Operation Hurricane: The Evan Boyd Adventures #1

by Benjamin Shaw

  He found the control room at the back of the lab, wiggled the mouse and woke up the computer. It was time to make some noise.

  Climbing the Walls

  Harry carefully removed the small radio-controlled car from its case and set it down on the floor, just inside the room. He gently shut the door and then quickly held up the mirror again; the guard hadn’t moved, she was still sound asleep. Harry took off the modified glasses once more and held them face down in his hands. He pushed down once on both of the silicone nose pads and a small blue light came on behind each pad; this indicated that the controls for the car were now activated. He knew he had a short window of battery power in the small car to do what needed to be done. Harry pushed the right-hand pad all the way to the right and then gently applied pressure forward on the left-hand pad. On the other side of the door, the little car turned right and moved forward, creeping slowly towards the wall.

  ‘Here goes nothing.’

  When it met the wall, instead of stopping, the car’s oversized wheels continued to roll, gripping the surface of the wall and pulling it up and away from the floor. Fitz had created tyres covered with 1000s of long microfibre hairs, so the car would work much like the legs of a spider, helped by a coating of adhesive gel. The only problem was, Fitz didn’t know how long the car could climb for and it worked best when it remained in motion, so Harry had to work fast and try not to let the car stop in one place for too long.

  Now he had his hands full with the controls, he could no longer use the mirror, so he risked a quick glance through the window. The guard was a short woman, her hair pulled back into a bun. She was still slumped forward, fast asleep. Harry allowed himself a smile as he looked up and scanned the wall for the car. It had travelled much farther than he had anticipated and was already almost in the middle of the ceiling, and heading towards a flat, plastic light fitting. Harry released the controls but the momentum carried the car into the light, emitting a small ‘crack!’

  The last thing Harry saw before he ducked away from the window was the guard’s head snap back. He immediately put one arm of the glasses in his mouth, retrieved the small mirror from the floor and raised it slowly up to the window. At first, he checked the location of the car and saw it was still in place on the ceiling, just inside the door and tucked behind the light fitting, so the guard couldn’t see it from the chair; but how long it could hang on there, motionless, was anybody’s guess.

  Harry moved the mirror the smallest of fractions and saw as the guard moved her head side to side. She got to her feet and started towards the door, her eyes darting left and right, up and down, like a small animal searching the skies for a predator. Harry had a simple choice to make: stay put or quickly move back to his staging area around the corner. He decided to stay put; he couldn’t risk making any more noise.

  He quickly pulled the mirror away as the guard edged closer to the door. Once he had he dropped it below the window, Harry arched the small mirror upwards to get another view of the car. He froze in panic as he saw the wheels had begun to come away from the ceiling. If it fell, he would have to deal with the guard the old-fashioned way and hope she didn’t have time to radio for help. That was a huge risk at this stage of the operation; he simply had to work out how to get the car moving again.

  The guard’s shadow edged along on the wall opposite the window as she moved closer. Harry pulled the mirror away, flattened himself against the wall and held his breath. He could feel the sweat starting to pour down into his eyes. Boyd was just beyond those doors and Harry was so close. This couldn’t all end here, now, not like this.

  Unexpected Guest

  The tall man pulled the small car into the car park and slotted it in, two spaces away from a strange-looking black car with big wheels. He didn’t know why English people couldn’t just drive normal cars instead of customising their vehicles and creating these ridiculous machines.

  He climbed out of his hire car, smoothed his shirt with his hand and collected his bag from the back seat. As he turned to walk up the gravel path, he wondered what that buzzing sound was, then remembered the signs for a motor show nearby. That must be why the traffic had started to build up on his drive in. Maybe that’s why his contact had told him not to arrive until tomorrow. Oh well, never mind. He was here now. London had bored him, and English hotels had no idea how to make good food, so last night he decided he needed to work.

  It was 4:38pm when Erlich Schmidt walked purposefully up the pathway to the Barn. A whole day ahead of schedule.

