Finally, the guard turned back to the north and walked away. Collectively, they sighed, and Dorin set back to work on the fence at a quicker pace.
“That was close,” Perry whispered.
Blake had hardly nodded in agreement before Dorin said, “Done.” He cut the last link and before the newly freed section could fall, Gerard grabbed it and set it on the ground behind them. Dorin ducked through the gap and hopped over the electrified lower section of the fence, keeping his wire cutters on hand. Blake gestured for Perry to follow, which he did, and Blake stepped through immediately after. Gerard was the last to step through, and before them lay the roadway that exited into Carburast and then a wide-open grassy area between the road and the building where the back door hid in the dark. The passage from the fence to the building would be even more exposed than their run from the forest to where they had cut their way in, but it was not as far.
Blake looked along the side of the building before them and saw their back door. He whispered, “Let’s go,” and took off across the expanse without waiting for a response.
Crossing the road was the worst as lights had come on to illuminate the roadway, and their feet seemed to pound loudly with each step. They each did what they could to run more quietly, but they were more interested in just getting across than moving quietly. The grass was much better as there were no lights and their footfalls were not as noticeable. They finally reached the door, and as before, everyone paused for a moment to catch their breaths from the sprint they had just completed.
“You know,” Blake said between breaths as he looked around to find no one had noticed them yet, “for as well-guarded as it appeared earlier, it’s remarkably thin at the moment.”
Dorin tried the door, but it did not open. He looked around frantically. “We have to find another way.” Dorin whispered, “This one is locked.”
“Patience,” Blake said calmly, “There is always a way.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his electronic lockpick. He glanced at the door’s lock in the dim light and flipped out the correct turner, grateful the lock was there.
“Still, we should hurry,” Gerard said.
“Yes, of course,” Blake replied. He only wanted to get this over with as soon as possible to see whether it had any effect, so they could explore whatever plan B might be. He inserted the metal strip into the lock and pressed the button on the side. With a buzz, Blake turned the pick in the lock and opened the door. The other three filed in first, and no sooner was Blake inside than he closed the door behind them.
The inside of the door had a lever to relock the door, which he did before looking around. They stood in an empty hallway with blank, white walls lit only by exit signs at its corners and above the door he had just locked, not too dissimilar from the secret exit from Point Light. The only sound was a faint hum somewhere within the building, but it was otherwise very quiet.
“I think we can be assured that no one is here,” Perry whispered.
“Anyone else find that odd?” Blake asked also in a whisper.
“They guard the outside,” Gerard said. “Why have it just as heavy on the inside?”
“For enterprising people such as us who get in, of course,” Blake pointed out.
“Not everyone could get in the door,” Dorin pointed out and held out his hand. “Can I see that thing?”
“No,” Blake replied curtly and slipped the electronic lockpick back into his pocket. “We have to keep moving,” he continued without any further acknowledgement of the question. “That hum is going to be the atmospheric collector. I suspect the distribution switches will be somewhere around there.”
“Why distribution?” Gerard asked. “Why not shut it off entirely?”
“Because if this place supplies power to other towns,” Blake replied, “we don’t want to cut them off. Just Carburast. Let’s go.”
Blake chose a direction he felt might get them to their destination, which was the source of the hum. Around the first turn to the right was a series of offices interspersed with the occasional closet or rest room. He figured the main power room would be either well labeled or just obvious when they discovered it, so he was uninterested in the dark offices, though Gerard and Dorin occasionally paused to look before continuing to follow.
They took another right, then left into another dark hall, though they could see a light at the far end of this one, which gave Blake hope that they were on the right path. Most of this hall was pitch black and only the lights at other end gave them any indication as to their direction. Once they reached the next junction, the halls were well lit and still quite empty. They turned right and walked to a large opening where they paused before looking around the corner.
The next room was round and at least a hundred feet across. The center of the room was dominated by three cylinders leading from the floor through the ceiling that contained the wiring that led to the antenna array and plates that dominated the roof of the building. At the base of these cylinders was a large open grid of thin boards spread across the floor from one side to the other taking up the entire center portion of the room, and below that was the grounding spikes that would descend at least twenty feet into the ground to complete the atmospheric collection circuit. Large cables led from the floor and through a glass enclosure situated on the walkway that encircled the room. The walkway was easily six feet wide and was made of solid rubber with holes through which one could see the floor below. A barrier separated the walkway from the floor made of a solid wall for the lower three feet and then glass for another six feet until it stopped at a ceiling that kept the walkway entirely separated from the supercharged room on the other side.
Blake looked specifically to the glass enclosure where the cables led as it appeared to be a control room where they could shut the system down, and he could see no one at present in that room or anywhere else in the power center.
“I don’t see anyone,” Blake said, “but that doesn’t mean we’re alone. I would assume someone is here, even if it’s just a night technician.”
“Excellent,” Dorin said impatiently while trying to step past Blake. “Let’s finish this already.” Blake put up a hand to stop him.
