Dark Side of the Moon
Page 23
‘What do ye mean?’ asked Prentice.
‘The entire system was set up by the Securarama team months in advance. The operation was personally supervised by the chief security consultant from the store’s insurance company as well as representatives of the diamond’s owners. There was nothing left to chance, even down to creating the illusion the real diamond was displayed in the Bubble. They were – no, are – so sure the system is fail-safe that they don’t even see the need to post guards on the room during the night.’ She raised her index finger, flicked her gaze from Prentice to Kyle and back again. ‘But they overlooked one small, but important thing. Their complacency led them to forget that this building is old. Sure, the Bubble and the spike and the interiors are all glossy, shiny and brand new. But the actual building, the shell, is over a hundred years old and,’ she paused, looked at each of them in turn, ‘this is the important bit. There are some features of the old building which had to remain intact.’
Prentice sucked his teeth. Where the hell was she going with all this architectural crap?
McKinnon seemed to read his thoughts. ‘They forgot about the dry riser.’
‘The dry what?’ asked Boag.
‘Riser,’ McKinnon repeated ‘It’s the channel in the wall that carries the pipes for the building’s sprinkler system and fire hydrants. There are several of them running in the walls throughout the building. They’re leftovers from the original building, and one of them…’ A sly smile crept across her face. ‘One of them runs directly up to the manager’s entertainment suite.’ She paused to let her statement sink in. ‘That’s right, it leads straight to the room with the diamond. There’s no need for you to go through the outer office, you can access the room through the very wall itself.’
‘Eh, am Ah missing something here?’ Prentice asked. ‘Only, it kind of occurred to me that if what you say is true, how in the hell are we supposed to get in behind the fucking wall in the first place? How do we get into this dry riser system ye’re talkin about?’
McKinnon walked over to the Arrow and patted the shaft above the point where it flared into the points of the arrowhead. A ring on one of her fingers made a dull ting against the metal. She looked up along the length of the shaft as it rose steeply to the place where it burst through the wall five floors above. ‘There,’ she said, pointing to the ceiling immediately above the shaft.
The four men looked at each other, then back to McKinnon. They said nothing, but their blank faces prompted her to explain further. ‘The Arrow houses the cables which support the Bubble outside. Where it goes into the wall up there the cables continue for another couple of metres, over a pulley system built into the wall. Something like that.’ She waved one hand dismissively. ‘Whatever it is, the engineer guys have to check out the mechanism every few months, make sure everything’s hunky-dory. Just above the Arrow, in the ceiling, is an inspection hatch which allows them to gain access to the gantry above the cables.’
Campbell, who had heard the other security guys talking about this before, now noticed the upper surface of the shaft had a series of subtly countersunk rungs running along its length. He found his saliva drying up, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth like a flake of burnt cardboard. He knew what was coming next.
‘The space that houses the gantry,’ McKinnon continued, ‘connects to the old dry riser system for the original building. Get in there, and you’re into the riser. Then it’s a little bit of manoeuvring, and up four floors and you’re at the room with the diamond.’
‘And how exactly do we get into the inspection hatch?’ asked Kyle. ‘The only way Ah can see is to climb up this fucking arrow here.’
McKinnon bit her bottom lip and blinked at him, shifted her gaze to something over his right shoulder. Kyle frowned. ‘Wait a fucking minute, you don’t mean…’
Prentice burst out laughing. He slapped his thigh. The others turned to look at him, surprised by his outburst. ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph…’ He stopped to wipe tears from his eyes. ‘Oh, fuck me with the blunt end of a ragman’s trumpet, but this is so good, so fucking typical…’ He trailed off, trying to catch his breath.
‘What do ye mean?’ asked Boag.
‘Ya bunch of fannies, ye don’t see it do ye?’ Prentice shook his head, still struggling to contain his laughter. ‘Kyle’s hit it right on the head. That…’ he pointed to the Arrow, ‘… that is how you get to the hatch. She expects us to climb up this fucker and then squeeze through a door at the top.’
