Counterstrike

by Peter Jay Black

  ‘Second basement level.’ Obi said. ‘Generator plant. That’s a guards’ room you’re looking at.’

  Jack glided past the massive generators. Each one was connected to a network of pipes and ducting that reminded him of the bunker’s own generator, though these were on a whole different scale. One of them could probably power the bunker for the next hundred years.

  Once past the generators, Jack moved up a short flight of steps and found himself on a platform. In front of him was a giant tank filled with green water.

  ‘What’s this?’

  ‘Doesn’t say,’ Obi replied. ‘There’s no writing.’

  ‘Shark tank is my guess,’ Slink said.

  Jack looked up. Metal beams and girders held up the ceiling. On the far side of the tank was another platform, but he couldn’t see any way across to it.

  He turned to his right. There was a box mounted on a pole. ‘And this?’

  ‘It just says “RFID-activated switch”,’ Charlie said. ‘And according to the note, the workers have a chip implanted in their arm.’

  ‘No way I’m chopping someone’s arm off,’ Slink said.

  Wren giggled.

  Jack moved to the box on the pole and – sure enough – a bridge started to extend from the other side and span the gap.

  At least in the simulation he could cross without a chip.

  On the other side of the bridge, Jack noticed a button. ‘The bridge doesn’t need a chip on this side.’ He walked through a door and down yet another flight of stairs.

  ‘How many levels has this place got?’ Charlie said, exasperated.

  At the bottom, Jack moved into a room filled with black cabinets, each around two metres high. ‘Servers?’

  ‘Yes,’ Charlie said.

  Jack took a left, then a right, walked past several cabinets, went right, right again and five minutes later, after many frustrating wrong turns and dead ends, he finally came to a door and went through.

  Now he was standing in a white room.

  ‘What is this supposed to be?’ he said, looking at the other black door opposite.

  ‘It’s just called “The Chamber”,’ Obi said.

  Jack didn’t like the sound of that.

  ‘Wait,’ Obi continued. ‘There’s some more notes. “Once alarm triggered, Chamber seals itself and after two minutes evacuates air.” ’

  Jack stood still for a moment, frowning.

  So if they triggered an alarm, they would have exactly two minutes to make it through.

  As he added yet another problem to the list, he walked to the other door.

  ‘Wait up, Jack,’ Charlie said. ‘There’s writing.’

  He stopped and his shoulders hitched up. ‘What now?’

  ‘It says, “Binlington 960 Electronic Lock”.’

  ‘Does that mean anything to you?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes. It means I can get through it.’

  Jack sighed. Thank God for that. At least there was one thing he didn’t have to worry about.

  ‘How long will it take you?’

  Charlie paused a moment, then said, ‘Around ninety seconds.’

  ‘OK. That leaves thirty to spare.’ Jack stepped into another room, ten metres on each side, and looked around. This room was empty too. No cameras, no windows, no furniture. ‘Any notes?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Obi said. ‘Says: “Unknown”.’

  ‘What? That’s it?’

  ‘That’s it.’

  Jack shook his head and glided across the room, through the door, and into a lift.

  ‘Code required,’ Obi said.

  ‘Yeah, I guessed,’ Jack said, looking at the panel on the wall. ‘Hopefully it’ll be that first code in the text file Cloud gave us.’ He hit the down arrow and after a few seconds, the doors opened again.

  Ahead was a door with a round portal window.

  ‘Final basement level,’ Obi said. ‘And that’s an airlock.’

  Jack moved through the airlock and over to the next door.

  ‘Writing says: “Security code required”.’

  Jack looked at the panel on the wall next to the door. ‘And that’s the other code in Cloud’s file.’ So if they could make it down this far, then they stood a chance.

  He went through and in the middle of the last room was a plinth. Above the plinth was a shimmering light.

  ‘Goal reached,’ Obi said, as if it needed any clarification.

  There was a long silence while Jack thought of the vast size of the Facility and all its security.

  It all seemed impossible.

