“OK, so I get it. If there was a pile of money lying behind a glass door during the middle of the day, we would have a riot on our hands. Most people would try and get it like you did. So you will get let off with a caution – be given the bill for the door and the bin, and we’ll call it even. The thing I want to know is – How did you blow the cash machine? How did you get the CCTV cameras in the area all go out moments before?”
“I told you already, I walked past and it was already like that – The money was on the floor when I got there.”
Church sighed and leant back in his chair and stared Bobby down for a moment. “You’re lying.” Bobby shifted in his seat. “You see there are other cameras. Hidden ones. Like the one in the lamp post down the street, and the one in the betting shop opposite the bank.” Bobby’s body language had changed from relaxed and cocky to fidgety, guilty looking. “Would you like to see? It is a great video.”
Church leant across the table a grabbed a remote control. He pointed it at the TV set on a stand in the corner of the interrogation room. The TV flickered into life, and after some static has cleared, it showed a black and white image of the street. It was obviously from a camera high in the air, as they were looking down on the road, probably a few doors down from the bank. Bobby became more agitated.
“You’re gonna love this next bit. Wait for it, wait of it. There is a car first and then... Boom! There you are.”
A car drove down the street, its headlights momentarily blinding out the image. As the car drove out of view, the headlights swept past to reveal two hooded figures walking down the street in the darkness.
“Oh hey Bobby, there you are with your little buddy.” They watched as the two figures approached the bank. Stuart was pointing around them, and Bobby’s eyes were following where he was motioning.
“Now I’ve watched this next bit over and over but I can’t figure out what I’m seeing. Perhaps you can help me out.” Bobby walked towards the ATM and stopped about thirty yards way. He turned and said something to Stuart, who took a few paces back. The two boys stood still for a moment. Bobby’s head dropped for a few seconds, and then came back up again. Suddenly there was a flash of light from inside the bank, and the image on the screen momentarily fizzed.
“Now if you thought that was exciting, wait until you see the view from the camera inside the bank. What? Didn’t think there was one there? Oh, yes sir there was.” Church rose from his seat and walked over to the DVD player under the TV. He pushed the eject button and the drawer slid silently out. He took the silver disc from the drawer and placed it on the spare shelf underneath. He took another disc from the same shelf and put it into the DVD player. He walked back over to his seat, picked up the remote control and pressed play. The disc drawer slid back into the machine and the screen flickered back into life. The image this time was from inside the bank. The camera could see across the floor, the tellers’ desks and the back of the ATM machine. The window and doors were not visible from this angle, but you could clearly see the back of the ATM, and the time and date stamp on the top corner of the image.
“Are you ready? I bet you are excited now, huh?”
Nothing moved on the screen for about thirty seconds, then the image started to flicker and get covered in a snow like static. Not enough that you couldn’t see, but enough that showed there was electrical interference.
There was a bright flash from the rear of the cash machine, and the image momentarily fizzled out. When the picture returned the bank was filled with smoke. You could no longer see the tellers’ desks through the haze, but you could see the back of the ATM was blown open and there were hundreds of pieces of paper raining down inside the bank. “Wow, now that is a beautiful sight, huh? Tens, twenties, even a few fifties. Had to have half the force standing guard during the clean-up to make sure none went missing. But like I said, lucky it wasn’t during the middle of the day.”
Church stared at Bobby. “So. Shall we try again? ‘cause it clearly wasn’t like that when you got there, was it? Something happened that I can only guess was caused by you and your friend that we have down the corridor. You weren’t carrying any device. There have been bomb experts down that tell me there is no trace of any kind of explosion. So I am intrigued. How did you blow the cash machine?”
Bobby was nervous now. His palms were sweating and he could feel his face starting to flush, but couldn’t think of what to say. “OK, here’s the deal.” Church continued. “There are people on their way down that would love to get their hands on this kind of tech that you used. Now they are willing to forget the whole messy business of the bank, and the stolen goods we found in your Uncle and Aunts house. What? Didn’t think we would go there? Oh yes sir, already had a long chat with Steven and Karen. They are very shocked by all of this. Poor Karen was in tears when we told her what you have been up to. Blaming herself. Tragic sight. Anyway, as I was saying, we are prepared to wipe the slate clean. Forget all about it. There would be no mention of this on any database anywhere – You would have an exemplary record, as long as you cooperate with us. Does that sound fair? Sounds reasonable to me. Think about it for a while, and remember – A criminal record at your age? Jeez that would be bad. You would never get a job anywhere. Spend your life drifting, unable to get work, unable to get any credit for a house or a car. Nope. Wouldn’t be good, would it?”
Bobby was visibly shaken. He had his head down looking at the table when Church was first talking, but looked up suddenly when he mentioned that Karen was upset. The last thing he wanted was to make her cry. Since his mother passed away, she had been the closest thing he had to her, and the thought of seeing her upset was too much to bear. It reminded him too much of those days in the hospital.