  A Little Surprise

  Boyd stood just inside the door to his room and waited. If anyone was outside, they weren’t moving or talking. He gently pulled the door open, just a fraction, and peered out into the hallway. No one came running. Then he heard a man’s laugh; it was coming from across the corridor, inside the lounge where he’d met with Ravensbrook.

  He opened the door enough to poke his head out and look right, down towards the double doors that he presumed were the way out. Not a soul, the place was quiet. Except for Chuckles and his mate in the lounge, and Boyd was about to give them a little surprise.

  A Coiled Spring

  Harry hugged the wall and stayed as low as he could. He hoped that the guard’s field of vision through the small window would be narrow enough that he would be able to stay out of sight. He could tell by the shadow on the wall opposite the door that she was looking through the glass. He watched as an outline of the guard’s head moved left and then right, scanning the corridor for the source of the unknown noise. Despite being flat against the wall, Harry was on his toes, tucked up like a coiled spring. If she opened the door now, he would be ready.

  Intruder Alert

  ‘What do you mean, I am already here? How is this possible? Can you not see me standing in front of you?’ It was now the turn of the real Erlich Schmidt to make life uncomfortable for the bearded guard at the front desk.

  ‘Well, obviously it wasn’t you, sir,’ Beardy tried to explain. ‘But it was Dr Schmidt. He went through the biometric checks – I don’t know what to tell you.’

  ‘You tell me nothing. You get your head of security on the phone, right now.’

  Beardy picked up the phone, hit a single button and waited for five seconds. Today was going from bad to worse. ‘Yes, I know you said not to call this evening. I am sorry to bother you, ma’am – it’s just that Dr Schmidt has arrived a day early.’ He paused. ‘Yes, I would admit him, only I already have. You see, I already signed in Dr Schmidt over half an hour ago.’

  A sudden burst of inaudible sound erupted from the phone and Beardy stood up straight. He leant back and delivered a back-hand slap to the shoulder of his colleague, who had just had a chunk taken out of his neck by a zombie. He pulled off his headphones as Beardy was just finishing the call.

  ‘Yes, immediately. See you down there.’ Beardy faced Schmidt. ‘Herr Doctor, if you could please go to your car and head to Lockmead House. Just out the drive, the way you came and turn right. His Lordship will be with you later this evening.’

  Schmidt slammed his hand down on the small metal counter. ‘This is preposterous!’

  Headphones turned towards Beardy, a quizzical look on his face. ‘What’s the drama?’

  Beardy reached under the counter, pulled out a baton and held it up in front of him. ‘Doctor, do as I say now, please.’ He pressed the button on the baton, and they all watched as a blue and white line crackled and fizzed between the two electrical points on the end of the weapon.

  Schmidt’s eyes widened. He nodded, turned and silently left the building.

  Headphones stood up. ‘Oi, I said what the hell is going on?’

  Beardy threw him a second cattle prod. ‘We’ve got a code nine. Hornet’s incoming with back up but we need to get down there now and contain him.’

  Headphones smiled. Finally, something to bash other than digital zombies.

  Code Nine

  The guard turned on her heels and looked back into the room
, confused. Just as she was deciding that the noise that had woken had been inside rather than outside her head, she heard something else. It sounded like someone slowly peeling the back from a sticker. What the heck was that? Was she going completely mad? She stopped and stood still just inside the door of the security room and almost jumped out of her skin as her radio crackled to life.

  ‘All posts. We have an intruder, repeat, an intruder… Code nine!’

  Before she could respond, something above her drew her attention. The guard looked up just as an object began to fall directly towards her face.

  It’s A Gas

  Harry heard the squelch of the guard’s radio, followed by the message: ‘All posts, we have an intruder, repeat, an intruder…’

  He pulled himself up and risked another look through the window. The guard hadn’t moved forward, she was standing right in front of the door. It was at this point that she looked up and Harry followed her gaze.

  The car was hanging around 20 centimetres from the ceiling, the spider hairs had stretched out to their fullest before they quickly gave way. The guard let out a gasp and caught the tiny toy as it fell towards her.

