by Andy Briggs
“You’re a superstar back in Korea!” said Mason with more than a hint of hero-worship.
Wan-Soo smiled and looked away. “I’m merely good at playing games.”
Aaron continued to be sarcastic as he probed for more details. Dev found him irritating and over-inquisitive, but when he raised the subject with Lot, she just shrugged it off and pointed out that Aaron was merely freakishly observant and she found him quite funny.
Conversation over lunch meandered across a variety of subjects, but they all lapsed into silence when one of the canteen’s TVs started playing a news story about Eryl Stoker.
The youthful businessman was something of an idol for the technicians in the Inventory. He was a billionaire philanthropist who had made his money on the internet and was now spending it on exciting projects – such as his latest company, Space Rangers, that promised to make space travel something available to the masses. He was announcing the upcoming final launch of his private rocket, which, if successful, heralded the way for private travel within a year.
There was a general air of jealousy at the Inventory as the technicians were forbidden to talk about their own technology, yet here was a glamourous guy, surrounded by models, jets and sports cars, who could openly talk about everything he was creating and who was pushing the frontiers of space – an area the Inventory had never reached.
“So I keep hearing you’re some kind of super-special Inventory agent?” Aaron said to Dev as he bit into a cheeseburger. Having a mouth full of food or interrupting Dev’s concentration weren’t barriers to stop him from talking. “I don’t see it. I just see you zoning out into freaky trances when you think nobody’s looking. What’s so special about you?”
Before the recruits had arrived, Charles had instructed the team not to mention Dev’s unique synaesthesia ability – his biologically engineered gift that allowed him to communicate and control any electronics system just by touch. He claimed the newbies would have too much to process without his apparent superpower confusing things. That was fine by Dev. The less they knew about him the better. Instead he just shrugged and hoped the question would be forgotten.
“Yeah, Dev,” said Lot, half looking up from her phone while typing a message – something she had been constantly doing over lunch. “What’s with the zoning out?”
Dev’s appetite suddenly vanished and he threw the chip he was nibbling back on to his plate. Lot’s tone wasn’t her usual friendly self, it was almost accusing.
“Nothing’s wrong. I’m just tired of babysitting all of you.” The comment was aimed at Aaron, but he was annoyed that Lot wasn’t evening listening to his answer. Her eyes were fixed on her phone and she laughed aloud. “You think that’s funny?”
Lot tore her gaze from the phone. “Mmm? Oh, no … sorry. Just … something I read.”
Riya’s eyes narrowed as she peered at Lot. “What’s his name?” Lot blushed, instantly revealing her guilt. Riya slapped her palms on the table. “I knew it!”
Dev knew it too. His stomach knotted. Why should he feel so bad just that Lot had a—
The canteen door hissed open and Eema rolled in like a colossal bowling ball. Wan-Soo raised his arms and yelped as if about to be run over, but she skidded to a halt inches from them. Wan-Soo might be an ace gamer, but Dev wondered just how long he was going to last on a mission when the dangers got real. Not long, he guessed.
“We have a priority artefact alert,” said Eema as her holographic yellow smiley face appeared over her spherical body. “It looks as if your first mission together is going to be an interesting one.” She glanced at Dev with a half-smirk. If there was one thing Eema’s artificial intelligence could do well, it was find ways to annoy Dev.
“What is it?” said Dev, rising to his feet.
“We’re not entirely sure, but satellites are picking up high-energy neutrino bursts indicating tech is being used where there shouldn’t be any.”
Dev nodded. “OK, gang, let’s go.”
Everybody stood up, except Aaron. He gestured to his burger. “I haven’t finished eating yet.”
“You wanna eat, feel free to stay here,” snapped Dev. “The rest of you to the Avro.” He saw a flicker of delight register on Wan-Soo’s face. So far the recruits had only seen their transport in the hangar. The Avrocar looked like a flying saucer straight from a B-movie – but the technology that powered it was lightyears away from B-grade.