Church had left the room, but was standing outside talking to at least two other men. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, but could hear their excited, raised voices. Bobby was looking around the room. It was completely white apart from a two-way mirror along one wall, and the TV / DVD player in the corner. There were two security cameras, one in each corner, their little red lights glowing on the wall next to them.
Bobby has composed himself by the time the door opened, and Church stepped in with two other men. “Mr Finlay this is Simpson, and Fisher. They have come to ask you a few more questions.” the two sat down on chairs opposite Bobby and Church stood by the door.
“Hi Bobby” said Simpson. “My name is Tom, and this is Jeff.” There was a pause while Bobby looked across at the two men. “We want to ask you about your ability, Bobby.”
Bobby looked at Simpson in the eyes, trying to see if he was calling his bluff or not. “We know what you can do, Bobby, and we want you to help us.”
“OK.”
“You see, Bobby, we went to your house to talk to your Aunt and Uncle. And while we were there, we took a look around your bedroom, Bobby – I hope you didn’t mind. Don’t worry, we didn’t touch anything.” The men chuckled, trying to put their interviewee at ease. Standard training. “Jeff, why don’t you tell Bobby what you and your boys found.”
“Sure, Tom. Bobby – we noticed that you were admitted to hospital a couple of months back – can you tell us what it was for.”
“I...I ...I had an accident. I fell.”
“Oh, OK, sure. That was down by the lake, right?
“Y – yes, it was.”
“Did you ever see anything else down by the lake, Bobby, anything out of the ordinary.”
“N – no. No sir.”
“Please, call me Jeff.”
“OK, no Jeff, what do you mean?”
“Well, there was an... an air crash a few months back and we lost sight of it soon after. But what we found was very interesting. An electromagnetic signature, if you will. Any electric device – phones, cameras, even vehicles that went near it stopped working.” Bobby stared straight at him. “Now the reason I bring this up Bobby, is that we found the same signature in the bank that blew its ATM the other day.”
&
nbsp; Bobby was starting to panic.
“And do you know where else we found this signature, Bobby? Where else we found blown out electronics?”
“No.”
“In your bedroom, Bobby. Quite a lot of it, in fact. What can you tell me about that?”
“I don’t know.”
It was Simpsons’ turn to chip in. “So I believe that Mr Church back here has made you an offer, Mr Finlay. I believe he asked you to cooperate and in return we would wipe your record clean.”
Bobby was beginning to lose control of his emotions. He just wanted to get out of there. He wanted nothing more to do with this place, these people, or his new ability. He just wanted to return to his normal life. He knew he had to do something, for fear that these men would take him away and do god knows what to get him to work for them as some kind of toy, or weapon.
As he was trying to think of his next play, what his next move was going to be, when Church handed it to him on a plate. “You see, kid, you have two choices – Either you tell us what we want to know voluntarily, or we lock you away until you do. We have video evidence, readings taken from your house, the bank, the stores that you stole from by knocking out their CCTV. All I have to do is make a phone call, and you are charged with a long list of crimes, Bobby. Your file upstairs is big.”
Bobby looked up and grinned. It was the turn of the three men to shift in their chairs. “And is it all stored on a computer?” said Bobby.
Simpson’s eyes widened. “What? WAIT! NO!”
Bobby closed his eyes and took a deep breath, raised his head to the ceiling and clenched his teeth.
Whuuuummm.
Church felt something pass through his body that made him feel light headed and queasy. It was like when he used to go to clubs as a younger man, and the sound system was up so loud that you could feel it resonating in your body. The shock wave was so intense it knocked him off his feet and every part of his body screamed at once in pain. It took him several moments for his head to clear and for him to try and sit up. When he did, he was in complete darkness. He could hear the shouts and screams of people in the corridor outside: “Nobody panic – it’s just the power gone out. Does anybody’s phone work – I can’t get mine to light up.”
“Can anyone else smell smoke – Oh my god – I think there’s a fire – OK nobody panic...”
“Fisher! Simpson! Are you guys OK?! Bobby! What the hell have you done! Bobby?!”
Two groans from the middle of the room told him that his companions were moving.
“Church? That you? What happened? Where’s the kid?”
A new noise started up from the centre of the room. It was a clicking, mechanical sound, almost like someone setting an old fashioned alarm clock – the ones with two bells on the top that you had to wind up every night.
“What the hell is that? Bobby! Is that you? What are you doing now?”
Then a light came on from the centre of the room, and swept around for a moment and headed out of the open door. “It’s the kid! He’s got a light!”
“Why the fuck is the door open?!”
“Magnetic locks – when the power is released the all open – fucking fire safety – get after him!”
The three men scrambled towards the door, but as the light disappeared around a corner, Church slammed into a woman in the darkness, sending them both crashing to the ground. “Somebody! Stop the kid with the light!” But it was too late. Bobby was running for the exit. The only light in the building found its way through the security doors and out into the main reception. When Bobby ran to the front doors, he got momentarily stuck in a group of people fighting for the way out. There was enough moonlight illuminating the street outside that he could turn off his torch and disappear into the crowd. He knew he was now on the run and that he had to find refuge until he could figure out his next move, so he headed for the one place he could think of.
