by Ian Williams
Kristof had had enough. The man’s overly dramatic description of something far removed from his duties was nothing more than a distraction. One he could ill afford right at that moment. “Can you tell me why you’ve rushed in here to tell us this? We have important work to do, you shouldn’t be allowing this to stop you doing your jobs.”
“But,” Derek tried to continue. He looked to his boss, Bridget, for the permission to continue. The gesture sent a spark of irritation through Kristof, who saw this as nothing short of mutiny.
“Go ahead,” Bridget said, ignoring her counterpart’s juvenile huffing and puffing.
Derek was not absolutely sure whether to go on or not, from what Kristof could see. He referred to his boss for another mental nudge, before finally revealing the real importance of his news. “The terrorists are connecting some weird equipment up to the power relay, on the roof of the shopping complex.”
Suddenly Kristof snapped to attention and shot his focus straight at Derek like an expertly aimed arrow. “What? Equipment of what kind?”
“No-one knows, we don’t recognise any of it.”
“Show me,” Kristof ordered.
With impressive speed, Derek quickly set about introducing a live feed from the many news drones already at the scene. All of the work spread around the wall screen now became insignificant in comparison.
Kristof was about to witness the best evidence he could hope for: those responsible were active again and this time for all to see. Finally he would know who really ran the show, and possibly even which part Elliot played.
The video feed started and he was thankful to see Derek instinctively expand it across the length of the screen, hiding the work behind it. What appeared was an aerial shot of a large, glass-clad shopping centre. The worst kind of shot too with none of the smoothness he wanted. Despite knowing those in charge of the drone had other things on their mind, he instantly felt frustrated by the lack of interest in the roof area. From their point of view he understood they would be more concerned with the hostages. He did not have to agree with it though.
When it slowly moved up to a higher position it revealed a group of three on top of the roof, two men wearing black clothing from head to toe, and a woman. Strangely the woman was not wearing a balaclava like the men were. She arrogantly flaunted her face to everyone watching. Her flattened red hair made it clear she had little taste for authority as well as fashion. What they were doing, however, had him worried.
While the woman saw over the two men, they went about connecting a mess of cables to the three-metre-tall power relay. Simova property was once again being tampered with and Kristof could not even hazard a guess at what they were trying to achieve in doing so. By their side sat a large metal case, possibly a generator, he thought. They checked something on the metal case every time a new cable was crudely joined to the power relay. He assumed it had some kind of display attached to it that he just could not see.
“We need to stop this news feed immediately,” Kristof said.
Bridget looked on with confusion until he spoke, at which point she immediately spun around with a questioning expression. “Why?”
“An unknown group of people are fucking with Simova’s power relays. I don’t know, maybe so we don’t see another panic erupt like twelve years ago. I want that shut down now.”
“Derek, see about getting these news drones shut off,” Bridget said.
“Sure, what do I tell them though?”
Kristof slapped his hands down by his side to highlight his desperation at having to think of everything again. “Tell them we’ve found evidence that elephants do in fact fly. For the love of God just get them to stop.”
He raced over to the suit jacket left hanging from the back of Bridget’s desk chair and began to slide it on. After swinging it around his back he placed one arm in and then the other, accidentally rolling his shirt sleeve up inside in the process. There was little he could do about it now, something far more pressing had come up.
“What are you going to do?” Bridget asked.
After scrambling up his things like a possessive child collecting his toys, he began to tidy the rest of the table. It deserved to be left as he found it, he decided. He would have expected the same from anyone using his things. Besides, he was about to leave his nest for the first time in hours and he had no intention of leaving something useful behind.
“I’m going down there,” he said. “Whatever it is they’re getting ready to do, it’s definitely something big. I need to take charge and make sure they don’t succeed.”
* * *
“No, no, no. Look, will you just listen to me for a second. If you plug the yellow cable in here you’ll blow the relay, and us with it.”
“Are you two serious? Get it done so we can go back inside,” Phoenix ordered to the men she had been stuck babysitting for the past hour.
She watched the hovering drones above the roof they worked on and considered how, like a swarm of gnats, they all clumsily jostled for space and yet never touched one another. Some even ventured so close she thought she could swat them away with her bare hands. If not for the two men still arguing behind her, she would have taken a few pot-shots at them with a stone or two. But their work was requiring their unbroken concentration. She had been told to wait quietly.
“It goes in here, see,” one of the men said.
A loud click signalled the connection of a new cable as it found its position inside the fist-sized socket. She had watched them attach a couple of cables already, though none of the earlier ones were of this size. The others were less important it seemed, because the two had hardly argued at all over them.
“Let me just switch the flow regulator on.”
While one man stayed beside the base of the power relay the other jumped up and turned his attention to the large metal box a few feet away. This was where the cables were coming from, and with each new connection it had begun to hum at a constant rate. With the newest of these cables being slightly thicker, the sound jumped up a notch. It could now be heard to flicker and fluctuate, disturbing the otherwise regular rhythm of before.