“Now, that’s awesome!” said Riya as she plucked the burger from Aaron’s hand and tossed it across the canteen. It landed perfectly in the bin several metres away. “Come on, greaseball, you can eat later.”
Aaron reluctantly followed them from the canteen. Dev couldn’t help but notice how Mason’s gaze lingered appraisingly on Riya … until he finally noticed Dev and raised his eyebrows innocently.
“What?”
Dev shook his head and led the way to the hangar.
The Avrocar was a perfect mode of transport – able to hover then leap into hypersonic flight in seconds. However, the single circular cabin proved to be cramped for six passengers.
Dev, Lot and Mason sat in the main seats, positioned in front of a liquid-like control board that morphed into whatever instruments they required. The others sat behind in small improvised jump seats that Inventory technicians had bolted to the deck.
After their last missions, Charles had imposed rules on the team, whom the technicians had dubbed “the Scavengers” – a term Lot approved of. Missions were now unofficially called scavenger hunts, and Eema had improved in issuing them with gadgets that were deemed mission-worthy, rather than the random assortment of gizmos they had been supplied with on earlier missions.
“Where are we going this time?” Lot asked as they accelerated from the underground hangar.
Dev glanced at the navigation screen. “Paris.”
“How romantic,” Riya said from behind and kicked the back of Dev’s seat. He craned around to see why, but she looked the picture of innocence.
“And what will we find there?” asked Lot, deliberately ignoring her.
The creases on Dev’s brow deepened as he read the mission brief on the screen. He licked his lips.
“Trouble,” he answered.
While the Avro was packed with stealth technology that usually allowed it to land unseen, Dev had damaged it on a previous mission and the Inventory technicians couldn’t repair it without manufacturing components that required a great deal of time and rare materials. Charles Parker had used that as an excuse to lecture them on the importance of not damaging any of the items.
Eema had traced the energy signature from the stolen device to the heart of the city, which was problematic as most of the spaces they could land were still filled with tourists long after nightfall. Instead, Dev chose to skim the Avro over the dark River Seine, past brightly lit tourist barges, and drew to hover as close to their target as possible.
Lot and Mason were bemused by the new recruits’ nervous energy as Dev instructed them all to don a pair of boots that resembled plastic ski boots.
“They’re called Sliders,” said Dev, reading the instructions from the screen. “Designed by a toy company in the eighties so people could skate across lakes whether they were frozen or not. Says here they are hydrophobic, whatever that means.”
Riya laughed. “Eighties? Wow, these things are ancient! You know, if I had a time machine, I’d go back to the eighties.”
Mason looked at her strangely. “Really? Not like the dinosaurs, Vikings or medieval knights?”
Riya shook her head. “Nah. Synth music and big hair.” As she struggled to put a boot on she looked sidelong at Dev. “Hey, is there a time machine in the Inventory?”
Dev chuckled. “Yeah, right. As if.” Although he wasn’t entirely sure. What was in the Black Zone? His nemesis, the Collector, had told Dev the Inventory still held secrets, taunting him that the answers to questions that still haunted him lay in the Black Zone. A zone that Dev had never heard of, and
wasn’t on any of the Inventory maps.
Or so he thought.
It was only when he studied a schematic drawing of the sprawling complex that he noticed how the huge spaces between the coloured zones were shaded black. He had assumed those areas were the structure of the rock holding the entire underground complex together. But if the dark areas on the map were not dead space at all, maybe they held something far more secretive…
“These are neat,” said Lot, snapping the buckles around her ankles. “Why on earth would the World Consortium ban these?”
Dev speed-read the file. “Something about a few fatalities or something.” He smiled inwardly as the new trio exchanged worried looks. He moved to the ship’s hatch. “Translators on.” They all pushed tiny translators into their ears, which would instantly translate any language, and attached adhesive microphones to their throats, which would in turn modulate their voices so they could reply in the same tongue. “Everybody ready?”
Nervous nods from the recruits. Dev hit the door release with his palm, and the ramp silently opened, revealing the dark river below and admitting a torrent of heavy rain.
