Dangerous Reality

by Malorie Blackman

  ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘She gave VIMS a new set of co-ordinates so that he would come here instead and she told VIMS to secure the area. That’s why he kept coming after me.’

  ‘I see.’

  ‘We should call the police,’ I said. My voice was getting stronger now, and with each passing second, so was my fury.

  ‘No,’ said Jack thoughtfully. ‘Leave Julie to me.’

  ‘What’re you going to do?’

  ‘I’m going to finish this, once and for all,’ Jack said.

  And there was a grimness in his voice, a determination that told me Julie wasn’t going to get away with trying to hurt me or my mum. Jack was going to see to that.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Mum in Charge

  WHEN I WOKE up the following morning, I got the shock of my life. No, I take that back. What had happened the night before was the biggest one. So I’ll change that to I got the second biggest shock of my life. Mum was home. I should’ve realized when I awoke to the smell of bacon and toast. Dad was strictly a cereal and fruit juice man.

  ‘Mum, what’re you doing here?’ I asked, stunned.

  ‘What does it look like?’ Mum asked. ‘I’m making some breakfast and then you, me and VIMS are going to the power plant.’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘To prove that VIMS isn’t dangerous, of course. To prove that he can do exactly what I said he could do.’

  An image of VIMS, tall and menacing as he’d been the previous night, flashed in my head. VIMS was dangerous – as dangerous as the person who issued his commands. His actions could be dictated by the person controlling him. And if that person was a serious nutter like Julie, then look out!

  ‘Does Rayner know about this?’ I asked at last.

  ‘I phoned him late last night. He’s already at the plant, waiting for us.’

  ‘On a Saturday?’

  ‘The power plant runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,’ Mum informed me. ‘So why not on a Saturday?’

  I bet Rayner’s wife Monica loves you for dragging Rayner out of the house on a Saturday, I thought – but I decided to keep the thought to myself. I toyed with the idea of telling Mum what had happened the night before, but Dad had said he wanted to tell Mum himself – in his own way and in his own time so that it wouldn’t make her do anything silly. From the look of it, he was too late.

  ‘Where’s Dad?’ I asked, looking around. This was one of those times when I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk any sense into Mum at all. This was definitely a job for Jack.

  Mum frowned. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to him. I must admit I was expecting to see him when I arrived here.’

  ‘I can’t believe the hospital let you out so quickly,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I know there’s a shortage of beds but this is ridiculous.’

  ‘They didn’t exactly let me out,’ Mum mumbled.

  ‘Then what did they do – exactly?’

  ‘I discharged myself.’

  ‘You did what?’ I said, astounded. ‘Why would you do anything so stupid?’

  ‘You sound just like Jack,’ Mum said defensively.

  ‘So you have seen him this morning …’ I asked, confused.

  ‘I haven’t,’ Mum denied. ‘But if he was here, that’s exactly what he would be saying!’

  ‘Mum, you have to go back to hospital.’

  ‘No, what I have to do is stop Julie from dismantling VIMS,’ said Mum, holding her side. ‘Besides, I only had concussion and that’s gone now and my side only hurts when I laugh – and believe me, I’m not in a laughing mood. I have to stop Julie before it’s too late.’

  It’s already too late, I thought. And Julie had moved beyond just ruining VIMS. For some reason she was now out to get me. Was it because I hadn’t told her where VIMS was? Or was it her way of trying to get Jack to toe the line? ‘Mum, VIMS is upstairs.’

  ‘Upstairs?’ Mum stared at me. ‘What’s he doing up there?’

  ‘It’s a long story,’ I sighed.

  ‘I’m all ears.’

  ‘Dad said he’d tell you.’

  Breakfast was forgotten as Mum tried to dash out of the room, although a quick grunt of pain soon put paid to that. Holding onto the banister, she went up the stairs as fast as she could. VIMS was in the house. Everything else could wait.

  ‘He’s in your bedroom,’ I told her.

  Mum fussed and clucked over him for ages. I was surprised that she didn’t try to tickle him under his metal chin! Mum made for her work room to switch on the remote system.

