Blackout

by Peter Jay Black

  ‘Less than a day.’

  ‘What were you doing there?’

  ‘Sightseeing.’

  ‘What sights?’

  ‘We saw a chateau.’

  ‘A chateau? Which one?’

  Noble looked puzzled. ‘I forget its name.’

  The two men stopped and stood by the front of the van.

  ‘Nothing underneath. Do you want us to take a look inside?’

  The first border official was looking distractedly into the distance. Jack followed his gaze to the barrier, where a bearded man in a white van was having an animated argument with the officer behind the window.

  The border official glanced over at Jack, then into the back of the van, then waved Noble on and strode towards the commotion.

  Noble threw the ice-cream van into first and drove away.

  Jack peered through the rear window and let out a huge sigh. ‘That was too close.’

  When they were far enough away, everyone climbed out of their hiding places and stretched.

  ‘I thought we were done for,’ Slink said.

  Obi rubbed his neck. ‘I’m never doing that again. Ever.’

  Wren grinned. ‘That was fun.’

  Charlie’s phone beeped. She looked at the display, then at Jack.

  ‘Who’s that?’ Jack said.

  ‘Hector.’

  ‘Are you nuts?’ Jack said. ‘You gave him your number?’

  ‘What does Hector want?’ Wren said, shooting Jack a nasty look.

  ‘He wants to meet us,’ Charlie said, reading the message. ‘He says he’s found where the actual Nexus is. Where the government have hidden the servers.’ She looked up at Jack. ‘He thinks we can break into the Nexus directly.’

  A few hours later, Jack was standing by the door to the bunker, checking his backpack of supplies. He made sure he had a couple of torches fully charged.

  He still didn’t trust Hector and wouldn’t let him out of his sight, but if Hector was correct – this could be their best chance of getting the virus once and for all.

  Charlie, Slink and Wren joined Jack, each with their own bags slung over their shoulders.

  ‘Hector’s sent us the coordinates,’ Obi called from his chair. ‘Relaying them to you, Jack.’

  Jack looked at his phone as the map flashed up. ‘North London,’ he said to the others. According to the GPS it was a place he’d never been to before. He didn’t recognise the road name either: Swain’s Lane. He looked at the surrounding area. There seemed to be plenty of escape routes should something go wrong. Jack allowed this thought to reassure him a little. ‘Let’s go,’ he said to the others and they marched through the airlock corridor.

  Jack, Charlie, Slink and Wren stood in front of a stone building, two storeys high with a large iron gate in the middle of it and tall leaded windows. It looked strange – somewhere between a church and a castle.

  This was the entrance to Highgate West Cemetery.

  It was eerily quiet.

  ‘Hector thinks the Nexus is here?’ Jack said, dubious.

  On either side of the building were brick walls topped with spikes. To the left was a tall metal gate.

  ‘Hey, guys.’ Hector strode up the road towards them.

  Charlie smiled at him. ‘Hi, how are you?’

  Hector smiled back. ‘I’m good.’ He looked at the others. Finally, his eyes rested on Jack. ‘All right?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Hector.’

  Slink pointed at the building. ‘The Nexus servers are in there?’

  ‘No.’ Hector gestured past it. ‘Somewhere in the cemetery.’

  Jack frowned. ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Definitely.’

  ‘How do you know?’ Jack said. It seemed an unlikely place to hide the world’s most sophisticated virtual-reality environment.

  Hector pulled a netbook from his backpack and opened it. ‘You remember before we left the Nexus access point?’

  ‘I remember you wouldn’t listen to me,’ Jack said. ‘What were you doing?’

  ‘I used Charlie’s phone to connect to the computer at my house. Then I ran a tracking program to try and find where the Nexus signal was coming from,’ Hector took a breath and looked at Jack, ‘but you stopped me before it had time to run a complete trace.’

  Jack glanced uneasily at the others. ‘Go on.’