The man stood by this large machine waited with his hand resting on a four-inch long lever. “If this works then we should be taking the slack from the relay. When it does the power output should triple, at least. Look out for any instability in the flow. Right, here goes.”
Just as the man went to flick the switch, another drone flew too close. It interrupted their procedure, bringing it grinding to a halt. Phoenix had been watching them work without really understanding what they were talking about, but she too had been distracted by the unexpected intrusion. The flying spy-bots would have to go.
“Give me a gun,” she said. “I’ll get rid of it. Carry on working.”
She was handed a pistol by the man standing by the machine, who then returned to checking things over one last time. The drone in question hovered, watching their every move. It had been capturing more than she liked, regardless of the fact she no longer cared whether it saw her face or not. Anthony’s plans almost certainly did not involve those outside figuring out what they were doing before they finished. So she took great pleasure in aiming the gun straight at the machine drifting to her right as its rotors attempted to stabilise.
When she pulled the trigger, the flash ripped away and through the centre of one of the drone’s eight motors. The damage caused it to tilt and spin in a smoky panic as it righted itself. Disappointingly, it had not been bad enough to send it careening into the concrete far below. Her second shot was joined by a couple of less accurate ones to make sure the job was finally done. In a deliriously satisfying burst of flames and flying plastic, she brought the drone down and crashing heavily into the ground. She whooped with joy at having sent a clear message to those watching: she was not to be messed with.
“Hey, Phoenix, we’re ready.”
She spun around to see both men staring straight at her. If not for the balaclavas hi
ding their faces away, she expected they were frowning at her display of reckless disregard for other’s property. “Fine, pull the switch then,” she said.
“We can’t yet,” the man positioned by the power relay said. “Anthony said to get him when we were done.”
“Oh right. Give me a minute then.” She had forgotten this request. It had been important to have the equipment set up quickly. Anthony had wanted to be present when it was turned on. He mentioned something about how it had never been done on this scale before, and that others were keenly interested in how it went. Admittedly, she had missed the rest.
Heading for the door, she took one last look back at the news drones and was grateful to see them backing off. Her message had gotten through. She entered the stairwell and jogged down them until she reached the bottom.
The hostages had been moved to the shopping area and were being kept in a neat group, guarded by yet more of Anthony’s men – a small army’s worth had arrived since they had taken the building. It made sense to have them all together. It also meant she did not have to stop to remember where people were at any given time. That would make her escape that tiny bit easier to plan.
Ahead, the long hallway stretched out before her until it opened up by the large fountain. At the end of the hall she exited the security door – which had been propped open – and immediately met her many accomplices. Some were on guard duty, watching only the crowd as they huddled together. If any hostages were to try and make a break for it, they would soon find themselves tracked from the sight of a gun or two. The rest were going about whatever job Anthony had given them.
Detouring around the hostages, while trying not to look any of them in the eye, she quickly found her boss and waited to speak to him. Anthony saw her as he continued to explain something to a group of ten or more of his men.
She had come to label them as his men now. The majority of them had been brought into his group by her, but they had since been shaped into what he needed. A steady workforce had soon grown out of the unknown and often dangerous gangs she recruited for him. All of them had grown up outside of any city, so they saw her as their own. They made the perfect employees for Anthony too. Wave enough cash in their faces and they would do almost anything.
It occurred to her that she could not even remember most of their names – although they all knew hers well enough. She was supposed to be the one between these men and Anthony. It was clear things had changed without her noticing. Once again she found herself wondering just how much longer she could remain useful. She had made it clear that she did not buy into his cause anyway. So had she outlived her role?
“This area is secured,” Anthony said, waving his arm across the large laser grid his people had set up. It now sealed the glass entrance off to the police waiting beyond. “But the rear entrance needs extra barricading and a couple more traps. Put two more men there while it’s being done. Right, go.”
The group dispersed and trekked away with all of their weaponry and supplies rattling like a chorus of maracas. Then Anthony pulled her aside to speak away from the others. “How are they getting on?”
“They’re finished, just waiting for you to turn it on.”
“Excellent,” Anthony said with a loud and deep clap of his hands. “Lead the way.”
Leaving the others behind, they ventured deeper into the building and were back at the stairs moments later. This was the first time she had been alone with Anthony since his outburst at their HQ. It meant the atmosphere between them was frosty to say the least. She had little interest in talking and left the conversation to him. The longer they stayed silent, the more she began to realise he felt the same. Either their earlier disagreements had begun to play on his mind too, or he simply saw no need to talk to her anymore.
They took the stairs quickly. Once at the top, she allowed him in front to exit onto the roof first. Not a word had been exchanged at all on their journey. They had kept it to nothing more than gestures. Things were totally focused on work alone. She needed exactly that to keep her mind from obsessing over the man she had murdered.