  He lifted off the goggles and blinked in the bunker’s artificial lights.

  ‘There has to be a way through,’ Obi said, obviously now noticing the despondent look on Jack’s face.

  ‘Yeah,’ Slink said. ‘If Hector can do it, we can.’

  Slink had a good point – Jack had to think his way through the Facility. Otherwise Hector would beat them and get to the weapon first.

  He glanced around. The others were looking at him, waiting for solutions.

  Jack grimaced inside – he didn’t have any solutions yet.

  ‘What about the map Cloud gave us?’ Obi said, breaking the awkward silence. ‘You know, the one that shows where the Facility is? Surely it’s worth a look?’

  Jack let out a long breath. Perhaps if they tackled each problem, one at a time, they might find a way through. ‘Obi’s right,’ he said, trying to sound a little more optimistic than he felt. ‘The first thing we need to do is scope that place out.’

  • • •

  Two hours later, Jack, Charlie and Slink were sitting on top of a hill, under the shade of trees, overlooking the oil refinery.

  They each had a pair of mini-binoculars pressed to their eyes and they watched as workers and trucks came and went. The whole compound consisted of many buildings of various shapes and sizes surrounded by a jumble of pipework.

  Tall chimneys billowed smoke into the sky and everything had a layer of black filth covering it.

  To the right of the main compound was their target – the grey building. On the left-hand side of it was a car park filled with thirty or so cars. It was impossible to tell how many belonged to the oil refinery workers and how many to the people inside the Facility.

  So far, all Jack, Charlie and Slink had seen was a lot of trucks coming and going. No one had actually spotted a person go in or out of the grey building yet and no cars had left the car park.

  Jack’s eyes methodically picked out each of the security cameras inside the compound. They were angled in such a way that they covered each other. So there was no chance of sneaking past them.

  Also, the cameras’ wires were shielded and fed into the poles they were mounted on – which also meant there was no way for Obi to tap into them directly.

  Jack looked over at Charlie. She was just finishing up fixing one of their own wireless cameras to the trunk of the nearest tree. She adjusted it and nodded at him.

  He pressed the binoculars back to his eyes and focused on the security camera on the main gate. ‘Obi?’ he said into his microphone.

  ‘Here.’

  ‘Can you see that first camera?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve got it.’

  ‘Any way to hack into it?’

  There was a pause. ‘No. Looks isolated.’

  Just as Jack had feared.

  A minute later, a car pulled up to the main gate. It waited a few seconds, then the gate swung open and it drove through.

  Obviously there was a number-plate scanner inside the gatehouse, and a guard who had checked it before letting the car in.

  The car parked and a balding man wearing a blue uniform stepped out. He walked to the grey building, opened the door and went inside.

  The Outlaws sat in silence for another five minutes before another man in a matching blue uniform stepped out. This guy was short and fat.

  ‘They’re security guards, changing shifts,’ Jack said. ‘Obi, make a note of th
e time, please.’

  The security guard yawned, pulled a set of keys from his pocket and shuffled to a red car. He climbed in, backed out of the space and drove to the main gate.

  Jack looked at Charlie and Slink. ‘Quick, we need to follow him.’

  Charlie rummaged in her bag and pulled out a magnetic tracker.

  The main gate swung open and the car drove through and on down the road.

  ‘Go,’ Jack shouted.

  The three of them scrambled to their feet and sprinted through the trees.

  Ahead and below them, Jack could see the car following the curve of the road.

  They ran right, trying to cut it off.

  ‘We’ll never make it,’ Jack said.

  ‘Slink.’ Charlie tossed the tracker to him.

  Slink vaulted a fallen log, then darted under a low branch and did a forward roll down a steep embankment. The moment he reached the bottom, his arm extended in a whipping motion and the tracker flew from his hand.

  It shot into the wheel arch of the car just as it drove past.

  ‘That was pretty impressive,’ Jack said as Slink got to his feet and returned to them.

  ‘Pretty impressive?’ Slink said. ‘That was one of my best moves.’