  Harry immediately pulled the glasses from his mouth, grabbed the two nose pads and twisted them, the left pad clockwise and the right pad counterclockwise; then he stood up and looked through the window.

  The confused guard extended her neck down to get a closer look at what she held in her hands, then, sensing she was being watched, she looked ahead and saw Harry through the window. There was a sharp puff and a cloud of vapour erupted around her face. The guard’s legs folded neatly under her.

  Before Beardy at the front desk had finished yelling a description of Harry through the radio, the Belly guard was out cold on the floor and Harry had stepped over her on his way to the lift.

  That Makes Two of Us

  Boyd heard the crackle of a radio and the conversation inside the lounge abruptly changed tone. Something was wrong. He stepped back towards his room, opened the door and lay down in the doorway with his legs in the corridor and his upper body inside his room. He stayed perfectly still and waited.

  The lounge door burst open and he heard the two guards emerge. This was quickly followed by the sound of their boots squeaking to a halt on the hard floor; they had seen him.

  ‘Hey, kid. Get up.’

  Boyd recognised the voice; it was the one with wet, bug eyes.

  ‘I said stop mucking around and get up. What’s wrong with you?’

  ‘I don’t think he can hear you,’ the other one replied.

  Boyd knew it was the man with the ponytail and the bad breath. Both men had taken turns in delivering Boyd’s meals for the last couple of days.

  ‘So, what do we do?’ Bug Eyes said. He lifted his radio. ‘Hey, this is H13 down in the Belly. Your intruder alert just came in and…’ He stopped as Boyd suddenly groaned and crawled back into his room.

  ‘Hey, kid. Stop!’ Bug Eyes said and they both walked towards the door to Boyd’s room.

  ‘You can’t tell him to stop, you already told him to get up,’ Ponytail protested.

  ‘Stay out of this. Greg put me in charge.’

  Bug Eyes caught the door to Boyd’s room before it closed, stepped forward and confidently pushed it open. As he did, he was surprised to be met with the sight of Boyd powering towards him, wheeling his bed into the doorway. It hit Bug Eyes with full force in the stomach and the man fell forward onto the pillows as Boyd continued to push from the other end, letting out a guttural roar as he did so.

  Ponytail managed to jump clear as Boyd pushed Bug Eyes back through the door, pumped his legs and ran as hard as he could towards the wall opposite. They came to an abrupt stop as Bug Eyes smashed into the metal wall at bone-crunching speed. The bed tipped up, the guard let out a scream and fell to the floor.

  Boyd immediately turned to Ponytail, his face a picture of calm, his eyes fixed on the man like a predator stalking its prey. Ponytail brought up his baton, twirling it around in his hand in a perfect, practised motion.

  ‘I bet you do that in front of the mirror, don’t you? Does it impress the ladies?’ Boyd smirked.

  ‘I don’t care how precious you are to Ravensbrook,’ Ponytail spat through gritted teeth. ‘I don’t care how much money you’re worth, I’m going to make you beg.’

  ‘You know how you could do that? Breathe on me. Anyone ever told you that you’re in serious need of a mint?’

  Ponytail snorted and pumped his arm up and down, threatening to strike. ‘Laugh it up. You may mean something to them but you’re nothing to me. I don’t even know who you are, kid.’

  ‘Yeah? Well, that makes two of us, mate,’ Boyd replied as he undid his hoodie.

  Ponytail watched as Boyd finished unfastening the zip and then held his hands out wide.

  ‘Come on then, big boy. What are you waiting for?’ he taunted the guard. ‘I’m just a kid, remember? Or maybe you haven’t got the bottle to take on a teenager?’

  Ponytail’s snorts became more and more animated as he screwed his face up tight and then brought the baton up in a high arc. Boyd took an evasive step back and flipped his hoodie over his head. He kept his arms inside it and pulled them out to the ends of the sleeves. As Ponytail brought the baton down fast towards Boyd’s skull, Boyd dropped to his knees, raised his hands, pulled the hoodie tight and formed a twisted, fabric shield over his head. The baton landed on Boyd’s stretched-out hoodie and stopped, sending shock waves through his shoulders but also leaving Ponytail arms wide and open for an attack.

