Blackout

by Peter Jay Black

  ‘Hook me in,’ Obi said.

  Slink ducked below the window.

  He was now planting a wireless USB stick that Obi could use to hack into the power station’s security systems.

  Jack glanced back at the base of the tower. The guard was wiping rain from the keypad with his sleeve.

  ‘Hurry up, guys,’ Jack said into his headset.

  ‘It’s in,’ Slink said.

  ‘On it.’ Obi’s voice sounded calm, but then suddenly changed. ‘Oh, no.’

  ‘What?’ Jack said.

  ‘They’ve got internal firewalls.’

  ‘Use the Dragon program I wrote.’

  ‘Give me a second.’

  Jack glanced back at the tower just as the door closed. ‘Too late. Slink, the guard’s on his way back.’

  Slink’s head popped up and he looked around, obviously weighing up his options.

  ‘Obi, hurry,’ Jack said. ‘Cut the lights.’

  ‘I can’t. I’m not in yet. They’re well protected.’

  Time was up.

  Slink ran to the window, opened it and climbed out.

  Jack tensed. This was not the plan.

  Slink pushed the window closed and hauled himself on to the roof, his feet disappearing just as the guard stepped back into the tower room.

  ‘Oh, brilliant,’ Charlie muttered. She turned to Jack. ‘I bet you wish I’d brought the rapid winch now, huh?’

  The guard sat down at the computer console.

  Obi said, ‘I’m in. Right, let’s see what we’ve got to play with.’

  ‘Take your time, big guy.’ Slink sat cross-legged on the roof, seemingly resigned to his fate.

  There had to be a way to get him down from there, but in order to do so, they had to get the guard out of that tower again.

  Jack’s mind turned over the options.

  ‘OK,’ Obi said. ‘I’ve found it.’

  The light above the electric fence was still blinking on and off.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Charlie said.

  ‘One hundred per cent,’ Obi said. ‘I’ve isolated the lights from the fence’s main power. You’re good to go.’

  Charlie stepped forward and stretched out her hand. She glanced at Jack, then tapped one of the wires. Nothing happened so she tapped another one. Finally satisfied the power was definitely off, Charlie slid a pair of bolt cutters out of her bag and set to work cutting the wires.

  Jack looked up at Slink. ‘Just stay there. I’m still thinking.’

  Slink adjusted his hood and crossed his arms. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

  ‘And I’m guessing there’re no anchor points?’ Jack said.

  Slink glanced around. ‘Nope.’

  ‘That’s going to be a problem.’

  Slink bowed his head. ‘Ace.’

  Jack looked at Charlie – she was still cutting through the fence.

  Suddenly, Jack had an idea. He turned to Wren.

  ‘What?’ she said, noticing his expression.

  Jack glanced back up at the tower. ‘Slink, is there anywhere to brace your feet?’

  Slink looked around and said, ‘Yeah. Why?’

  ‘Do you think you could lift Wren up to you?’

  There was a short pause, then Slink said, ‘Sure, but what’s the point of us both being stuck up here?’

  ‘I have a plan. Get ready, OK?’

  Slink slipped off his backpack and pulled out a coil of rope.

  ‘Make sure the guard doesn’t see it,’ Jack said. ‘Feed the rope down between the windows.’

  ‘Ready.’ Charlie had cut the fence and folded back the wires, making a big hole.

  Jack, Charlie and Wren ducked through the fence and sprinted to the base of the tower.

  ‘OK,’ Jack whispered. ‘We need to time this right.’ He grabbed the end of Slink’s rope and tied it securely around Wren’s waist. Jack spoke quietly into his headset. ‘Slink, haul her up to you. Understood?’

  ‘Understood,’ came the reply.

  Jack turned to Wren. ‘Use your feet to keep yourself steady, stop yourself spinning and make sure the guard doesn’t spot you.’

  Wren held tightly on to the rope as Slink lifted her.

  ‘Hey, Wren,’ Slink said through heavy breaths. ‘What have you been eating? You weigh a ton.’

  Wren giggled.

  ‘Pack it in,’ Jack said. ‘The guard will hear you.’