  ‘Er … Mum, there’s something I should tell you …’

  Mum opened the work-room door. ‘What on earth …?’ She stared when she saw the room and the window. Jack had taped cardboard across it as best he could, but it was a real mess. Mum turned to glare at me.

  ‘I didn’t do it. VIMS did,’ I protested.

  ‘Just what’s been going on here?’

  ‘Dad said—’

  ‘That he’d tell me. Yes, so you keep saying.’ Mum frowned.

  I wasn’t going to argue with her. I stayed close by while Mum activated VIMS. And I kept VIMS at a respectable distance. I felt uncomfortable even being in the same building with the thing. Last night, Dad had told me more than once that now it was shut down, VIMS was perfectly safe. Dad had even used the remote system to ensure that when VIMS was reactivated, it would be under the control of the remote system only until that command was specifically changed. That way Julie couldn’t issue any more commands from the control panel at Desica.

  ‘Dominic, VIMS is safe, I promise you,’ he told me. ‘I wouldn’t let anything happen to you or your mum.’

  And whilst I believed Dad, somehow I still didn’t quite trust it. Last night, it had only done what it’d been programmed to do but … But. I also realized with a start that I’d gone back to calling VIMS ‘it’.

  I sat down behind Mum. Ten minutes later, her hands were still moving like greased lightning across the keyboard as she fiddled with VIMS’ programming.

  ‘What’re you doing?’

  ‘Just isolating some code that’s been changed in the last couple of days. I’ll work out who changed it later after the test at the power plant.’

  ‘I know who changed the code,’ I told Mum. ‘It was Julie Resnick.’

  ‘Julie?’ Mum gave a start of surprise. ‘Why d’you say that?’

  ‘VIMS told me.’

  ‘He did? That’s interesting …’

  ‘You don’t sound very put out about it,’ I said. And she didn’t. Her tone was thoughtful rather than angry.

  ‘Come on, Mum. Share! Why’re you so calm about the fact that Julie is the saboteur?’

  ‘I’m not convinced she is,’ Mum told me at last.

  ‘But VIMS said—’

  ‘VIMS said what he was programmed to say,’ Mum interrupted. ‘The saboteur has been covering his or her tracks like a real expert. So why get careless now? It’s all a bit too convenient.’

  ‘Maybe Julie slipped up and forgot to cover her tracks?’ I suggested.

  ‘Possible, but very unlikely,’ Mum dismissed.

  And now I’d had a chance to think about it, I agreed with Mum. ‘So you think someone was just trying to put the blame on Julie?’

  ‘It looks that way to me,’ said Mum. ‘But at the moment, my first priority is to get VIMS to the power plant and to prove once and for all that VIMS works as he should. If everything goes well then Rayner can give me a lot of good publicity.’

  ‘And that will make it harder for Desica to shut you down.’

  ‘Exactly.’ Mum smiled. ‘Now I’ve re-routed a couple of his command pathways so that he should bypass the changed code and behave himself.’

  ‘Are you going to the power plant now?’

  ‘Yep. And you’re coming with me.’

  ‘I am?’

  ‘I’m not up to fetching and carrying at the moment. I’ll need your help,’ said Mum. ‘I’ll l
eave a note for Jack telling him where we’re going. If he gets back in time, he can catch up with us there. Help me load the remote control unit into the car.’

  It didn’t take too long to load up the car. VIMS was the most bother. Mum had to put on the VR visor and gloves and direct VIMS to climb up into the boot of our car, then fold itself up. As it moved through the house, I kept a wary eye on it and didn’t get too close. I thought more than once about telling Mum what’d happened the night before, but Dad had stressed that he wanted to be the one to explain everything to Mum.

  Within half an hour, Mum was driving us to the power station. After the first couple of miles, Mum got me to change gear whilst she pressed down on the clutch pedal. I could only hope that we didn’t get spotted by the police. And although I was sitting next to her in the passenger seat, I spent most of my time glancing behind me to make sure VIMS wasn’t trying to enter the car from the boot or something. Every time Mum turned a corner she winced or flinched so that by the time we reached the power station, I knew she was in a lot of pain.

  ‘Mum, you should be in hospital,’ I told her. ‘Dad’s going to hit the roof when he realizes what you’ve done.’

