TOP SECRET
Any member of EGD Security or the General Public who gains possession of this manual/knowledge of the contents of this manual is bound to secrecy under article 64 of the EuroBloc Secrets Act.
Transgression will result in a charge of:
Sedition: Category 1.
***+***
11
DÉJÀ VU
“I don’t believe it!” I turned to the contents page, my eyes darting over words like ‘guard towers’, ‘battlements’, ‘camera room’...
“What is it?” asked Bane.
I flicked back to the title page and shoved it under his nose.
“I don’t believe it!”
“For pity’s sake!” said Jon. “What is not to be believed?
Father Mark was peering over my shoulder.
“It’s a Facility Security Manual.”
“A what ?”
I was rifling through the pages, checking it was what it proclaimed itself to be. Definitely... Or an excellent fake. There were notes scribbled on most pages, all in the same curly handwriting though in a whole range of pens and colours, some faded with age. Years of... I peered at one, deciphering it... years of sardonic comments... I read a couple more... mostly picking holes and generally expressing the author’s contempt for the procedures described.
Bane and Father Mark were also reading the scribbles. Bane finally began to read out loud for Jon’s benefit.
“Naturally one places the septic tank of one’s home as far away as possible – the page is a plan of features outside the Facility walls – assume the PTB – what? Oh, Powers-That-Be, probably – assume the Powers-That-Be value their own lives rather little. Most people would think their life worth a swim in a cesspit. Large size pipe and opens from the inside H&S special – Health and Safety special? – lid, blithering idiots. Huh?” Bane looked up, his face brightening. “Now, this is interesting stuff...”
“If it’s genuine.” Father Mark’s eyes were also racing over the entries and neat little comments.
“So you’re saying someone’s sent Margo a Facility Security Manual, complete with revealing notes?” Jon sounded incredulous. “Well, who’s it from, Margo?”
Good question. I shook the book and a little packet dropped out, but no note. Checked inside all the envelopes – nothing else. The packet just had a string of letters and numbers written on it – I opened it and tipped a few tiny brown things onto the palm of my hand.
“What are those?” asked Bane.
“Look like seeds,” said Father Mark.
“Who would send you seeds,” sniggered Bane.
Mum didn’t have a very high opinion of my gardening skills either – with good reason. Well, I’d already figured out this wasn’t from my parents. In my head I could hear a harsh voice saying, ‘Dead men tell no tales.’ And a soft voice replying, ‘Oh, I think you'll find they sometimes do.’
“Who, Margo?” asked Jon.
“I don’t know.” Not a lie. I didn’t know. But we were looking for a disillusioned Facility Commandant who thought the security procedures were useless and who might just be able to lay his hands on some seeds... so I really, really suspected. But I didn’t want to put Bane off using the information and anyway, it seemed so incredible. Why? How?
I straightened out the first envelope, the big white one, but it just said ‘Margaret Verrall, Citadel.’ The one the book had come out of was slightly more detailed, ‘Margaret Verrall, c/o The Underground, African Free States.’
“There’s no way that got through the EuroBloc postal system!” snorted Bane, reading it aloud.
I straightened out the final, empty envelope. Ah. “The Combined Embassy of the African Free States, Brussels, EuroBloc,” I read out. “Double envelope. Sent to the Embassy – they sent it on.”
The postmark on this outermost envelope was hard to make out, but it looked like the fourth of July. The day after we escaped from the Facility. Had he guessed, even then, that they would come for him? But why this, and to me? Simple revenge – he’d hoped I’d pass it on to someone who could make use of it? Or merely for the satisfaction of knowing he’d sent the most secret thing in his possession to the EuroGov’s most publically avowed enemy – it perhaps hadn’t occurred to him anyone would ever use it.
There’d been something in the trial, come to think, they’d accused him of destroying all his paperwork – one truth among all the lies? Hiding the fact the single most important document was missing?
“Are you sure you don’t know who it’s from, Margo?” Bane eyed me closely.
“No, I don’t know.” Come on, he could draw exactly the same conclusion as me. And did, by the look on his face.
“Well, let’s get to the conference room and look at this properly. Just the planning committee, for now. We want to keep it super quiet we’ve got this. Come on, Eagle.” That was Jon’s honorary code name.
Bane sent away most of Animal team, though he got Sister Krayj and Jack to stay. Eduardo was waiting as well – silently. Clearly wasn’t the done thing for him to comment on the contents of people’s packages – but his eyes were on the book in my hands.
Bane explained for the sake of Kyle, Pussycat and Alligator just what a mystery benefactor had sent me, trying to steer quickly past all the, ‘Who, who could it be?’ remarks.
“That’s not really very important. It’s much more important we figure out whether this stuff is reliable.” He tapped the cover with one finger.
“Yeah, but who sent it has got to be a good indicator of that, surely?” said Kyle.
Father Mark slid the book out from under Bane’s hand and began examining it again.
“These comments are years and years old, some of them. It’s not likely someone would spend literally years preparing a copy of a rare manual like this with fake annotations. I’d certainly be inclined to trust it. It might be an idea to avoid using the freshest ones, just in case.”
