‘This hair is so greasy you could cook chips in it!’ Seb told Robin. ‘You need to shower and shampoo before I can cut. Use the conditioner in the gold bottle and leave it in for at least ten minutes.’
‘I wonder if we could sell locks of Robin’s hair after you chop it?’ Lucy said, laughing at her own joke as Robin sat on a pouffe and started untying his boots. ‘He’s a famous outlaw, after all.’
‘Auntie, no!’ Marion snapped, shaking her head but half-smiling. ‘Robin’s ego is big enough, without you encouraging him!’
30. FAKE BELLY AND SPECS
‘Try not to get killed,’ Marion suggested, when Robin and Lucy left the apartment before noon the next day.
Robin’s real stomach was tense, while the fake one stuffed with the contents of a polyester pillow felt hot under his shirt. He also had brown leather boat shoes, glasses that made him sore behind both ears and short gelled hair.
Seb had also transformed Lucy, from ponytail, leggings and singlet, to beach waves, designer dress and leather bag with matching wheelie case.
To decrease the risk of being tracked back to the apartment, Robin and Lucy rode a tram out to Nottingham Airport. From there they walked to arrivals and met a pre-booked chauffeur, who asked how their flight had been as he took them to a parked BMW.
After a speedy ride along Route 24, they stopped at a sinister checkpoint staffed by armed Castle Guards, then passed a convoy of Rolls-Royces going the other way on a private road hemmed by mesh fence and security cameras.
Sheriff Marjorie had used government grants, huge loans and her bulldozer personality to transform Sherwood Castle from an ivy-clad ruin into a lavish forest resort, with casino, golf courses, conference centre, managed hunting and five-star hotel.
As Lucy and Robin stepped out of the BMW, a doorperson fought the chauffeur to grab luggage, two tartan-suited staff opened lobby doors and at check-in a super-smiley clerk was backed up by a lobby boy offering fruit-infused water or Japanese green tea.
While Robin wondered if the yellow-and-blue angelfish in the vast aquarium behind the reception desk were as bored as they looked, Lucy got a twinge of nerves as she handed over a driving licence and credit card in a false name.
‘That’s a key card each for you and your son, Mrs Newman,’ the receptionist said. ‘Room 814. Your package includes a complimentary casino chip, so good luck at the tables and I hope you enjoy your stay!’
They headed up to the eighth floor in a glass lift that overlooked an atrium filled with fountains and rows of flashing slot machines around the casino entrance.
‘This place is massive,’ Robin said, as he gawped through the glass. ‘No wonder it cost half a billion.’
‘Don’t stare,’ Lucy warned. ‘We’re classy people! We’re supposed to belong here.’
‘Not bad,’ Robin said, as they stepped into their plush hotel room, with a huge TV, fresh flowers, a pair of double beds and a large window with an underwhelming view over air-conditioning units.
‘Are you set?’ Lucy asked, as Robin somersaulted on the bed, then ploughed head first into cushions and pillows.
‘I need to stroll and check things out,’ Robin said, as he rolled onto his back. ‘Will’s source gave me pointers on where to find unattended computers. He said there’s a nightclub and golf shop that are only manned when they’re open, plus terminals behind desks in the conference centre.’
‘Can I do anything?’
Robin shook his head. ‘Just what we planned. You head to the casino. Kids can’t go in there, so if security or anyone asks why I’m wandering around, I’m a bored kid waiting for my mum to finish gambling. Once I’ve decided which computer I’m gonna hack, I’ll come back to this room and let Freya Tuck know where it is and what time she’s needed.’
‘Do you want to grab lunch first?’
Robin thought for a second. ‘The longer I’m out of the room, the more chance I’ll be recognised.’
‘Seb did a great job,’ Lucy pointed out. ‘I’d be amazed if anyone recognised you looking the way you do.’
‘Let’s hope,’ Robin said. ‘But it’s still safest if I come back here, and I’ve never stayed in a hotel or ordered room service before.’
Lucy smiled. ‘Not ever?’