  Then, Boyd took his chance.

  Harry’s Game

  At the entrance to the Belly, outside the lift doors, two muscular guards watched as the light behind the downward-facing arrow above the lift doors came on, which meant that the lift was on its way. They raised their batons and eyed each other encouragingly. Behind them two silver escalators sat under the curved steel roof; one led down to the double doors into the Belly and the other led back up. It looked like the entrance to a London Underground station.

  The lift arrived with a ‘PING!’ The two men flexed their chests and arms, twitched their batons in a loose grip and stood forward on their toes, prepared to strike. The doors slid back and they both lifted their weapons above their head, took in a deep breath and clenched their jaws. Then they stopped, their arms dropped, their shoulders slackened and their faces scrunched up. The lift was empty.

  ‘Skip?’ The shorter man stood to the right of the lift and looked to his boss for guidance.

  Skip blinked quickly; his eyes darted around the lift.

  ‘Skip, what do we do?’ The shorter, younger man sounded desperate.

  The man in charge tried to think of an explanation for Shorty. ‘Hang on.’

  Skip carefully edged forward, as if he was walking across a minefield. He put his head inside the lift and gave it a thorough inspection, left and right. Then his shoulders dropped as he relaxed, he stepped back out of the lift and unhooked his radio from his belt. Both men turned away from the door.

  ‘No sign of him at the escalator and he’s not in the lift. Repeat, he is NOT in the lift.’

  Behind the two men, Harry released his grip on the ceiling of the lift, letting his feet go before his hands. He dropped hard and fast to the floor and landed in a crouch with a loud ‘thud’.

  The guards swung around. Shorty still had his baton in his hands, and he reacted quickest, lunging forward. Harry took a direct hit, the baton striking him in the body and Shorty pressed the button to deliver the electric charge. To his surprise, Harry didn’t even flinch as he grabbed Shorty’s hand at his wrist and pressed his thumb hard into the back of the guard’s hand. Harry then twisted the wrist around and pushed it back towards Shorty. Shorty had no choice but to bend over; his arm folded up. Harry delivered a sharp kick to the guard’s exposed stomach and knocked the wind out of him. Skip started to move towards them, so Harry used the momentum in Shorty’s arm to thrust the crackling
baton into Skip’s neck. The electrical charge made him shudder violently with the shock.

  Shorty shuffled his feet in an effort to regain his balance. He pulled his arm back, moving the baton from his stricken comrade’s neck, and then swung his elbow in a sharp arc towards Harry’s jaw. But Harry saw it coming, pivoted on his right foot and twisted with the impact, using Shorty’s momentum to swing him into the empty lift. Harry flung the man and released his arm just as Shorty was losing his balance, sending him colliding with force into the back wall of the lift. Shorty’s face was a picture of confusion; Harry knew his opponent was trying to work out why the electrical charge he had pumped into Harry’s stomach didn’t seem to have had any effect on him at all.

  Just as the guard gathered himself to begin another attack, Harry reached inside his shirt and pulled out the large, flesh-coloured bag he had worn around his middle. It was sticky to the touch and snapped out of his clothes just as Shorty stepped into range. Harry whipped the pink padding upwards and it slapped into Shorty’s face, where it stuck over his eyes and mouth like a jellyfish. He lurched forward, clawing at thin air.

  Harry stepped aside as Shorty blindly staggered out of the lift, then swept his legs and watched as he fell forwards, cracking his head on the metal section between the two escalators. Harry looked at both guards and assessed his work; neither would cause him any worry in the next 10 minutes.

  Breathing hard, he started quickly down the escalator towards the Belly. More would be coming; he had to find Boyd and Skye and they had to get out of here.

  Ponytail and Bug Eyes

  Boyd was crouched down, his hoodie stretched out over his head between his hands. Ponytail had his right hand clamped around the baton, which had come to an abrupt stop on the hoodie. Bug Eyes, the other guard, was still face down on the bed that Boyd had used to hammer him into the steel wall; but he was slowly starting to shake off his injuries.