Bane made a ‘well, there we go’ gesture.
“So, is it useful?” demanded Sister Krayj.
“Yes,” said Bane. I could only shrug. I’d not got so far as thinking through the faults picked up in individual notes yet.
“Yes.” Father Mark was still poring over it. “But I’m already sensing these notes would mostly be far more helpful to someone trying to get out than to someone trying to get in. Getting in unnoticed remains the real challenge.”
“There is the septic tank.” Jon spoke in the happy tone of one who is in no danger from said tank.
“Yikes,” said Alligator.
“Even that’s not so good, from outside,” said Father Mark. “There’ll probably be grills or hatches inside the Facility which only unscrew or open from the inside – they’re not completely stupid. Yes, we could blow them open, but that makes noise inside the building with all the guards unsecured, so it’s not ideal.”
“And there’s still the damn cameras,” said Bane.
“Cameras...” Father Mark consulted the contents page and flicked to the right section, skimming the printed lines. “They’re a pain, all right. Well placed and with quite thorough coverage.” He tapped a finger to the margin. “Our mysterious benefactor even grants them that. Let’s see... if they’re manning the camera room at night, the corridor lights will be turned up a bit, it says, so the things can see...”
“What about the old Hollywood trick of taking a picture of the corridor and sticking it in front of the camera?” said Kyle.
“It’s a good one,” said Father Mark dryly. “If you’re inside the building already. How are you getting in with your camera?”
Kyle deflated.
“Oh.”
“Please don’t tell me we have this goldmine of information, and we still can’t get in,” said Pussycat.
“Come on,” I said. “We’ve hardly begun to study it yet.”
“Eduardo, can you get some copies made of this?” asked Bane, “The entire thing, one for each of us here? Well, not for
Jon... Then we can get down and study it properly, we’ll all take it in turns to read the sections to our Eagle; he’s got one of the best minds here so we’re not wasting it. You can lock up all the copies in between sessions, and the original, too. This is absolutely top secret, okay, everyone? The moment they realise we’ve got this, they’ll revise the lot.”
“Clearly not something they do very often.” Father Mark eyed the old book with professional contempt, “but I reckon they’d make an exception!”
“So we tell no one,” said Bane firmly.
We pored over the copies all day, but after supper I found myself a shallow tray to fill with soil and planted six of the seeds, watered them and put them on the window sill.
So that was that. Wait and see what grew.
“Cameras,” said Father Mark the following morning. “That’s what I keep coming back to. I know I said about avoiding the freshest notes, but did anyone else notice that little one in the top right-hand corner of the first camera page?”
“What, ‘biggest strength, biggest weakness’?” I said.
“That’s the one.”
“Wasn’t sure what it was getting at,” said Kyle.
“I think it means the cameras are the most important part of the security system so if you take them out the whole system’s unworkable,” I said.
“Exactly,” said Father Mark. “So here’s a question for Eduardo. If we could get someone with a laptop close enough to the Facility walls, could they hack into the camera network and put the feed onto a loop?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed. “That’s precisely why we weren’t allowed laptops! Or the guards, even.”
Eduardo pursed his lips.
“Well, I think the people who wrote the rest of the manual didn’t actually understand the finer points of their camera software – because it’s really quite good. To put it in layman’s terms – anything outside of the few simple operations the camera programme is set up to perform will trip the alarms – such as any attempt to hack it.”
“So how do they update it?” Bane frowned. “I mean, they must update the software now and then, even if they don’t touch all the other procedures.”
“They do. There’s an eight digit code – the Facility Commandants know it so he or she can load the updates as they arrive and gain manual control of the camera system in an emergency. That code is the only way in I can see.”
“But you can hack the EuroGov’s ID database!” protested Bane. “Surely you can hack a simple camera system?”
“Apparently my layman’s terms weren’t simple enough. Its very simplicity protects it.”
Bane sighed.
“Okay, I’ll take your word for it.”
“That’s disappointing,” said Father Mark. “I should’ve spent my time studying the rest more closely. There’s no way we’re going to guess eight letters and numbers. Scrap that plan, then.”
“Well, I had an idea...” began Jon.
“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “Say that again, Father Mark?”
“Which bit?”
“What did you just say about the code? Letters and numbers?”
“Yes, eight of them. Two letters, two numbers, one letter, two numbers, one letter.”
Why did that prickle at my mind so badly?
I gasped, my hand flying to my mouth.
“I think... Just... one moment. Back in a tic...”
They watched in astonishment as I dashed out. I raced through the corridors, across the square, up the stairs to my room. Grabbed that little packet of seeds. Paused to shake the remaining seeds into a hanky for safe keeping, and rushed back down the stairs, across the square, and back through the corridors to the conference room.
Placed the empty packet in front of Father Mark and panted, “Eight digits like that?”
He snatched it up.
“Exactly like that!”
“Where did that come from?” asked Sister Krayj incredulously.
“It came with the book.”
“Oh. It really could be the code, then.”
“I rather think it is. Only... be worth checking it’s not the catalogue code for a type of plant or something. ‘Cause there were seeds in the packet and to be honest I’d assumed it was something to do with them.”