‘We never had much money,’ Robin explained. ‘Plus, my dad’s idea of a holiday usually involved walking halfway up a mountain and pitching our leaky tent.’
31. TOO MUCH FOOD
Five hours after check-in Robin sat on the hotel bed with his shirt off, a touch queasy after scoffing a huge room-service burger and peach milkshake, followed by a pecan brownie with hot chocolate sauce.
He checked the time and had started reattaching the Velcro straps that stopped his fake belly from sliding around when his phone rang.
Will Scarlock’s voice was a surprise. ‘You OK?’
‘So far, so good,’ Robin said.
‘I just spoke to Freya. She’s in a taxi and should be inside the castle with Lyla in around ten minutes. How did the scouting go?’
‘There’s an amusement arcade near the casino entrance where parents dump kids,’ Robin said. ‘I played pinball for twenty minutes to make my plight look realistic. Then I wandered around checking . . .’ He paused to burp. ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘Just ate a burger.’
Will laughed. ‘I can’t eat when I’m nervous.’
‘I get more excited than nervous,’ Robin said.
‘Fear is healthy because it protects us from danger,’ Will warned. ‘Nobody is going to hold anything against you if you sense danger and pull out.’
‘I know,’ Robin said firmly. ‘The castle is quieter than I thought it would be. I wandered around for an hour. The restaurants were all dead. I saw maybe two security officers, some people checking in and a few people with golf trolleys.’
‘I’ll let you get on,’ Will said. ‘Keep safe and see you safely back here tomorrow.’
Robin finished strapping on his belly and buttoned his shirt over it, then took a pee and grabbed his new backpack. He only needed a USB stick, screwdriver set and a little fold-out keyboard for the hack, but he took all his stuff because he didn’t want things left behind if something went wrong.
He was halfway out the door when a message from Freya pinged Robin’s phone.
Just arrived with Lyla. Ready when you are.
As he rode down in the elevator Robin regretted eating so much. He’d decided to target a pair of food counters in a recess near the huge lobby fountains. One was a coffee shop, the other sold Italian ice cream, and they both had signs saying that they closed at six thirty.
It was now seven, so the coffee shop had its shutters down, while the ice-cream counter had lights off, and a silver-grey canopy pulled over the tubs of ice cream in the glass-topped freezer.
Robin sat on the black marble plinth edging the fountains. The atrium was busier than earlier, with guests heading to dinner, or the casino. Spanish guitar music wafted while a young girl tried to reach in and grab coins out of the water. As the girl’s dad plucked her up and told her off, Robin sighted Freya and Lyla.
They’d have stuck out at Sherwood Castle in grubby forest gear, so they’d made a dinner reservation and put on dresses and make-up. Robin didn’t make eye contact but folded his arms to indicate he was ready. Freya fiddling with her watch was the signal that she’d heard him.
Robin pretended to play with his phone, but kept glancing up at the ice-cream stand and the two young women.
‘You did WHAT!’ Lyla screamed suddenly, loud enough to make people stop and look.
‘It’s nothing to do with you!’ Freya shouted back.
‘I’ll give you nothing, donkey face!’ Lyla yelled, then gave Freya a mighty two-handed shove.
The plan called for the pair to cause the biggest distraction possible and he thought it was a nice touch when Lyla ripped a fire extinguisher off the wall.
There were around thirty people nearby and every eye locked on the bra
wling women as Lyla squeezed the extinguisher, blitzing Freya with white powder.
‘I’ll rip your head off!’ Freya yelled, as she fought clouds of carbon dioxide and made out like she was going for Lyla’s throat.
A bystander tried to separate them, but got his golf attire blasted, while Freya shot off and hurdled into the ankle-deep pool around the fountains.
Robin was so startled by the fire-extinguisher stunt that he momentarily forgot it was all for his benefit.
As everyone watched Freya charging through the fountains yelling, ‘I hate you so much!’ while Lyla chased after blasting the fire extinguisher, nobody saw Robin make a brisk walk and slide over the ice-cream counter.