His laughter stopped as abruptly as it had started, his face wild-eyed and furious as he marched over to McKinnon. She stood her ground, unflinching, and let him thrust his face up into hers. ‘You!’ he shouted, the tendons on his neck standing out. ‘You’re taking us for a fuckin ride, you… you and Boddice both, you think we’re just a bunch of worthless scum, disposable as a piece of toilet paper after ye’ve wiped yer arse.’ His lips drew back in a spittle-flecked snarl. ‘Sure, it’s fine for the likes of us to risk fuckin life and limb so that some other bastard can make a profit out of us, but don’t expect to get yer own hands dirty or ye might break a nail. No, leave it up to us… us…’ he searched for the word, ‘… us minions to carry out the risky business, the likes of Kyle that’ll crawl through shite with an open mouth if Boddice asked him, or Boag, that doesn’t know any better.’ He spun round to direct his rage at the others. ‘Ya spineless bastards, ye’re all just the same. Ye’re nothin but puppets, never stopping to find out what the big picture is, to see that we’re no more than… than…’
He stopped his ranting, the beginnings of tears in his eyes. He looked around at them, a curl of contempt standing on his lips, and sniffed back a trickle of snot.
‘Look at youse,’ he said, calmer now. ‘Look at us. We’re a sorry bunch of pricks, are we not?’ Prentice gave a short humourless laugh. ‘You know something? She’s right, what she said earlier. We are a bunch of amateurs. We’re fuckin clueless. How in the name of Christ did we end up here, tryin to do this? This isn’t us, this isn’t what we do, is it?’ His voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Since when did this become our lives?’
Prentice dragged a finger across his lower eyelid, examined the moisture on its tip, before rubbing it away against his thumb. ‘Ye know what?’ he said, looking around the room, at the upper floors, the galleries and the stairways, at the golden Arrow sweeping down from above. ‘Ye know what?’ His voice tailed away, distracted. He looked at McKinnon, and then at each of the men in turn, and smiled. ‘Ach, fuck it,’ he said, and tossed the diamond to McKinnon. He turned on his heels and made for the door.
‘Hey!’ Kyle shouted, and started to run after him. McKinnon grabbed his sleeve, held him back.
‘Leave him,’ she said.
Kyle shucked her off and called after Prentice again. ‘Hey, ya bastard! Where are you going?’
Prentice carried on walking in silence. When he got to the door leading to the staff-only area he gave a short wave without looking back and pushed through, letting the door swing shut with a soft whump.
Kyle set out after him, shouting for him to come back.
‘Let him go,’ McKinnon said. ‘He’s no use to us now.’
Kyle wheeled. ‘What the fuck just happened here? Eh?’ He jabbed a finger towards McKinnon’s chest. She slapped it away.
‘It seems Davie wasn’t up to the job,’ McKinnon said.
‘What the hell do ye mean by that?’ Kyle said. ‘That man is up to anything. Anything!’
‘But he’s not here, is he?’ She raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you up to it Gordon? Are any of you? How much do you want this?’
‘How much does Boddice want it?’ It was Campbell. ‘Prentice is right. We’re the ones doing the hard work, and where the hell is Boddice tonight?’
‘Who knows?’ she said. ‘But the fact remains, we’re here, the diamond is upstairs, and, from what I understand, you boys will now see your share going up, what with Mr Prentice no longer part of the scene.’
What the fuck to do now?
He considered following Prentice. It would be easy, to just turn his back on all this crap, waltz out the door.
But there was Boddice.
And the money. Oh aye, there was that alright.
He sensed Boag and the twin waiting, watching him. Whatever he decided, he knew they would go with him. The bastards were too gormless to do anything for themselves. Spineless, Prentice had called them. Puppets. But he had included Kyle in those remarks. But it was Prentice who was spineless, not him. Prentice who’d walked out. Maybe McKinnon was right. Prentice couldn’t hack it. No balls. No cajones. Not up to the job.
He dug the heels of his hands into his eyes, pushed until they throbbed and he saw little lights forming at the back of his retina, blue and green sparks which fizzed and splashed in the blackness. He drew his hands down his cheeks and looked up to the glass roof above. ‘How long have we been in here?’ he asked without turning to the others.
Campbell looked at his watch. ‘Fifty-three minutes,’ he said.
Kyle closed his eyes. ‘Alright,’ he said. ‘What is it we have to do?’