  ‘Well, the program had managed to get an IP address.’ He pointed at the netbook screen. ‘I then wrote a program to search the internet for any rec­ords that matched that address.’ He glanced around at them all. ‘To be honest, I didn’t hold out much hope, but then it came up with a result.’ He clicked the trackpad and brought up a map of the local area. ‘The signal came from here and, after a lot of work, I managed to narrow it down a bit.’

  Everyone stood in stunned silence.

  Hector glanced at them all again. ‘Of course,’ he said slowly, ‘I can’t be sure of the exact location, but I know the signal came from inside the grounds. I can get within ten or so metres of it.’ He swallowed.

  ‘That’s brilliant,’ Charlie said.

  Slink nudged Jack’s arm and whispered, ‘You’ll be out of a job soon.’

  Jack stiffened and pressed his lips together.

  ‘So,’ Hector said, slipping the netbook back into his bag and zipping it up. ‘You guys think it’s worth a look?’

  Slink slapped his hands together. ‘This is all me.’

  Jack held him back. ‘We’ll have to make sure no one is around.’

  ‘Hate to break it to you,’ Slink said, ‘but I think everyone’s dead in there.’

  Hector smiled. ‘He has a point.’

  ‘Fine,’ Jack said, letting Slink go. ‘Just be careful.’

  Slink jogged over to the wall and looked up at the spikes on top. No way over them without being sliced.

  Charlie examined the main gate to the side. ‘No getting through here either,’ she said. ‘The padlock is on the inside.’

  Jack looked up at the fence. Perhaps if they all put their coats on the spikes, Slink could get over undamaged. Before Jack could suggest this, however, Slink had turned and walked to the main building. ‘Where are you going?’ Jack said.

  ‘There’s a better way.’ Slink climbed the building. First he shimmied up the window frames, staying close to the corners, then he wedged his trainers in the gaps of the old stonework and finally hauled himself on to the roof. He ran over the peak and disappeared.

  Jack, Charlie, Hector and Wren waited in silence.

  After another minute or so, Slink re-emerged. He picked the padlock on the side gate, then swung it open.

  The others slipped through.

  Jack glanced up and down the road. It was still quiet and it unnerved him. He turned back and hurried after everyone else.

  They followed paths flanked by old gravestones covered in weeds and ivy. Moonlight shone through ancient trees, and their branches cast twisted shadows.

  ‘Well done, Hector,’ Charlie said. ‘You’ve officially found the creepiest place on planet Earth.’

  They flicked on their torches and walked through an arch flanked by Egyptian obelisks.

  Beyond was a set of tombs in a large sunken circle, and at the centre of that was a huge cedar tree.

  ‘This place is freakin awesome,’ Slink said.

  Hector held up a hand, looked at the map on his phone, then gestured to the steps that led down to the circle of tombs. ‘It’s somewhere there,’ he whispered. He pointed to the right and followed the path.

  They crept along in silence for a couple more minutes, then Hector found a good vantage point and they sat on the ground, overlooking the circle of tombs.

  He glanced at his phone one last time, then pointed at a couple of doorways. ‘I’m guessing it’s one of those.’ He looked at Jack.

  Jack didn’t like the idea of going down there and trying to break into someone’s tomb. Hector had to be wrong, but they didn’t have much choice – one of them had to investig
ate. He was just about to stand when he heard a noise. ‘Turn off the torches,’ he whispered.

  They watched as one of the tomb doors swung open and red light spilled from beyond.

  A shadow moved.

  Jack stared, holding his breath.

  There was a click of a lighter and the face of a man appeared in the glow. He had a scar running down one cheek, and he wore a cap pulled low over his eyes. He looked like a guard of some sort.

  The lighter went out, to be replaced by the orange glow of a cigarette.

  Jack guessed they had around five minutes. He looked at Charlie. ‘We need the exec pen.’

  She rummaged in her bag and pulled out a thick silver pen. It had a wireless camera hidden inside it, a transmitter and a battery life that lasted several hours.

  Charlie held it out to Jack. ‘How are we going to plant it on him?’

  Jack took it and looked at Slink. ‘Any ideas?’

  ‘I can do it,’ Hector whispered, holding out his hand.