Back in the station, a few people with cigarette lighters and matches had found their way out and retrieved flash lights from their cars outside and gone back to rescue the rest inside the building. The operation took well over an hour, with many people wondering what could have caused a blackout and every electronic device in the building to go out. Some people noticed that street lamps immediately outside the station were out too, with some appearing to be smoking.
Simpson, Fisher and Church were standing, looking blankly up at the station. Church broke the silence. “We may have lost every piece of data held on site. A ton of evidence just gone. It will take weeks to round up all of the escaped convicts and we have got a lot of questions to answer.”
“Did his body somehow protect him from the blast? His light still came on – must have been shielded somehow.” said Simpson.
“Wind up” said Fisher
“Excuse me?”
“That’s what that noise was. Wind up torch. No batteries.”
“Ha! Very good kid, very good.”
“You know he is very dangerous. Also very valuable. Can you imagine what the military could do with a force like that? End wars in minutes.”
“We would have to bring him in with a lot of protection.”
“Then that’s settled it. We call Winter.”
“Winter?” Fisher gave a nervous look across to the two men. “Are you sure? You remember what happened two years ago.”
“I don’t see any other choice. We have to bring the kid in.”
“What if we can’t bring him in? What if he decides to not cooperate? He could be a threat to national security. What if he decides to wipe every computer in the country?”
“Then we kill him.”
Part Three – With friends like these...
“'Cause love's such an old-fashioned word,
And love dares you to care for,
The people on the edge of the night,
And love dares you to change our way of,
Caring about ourselves,
This is our last dance,
This is ourselves,
Under pressure.”
~ Queen and David Bowie
Thirty three
“This report just in – There has been a major power failure involving the district police station and their data archives. Details are sketchy at the moment… some sources are saying that nearly six months’ worth of data – including all backups – has been wiped from police databases. If this is true then it is disastrous for the local justice system and will no doubt throw the court system in to disarray as thousands of cases have lost their evidence. Lobbyists are calling for the chief of police to step do….”
Blake reached for the remote control and turned off the TV. Maggie groaned and stretched, and looked up at him with sleepy eyes. “Hmmm. That’s better.” Blake looked down at her. It had only been a short time since they started seeing each other, but he was falling for her.
It was funny, he thought, that he could not put his finger on exactly what it was about her that got him so. He had been with other girls before, but they had not meant that much to him, or at least as much as Maggie meant to him. Maybe he was afraid of getting too close to people before she came along. Maybe he allowed himself to open up to her more than anyone else. Or maybe she just came along at the right time. Or maybe he was over analysing. Either way she was special to him.
His phone vibrated on the bed side table. It was Gavin Clarke. He was asking about next weeks’ algebra quiz:
“Hey bro its Gav this is a temp number till I get my fone sorted. Can you set me up 4 the math quiz? I need a little help! Lolz!” Blake punched in a reply with one hand:
“Hey bro u know I got ur back! Chill! Hey how u doing? Heard you got cut in the face?” His phone buzzed again:
“Yeah dunno wtf happened. Thing fckn blew up in my face. No major scars – ladies don’t need to worry!”
Blake phone buzzed again. This time it was his father.
“Son something came up and I’m going to work late. I will see you in the morning maybe.”
Blake replied: “OK see you in the morning.” He sent another message to Gavin:
“Lolz dude! Shldnt think the ladies will mind your pretty little face getting screwed up!”
Maggie groaned again. “Hmmm babe – put it down I’m tired” and rolled over to reach Blake’s outstretched hand.
“I will in a sec – just got a message from Dad. Looks like he is working late and won’t be back ‘till the morning” this made Maggie sit up.
“Uh huh – and what are you suggesting Mr Simpson?” She said whilst drawing circles on his chest with her finger.
“I’m not suggesting anything” he teased. “What are you suggesting Miss?”
“Well – Maybe I should tell my Aunt that I am staying over at Tina’s’.” She was giving him a mischievous look that was making it hard for him to keep a straight face. “Is that a grin I see Mr Simpson?” Her hand had dropped down from his chest.
“Maybe it is. And maybe I am suggesting that you stay the night Miss Finlay.” She stopped moving her hand and looked up into his eyes. She didn’t say anything, just giggled and kissed him on the lips. “I think you have a roommate for the night then.”
There was another buzz from the bed side table. “And you are going to turn that thing off Mr.” She teased. “A girl can’t have any interruptions.”
Blake smiled and leaned over to the cabinet. “It’s yours this time” he said handing the phone to Maggie.
Maggie sat up and sighed. “What is it babe?” Blake asked.
“Just my stupid brother. Wants to know if he can meet up tonight.”
“What? Now? It’s late, babe.”
“I know, I know – I told him I’m staying over at Tina’s place.” she sent the message and turned her phone off.
“Arrrgg – he can be so annoying!”
“Tell you what – lets go downstairs and make dinner. I’m hungry.”
“You are always hungry!”
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