Father Mark chuckled.
“Oh yes, we must check that.”
“Who writes a camera code on a packet of seeds?” asked Sister Krayj.
“Our mysterious benefactor, apparently,” said Bane. “Anyway, this looks extremely promising.”
“If it’s not a trap,” said Eduardo.
“How likely would you say that was, with your knowledge of the software?”
Eduardo considered this for a few moments.
“Not very. To trick us right into the compound with a fake code would require a complete rewrite of the software. And they’ve not had time since our first raids to do that, let alone for the parcel to get through the Underground’s system to us here, even if they faked the outer envelope. It is of course possible it’s not the correct code – and entering it would set off the alarms.”
“We could withdraw at once if that happened.” Bane was clearly planning already. “Choose Facilities very close to the coast for the first attempt, so we wouldn’t be stuck on the mainland for hours. When did it say the code changed? New Year, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right,” said Father Mark.
“Just under one month. Hmm. We’d better focus on this immediately, then. But Jon, what was your idea?”
“Well, we’re beating our heads against the Facilities’ outward defences – which are their strongest. They’re more worried about parents and Resistance getting in, than reAssignees getting out. Those card-locked doors, machine guns, and floodlights are more than enough to thwart most reAssignee’s efforts. If it wasn’t for filthy Finchley we might still be there as well. These weaknesses in the manual aren’t the sort of things you’re likely to pick up on in two years – not from a reAssignee’s perspective.
“But with the weakness that fell into our hands – that card – we organised the Salperton escape fairly smoothly because it was a joint effort. And here’s a whole manual of weaknesses which can only be exploited from inside. So let’s get the reAssignees to help.”
“What? Slight communication problem!” said Alligator.
“I don’t think so,” said Jon. “We work out the plan, write very clear and detailed instructions, put them in something we can fire through the dorm windows – literally through the glass if necessary. There’s usually one or two pretty bright people in each dorm – certainly bright enough to follow a pre-set plan. We rock up and do our bit and if the reAssignees do theirs, they get rescued. If they don’t, they don’t.”
“Can’t say fairer than that,” said Sister Krayj.
Bane’s eyes were glinting.
“That’s a very good idea. But let’s concentrate on this camera plan first. If we could manage all the planning and drilling in seven or eight days, with two raids a week we could empty sixty Facilities before New Year’s Day!”
“Aren’t they going to figure it out?” protested Kyle.
“Not immediately. Not if we keep scrambling the computers in the camera room, leaving them no video record of what happened. I bet we can pull off at least three or four raids before they stop assuming the guards simply weren’t paying attention to their monitors.
“And what about the fifth and sixth raids?” asked Sister Krayj dryly.
“Well, realising the guards may actually not have been asleep isn’t the same thing as realising we’re tampering with the cameras. To begin with they’ll probably be looking for ways we could’ve got in unseen.”
Six raids in three weeks. My palms had gone damp with sweat just thinking about it. But – a colossal blow to the EuroGov if we could pull it off.
“Aiming high is good,” said Father Mark, “but it is possible to aim too high.”
“We need to think it
through,” I said. “If they figure it out, they can’t rewrite the software quickly enough to make a trap, according to Eduardo, so what are they likely to do?”
“Extra sentries?” suggested Jon.
“Covers over the gunslits,” said Sister Krayj. “They might do that before they even figure out how we’re foiling the cameras. Or screens for the guards to sit behind.”
“We can deal with those,” said Eduardo.
“Oh?”
“I’d have to test the theory, but I reckon the fifty-percent-lethal grenades would be pretty safely nonLethal let off against bulletproof glass.”
“And if we have access to the camera feeds, we’ve a good chance of spotting any extra guards even if they’re hidden,” said Father Mark.
“What about foot patrols?” suggested Jon. “Around the forest line, say?”
“All night at every Facility in the EuroBloc?” Alligator said. “They’d actually have to take on more guards, wouldn’t they?”
“What would be the point?” snorted Sister Krayj. “We sneak up behind them with our nonLees and that’s that. Sleeping guards and we continue with the plan.”
“Well, keep thinking of possible snags, everyone,” said Bane, “but let’s start planning this. Eduardo, who or what will we need with us to use that code?”
“A laptop and a person with some basic training from me. Should be pretty simple – we can choose a current member of each team, no need for reshuffles.”
“Right. Do we have ten laptops? Never mind, we’ll leave that to you. Our basic plan should be able to be virtually the same as before, actually. We’ll just need to wait for our hackers to sort out the camera feeds first, then take the camera room as well once we’re inside.”
“Good,” said Father Mark, and cocked an eyebrow at Eduardo. “Simplest is best, hmm?”
Simple it was. We chose ten Italian Facilities this time, all near the coast, using three separate fishing villages to ensure no team had more than a forty-five minute drive to reach their boat. The raid went so like the previous one I’d a pounding sense of déjà vu the whole time. Once again we loaded ourselves and our increasingly excited rescuees onto speed boats whilst larger boats took charge of the trucks and headed in a straight line for Gozo to make up for their slower speed.
Liberation (I Am Margaret Book 3) Page 13
