‘Yes,’ Ken said. ‘We need to leave.’
‘But, how did you know?’
Ken tapped the side of his head. ‘Retinal implants.’ He continued typing.
Louisa flinched as a thundering boom came from the direction of the flat’s entrance. Ken nearly fell off his chair. It sounded again, a sonorous clash of metal upon metal.
Boom, boom, boom!
‘The outer door won’t hold them for long,’ Ken sprang up, ‘but the inner door is two-inch-thick reinforced steel. It should give us enough time.’
‘Time for what?’ Louisa moved to prevent him getting past her. ‘Who are they?’
His eyes were wild. ‘I’m not sticking around to find out!’
‘Korehkov, maybe?’ Ed murmured.
‘Doubtful.’ Ken pointed at his eye. ‘This is his handiwork and he got what he wanted.’
‘Victor Korehkov?’ She wasn’t sure she’d heard Ed correctly. Surely they couldn’t be talking about the same man who had ordered her killed.
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Ken said. ‘In exactly ten minutes it’s not going to be in your best interests to be in this building so I’d advise you leave, now!’ He pushed past her and shuffled off into the maze of servers.
‘Louisa, we have to go,’ Ed said urgently.
‘My terminal,’ Louisa said, suddenly remembering where she’d left it. ‘I can’t leave it behind.’
‘What? Louisa, wait!’
‘We can’t start the car without it,’ she called over her shoulder.
Louisa found her way back through the server racks. She ran for the inner door, lifted the bar and yanked it open. The sound of whatever the men were using to batter the outer door was deafening. The door visibly trembled with each blow. She grabbed both terminals from the basket, then froze. The magnetic field! She couldn’t bring the terminals across without destroying them.
Ed appeared from around the corner and loped up to her. ‘That’s what I was trying to tell you,’ he shouted over the racket. He flicked a switch on the wall. ‘Now you can come through.’
Ed swung the heavy door closed behind her. As he slammed the bar down there was a huge crash as the outer door gave way. He pulled at Louisa’s arm. She needed no further encouragement and followed Ed down the corridor. He turned right this time in the server room and wound his way along a zigzag route that brought them into a small kitchen. Louisa could hear what sounded like a car engine now. ‘What’s that noise?’
‘Diesel generator,’ Ed replied. ‘Ken started it up.’
A diesel generator? She shook her head. Explanations would have to wait until they got out of the building. She followed Ed through several empty rooms until he stopped beside another reinforced door. This one was unlocked and slightly ajar.
Ed opened it carefully and stuck his head out, then motioned her forward. They emerged at the far end of the corridor from the first entrance to the flat. Two men were gathered around the door with their backs to Louisa and Ed. The banging continued as the rest attempted to batter down the inner door. She mouthed a silent prayer the two wouldn’t turn around and then she and Ed legged it into another stairwell. They flew down the stairs, Louisa grimacing at the agonising jolt she felt from each half-leap. She never thought Ed was capable of moving so fast, but he managed to keep up with her.
The stairwell led down to the tower’s back entrance. Outside it was still eerily quiet. She motioned Ed forward. They walked quickly towards the nearest housing development, but didn’t run so as not to attract attention. They didn’t take the most direct route back to the car, but eventually made it back to where she’d parked. Louisa breathed a sigh of relief to find it undamaged. She started the car, thankful her terminal appeared to be fully functional, and sped off out of the estate.
‘Why did you think the men were Victor Korehkov’s, Ed?’ Louisa asked.
Ed turned to look behind them. ‘Later, please. We need to put some distance between us and the block.’
‘No, I want to know. Seriously! Otherwise I’m stopping this car right now.’
‘All right! Just keep going, okay?’ Ed sighed and squirmed in is seat. ‘A couple of the times I was at Ken’s he was working on a new nano-tech project.’
‘What sort of nano-tech project?’
‘An experiment to subvert the ability of the sense strips to identify users.’
‘Let me guess. It’s something you put on your face to fool the strips into recording you under a different profile?’
‘Ken calls it a Stealth Mask. It works on quite a simple principal, really. The laser pulses the sense strips emit are normally reflected back from whatever they hit. Ken designed a smart gel which absorbs the pulses, deadening the reflection. Simultaneously it sends a generated pulse back to the sense strip based on a range of predefined inputs. He manufactured contact lenses using the same principle to counter iris scans. Combining the gel and the lenses allows the user to project a completely different biometric signature.’
‘Jesus, Ed. Do you know how much trouble the mask has caused? How many people have died?’
Ed looked suitably abashed. ‘Sorry, Louisa. Ken swore me to secrecy.’
‘You still haven’t explained how Victor got hold of the mask.’