  Jack hesitated and looked at Charlie.

  ‘Trust him,’ she said.

  Jack let out a breath and reluctantly handed the pen to Hector.

  Hector hurried off into the darkness and they all returned their attention to the tomb and the guard.

  Suddenly, Hector appeared on the ledge above him. He glanced down at the man, then pulled back. He silently slipped off his backpack and removed a spool of fine fishing wire. He tied one end of the wire to the pen, lay flat on his stomach and peered down again.

  Slowly, Hector fed out the line and the pen dropped towards the guard.

  He was aiming to lower the pen into the guard’s top jacket pocket. The pen spun on the end of the wire and Hector used his other hand to try to stop it, but the pen continued to rotate.

  Jack looked at the guard. A few more puffs on that cigarette and he’d be finished.

  Hector lowered the pen some more and it missed the guard’s pocket.

  Jack swore under his breath.

  Hector tried again, but he still couldn’t get the pen to slide into the pocket.

  The guard turned his head and puffed out a cloud of smoke.

  Hector yanked the pen up and out of sight.

  Jack judged Hector had one more shot at it.

  ‘What’s he doing?’ Slink whispered.

  Hector was now reeling the line back in.

  ‘He’s given up,’ Jack said.

  Now what were they going to do?

  ‘No,’ Wren said. ‘Look.’

  Hector was unscrewing the end of the pen.

  Jack clenched his fists. ‘He’s going to break it.’ He went to stand up but Charlie pulled him back to the ground.

  ‘Watch,’ she whispered.

  Hector removed the tiny camera and transmitter from the pen. He examined it, and bent out a piece of wire from the back. Hector glanced down at the guard, then shimmied forward, bending over the ledge, his head just a metre or so above the guard’s.

  Keeping a grip on the brickwork with one hand, Hector reached down to the guard’s cap, and with outstretched fingers, eased the camera on to the fabric above the peak.

  The guard felt something and looked up, but Hector had leapt back in time and disappeared into the darkness.

  The guard stamped out his cigarette and turned on his heels.

  Charlie slid a screen with an antenna from her bag and turned it on. They watched from the pen camera’s point of view as the man closed the tomb door behind him.

  Inside, a red bulb bathed the room in eerie light. There were three coffins stacked either side of the tomb and a stone plaque on the back wall which had a list of names engraved into it.

  The man slid the plaque aside to reveal a keypad behind it. He typed in a six-digit code and leant into the display.

  ‘Biometric,’ Charlie whispered. ‘There’s a camera above the screen and it’s scanning his eye.’

  There was a second beep and a sliver of white light appeared in the tomb and grew wider as the entire end wall slid aside.

  Beyond was a metal landing and a set of steps leading down. Along the ceiling ran thick pipes and halfway down the corridor was a security camera.

  The image on the screen flickered.

  ‘It’s losing signal,’ Charlie said, leaping to her feet. ‘We need to get closer.’

  The four of them ran around the tombs and met Hector coming in the opposite direction.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ he whispered.

  ‘Transmission range,’ Charlie hissed.

  They hurried to the ground above the target tomb and Charlie breathed a sigh of relief as the image came back.

  The guard was now walking along a corridor. To his right was a door with a large window next to it. Behind the glass were rows and rows of black server cabinets, each with blinking blue lights like a million fireflies.

  The guard continued past the window and reached another door at the end of the hallway. He swiped his card in the lock and entered a room with three monitors on the wall. One displayed a view of outside the tomb, close in on the door. The next one was of a view looking up the corridor from the steps.

  The third monitor had a series of temperature readings and in the top-left corner was one word emblazoned in large gold letters –

  ‘Nexus,’ Jack said. He looked at Hector. ‘You were right.’

  In front of the monitors were two chairs and there was another guard sitting in one of them.

  He glanced up from his book as the first guard sat down, but he didn’t notice the tiny camera on his companion’s cap.

  Well, not yet at least.

  The first guard pulled a phone from his pocket.

