“But, you think it was him, who set them last time?” Ash asked.
“That would make sense.”
“But,” I said, “that would mean he managed to break in here. How?”
“Or, get someone else to plant them?”
We all stared at each other, lost in our own desperate thoughts. If Levins had broken in, or had someone break in for him, he would have had access to our progress, our research.
“So, you put all this together?” Fern said, eyeing her bundle suspiciously, snapping me out of my internal panic.
Jay nodded. “It’s everything we should need.”
“We need to get to the lab before he destroys all the evidence. He’s probably wiping his systems now,” Owen said.
“Not all of it,” Fern said. “He’s spent years putting together that research. It means everything to him. He wouldn’t throw it away. It’ll be there, we just need to find it.”
I ripped my jeans off and pulled on the thick black pants Jay had given me. All around the room, my friends were doing the same. The pants trebled in thickness at the knees and hips. I kept my vest top on, fastening the matching black jacket over the top. At the elbows and across the chest was the same thick, reinforced material. Every inch was covered in pockets. I felt in them to find a multitude of odd items: small wires, a key ring with thin metal sticks and a set of screwdrivers.
“What is all this?” Fern asked, as she fastened her jacket. She had pulled out a miniature torch from the back pocket. “It’s not that dark yet.”
Jay had his foot on the side of the chair as he fastened his boot. “We don’t know what we’re going to face. After everything we’ve been through, all the tests, the bombs? We’re not taking any chances. This kit makes us ready for almost anything. From now on, if we go on a mission, we go prepared.”
I pulled a small knife from the side of my boot. “I won’t be needing this,” I said, feeling bile rise up my throat at the thought of using it.
He took it from me and pushed it back into my boot. “Just in case.”
I looked at each member of my team. The seven of us stood in matching black combat gear. We looked exactly like the campus security guards. All we were missing were the telescopic batons.
One at a time, my friends finished dressing. Each of their faces turned to mine, waiting for me to lead. I sucked in deep breath, willed my hands to stop shaking and made my way to the door.
* * *
We walked through the campus to the sound off muffled thumping music. The party in tower block three was already in full swing. We passed close to the base of the building and could see the crowds of people crammed into every room. I had to look away as we passed. I wondered how I had managed to live here as one of them, learn with them, but still, never fall into the student life of partying and fun. I felt a mixture of regret and determination as the sounds of drunken laughter faded into the distance.
We came to a unified stop as the science lab came into view. All lights were out, doors shut.
It looked deserted.
“Fern,” I whispered. “Where’s his private computer stored?”
She pointed to the right side of the collection of science buildings. “That one. He has a store room which he keeps locked. I think he must keep it in there.”
I watched the buildings a moment longer, planning my next move. He sent the guards for Mark, knowing the truth was almost out. He must have set something up to block us.
“I think we need to split up,” I announced.
“No. We stay together,” Ash whispered, sternly.
I shook my head. “If he knows were coming, he’ll have something set up, don’t you think?”
“Yes. That’s why we don’t split up,” Ash demanded.
“Ash, that’s exactly why we do split up. If he’s distracted with one of us, the rest have a chance to get to the computer. We have to get the evidence.”
Fern stood beside me. “Roz’s right. If we pair off, we can cover more ground.” She put her hand on my shoulder to show support.
“In your left bottom pocket,” Jay said. He opened his own pocket and fished out a small plastic blob. He pressed a button and pushed it into his ear. “I’m on channel two.”
I pulled open the Velcro on my pocket and felt inside for the tiny plastic thing. I twisted it around in my hands and found an oval button which sat flush on the surface. I pushed it twice to get the channel, then hooked it over my ear.
“Testing. You all hear me?”
I jumped as Jay’s voice echoed through my eardrum. A mass of voices filled my ear as everyone replied.
“Good. Now, best thing will be to have our own channels, so we don’t put each other off. So, Roz, you, Fern and Warwick are team one.” We nodded and switched our channels to one. “Bree, you’re with me as team two. Owen, you’re with Ash as team three.”