  When Wren was safely on the roof with Slink, Jack and Charlie hurried back to the fence and crouched down.

  ‘Slink,’ Jack said. ‘I want Wren to execute Oper­ation Handshake. Then you drop down the other side of the tower to her, understood?’

  There was a short pause, then Slink said, ‘This is going to be funny.’ He pulled a penknife from his pocket and started cutting the rope, while explaining the plan to Wren.

  ‘Tell me when you’re ready.’ Jack stared at the guard – who was completely oblivious to what was going on above him.

  A minute later, Slink had cut the rope into two halves, tied knots and said, ‘We’re good to go.’

  Jack took a deep breath. ‘Count to five and lower her down.’

  ‘Jack,’ Charlie whispered, ‘if he drops her –’

  ‘He won’t,’ Jack said, but his stomach knotted with anxiety anyway.

  ‘Five.’ Slink braced his feet against the edge of the roof and held on to Wren’s rope. ‘Four.’

  Wren was grinning as though she was going to enjoy this.

  ‘Three.’

  Jack glanced at Charlie. She was biting her nails.

  ‘Two.’

  Slink redoubled his grip. ‘One.’ He lowered Wren down.

  Suddenly, she appeared directly in front of the guard’s station.

  At first he didn’t notice her.

  Wren thrashed about as though she was pan­icking.

  The guard’s eyes snapped up and his gaze locked on to her. He dropped his sandwich, leapt from his chair, reached over to the window and opened it.

  ‘Help me,’ Wren screamed, and held out her hand.

  The guard grabbed hold of it in both of his, went to pull her inside, but Wren slipped the second rope around his wrists and yanked it tight, so he could no longer move them.

  ‘Now,’ Wren shouted, and she held on to the window frame as Slink released her rope, grabbed the end of the rope that was attached to the guard’s wrists and leapt off the other side of the tower.

  The guard shouted in pain as he was pulled halfway out of the window.

  Wren hauled herself over him, ran across the room and opened the opposite window.

  Slink clambered through and quickly tied the end of the guard’s rope around a stair rail.

  The guard shouted as he struggled to pull himself back into the tower, but it was no use – the rope tying his wrists was too tight.

  Slink removed his bandana and, with a lot of effort, managed to gag the guard’s mouth with it. He then gestured for Wren to let the others in. Jack and Charlie ran to the base of the tower. Wren opened the door and they quickly slipped inside.

  As they passed Wren, Charlie smiled at her. ‘That was awesome.’

  Jack reached the top of the stairs, walked over to the guard and unclipped a set of keys from his belt. ‘Right,’ he said, turning back to Slink and Wren. ‘You two stay here. Keep an eye on him and look out for more guards. Let us know if you spot any trouble.’ He turned to the stairs.

  ‘Wait,’ Slink said. ‘Shouldn’t I come with you?’

  ‘No,’ Jack said. ‘The more of us who go in, the higher the risk of being caught.’

  The guard struggled again and almost toppled out of the window.

  ‘Careful,’ Slink said. ‘I’m not sure the rope can take your weight.’

  The guard’s shoulders slumped as he realised there was no escape.

  Jack and Charlie hurried down the stairs and back into the compound. Keeping low, they sprinted over to the emergency exit of the main building.

  ‘
Obi?’ Jack said into his headset microphone. ‘Is it clear?’

  ‘Yes,’ Obi said. ‘The engineers and other guards are in the main control room. The corridors are empty.’

  Jack unlocked the door with the guard’s keys, gestured Charlie through and they crept inside.

  They moved along a narrow corridor with fluorescent light strips every few metres. Thick pipes ran along the walls and ceiling.

  Jack and Charlie reached a T-junction at the end. The lights flickered on and off.

  ‘Which way?’ Charlie whispered.

  Jack unclipped his torch and looked left – that way led to the main control room and according to Obi that was the last place they wanted to be.

  Jack closed his eyes and visualised the plan of the power station that he’d committed to memory. When he was sure which way they had to go – he opened his eyes again and pointed down the right-hand corridor.