  Jack leant into the display. The phone didn’t have a signal. The guard started to play a game on his phone.

  ‘So?’ Hector whispered to Jack. ‘Do you think it’s possible to get in there?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ Jack said. ‘But we have to try.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Back at the bunker, Jack spent the next hour studying the video replay of the guard walking through the Nexus facility. He checked every frame of film for anything they might have missed. Finally satisfied he’d got it all, Jack concentrated on the first target – the camera by the entrance to the tomb. That shouldn’t be a problem. Charlie said she had a gadget that could take care of it.

  Next, Jack asked Obi to freeze the image on the keypad inside the tomb and he called Charlie over.

  ‘Look at this,’ he said, pointing above the keypad where there was a small lens.

  ‘It looks like a standard camera,’ Charlie said. ‘Probably has Gnome Biometric software running behind it.’ She straightened up. ‘I’m pretty sure I can get past that. I have an overlay that I can modify that’s similar. I need an hour or so. Won’t be easy though.’

  ‘Is anything ever easy with us?’ Jack said.

  ‘Not so much, no.’ Charlie stared at the screen. ‘Have you heard from Slink and Hector?’

  Jack shook his head. ‘It’s probably a good sign.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Charlie said. ‘I guess it means they’re not having any trouble getting the stuff they need.’ She went to walk away.

  ‘Wait,’ Jack said. ‘That’s not all.’

  Obi sped the recording forward until the guard reached the end of the corridor. Obi pressed the Play button. The guard swiped the lock on the door with a card and entered the security room. He sat at the desk with the other guard and started playing with his phone. In the top part of the screen, they could see the three CCTV monitors.

  The view of the camera in the hallway panned from side to side, without pausing.

  ‘It’s exactly like you thought,’ Jack said.

  ‘Good,’ Charlie said. ‘As long as Slink and Hector sort their end out, I’ve got the rest covered. We’ll need my micro projector.’ She turned and hurried down the hallway to her workshop.

  Jack looked back to the screens.

  ‘Why couldn’t we bring Hector here this
time?’ Wren said.

  ‘We’ve been through this,’ Jack said, irritated. ‘We’re not showing him the bunker.’

  ‘But why not?’

  Jack went to respond but stopped himself. It was pointless to keep having the same argument with them. ‘Now’s not a good time,’ he said. ‘Hector’s got a job to do.’ He looked at the others but they didn’t seem convinced by his response.

  ‘What happens if they get him?’ Wren said.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Del Sarto’s henchmen.’

  ‘He’s with Slink,’ Jack said. ‘They’ll be fine.’

  ‘But they’re after the same thing as us,’ Obi said. ‘They want the virus too.’

  ‘We don’t know that for sure,’ Jack said, though Connor and his cronies had been strangely quiet lately. He looked at Obi. ‘Send Slink a message, if you want. Warn him to keep an eye out.’

  Obi typed a quick message and hit Send.

  ‘Satisfied?’ Jack said to Wren.

  She crossed her arms.

  Jack refocused on the image of the corridor in the Nexus facility. This was going to be a challenge for Charlie to overcome.

  Later, outside Highgate Cemetery, Slink and Hector were waiting for Jack, Charlie and Wren.

  ‘How was your shopping trip?’ Charlie asked them. ‘Did you get what you needed?’

  Hector grinned. ‘No problems.’

  ‘Piece of cake,’ Slink said.

  ‘OK,’ Jack said. ‘This is Charlie’s mission.’

  Charlie looked at the others. ‘Everyone clear on what we have to do?’

  They all nodded.

  Slink opened the gate and they walked through.

  The graveyard was no less creepy the second time around. The sky was cloudy now and, without the moon, the only light came from their torches, which cast strange shadows over ancient stonework, monuments and gravestones.

  They reached the ground above the target tomb and Jack and Hector crouched down. Slink lay flat on his stomach in between them and pulled himself over the stone lip, into the circular pathway of tombs. Hector and Jack grabbed his legs, stopping him from falling head first. Slink was now hanging upside down behind the camera trained on the entrance to the tomb.