  ‘He’ll understand.’

  ‘He’ll still be as mad as a whacked wasp at you.’

  Mum started laughing at that, only to stop abruptly and hold her side.

  ‘Mum, this is silly. It can wait a couple more days, can’t it?’

  ‘No. It’s now or never,’ Mum insisted. ‘I need to buy some time and this will do it for me. I took some painkillers so I’ll be able to manage for another couple of hours.’

  ‘You took some painkillers?’ I asked. ‘But look at the state of you. You should be in hospital.’

  ‘Dominic.’ Mum looked me straight in the eyes. ‘Give it a rest!’

  So with a heavy huff and a pouty puff, I shut up!

  At the power plant’s security gate, a beefy guard in a grey uniform stepped forward. ‘Can I help you?’

  ‘Er … yes. We’re here to see Rayner Alten. He’s expecting us.’

  ‘Just a moment.’ The guard went back to his little cubby hole and picked up the phone. We had to wait over a minute before he put it down and walked back to us.

  ‘Drive up to the main building, then turn left and carry on for about a quarter of a mile to the maintenance building A to D.’

  As Mum drove off, I asked, ‘How big is this place anyway?’

  ‘Huge.’ Mum stated the obvious. ‘And the pipework and cabling under this place stretches out for hundreds of kilometres.’

  I whistled appreciatively. I’d had no idea it was that vast. Rayner was bobbing about, waiting for us outside a huge bungalow-type building as we pulled up. He waved and immediately ran over.

  ‘This is great, Carol!’ he grinned when Mum was barely out of the car. ‘You are really helping me out here.’

  Rayner and Mum kissed each other. Rayner was weaving about so much I was surprised he didn’t end up kissing the back of Mum’s head instead.

  ‘We’re helping each other.’ Mum smiled. ‘I’m going to have VIMS record everything he does and we can play the tape back to the board at Desica.’

  ‘Will you get into trouble for this?’ Rayner asked.

  ‘Probably,’ Mum said. ‘But it’ll be worth it. I’ll save my creation!’

  ‘And I’ll save the power plant thousands of pounds if VIMS can find out what the problem is.’

  ‘Then let’s get cracking.’ Mum smiled again.

  Rayner and I carried the virtual reality equipment into the main control room of the building – what Rayner called the Operating Room. And the room was huge. They certainly believed in doing everything on a big scale at the power plant. There were monitors and different types of computers as far as the eye could see. The noise of the fans and the machinery in the room was uncomfortably loud. I hoped what we had to do wouldn’t take longer than a couple of hours, otherwise we’d all end up with raging headaches.

  Mum brought in the CD disks which contained all of VIMS’ remote control programs. We had to wait until Mum had downloaded the programs onto one of the plant’s computers and made sure everything was working before she could put on the VR visor and glove and direct VIMS out of the boot of our car and into the building.

  ‘Actually, I’ve had a better idea,’ Mum said once VIMS was outside the Operating Room. ‘Rayner, I want you to command VIMS. That way, no one can say it’s a set-up on my part.’

  ‘But I don’t know how …’

  ‘That’s OK. It’s really simple,’ said Mum. ‘It’ll only take me twenty minutes to take you through it.’

  Whilst Mum was showing Rayner how to issue commands and how to operate VIMS, I wandered off to look at VIMS through the glass door. It just sat there, looking back at me. It didn’t look particularly frightening or menacing now. It stood perfectly still, folded up on itself. Just a few days ago I’d thought it the most miraculous, wonderful thing I’d ever seen. But now it almost gave me the creeps. A frown tightened over my lips as I regarded VIMS with growing loathing. It really had been nothing but trouble. Still, this was its chance to redeem itself.

  ‘VIMS, don’t mess this up,’ I mouthed at it.

  ‘OK, Dominic, we’re ready to go,’ Mum called out a little later.

  I walked back to Rayner and Mum, eager to begin.

  ‘The lifts that allow access to the pipes are in the small machine room across the hall,’ Rayner told us. ‘So I’ll direct VIMS there first.’