  Charlie nodded and they jogged along it.

  They took several turns, went down a short flight of steps, then ran along another hallway.

  It was like a maze, made even more confusing by the lights constantly flickering off and on.

  At the end of the next hallway, they stopped outside an unmarked door.

  Charlie took the guard’s keys from Jack. ‘I hope you know your way out of here.’

  ‘So do I.’ Jack gave her a weak smile.

  Charlie found the right key and opened the door.

  Jack glanced around and followed her inside.

  The room beyond was ten metres on each side and very hot. Fans from server cabinets whirred. Jack stared at them and wondered if they ran that hot normally, or was it the virus at work? He im­agined it moving through the network wires like sickness through the veins of a diseased animal.

  He scanned the room. There were thick power cables disappearing through the wall. Obviously, the computers ran on their own isolated supply – probably the same generator that fed the tower.

  That was a huge mistake, Jack thought. It would have been better if the computers had been shut down. That way the virus wouldn’t do any more damage.

  He spotted a terminal jutting out from one of the cabinets and he and Charlie hurried over to it.

  A network cable hung loose from the hub, where the techies had severed the link to the outside world to prevent more damage. Now the virus had nowhere to escape to – but that was just what Jack needed to put a stop to this once and for all.

  He pulled out the USB stick with his program on it and plugged it into the main terminal. ‘I hope this works.’

  Charlie nodded. ‘So do I.’

  Jack smiled.

  A pop-up box appeared on the screen.

  ‘Guys?’ It was Obi.

  They both froze.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Jack said.

  ‘We’ve got trouble. There’s a –’

  A crackling sound made Jack wince.

  He pulled the headset away from his ear for a moment and said, ‘Obi? You there?’

  No answer.

  ‘Obi?’

  Still no answer.

  The connection had been lost.

  Jack looked at Charlie.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘Power cuts again?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Jack had one of his bad feelings. ‘Let’s get this sorted and get out of here.’

  He typed a quick command into the terminal and his program started to send out a signal to the virus.

  ‘Is it working?’ Charlie said.

  Jack nodded. The virus had taken the bait and was now flowing to his USB stick. In a couple of minutes, they’d have it.

  They heard hurried footfall coming from the hall­way.

  Jack cursed and glanced around the room. There was nowhere to hide.

  He looked at the USB. Its red light blinked as the virus transferred to it.

  The footsteps sounded louder now – there wasn’t any time left.

  Jack grabbed a coffee coaster from next to the keyboard and rested it over the USB stick, hiding the flashing red light.

  He pulled his hand back and spun around just as the door burst open. Three men stood in the doorway. Two were guards; the other had a name badge that read ‘Night Duty Manager’.

  He stepped forward and snarled, ‘Look what we have here.’

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The night duty manager and the two guards escorted Jack and Charlie down a wind­­­­­ing corridor, with the lights flickering on and off all the while. Unfortunately, they never went out long enough for Jack and Charlie to make a run for it. That, coupled with the fact that one of the guards had Jack’s shoulder in a painful grip, made an escape impossible.

  It also seemed to Jack that the power outages were becoming more frequent. At least he knew his program was working hard at capturing the virus, even if they didn’t know how they were going to retrieve the USB stick once it had done its job.

  As they walked, the night duty manager said, ‘Is all this your fault? The power?’

  Jack glanced at Charlie and then at the guards. ‘How can it be our fault? We’ve only just got here.’

  The man snarled. ‘And what exactly were you two doing?’

  ‘We got split up from our tour group,’ Charlie said, with a huge measure of sarcasm.

  The night duty manager’s eyes narrowed. ‘Funny kid.’ He reached over and yanked both of their hoods and bandanas down. ‘Now the real reason.’

  Jack tried his best to appear innocent. ‘We were just having a look around. We saw the power kept going on and off, so we sneaked in. We’re urban explorers.’

  ‘Try again, sunshine,’ the night duty manager said. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday.’

  Jack realised they were not going to be able to talk their way out of this. He wondered if Obi had seen what had happened and told Slink and Wren. Would they escape before the other guards went to investigate? Jack hoped they’d all got away.