***
Prentice walked to the security control room, his steps echoing in the bare corridor, unsteady and erratic. He had expected some sense of relief, of a burden lifted from his shoulders, the tightness in his chest and throat to have dissipated. He had made the decision. He was out of it. For better or worse, he had defied Boddice, had finally broken the bonds. Of course, there were sure to be consequences, retributions possibly. But he felt confident he could handle them, at least in the short term. And now that he’d done it, he felt there ought to be some change in his mood; if not elation then at least a lightening of his spirit. There was nothing. No easing of the pounding in his temples, no slowing of his heart. The darkness which gripped his mind remained – a heavy, oily dread sunk deep in his soul.
It was still the baby. It was still that. What he’d done (hadn’t done).
He kicked open the door to the security station, sending it crashing against the wall. The men hooded and shackled in the corner jumped at the sound. They scuffled and thrashed, struggling to free themselves. Muffled cries came from the sacks covering their heads; stifled swearing and pleading. Prentice moved in front of the men, careful to stay beyond the reach of their flailing legs and feet. ‘Shut the fuck up and lie at peace,’ he shouted, kicking one of the men in the stomach. They quieted. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Now just keep it like that.’
Prentice surveyed the room. The wreckage of the security computers lay on the floor, a half-full coffee mug – I Need My Caffeine Jolt! in quirky letters – sat beside the night’s paperwork piled on the desk alongside the anglepoise lamp. He pulled off his latex gloves and stuffed them in the wastebin in the corner. Fuck the fingerprints.
He pulled open the security office door, and walked out into the night.
***
Prentice took the whole flight of stairs in a single leap as he jumped down from the doorway to the loading bay ramp and ran towards the street. He didn’t notice the short dark figure sneaking along the wall behind him, a liquid shadow, just getting to the door in time to catch it before it snicked shut, and slipping inside with a smooth, almost balletic grace.
***
McKinnon went behind one of the display counters and fetched a carrier bag emblazoned with the gold flourish of the T&N logo. She looked from Campbell to Kyle. ‘You’ll need these,’ she said, letting the bag fall to the floor with a clinking of metal and plastic.
Campbell picked up the bag and looked inside. ‘What are these?’ he asked, fishing out a red and blue nylon strap with two D-shaped steel rings attached at either end. There were seven or eight of them in the bag.
‘Carabiners,’ McKinnon replied.
‘What the fuck are carabiners?’ asked Kyle.
‘Courtesy of our outdoor leisure department,’ McKinnon said. ‘Mountaineering section.’
Kyle flicked his gaze towards Campbell and back towards McKinnon. ‘Ah don’t get it,’ he said.
McKinnon took the carabiners from Campbell and fished in the bag for a few seconds. She brought out a different, larger metal contraption. Campbell thought it looked like the handle of one of those extending dog leads. ‘And this too,’ she said. ‘This is an ascender.’
‘Okay,’ Kyle said. ‘Similar question: what the hell’s an ascender?’
She moved to the bottom of the Arrow, shaking her head. ‘You don’t look the outdoor type, so I suppose it’s not that much of a surprise.’ She held up one of the D-rings. ‘Look,’ she said, pushing the straight side of the ring. It had a spring-loaded hinge at one end allowing it to open inwards like a clasp, forming a hook which she slipped through a hole in the handle of the ascender. She closed the carabiner and took the assembly to a brass-coloured cable which ran the length of the Arrow from floor to ceiling.
‘Ah never noticed that before,’ said Campbell, indicating the cable.
McKinnon manoeuvred the cable, sliding it into a groove on the inside of the ascender’s handle grip. The device was now securely fastened onto the cable. ‘This is how the maintenance guys do it,’ she said. She went into the bag again and brought out a harness attachment and hooked the other end of the carabiner onto it. ‘You wear this harness and you’re safe and sound as you scramble up. If you slip, the ascender holds you onto the cable.’
Kyle took the harness from her, pulled against the straps connecting it to the ascender. It held fast to the cable.
‘Now push it up,’ McKinnon said.
‘Eh?’ said Kyle.
‘The ascender. Push it, slide it up the cable.’
Kyle took the handle and pushed it up the cable. It went up smoothly.
‘Now pull again,’ she said.