“Let’s take it slow,” Blake warned. “There may be other forms of security here. We can’t continue to assume that just because it has been easy going so far that they won’t have this room covered. After all, this is one of the most important rooms in this region.”
“Agreed,” Gerard said. “But do you think we can shut it down?”
“I don’t know yet,” Blake shrugged. “The technology is familiar, like I said. The way you make it is no doubt different, but I’m hoping it is similar enough. Looking at this room, I know how it all works, but knowing the principle is different from finding the on/off switch.”
Blake led the way down the short path toward the glass enclosure searching ahead of them for anything that might cause any kind of trouble, but the walkway was bare without a sign of any blemish on the walls for any kind of hidden security. He glanced back and found that Dorin had pulled a pistol from his belt and held it ready to fire. Blake paused and looked at him.
“Put it away,” Blake said coldly.
“You never know,” Dorin protested.
“You start popping off shots, and we could all be killed in a cross fire,” Blake said. “We either do it peacefully or not at all.” Blake did not kid around about this in most cases. There were times when arms were necessary because all other avenues of communication had failed and self-defense was all that they had left, but he never drew a weapon first. In his travels so far, he had yet to fire any kind of weapon, though he was forced to wield one on a handful of occasions. He could not say the same of his traveling companions, but in those moments, they had run out of rope and were left with no choice.
“We may need it to show force,” Gerard retorted predictably. Blake shook his head.
“You show force, and they may shoot anyway. Put it away, or you�
��re on your own.” This was no idle threat either. Blake was ready to walk away and find another path, since there was no call for a show of force in an empty room where they might encounter one unarmed person or at most, a guard who would sooner run for backup than attack.
Gerard looked at Dorin and Blake could sort out the unspoken discussion in their eyes. Gerard was eager to be done with this mission, while Dorin did not like the newcomers giving him any orders. He was well prepared to keep his weapon on hand just to spite Blake, but in the end, Gerard’s position of leadership won out, and Dorin holstered the pistol, sighing, “I don’t like this.”
“I know,” Blake said flatly. “Come on.”
They continued walking as silently as possible along the walkway toward the glass enclosure, where they could see a good deal of equipment and which would undoubtedly have the distribution controls they sought. The door to this room was made of thick glass and locked electronically where a panel would be activated by a key card held over it to release the magnetic clasp. Blake pulled out the lockpick and slid back a panel on its side revealing a silver-coated plate underneath. He pressed the button on it again and after about a second, the magnet released.
“I really need one of those,” Dorin remarked.
“If I knew the supplier, I would tell you,” Blake responded. “Of course, they might not be invented for a couple thousand years on another planet entirely, but if you don’t mind waiting…”
Blake smiled and dropped the lockpick back in his pocket and pulled the door open as Dorin scowled at him. He looked around the room at the variety of computer terminals and readouts and centered his gaze on the most likely candidate for controlling the power output: a closed panel the size of a small closet on the wall opposite the room itself. All along this wall were open panels listing the names of cities that were undoubtedly close to this power station, but the one labeled Carburast was closed and locked.
“Well, that figures,” Blake remarked and walked over to the panel, which had a conventional lock on it.
“That’s it?” Gerard asked as Blake pulled his lockpick out again.
“I would assume so,” Blake answered. “Seems a bit too easy, actually.”
“Perhaps we should be grateful,” Gerard suggested.
“We can be grateful afterward,” Blake said and inserted the lockpick into the lock. He opened the panel as he dropped the lockpick back into his pocket and looked at four large switches in a row, not unlike oversized light switches with a full handle for leverage. All of them were in the up position next to the “on” label. He reached up and grabbed one of the switches. He pulled it down, but it did not budge. He knew better than to force it, so he stood back and looked around the room again.
“I was afraid of that,” Blake said.
“What’s wrong?” Dorin asked.
“Not as easy as just turning them off then,” Perry remarked.
“Didn’t think it would be,” Blake said. “With power grids, you can never just switch them off like a light. There’s always some kind of safety mechanism in place to prevent someone from accidentally flipping the switch.” He glanced back at the oversized switches. “No matter how big it is.”
“And where would this safety mechanism be?” Dorin asked skeptically.
“Hopefully in here somewhere,” Blake answered. “And also hopefully, we can find it before they find the hole in the fence.”
“What about this?” Perry asked, standing next to a large door labeled “Master.”
“Looks promising,” Blake said walking over to him. He used the lockpick to open it to find a wall of large buttons each beside a green light labeled the same as the switches, matching the number of buttons to the number of switches. “Yes, very promising.”
“Very promising as in you’ve figured it out?” Gerard asked.
“If this is it, then it isn’t anything you couldn’t have done without me,” Blake said reassuringly gesturing for Gerard to look at the panel with him. “We’re going to find out though. There are four buttons in this master panel and four large switches in the other one. These are probably ahead of the switches in the circuit and act as a safety breaker so that you have to really want to shut the system down. So, button one is the safety for switch one and so on.”