  At the end of the hallway, the guards stopped, removed Jack and Charlie’s backpacks and threw them to the floor.

  ‘Hey,’ Charlie shouted. ‘Be careful with my stuff.’

  The guards opened a door and shoved them inside.

  The night duty manager turned to one guard. ‘Wait here.’ He looked at Jack and Charlie. ‘The police will deal with you.’ He motioned for the other guard to follow him.

  The remaining guard smirked and slammed the door shut.

  The lock clicked.

  Jack stared at the door, then spun around.

  They were in a small room lined with shelves, each crammed full of cleaning supplies.

  Jack looked for an escape route. There was only a small ventilation grate – no way in there, and the suspended ceiling didn’t look strong enough to take their weight anyway.

  There were no other doors.

  No windows.

  Jack tried his headset again, but Obi still didn’t respond. He looked at Charlie. ‘We’re trapped.’

  ‘Mm-hmm.’ Charlie moved along the shelves, muttering under her breath.

  The lights went out.

  Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out his torch and flicked it on.

  ‘Give me that,’ Charlie said, taking it from him and turning back to the shelves.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘Reading.’

  Jack frowned at her. ‘Reading what?’

  Charlie picked up a white bottle with a red skull and crossbones emblazoned on it. ‘Labels.’ She grab­­­bed another, smaller, green bottle. ‘Hold these.’

  Jack took them from her.

  Finally, Charlie removed a large black bottle and a bucket from the bottom shelf. She put the bucket in the corner of the room, opened the black bottle and upended it.

  The glug, glug of the green liquid smelt like pine disinfectant.

  Once emptied, Charlie tossed the bottle aside and motioned for Jack to hand her the other two.

  She rechecked the labels, opened the white bottle and tipped half of its c
ontents into the bucket. This one smelt like bleach mixed with alcohol.

  Jack screwed his nose up and took a step back as it started to hiss.

  Charlie opened the last bottle and hesitated. ‘We need a few other things first.’ She set the bottle down and refocused her attention on the shelves.

  After a moment, she opened a pack of cleaning cloths and tossed two of them to Jack.

  ‘What are these for?’

  Charlie pointed to a mop and bucket by the door. ‘Dip them in that water.’

  Jack walked over and peered inside.

  There were hair and leaves floating in it. ‘It’s not exactly clean water, Charlie,’ he said, screwing his nose up at the brown liquid.

  ‘Just do it,’ Charlie said. ‘What do you want? Mineral water?’

  Reluctantly, Jack dipped the cloths in the dirty liquid.

  When he was done, Charlie took one of them from him and returned to the other bucket.

  ‘Right,’ she said. ‘This might not work.’

  ‘What exactly are you doing?’

  Charlie pointed to the ceiling directly above her. There was a fire alarm – its red light blinking.

  Jack looked at the bucket. ‘You’re gonna set it off with the chemicals?’

  She nodded. ‘You might want to put that over your nose and mouth.’

  Jack stared at the wet cloth. Yellow-brown water dripped to the floor. ‘Put it over my mouth?’ he said, incredulous. ‘Are you kidding me?’

  Charlie held her own cloth in one hand and the bottle poised over the bucket in the other. ‘I’m not sure how toxic this will be.’

  ‘Toxic?’ Jack said. ‘Is this likely to cause any permanent damage to us?’

  Charlie looked at the bucket, the bottle in her hand and then considered him for a moment. ‘Maybe.’

  ‘Great,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s just call for an ambulance now. Wait.’ He glanced at the locked door. ‘How are you so sure that guard will open it?’

  ‘I’m not.’ Charlie upended the bottle.

  The liquid in the bucket immediately started bubbling and fumes poured into the air in a billowing plume.

  The stench of chemicals made Jack gag.

  Reluctantly, he held the wet cloth over his mouth and nose. The smell of dirt and cleaning fluid wasn’t much better.

  The bucket continued to pour out grey smoke-like vapour.

  Charlie wafted it towards the fire alarm and she stepped back, her own cloth pressed to her face.