Out on the flat roof she was surprised to see the sky had become completely empty. “What happened to the drones?” she asked.
The two men stood together, waiting for Anthony to arrive like excited children about to show off their work to the teacher. “They finally buggered off a few minutes ago,” one of them said.
“Never mind that now,” Anthony huffed.
Phoenix disagreed, she had made them go, surely? Her threat had been taken seriously and the operators were worried about losing another of their toys. Of course she did not expect Anthony to care, she had only rid him of any prying eyes. Once again she felt a heated anger rising inside of her, and it was aimed squarely at him. An odd conflict formed in her mind over the underappreciated emotion suddenly flowing through her. She did not really care about losing his approval, did she? Her plan was still to abandon him at the earliest convenience.
“Let’s do this. Saul, Craig, if you please.” Anthony gestured to the humming machine.
The two men returned to their earlier positions, with one by the base of the power relay and the other manning the large and noisy machine. She could see their faces clearly now; with the drones gone the need for hiding had too.
To her surprise the man by the relay, called Craig, had one large tattoo of a skull that encircled – and almost entirely covered – his bald head. With a high degree of realism, the bone inside disturbingly now decorated his outside in a way no-one should be comfortable with. Of course he did not have to look at the gruesome depiction across his skin. It was meant for others to fear. He came from her world rather than Anthony’s, yet she still found it threatening.
“Ready Craig?” Saul asked. His finger rested on the machine’s activation lever again, ready to pull it on Anthony’s orders.
Craig responded with a thumbs up sign, revealing another cluster of tattoos running up his arm to accompany the one across his face.
Then the order was given. They were authorised to do whatever the equipment had been created to do – again Phoenix could only guess about this. The humming stayed constant as the lever fell down with the weight of Saul’s thick finger and thumb. It remained like this for a few seconds after, which caused all four of them to look about for a reaction. They waited for the machine to begin working.
With the existing humming having lessened slightly, another sound was building. This time a high pitched whirl. After that a flash of light pricked through the daylight above, outshining it even. They all looked up to the tip of the three metre tall power relay, and soon spotted another, then another. Until it too became regular like the rhythmic thrumming from the machine. This continued without their intervention at all. The machine was doing its job effortlessly.
“What’s the output like?” Saul said.
“Hang on,” Craig replied. He repositioned himself to see a readout from a small screen attached to the relay’s internal electronics. “It’s good, but I’m seeing an intermittent spike. We’re still well within expected parameters.”
“We’re good to go, sir.”
Anthony stood with a beaming smile across his face that Phoenix had only just noticed. It was a demented look of joy suggestive of someone about to explode from the inside. All of his planning had been to achieve this and it appeared all he could do to stop himself from throwing his arms aside and singing to the clouds above, was the knowledge that he had company. She had seen him like this before, yet that time he had been causing torturous pain to another. Was he about to again?
She waited to the side as Anthony began to rub his hands together like he planned on getting stuck into the task himself. With this, and the unusual flickering light coming from the top of the power relay before her, she felt overwhelmed. Something beyond her knowing was about to occur and she could do nothing to prepare herself for it. The unknown scared her, despite what her hard exterior said.
“OK, now,�
� Anthony began. “We need to take it easy at first. Dial it up to 20%. Let’s see where we are.”
Saul knelt in front of the machine and began twisting knobs and flicking yet more switches. He then backed away as his adjustments took hold. At his insistence the rest of them backed away as well, his waving hand telling them when to stop, like he were about to take a photo of the occasion.
The odd crackle of static electricity had quickly joined the other sounds, forming a worrying background noise that tickled their ears. Each time the next spark burst free it appeared slightly stronger than the last, proving what they were doing was working. The power coming from the relay was getting more intense with each second that passed.
Phoenix saw a static begin to attack the previously clear surface of her wrist screen. What images may have been beneath the interference were quickly becoming nothing more than fuzz. The power and data being sent to it was being tampered with. She could see signs of something still trying to break through, but they were winning for now.
“Good, good. Now a little more, try 35%,” Anthony ordered.
Again there was an increase to the sound and frequency of the power relay’s reactions. By now the entire top floor had begun to flash along with the display above it, with each stone and pebble on the ground reflecting it back. Worst still was the static that had formed around them all, causing the hairs on their arms and necks to stand up. To Phoenix it felt as if someone gently caressed the back of her head. Except each time she turned there was nothing there.
“Excellent.” A flash of light reflected off of Anthony’s eyes. He only just blinked in time to block it. The image had been enough to give Phoenix a fright as she watched the light almost come out of his pupils, like the power had in fact been his to project out into the world. He had never looked so crazed to her before.
“The spikes are getting more frequent, sir. Shall I dial it back again?” Saul asked. He was having to shout to be heard above the growing sounds around him.