  ‘I’m tracking him,’ Obi said in their ears.

  ‘Nice one.’ Jack smiled at Charlie.

  Back at the clearing, Jack returned his attention to the grey building and the surrounding oil refinery. He examined every inch of it twice over, looking for weaknesses. Finding none, he focused on the front gate again. Somehow they needed to get past it. But how?

  ‘Come on,’ he said finally. ‘We’ve seen as much as we can. Let’s go.’

  As they walked back through the trees, Obi spoke in their headsets, ‘Guys? You’re never gonna believe where this bloke lives.’

  Jack glanced at Charlie. ‘Where?’

  • • •

  Jack, Charlie and Slink sat on a bench across the road from an apartment block in Benning.

  They knew the area well as they often came RAKing here. RAKing was doing ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ and their favourite activity. Sometimes they’d donate food vouchers to homeless people or help single parents with food shopping – occasionally they were able to really make a difference.

  Benning was a rundown housing estate with high crime and low income, and the Outlaws had a soft spot for the area. Especially seeing as Slink and his mum had once lived here.

  As far as they could tell, the guard had parked in a set of garages across the road. Not only did they have no idea which one, but there was a security camera pointed at them.

  A few minutes later, the front door to the apartment block opened and Wren came out. She jogged across the road and joined the others. ‘I pretended I’d lost my dog,’ she said, sounding out of breath. ‘Knocked on fifty doors before I found the right guy. He lives in apartment 467.’

  Charlie grinned. ‘Well done, Wren.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Slink looked at Jack. ‘What’s the plan?’

  ‘Well,’ Jack said, trying to think it through carefully, ‘this security guy would be able to get us into the first room at least.’

  ‘Right,’ Charlie said. ‘But how are we going to persuade him to help us?’

  Jack stared for a long time, but his brain refused to come up with a solution. No matter what idea he thought through, they all ended in disaster. Not to mention they got more and more ridiculous with each one.

  By the time he got to plan seven – which involved matches, a pigeon and a lot of explosives – he sighed.

  ‘Are you OK?’ Charlie asked in a hushed voice so the others didn’t hear her.

  ‘I . . . Yeah.’ Jack closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.

  Start back at the beginning.

  Keep it simple.

  How could they persuade the guard to help them?

  After a long while, Jack got to his feet. He needed to clear his head. ‘Let’s go.’ He started to walk away.

  ‘Hey, Jack?’ Slink called after him, as he, Charlie and Wren followed.

  Jack glanced back. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘When you work out what you need me to do, make sure it’s really dangerous, all right? I feel like everything’s been a bit easy recently. Reckon we should spice things up a little.’

  Charlie and Wren laughed.

  Jack smiled. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

  • • •

  Back at the bunker, Jack checked what Obi had seen so far. He’d spent the time watching from the camera Charlie had left on the tree and he’d only seen three workers leave the oil refinery. He’d also made a note of their number plates.

  What the Outlaws needed was for one of those people to work on the lowest floor, so they could get access to the entire Facility.

  Jack paced the room. He decided he’d come back to the problem of the guard later. He now needed to think of each step of the Facility’s security and possible ways to get past them all. Perhaps if he broke down each problem . . .

  But as the minutes turned into hours, Jack couldn’t help becoming more and more despondent.

  It was stupid really. Beyond infuriating. No matter what plan he came up with, he couldn’t get past the main gate – let alone through the rest of the Facility.

  Like a lame racehorse, he’d fallen at the first hurdle.

  The first hurdle.

  He couldn’t believe it.

  Jack lowered his head and swore to himself.

  What would be the use of finding a way down through the Facility, if he couldn’t even get them through the front gate?

  He let out a grunt of annoyance.

  ‘What’s up?’

  Jack glanced around. The bunker was empty apart from Obi, sitting in his chair. ‘Where is everyone?’

  Obi yawned. ‘Gone to bed.’

  Jack stood. ‘I’d better go too. Night, Obi.’