We all moved to stand with our teammate.
“Remember those numbers. If we need each other, switch channels to talk, okay?” We all nodded in response.
“I should go with Roz,” Ash said, stepping forward.
“Ash,” Jay sighed, “she’s in a group of three. She’ll be fine.”
“But, Warwick can switch.”
“No,” I said, my chest tightened as his face dropped. “Ash, we’re working. Right now, I’m not the priority, the task is.”
He turned away, teeth clenched.
Bree pushed her ear piece back in to place and turned to me. “Orders, boss lady?”
My mouth clamped shut. Other than collecting the information, I didn’t know what to do. I watched the empty looking labs which were slowly being swallowed by darkness.
“If Fern thinks the best place to find the computer is the right lab, that’s where I’ll go. But, he knows we’re onto him. He could have moved it. You two,” I pointed to Bree and Jay, “you guys take the left. Make copies of anything which looks like it could have anything to do with his research or area choices.”
Jay patted his pocket. “I stocked up on pen drives. I’ll just copy everything we find.”
“Good thinking. Ash, you and Owen take the centre of the building.”
“Will do,” Owen replied.
He was about to leave when Ash rushed forward and grabbed my arms. His face was stern, eyes boring into mine.
“Roz, I’ll keep checking your channel. If you need help, just shout my name, okay?”
I smiled up at him. “It looks empty, Ash. We’ll be fine.”
He let go of my arms and held my face, combing his fingers through my hair. He leaned into kiss me, his lips hot in the cold air. My arms wrapped around his shoulders, pulling my body firmly against his. He held me tighter, our lips moving in time. A flood of heat exploded within, energising me for the task ahead; a promise of what waited at the finish line.
“When you’re ready,” Warwick smirked from behind. We broke apart like a wash of cold water.
I gripped Ash’s hand one last time before going our separate ways.
Our three groups split off and headed to our assigned sections. I glanced to Ash and Owen as they disappeared into the night. Ash crouched low to the ground, blending with the shadows. He was literally bred for this, I reminded myself. He was going to be fine.
Pulling my attention back to my team, I followed Warwick toward the shadowed door. Fern tiptoed behind us, breathing quickly. We stood side by side against the wall, neither one of us wanting to be the first one to move.
“Have you ever broken in anywhere before?” Fern whispered.
“No,” I replied. I leaned to the side and gently tried the handle. It didn’t budge. “It’s locked.”
“Well, that’s a shocker,” Warwick teased. I heard the rip of Velcro as he opened his pocket. I’m sure I saw some lock picks in here.”
“You know how to use a lock pick?” Fern asked, now clutching my arm and watching him over my shoulder.
“No idea, but how hard can it be?”
I watche
d as he wiggled the two sticks of metal in the lock. They scraped and clicked, twisting in his hands. It wouldn’t budge. He swore at it and rammed the picks in as hard as he could in frustration, but the door stood firm. In the end, he slumped back and folded his arms.
“Well, that didn’t work. What now?” He threw the picks over his shoulder into the grass.
We were out of options. I did a quick twist to check the area was still clear. The thudding continued to pound through the air from the tower of flats.
“We have no choice,” I said.
I sucked in a deep breath and lifted my leg in the air. Pushing as much force behind as I could muster, I slammed it into the door. It shuddered on its hinges, hardly moving an inch.
Warwick laughed. “If that’s the way we’re doing it, here.” He put his arm around my shoulders while we both lifted a leg. “One, two, three, now!” He shouted, as we thrust our legs into the door. It crashed open and slammed against the wall with a sickening bang.
We stood stock still, waiting for a reaction. Silent emptiness reclaimed the air.
I edged forward first, stepping into the darkness.
“You guys, be ready,” I whispered.