32. CRUSHED NUTS
Robin landed behind the counter without hurting himself, but he was jarred by the space’s similarity to the sandwich counter he’d dived behind at Seven Stars Services. It surely couldn’t go any worse than that . . .
The floor was sticky with dropped ice cream and trampled M&M’s, and the smell of crushed nuts and strawberry sauce was unwelcome after his giant meal.
Robin located the compact PC on a shelf below a cash drawer. It was linked to a touchscreen built into the countertop. There was no keyboard or mouse, so he took the folding travel keyboard out of his pack and plugged it into a USB port.
Sometimes companies disable USB ports to prevent hacking, so Robin was relieved when tapping the space bar made the computer kick out of standby.
‘Saves me some work,’ Robin murmured, as he plugged a USB memory stick into another slot, then went up on one knee so he could read the screen in the countertop.
The computer had come out of standby, but the touchscreen just showed rectangular menu boxes for different types of ice cream and payment methods. It took Robin thirty frustrating seconds to navigate his way out of the StayNet payment system and onto a regular desktop.
Once he had a screen of desktop icons, he found the folder for his USB drive and clicked an icon to install his keylogger program. But a box popped up on screen:
Administrator Password Required to Install
Robin didn’t have an administrator login, but it was a problem he knew how to fix.
After closing the warning box, he clicked on another item on his USB drive. The file opened inside the computer’s internet browser, then ran a script that exploited a flaw in the operating system to give the browser administrator-level access.
Robin opened the keylogger file from inside the web browser and a menu popped up asking if he wanted to install it. After clicking yes, he clicked OK on a box warning him that unverified software could damage the computer. Then he closed the browser and was chuffed to see an icon for the keylogger program on the desktop.
Robin opened the keylogger, tapped random keys to see that it was registering every keystroke, then opened a settings menu. He set the program to run every time the computer was switched on, and to send him an email every hour containing everything that had been typed.
Robin was grabbing a multibit screwdriver set out of his pack when he was distracted by men shouting. As he peeked over the counter, he saw that Freya and Lyla had stopped fighting. The pair now stood in the fountain with their dresses soaked, while three burly security officers barked orders for them to come out.
‘Come and get us!’ Lyla taunted, as she kicked up a spray of water.
But none of the guards wanted to get their fancy tweed suits wet.
Robin smirked as he powered the computer down and slid it away from its shelf. It was awkward balancing the warm dusty box, so he dragged a plastic waste bin from beneath the counter and rested it on top of that.
Three Torx screws held the computer’s lid in place. Robin slotted a star-shaped bit into his screwdriver, freed the screws and slid off the metal panel to expose the interior. Computers often have thick dust inside, but this one was only months old and mostly clean.
Robin had learned a lot about repairing computers from his dad, so he knew what all the components inside did.
The main processor in a computer gets hot, so fans blow cool air through the case to stop it overheating. A broken fan is one of the most common faults a computer can have, and Robin reached inside with his screwdriver and used the pointy end to break wires in the cable linking the fan to the power supply.
After replacing the lid, tightening the three screws and sliding the computer back onto its shelf, Robin pressed the power button. There was no whirr from the fan, and when the computer detected that it wasn’t working, it made a loud beep, before shutting down everything except a blinking red error light next to the power button.
When the ice-cream sellers arrived for work in the morning, they’d find a dead computer and make a call to the IT department.
33. SOGGY DRESSES
With the phishing operation completed, Robin put everything back in his pack, slung it on his back, then stood up and almost died from a heart attack.
While Robin had been disconnecting the fan inside the computer, the hotel manager had arrived by the fountains and ordered her security staff to wade into the water and grab the two young women.
Freya and Lyla knew they risked serious consequences if they attacked anyone apart from each other, so when two beefy guards finally stepped into the water, the crowd was disappointed by the pair’s meek surrender.
‘I don’t know what came over me,’ Freya said, as she wrapped her arms around a startled guard and began fake sobbing. ‘She’s my best friend. We got carried away.’