“Let’s go!” he yelled, running down the ramp – which was already soaked. His Sliders’ water-repellent soles activated immediately, and he slid out of control down the ramp like a very poor ski-jumper. His arms windmilled as he shot into the air – straight into the cold waters of the Seine below…
Dev was convinced the heavy boots would drag him to a watery grave – but the moment they sank into the water his Sliders’ hydrophobic technology kicked in and he was lifted to the water’s surface as if he’d stepped on to a bouncy rubber sheet. He made a mental note not to fall over; otherwise he risked his boots bobbing to the surface, effectively forcing his head and body underwater, which was the cause of the fatalities that prompted the ban on the Sliders.
He skated towards the shore – but the action proved to take an effort as the undulating river surface provided constant hills and dips, making it feel like he was roller-skating over rubber cobbles. Every bone in his body shook, but he forced himself to focus on reaching the riverbank ahead.
With a whoop of joy, Lot overtook him. She made Sliding look effortless and even used the river as a trampoline to bounce herself on to the raised stone riverbank wall. Dev unceremoniously slid into the wall and hauled himself up, out of breath.
The others caught up with arms flailing as they fought to keep their balance. As predicted, Wan-Soo was at the back, and Dev felt a pang of pity that the kid wasn’t cut out for this life – then annoyance that he would be slowing them down. At least they were all alive; Dev knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his uncle if one of the recruits died on a mission.
Even standing on the firm riverbank posed a problem in the Sliders. The rain was coming down so heavily that they were soaked to the skin, yet their boots kept slipping as if they were standing on ice.
“That was interesting,” Riya said cautiously.
Aaron looked as if he was going to be sick. “I hate it. Jumping out of a flying pizza to play a game of not-drowning-in-a-stinky-French-river ain’t my idea of a good time.”
“You OK, Wan-Soo?” Lot asked, concerned by his reticence.
The young Korean silently nodded, and the hint of a smile indicated he had enjoyed the experience.
Aaron looked pointedly at Dev. “So what’s your next plan in trying to kill us?”
“Not ‘us’, just you,” Dev muttered under his breath as he put on a pair of black-rimmed glasses.
Lot looked at him curiously. “They actually suit you.”
Dev tried to act casual as a heads-up display (HUD) was projected on the inside of the lens. “What? These old things?” He looked around, the HUD labelled out every landmark and indicated access points and the drainage grid around them. A blue dot flashed up, showing the location of their target. “This way.”
Dev glanced at his companions and was amused to see their names flash up on his HUD, hovering just above their heads with little tags that unfolded with their dossiers if he simply focused his gaze on them.
Aaron saw him staring. “What’s your problem, Poindexter?”
Dev looked quickly away and muttered apologetically. “Uh, nothing. Sorry. This way.”
The team slid across the rain-slick pavements as Dev followed the target. They passed groups of tourists hunched under umbrellas, none of whom gave the skating kids a second look. Dev guided them towards a stone archway, forcing them into single file as they shot into a huge open plaza beyond.
“Wow!” exclaimed Lot as they all slid to a halt and admired their new surroundings.
They were in a massive courtyard, enclosed on three sides by an impressively ornate three-storey building. At the centre of the yard was a twenty-one-metre-tall glass pyramid, illuminated by a soft light from inside. Banners hung from the surrounding buildings advertising a travelling Greek Antiquity Exhibition.
“This is the Louvre gallery,” said Dev, his head bowed against the rain. “And our target is already inside.”
Lot combed her wet hair out of her eyes. “So he’s a sneaky art thief?”
“Looks that way.” Dev moved his head, allowing his glasses to scan the building. He picked up the blue flashing target in the south-east corner of the gallery. “There he is. On the second floor.”
Aaron glanced at the windows. “So we just break in and nab him? Sounds easy. A brick through the window there and—”
Dev raised his hand to cut him off. “No bricks. No damage. The stuff in there is priceless. We tiptoe in, snatch the tech quietly and disappear like ghosts. No fuss and definitely no damage!”