  ‘Night.’

  With his head hung in defeat, Jack shuffled down the corridor. He noticed the light was on in Charlie’s workshop, so he went in and found her sitting at her desk.

  She looked up as he approached. ‘Wow, you don’t look happy.’

  Jack dropped into the chair next to her. ‘I’m stumped by the first piece of security.’

  Charlie frowned. ‘The camera on the gate that scans number plates?’

  Jack nodded.

  ‘There’s no way Obi could hack into it?’

  ‘No. It’s on an isolated, tamper-proof system. And I don’t think stealing the guard’s car is a good idea either. It would draw too much attention, trying to get it out of that garage.’

  ‘I think you’re right,’ Charlie said. ‘The neighbours would spot us nicking it. There’s a camera there too.’

  Jack blinked. ‘I thought you’d be the first one to say we should take it.’

  Charlie shook her head. ‘Think about it, Jack – if we stole that car and drove it there, there’s no way the five of us could hide in it. You might be able to put Wren in the boot, but what about the rest of us? Too much risk. The other guard would spot us on the front gate’s camera.’

  ‘My thoughts exactly,’ Jack muttered. He noticed her expression. ‘Wait a minute . . . you’ve got an idea, haven’t you?’

  Charlie grinned. ‘Yep. Get some sleep. We go first thing in the morning.’

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Jack had sworn that he’d never get on Charlie’s motorbike ever again, and yet here he was, on the back of it, and holding on for his life as she weaved between cars at a million miles an hour.

  Brilliant.

  ‘Can we slow down a bit?’ he said into the helmet’s microphone as Charlie dived between two taxis at an almost impossible angle. ‘Why the hurry?’

  ‘No hurry,’ Charlie said. ‘But slow is boring.’

  ‘Slow is safe,’ Jack said. ‘Slow is good. I like slow.’

  Charlie’s hand twisted the throttle, the bike’s front wheel lifted and they squeezed
past a bus and a delivery van.

  Jack’s instinct was to close his eyes, but if death was coming he wanted to see it.

  Charlie continued to dart through the traffic. Horns blared and lights flashed, but, as always, she ignored them. She made a hard right, almost taking out a man with an umbrella, shot between two buildings and popped out on to a main road again.

  ‘Are we dead yet?’ Jack asked.

  ‘Not by a long way.’

  She threw the back end out, slid around another corner and raced along a street opposite Battersea Power Station. Then she took the next left and slid to a halt outside a garage.

  They climbed off the bike.

  Jack’s legs were shaking and it took him a few moments of slow breathing to bring his body back under full control.

  Meanwhile, Charlie had taken off her helmet and was standing there, gazing at the building.

  An old painted sign above the roller door said ‘Caine Motors’.

  Jack watched Charlie for a while, not wanting to interrupt her, but eventually he said, ‘I’m guessing you haven’t been here since . . . you know.’

  Charlie shook her head.

  The garage used to belong to her father. He wasn’t alive any more – he’d been attacked there by an angry customer and died more or less instantly.

  That was all Jack knew about it, because on the rare occasions Charlie did talk about her mum and dad, she’d be very brief and quickly change the subject.

  Jack had never pushed her. All the Outlaws had a past. Sometimes they shared. Sometimes they didn’t. But mostly they didn’t. They tended to live in the moment. Or at least they tried to.

  ‘We don’t have to go in,’ he said in a soft voice.

  Charlie swallowed. ‘It’s the only way, Jack.’

  She was right and Jack knew it. They didn’t have an alternative plan or the time to find one. Especially with the way his brain was working at the moment.

  He hated to admit it, but what Charlie had in mind was probably their best chance.

  Besides, they had less than four days left before Hector’s team moved in.

  Charlie took a deep breath and walked to the side door – it had a barred gate protecting it. She fished in her pocket, pulled out a rusty key and slid it into the padlock which, after a few wiggles, sprang apart.

  Charlie swung the gate open, unlocked the door and grabbed the handle.