‘It’s my eighteenth birthday,’ Lyla wailed. ‘We ruined a special night.’
‘I’m so embarrassed . . .’ Freya sniffed, as a guard picked her missing shoe out of the water.
The manager spoke into her radio. ‘Front desk, I want a clean-up crew and four bath towels.’
The guards looked awkward, with soggy trouser legs and two hysterical teenagers dripping everywhere and blocking the path around the lobby fountains.
The manager glanced about, not sure where they could go until she saw the little alcove with a shuttered coffee shop and ice cream counter . . .
So as Robin stood up to slide back over the counter, a shivering Freya and Lyla arrived on the other side.
He dived back down, almost flat to the floor, because the counter was glass and Freya, Lyla, three security guards and the hotel manager were right there.
Towels were brought by housekeeping and a guard brought plastic chairs for Freya and Lyla to sit on.
Robin looked for a way out. There was a door with a fire-exit sign at the back of the counter, but he had no idea where it went, or if an alarm would sound when he pushed it.
Once the girls had towelled off the worst of the fountain water, the manager stood with hands on hips to have a go at them.
‘It seems the only damage is an empty fire extinguisher, so I’m giving you ladies a choice,’ she growled. ‘I can make copies of your ID, ban you from ever coming back to Sherwood Castle and put you in a taxi. Or I can call the cops.’
As Freya and Lyla obediently let the manager snap photos of their fake identity cards, one of the guards who’d been in the fountain was hunting for something to clean his glasses.
‘There’s a tissue dispenser over there,’ the guard who’d fetched the chairs said, pointing to the wall at the end of the ice-cream counter.
Robin gulped, then crab-walked backwards to the fire door, thinking he’d have to charge through and hope for the best. But the guard had long arms and stretched over to tear off a length of tissue without stepping behind the counter, or turning his head and seeing Robin less than three metres away.
Robin stayed on edge, but now things went his way. The manager ordered the two guards who’d been in the fountain to go and change in the staff locker room, while the third escorted Freya and Lyla to a taxi rank in front of the main entrance.
Finally the manager picked up the empty fire extinguisher and damp towels. Robin sat up slightly as she headed out of the a
lcove. There was a cleaner drying the plinth around the fountains, but he was facing the water, so Robin decided to risk it.
He squeaked over the counter and strode out into the atrium.
Though there were plenty of people around as Robin started walking, none of them noticed where he’d come from. But the close call had spooked him and he got chills down his back thinking about the security cameras in the ceiling and expecting the hand of some plain-clothes Castle Guard on his shoulder.
Robin reached the glass lifts without really thinking where he was going, then leaned against a wall and phoned Lucy.
‘Is it done?’ she asked. ‘All good?’
‘Could have been worse,’ Robin said. ‘But this place is giving me the creeps. I want to get out of here.’
‘No reason to stay,’ Lucy agreed. ‘I’ll meet you in the lobby in five.’
34. UP WITH THE COCK
Robin didn’t get back from Sherwood Castle until midnight. He’d hoped to get a morning off, but Will showed no mercy and as the sun rose he was on Designer Outlets’ roof, collecting eggs, scraping poop and filling trays with dried feed and bundles of fresh weeds that Chicken Sheila picked in the mall parking lot.
Although Robin hated getting up early, he’d grown fond of the birds, who chased him affectionately around the runs because they knew he brought breakfast. He’d even stopped eating chicken because he thought of them whenever he saw it on his plate.
After finishing his shift and disinfecting his boots, Robin slid out his phone and checked the email address he’d set up for the keylogger. It was only eight and he doubted anyone would spot the faulty PC until the Sherwood Castle ice-cream counter opened at ten, but he was anxious enough to check anyway.
He checked again after he’d swapped grubby work clothes for shorts and T-shirt in his den. He checked as Karma dished up scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast. Checked after he’d eaten them. Checked as he sat on the toilet and as he walked to his 10 a.m. study session in the shuttered branch of Bargain Book Bonanza on the first floor.
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