrong with Liz, as she is not working towards the same goal as Sir John and Anne, yet they haven’t killed her. It had all been quiet until Liz mentioned the project again several weeks ago, and hence the initiation of the supermarket experiment. Anyway. In the archives it states that Liz’s father went missing in April 1986, but Liz was born more than nine months after that. I think he is still alive.”
“Unless, he isn’t her real father.”
“I doubt it. They have always come from a firmly ethical family where a scandal as such would be outrageous.”
“So what do you believe happened?”
“I think Anne’s father and Sir John were such close friends with Liz’s father that they didn’t have the heart to kill him. Or perhaps they couldn’t find him and kept Liz close, to be able to use her as a hostage, if he ever showed up again. As long as Liz wasn’t aware of the project, she wasn’t a threat. They probably told the government project department that Liz’s father was dead.”
“But, why would they need to kill him if they were friends?”
“Maybe he detected something that would ruin their careers, or perhaps he wanted to expose the entire project to the United Nations. Who knows?”
“Why this ‘supermarket experiment’, though? What would it prove?”
“Liz argued that there was a need to activate the Green Skyway project again, as natural resources are becoming exhausted and animals are mistreated and slaughtered needlessly in ever increasing numbers.”
“I suppose Anne and Sir John wouldn’t have liked that.”
“No. Liz argued there was no limit to the cruelty to which humans would stoop, to survive when resources on Earth weren’t sufficient for the majority of the people. The supermarket idea was to simulate a microenvironment similar to the world and to observe the behaviour of the contestants, which would reflect what could be expected if we carry on consuming in the same reckless way in the real world.”