“We just go from the top down?” Gerard asked.
“Go for it,” Blake said. “One at a time though. Perry, would you and Dorin be sure to watch for trouble?”
“If there are any guarantees, it’s that trouble will find us,” Perry commented.
“Well, you know we don’t deal in ‘ifs’ with trouble,” Blake remarked with a smile.
“Yeah,” Perry agreed. Perry walked to the door leading out the way they had not come into the room while Dorin stood by the door they had. Blake nodded to Gerard, and when he pushed the top button, it gave such a loud click as the light changed from green to red that Perry and Dorin turned in surprise. Blake reached over to the left-most lever and pulled down on it. It did not budge.
“Ok, maybe the right-most lever then,” Blake said, thinking out loud.
“That’s obvious,” Dorin scoffed.
“Wasn’t to me,” Blake said as he reached to the right side of the bank of switches and pulled it down sharply. This time, it moved easily downward with another sharp click, and the red light at the button shut off.
“That worked,” Perry said.
“So far,” Blake said hopefully.
“Next one?” Gerard asked.
“Yes.”
Gerard pressed the second button with another deafening click, and as the light went red, Blake pulled the switch. This time, the hum of power changed slightly as the drone through the cables that led to Carburast decreased its output.
“Perry, is there any change out there?” Blake asked hoping that what they were doing was not attracting a lot of attention yet. He knew someone might notice the lights going out eventually, but he was more concerned about all the noise it felt like the system was making as they shut it down.
“Not yet,” Perry said.
“None here either,” Dorin agreed.
Gerard pressed the third button, and Blake pulled the third switch. The hum decreased in volume a little more.
“Last one,” Gerard commented, but Perry spoke up before he pressed the button.
“Trouble coming,” Perry warned. Blake glanced out the window to see someone who looked to be more of a technician than a guard walking toward the door. His head was down, and it appeared he was reading something as he walked, so he had not seen them at all.
“Gerard, quickly,” Blake said, running back to the switch as Perry and Dorin moved away from the glass. Gerard pressed the final button, and as soon as the light switched to red, Blake pulled the final switch down and the cables went silent. There was still the hum of power from the room behind them and from the other cities’ cables, but Carburast was quiet and dead. The four of them stood against the panel on the side of the room that the technician would enter and waited.
The technician held his keycard against the panel and the door unlocked. He walked in and immediately noticed the Carburast panel standing open. Before he had a chance to do anything else, Dorin attacked him from behind and knocked him to the floor. The technician groaned, but Dorin quickly flipped him to his back and held his foot at the technician’s neck. Eyes wide with fear, the technician held up his hands.
“One sound, and you’re dead,” Dorin threatened.
“That won’t be necessary,” Blake sighed. “Tie him up.”
“Using what?” Dorin protested.
“The only thing we have available,” Blake said while pointing at the technician for emphasis, “shoelaces. But be quick. They’re bound to have noticed the power go out in Carburast by now, so we’ll have company very shortly.”
Dorin reached down and removed the laces from the technician’s shoes. The technician gave no sign of struggle at all, but cooperated fully with the madman who was un
necessarily rough with him. He wrapped one set of laces around the technician’s hands and the other around his feet before tying them together.
“And what’s to stop them from turning it back on?” Gerard asked, his arms crossed.
“Well,” Blake said with little thought, “I would hope that if this did, indeed, solve the problem, then within a matter of seconds, the person who turned on the shield will have the machine shut down before anyone can restore the power. By the time the power is back on, the crisis will be over.”
The technician laughed and shook his head despite Dorin’s treatment.
“That’s what this is about?” he asked. Dorin snatched the technician’s head by his hair and dragged the technician’s face to meet his.
“No one asked you,” he spat.
“No, but I’d like to know what he knows,” Blake said trying unsuccessfully to keep Dorin calm. “He does work here.”
“The phase shield isn’t powered from here,” the technician told them with some difficulty based on his contorted position on the floor along with Dorin’s rough treatment.
“Are you sure?” Gerard asked, sounding truly concerned.
“Of course,” the technician said. “You don’t think they shut off the power first? Such an easy solution. You’re not even the first ones to break in here and try it.”
“That was my thought,” Blake noted.
“He’s lying,” Dorin warned.
“Must be,” Gerard agreed. “Just another servant of the government trying to forward their agenda.”
Dorin stripped off one of the technician’s shoes and then one of his socks. He stuffed it in the technician’s mouth. The technician gave a disgusted, muffled grunt.
“That’ll shut him up,” Dorin said triumphantly.
“What if he’s right?” Perry asked.
“He’s not,” Gerard said desperately. “I’ll prove it.” With that, Gerard ran out of the room back the way they had come in followed closely by Dorin. Perry made to follow them out but noticed Blake had stopped to remove the sock from the technician’s mouth.
City Of Phase Page 12