I fished in my back pocket for the miniature torch. Fern and Warwick followed close and soon three tiny lights lit up the room. It was empty. We circled around the lines of lab tales, checking cupboards and under desks for any sign of a computer. There was nothing.
It was like the room had been cleared out completely. Not one sheet of paper, no equipment, not even a left over vial was left in the sink. I looked up and noticed scuff marks on one of the ceiling panels. Of all places in this lab, I supposed the ceiling was one of the best hiding places. I climbed up onto a counter top and reached up to a high panel on the ceiling. I twisted and stretched to see that Warwick had wandered off to the other side of the room. He was trying the handle of a walk-in cupboard.
“Anything?” I asked, gouging my fingers into the sides of the wooden panel to pull it free. It fell away with a clunk.
I heard Warwick try the handle. “Nothing. It’s just a…”
There was a crack and a thump. I twisted on the counter top to see Warwick slumped on the floor. Teresa stood over him with a guard’s telescopic baton raised in her hands. My feet stumbled from the counter as I rushed toward Warwick.
Fern put out her arm to stop me. “Careful,” she whispered, and stood beside me.
“You should listen to your friends, Roz. You wouldn’t want to end up like this one here, would you?” Teresa slapped the baton against her hand threateningly. “I’m surprised it took you so long to figure it all out. We were beginning to lose hope.”
“What are you talking about?” I shouted.
Teresa laughed. “You still don’t get it do you? My god, how slow can you be? How the hell were you chosen to come here?” Her shrill laugh filled the frigid room.
Her laugh came to an abrupt stop as the door opened. Levins entered, grinning broadly. He was wearing a suit coat, carrying a black briefcase. It was a strange sight to see him out of a lab coat. I flinched as his sickening eyes looked me up and down, greedily.
“Well done, ladies. How well this has all worked out.” He waked toward me, laughing under his breath. “You really have been a wonderful sport.”
“I’ve been what?”
I pulled my arm back as he approached, ready to throw my weight into a punch. Two cold hands wrapped around my fist, and pulled me backwards. I lost balance and crashed to the floor with a dull thud. Air ripped from my chest leaving me gasping, winded. Fern looked over me still gripping my fist, smirking.
“Play nice, now,” Levins said, looking down at me as he stood beside Fern. My free shaking hand reached up to the table, a feeble effort to get to my feet. From the corner of my eye, I saw Fern’s heavy boot come down on my face. My head smacked into the tiled floor and all went black.
I opened my eyes to see three sets of feet walking close to my face. Delicate pumps, a man’s formal shoe and black sturdy boots. I watched the boots pace back and forth, a familiar pace from boots which were identical to mine. How could I have not seen Fern’s betrayal? How could I be so blind? She had been in on all the research, had access to every piece of information.
I tried to reach out to push myself up, when my shoulder jarred painfully. I twisted my hands against the cold tiled floor, but they wouldn’t come lose. Through fine movements of bending my fingers to see for me, I found it was cable ties which were gouging into my wrists. I moved my feet to feel they were tied too.
I flinched back, as Levins knelt in front of me and brushed my hair from my face.
“My dear Rozlyn, did you honestly believe you could outsmart me? What did you expect to happen when you arrived here tonight?” He spoke gently, like we were old friends.
I clamped my mouth shut, fighting the urge to scream. He was right. What had I expected, to just walk in and download the ready and waiting information without a hitch?
I twisted to my side, grinding my wrists together in hopes of finding a weak spot. Nothing. The ties gouged into my skin unrelentingly. He laughed and backed away. I watched his polished shoes return to the others. A low pained groan murmured behind me. I twisted frantically to see it was Warwick. His hands and feet were tied in the same way. Blood trickled from a gash at the side of his head. I could see he was attempting to open his eyes, before his head lolled to the side once more, unconscious.
“I’ve been watching you and your hopeless team for months.” Levins’ cold voice broke the silence. “All your pondering and childish schemes were really quite disappointing. I was hoping for a challenge. But, you were really all too easy to manoeuvre into place. All too easy to distract. A dead body here, a slipped drug there. You really should focus your energies better.”