That seemed to disappoint Aaron. “Oh yeah, like what you did to your school.” Dev shot him a look. Aaron added innocently, “Not that it was your fault, of course. How do we get in?”
“That’s what I do best,” Dev replied with his best enigmatic smile.
Aaron frowned. “Are you OK? Looks like you’ve got wind.”
Inside the Louvre’s security bunker an entire wall of video monitors showed nothing but the tedious rainstorm outside and the dark corridors of galleries inside.
While the job was repetitive, that was exactly how the guards liked it, although it didn’t make them any less vigilant – which is why they were surprised to see a figure suddenly appear on a camera, deep within the antique Roman and Greek section.
The two guards sat bolt upright and immediately checked to see if the motion sensors had been tripped. They hadn’t. Even as the guards watched the screen, the figure faded from the cameras, leaving nothing but a dark gallery once again.
They exchanged a worried look. Reporting sightings of ghosts was frowned upon. One of them would have to go and investigate.
It was an easy task for Dev to locate an alarm wire running from a heavy wooden door and along the side of the building. If the wire were cut, the alarm would sound, but all Dev had to do was touch the wire casing and allow his synaesthesia to interact with the electronics beyond.
It was as if he had a super sixth sense. In his mind’s eye he could see the pathways of electrons and feel pulses of energy as signals were sent across the alarm network, moving from sensor to sensor, checking nothing had been broken. With a little thought, he could convince the system that the door sensor was working fine, when in fact he had disabled it. He then turned his electronic feelers on the video camera system, ensuring the images were looped so they could now walk right by and the camera would never see them.
All of this took seconds, and he used his body to block the view for the new recruits. Dev’s final act of digital sabotage deactivated all the external locks, and the door in front of them popped open with a gentle click, much to the recruits’ amazement. Everyone hurried inside, relieved to be out of the rain.
Dev’s HUD confirmed they were alone as he looked around. Then a red line, only visible on his glasses, was projected on the floor, showing him the quickest way to their target.
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br /> “This way!”
Running as silently as they could, Dev led them through a gallery. It was too dark to make out the details of the masterpieces hung on the walls, but the gloom added extra menace to the pale faces staring out of them. Dev could tell Mason was frightened, but he was putting on a brave face to impress Riya.
Following the highlighted path up a grand staircase to the second level, Dev gestured for them to stop. There were people ahead!
They ducked behind the wall separating the corridor from the gallery and listened. It was deathly silent. Dev risked a peek around the corner…
The silhouettes of five figures, totally naked, stood stock still. It took him a moment before it dawned on him that he was looking at statues crafted by Greek sculptors. His HUD map indicated the gallery beyond was home to Roman and Greek exhibits. It also showed their target was somewhere deep inside and was stationary, no doubt trying to free whatever loot he was trying to steal.
“Somebody’s coming!” Lot suddenly hissed, indicating behind them.
They strained to listen. The gentle sounds of footsteps on the staircase gradually rose in volume. Dev suddenly felt a knot of panic. He had hoped to slip in and out without confronting any guards.
He spied a security camera in the corner. Standing on a chair, which was reserved for the watchful security during the day, he reached up and touched the camera, closing his eyes to allow his synaesthesia to guide him through the network.
Riya frowned and elbowed Mason. “What’s he doing?”
“He’s zoning out again,” quipped Aaron. “Maybe he’s got narcolepsy? My cousin had that. Every time she spoke I started to fall asleep—”
“That’s not what—” Riya began but stopped when she realized he was being sarcastic.
Mason shook his head. “No. He’s got this weird ability to talk to electronics and stuff. Like Doctor Doolittle but with computers…” He trailed off when he saw Lot’s warning gaze, only then remembering it was supposed to be a secret.
Wan-Soo and Riya’s eye went wide with surprise at the revelation. Aaron’s brow creased, but he said nothing.