  Rayner issued his commands with confident ease. He forgot to say VIMS at the beginning of a couple of his commands, but that was about the only thing he got wrong. I glanced across at the glass door, just in time to see VIMS turn and trundle off.

  It was a long process after that. VIMS had to go into a tiny lift which took it down and down and down towards the underground pipes.

  ‘That lift is how we get the mechanical pigs down to the pipes,’ Rayner explained. ‘It’s too dangerous down there for people. If we did send someone down there, we’d have to shut down the power plant or at least a major section of it. That’s why VIMS is ideal for this.’

  When at last VIMS did reach the pipes, Rayner consulted another computer with what looked like blueprints on the screen.

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked.

  ‘That’s a diagram of all the pipes and access tunnels down below us,’ Rayner told me. ‘I want VIMS to carry out a systematic search of each pipe in the Alpha section.’

  Rayner began. He directed VIMS up one pipe and then down another. Turn left, turn right, straight ahead, turn round. On and on it went, until I don’t know about VIMS but my head was certainly swimming. I looked at the monitor which showed us what VIMS was seeing, but apart from pipework and tunnel walls there wasn’t anything else to see. The pipes must’ve been about ninety centimetres across and some of them were much, much bigger, but believe me, when you’ve seen one pipe, you’ve seen them all.

  ‘Rayner Alten to the phone please. Rayner Alten to the phone.’ A man’s voice boomed out over the tannoy, making me jump.

  ‘What’s the matter now?’ Rayner grumbled.

  He pulled off the glove and visor and handed them to Mum before heading for the nearest phone. Mum continued to direct VIMS through the pipes and tunnels, carefully following the schematic on Rayner’s computer. I watched as Rayner stuck a finger in his ear whilst holding the phone to the other ear.

  I could see rather than hear him say, ‘Pardon? Pardon? What?’

  Then he started talking into the phone and I couldn’t lip read any more.

  ‘How’re we doing, Mum?’ I asked.

  Mum was looking at the monitor before her. The image VIMS was playing back to us was of yet more tunnel walls.

  ‘Nothing so far,’ Mum sighed.

  Rayner came over. ‘Jack’s here – and he’s none too pleased with either of us. I didn’t realize you’d discharged yourself from hospital, Carol.’

  ‘Y
ou’re not going to nag me, are you?’ Mum pleaded.

  ‘I think you’re about to get all the nagging you can handle. Jack is driving here now.’

  ‘So where is he? At our house?’

  ‘No, he’s at the security gate.’

  Mum sighed. I think she was hoping to have a bit longer before Dad arrived to have a rant at her.

  Rayner smiled wryly at the expression on Mum’s face. ‘Any progress?’

  ‘None so far.’

  ‘Jack’s going to make you go back to hospital,’ I told Mum smugly. ‘And quite right too. You shouldn’t have left.’

  ‘Dominic, darling …’

  ‘Yes, I know – shut up!’ I finished Mum’s sentence for her.

  ‘Not the words I would’ve used but …’

  ‘But the meaning’s the same!’ I smiled.

  ‘Let me have a try again,’ Rayner asked.

  Mum took off her visor and was just about to take off the VR glove when we heard VIMS’ voice.

  ‘Obstruction found,’ it said.

  We all turned to look at the monitor. The three of us gasped in total horror. There on the screen, we could see … a body.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Truth

  A BODY …

  I couldn’t believe it. I turned to Mum, thinking my eyes must be playing tricks. But Mum’s expression looked to be a mirror image of my own. She had the same astounded look on her face.

  ‘A body?’ she whispered. ‘It can’t be. There must be some kind of mistake. Either that or it’s a sick joke …’

  Both Mum and I turned to Rayner, but he was absolutely still and staring at the screen.

  ‘Rayner …?’

  ‘This is no joke,’ Rayner said grimly. ‘It really is a body.’

  The person had their back to us but I could see it was a woman with light-coloured hair and wearing a blue dress. My stomach churned horribly. I had to take several deep breaths before it began to quieten down. A body …

  ‘How did a body get down there?’ Mum whispered.

  ‘It must’ve been put in there when the pipes were laid years ago. There’s no way a body could get down there and that far into the tunnels now.’ Rayner’s expression was stony.