“You?” I whispered. “You drugged Bree? You killed Karissa? How could you?” I fought against the restraints.
“Oh, now, I couldn’t possibly take all the credit. That stroke of genius with the drugs was perfection. My Fern here really is a piece of work.”
I glared up at her to see her grinning in return. Shards of ice ran through my veins, scorched by pure hatred which bubbled into an enraged vapour around me. She would pay. I would be sure of that if nothing else. She would pay for drugging Bree.
“Fern? You drugged Bree? How could you, she was your friend? What’s she ever done to you?”
She turned her back on me without word, still smirking.
“Fern knows where to place her chips.” He reached over and stroked her hair possessively. “If I needed her to drug a friend, or sleep with that thing there,” he spat on the floor where Warwick laid, “she knew I was asking it of her for the greater good. She knows which side to stand.”
I glanced back at Warwick’s unconscious body, lumped over on its side. His face was drained, blood still leaking into a puddle beside his head.
“Slept with?” My voice shook. “You pimped her out to my friend? What the hell is wrong with you, both of you?” My face flushed with heat.
“Merely a distraction,” Levins shrugged. “He underestimated her, as did you all. You and your team, plotting and scheming, were blindly following false leads and missing vital clues. All the while, my girl was in your ranks, reporting to me, listening in. It’s all rather embarrassing on your part.” He looked down at me, gloating eyes bright in the dark.
“I still figured out it was you. You haven’t won.”
“Haven’t I? I practically told you it was me and still you couldn’t comprehend. I set a bomb within these university walls, provided evidence for you to follow, and still you failed to piece it together.”
My heart stilled. “You set that bomb?”
“Of course I did, Rozlyn. Do keep up.”
“But why? What was the point?”
“The point? To lead you to me of course. The closer you were to me, the closer you were to suspecting Mark. All I had to do was whisper in your ear, and you set
your sights on him; exactly as I planned. And now, thanks to you, Mark will take the blame, while I move onto phase two, unseen.” He stepped back and kicked Warwick as he passed, chuckling to himself. Warwick didn’t make a sound.
“Thanks to me? I didn’t help you.” I spat the words at him, the only weapon I had.
He stood by a desk, loading a bag with boxes which Teresa was pulling from a cupboard. “Yes, thanks to you.”
He passed Teresa the bag and she left the room without word.
“Each time I programmed a bomb, I had good old reliable Mark run an errand for me or be otherwise occupied. Teresa was quite helpful in that area at first, suggesting times for them to meet. But alas, as youthful relationships will, he tired of her and set his sights on you.”
I tried to sit, placing my tied hands on the floor behind me to steady my position. “You had Teresa use him? Why? Is there anything you won’t use these women for?”
“Someone needs to take the fall for these bombs. In coordinating Marks university absences with the explosions, using his research as a target, suspicion falls firmly on his shoulders. It’s perfect.” He handed Fern a bag as Teresa returned. “The theatre had always been one of my targets. Therefore, I have to thank you, Rozlyn. If you hadn’t batted your eyes at him, I may not have had the chance to talk him into taking you. I wasn’t sure if you would both survive, but it couldn’t have worked out better.”
“Dozens of people were killed. How can you say it worked out well?” I fell back to my side, unable to keep balance whilst tied.
“In the quest for science, some sacrifices are required. Those people did not die in vain. From that one test, I was able to adjust my formula dramatically.”
“What about the village? Did they all deserve to die for your curiosity?”
He span to face me with an expression of pure joy. “That was my most pivotal test to date. Don’t you realise what results a test as perfect as that produces? It showed that the toxin stopped exactly where it was instructed. It infected exactly who it was designed to, and no others.”
“No others? There was no-one left alive?” I shouted, my voice straining.
Trials in Walls of Ivy (Triskelion Trilogy Book 1) Page 25