Kyle tugged hard on the harness. The ascender again held tight to the cable.
‘You see?’ she said. ‘All you have to do is climb up the shaft a bit at a time, moving the ascender as you go. It moves upwards freely, but the mechanism grips the cable if it goes backwards. If you fall, it will catch you.’
Kyle and Campbell looked less than convinced.
She sighed. ‘Trust me. It works. You’ll see once you get up there.’
‘Aye, if we get up there,’ Kyle said. ‘Ah’m still not sure about this.’
‘Damn right,’ said Campbell. ‘How come it’s us that has to go up? Ah’m scared of heights. How can you not do it?’
McKinnon gave them a wry smile. ‘In these shoes? I don’t think so.’
‘And then what?’ Kyle asked. ‘What do we do when we get up there, get into this special room?’
McKinnon held out the stone from the Bubble. ‘You take this and swap it for the real diamond. It won’t make much difference in the end, but for a wee while at least they’ll think we were just a bunch of opportunist amateurs, that we only went for the display version. It’ll take them a day or two to figure out the one in the vault upstairs isn’t the real deal.’
‘And by then, we’ll be well away,’ said Boag.
‘Exactly.’
‘Ye still haven’t answered my question,’ said Kyle. ‘What do we do in the room? How do we get our hands on the real diamond?’
McKinnon drew Campbell and Kyle in close, put her arms round their shoulders. ‘That’s why we need the both of you.’
***
The cold seeped into John’s arse as he sat on the steps outside the hotel. He’d pleaded with the bouncer to let him wait here for a minute or two, take the chance to sober up a bit. Not that he needed to; he was very far from drunk, and the rough handling he’d received on the part of the hotel security after the little incident with his dobber and Lady Anne had focused his mind somewhat. The bastards had been right up for it, as if they’d been w
aiting all night for something to kick off and John had given them the perfect excuse. If it hadn’t been for a few of the guys from the stockroom stepping in, persuading the bouncers he was just wasted, he could have found himself on the receiving end of a right good kicking. As it was, John sensed the bouncer at the door behind him was biding his time, humouring him, waiting till the crowds thinned out a bit before he called up a few of his mates on the old walkie-talkie, dragged John round to the service entrance, out of sight.
For the moment, however, he was safe; there was a steady trickle of punters filing out from the hotel, flagging down taxis, singing at the tops of their voices (Christ knew what the residents in the rooms above were making of it all). One or two of the revellers spotted him on the steps, came over to offer congratulations, commiserations, express admiration, call him a bloody fool. There were shoulder punches, bearhugs, shaking of hands, shaking of heads.
John played up to it all, offering a crooked grin and a sheepish shrug, a slurred reply or two. Enough to make sure he was still visible, still someone who would stick in their memory later on.
He leaned forward, his hands dangling between his knees, and turned his head in the direction of the store. He couldn’t see it, but a shifting glow in the sky behind the intervening buildings gave an indication of where the Bubble hung, illuminated by the floodlights and lasers. He looked at his watch. Right now, this very second, the guys were in there. Stealing the diamond. He hoped. The fact that he hadn’t received any text on his mobile, from them or from Boddice, meant it wasn’t over yet.
***
The carabiners and the harnesses were all very well, but Campbell was still anxious. He and Kyle were about two thirds of the way up the Arrow and the floor seemed thousands of feet below. The upturned faces of McKinnon and Boag now looked like small pennies at the bottom of a well. McKinnon had given them head torches to light the way once they got through the hatch and Campbell felt unbalanced by the weight and the tightness of the strap against his forehead.
Kyle moved ahead of him, inching upwards, hand over hand on the recessed rungs. The nylon straps of the carabiners connected them to the lifeline of the cable. McKinnon had been right of course; the ascender contraption gripped the cable without any problem. If they slipped, they would fall only a few feet before being halted by the carabiners attached to their harnesses. Still, Campbell wasn’t entirely sure he trusted the whole set-up. The nylon straps, for one thing. They didn’t look as though they were capable of holding his weight if he was to go over the side. Plus, he would be left swinging in mid-air. Getting back onto the shaft didn’t look as if it would be too easy a task. He tightened his grip on the rung in front of him – let’s just make sure there’s no going over the side involved.