‘Ken needed help sourcing certain…items he required for the project. Items which would attract a lot of attention if he was to purchase them through legitimate channels. A local guy he new offered to acquire them for him, no questions asked.’
Louisa groaned. It was all falling into place. ‘Baz Waters.’
Ed nodded. ‘Ken didn’t know Baz was dealing drugs. Two nights ago Korehkov paid Ken a visit and said Ken owed him for Baz dealing on his patch. Victor knew all about the mask. Baz must have told him. There was nothing Ken could do; he had to hand it over. The only reason Korehkov let him live was because Ken said he was working on even better tech to subvert the strips on a larger scale, not just for one person.’
‘He isn’t though, is he?’ Louisa asked, alarmed at the thought.
Ed shrugged. ‘Dunno. He could probably do it if he wanted. But he’s planning on leaving London before Victor comes back.’
‘Did Korehkov mention me to Ken?’ Louisa asked. ‘Or did he ask who arrested Baz?’
‘No.’ Ed shook his head. ‘Ken didn’t know anything about you. I never told him your name.’
Then how does Korehkov even know I exist, let alone want me dead? Killing her on the off chance she heard about the mask from Baz seemed a dubious motive, but what other reason could there be?
‘I don’t think those guys were working for Korehkov,’ Louisa said.
‘Oh?’ Ed raised his eyebrows. ‘Why not?’
‘They were armed with Israeli-made T–10s. They’re used exclusively by the Israeli defence forces for close-quarter urban combat. Not the sort of weaponry you’d find a London gang kitted out with. They only sell them to allied governments.’
‘Who were they then?’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’ It wasn’t entirely the truth, but she didn’t want to freak Ed out any more than he was already. They weren’t MET, but that only left one of the intelligence services as a viable option: MI5, maybe. No matter who they were or why they were after Ken, she didn’t want to become involved.
Or could they have been following me? She still hadn’t heard from the NCA yet. Had the intelligence services taken over the investigation instead? Did they have a case file open on her? Were they watching her right now, in an incident room somewhere?
No, they must have been after Ken. If the tower was truly in a huge dead zone then they couldn’t have followed her using the sense strips. They would have had to put a physical tail on her in order to track her movements once she entered the dead zone, and any car following them would have been easy enough to spot. The streets were practically deserted. Ed kept looking back. It was making her increasingly nervous. She glanced at the car’s rearview. The top of the tower was stil
l visible above the rooftops. ‘Ed, what’s Ken going to do? He won’t blow up the building, will he?’
‘What? No! He wouldn’t hurt a fly.’ Ed gave her a strange look. ‘Well, it’s highly unlikely anyone will get hurt.’
‘What was the generator for, then?’
‘Power source. The kit needs a substantial amount of energy. The generator builds it up to the required critical mass.’
‘What kit? What’s it for?’
‘For that,’ Ed pointed at the rearview.
Louisa glanced back. She frowned. She couldn’t make anything out in the mirror. It was a black rectangle now.
She pulled over the car. What she saw when she got out took her breath away. There wasn’t a single illumination, from streetlamp, traffic light, or building, as far as she could see in the direction of the tower. Even on the street where she stood, the lamps were only lit as far as the next junction. Then there was…nothing. It was like someone had snuffed them all out.
‘Ed, what did Ken do?’
Ed had a broad grin on his face. ‘Electromagnetic pulse. Every electronic circuit within its effective range has been completely fried, Portal tech included.’ Ed was literally bouncing with glee. ‘It was the only way to wipe all the equipment Ken had in his lab in one fell swoop. I have to admit though, it worked a lot better than we thought.’
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Louisa had always considered the concept of destiny to be firmly lodged between the realms of superstition and make-believe. Her dad always said she could achieve anything she wanted if only she put her heart and soul into it. Attention to detail, sheer tenacity, and an unwillingness to give up—the qualities every good detective required—resulted from that work ethic. Having a destiny detracted from the belief. If your future was set in stone, a predefined path over which you had no control, then why bother striving for anything?
Driving north out of London, predefined fate was in the forefront of Louisa’s thoughts. The events of the last few days had spiralled rapidly out of her control. Even now, driving to the far north of England—it didn’t feel like it was her decision. She was reacting to events, not directing them. She was determined to reassert control. No more being led around like a bull with a ring in its nose.
Ed had offered to come along, but she refused. She promised to call him when she had anything to report. She could tell he’d been relieved. Ed wasn’t the affirmative action type. He’d probably experienced enough drama at Ken’s to last a lifetime.
After dropping Ed off she’d sat in the car outside his mother’s house staring at the adjoining terrace where she lived with John. Happier times. She remembered the look on John’s face when she told him she was pregnant with Jess. Shock, joy, and unadulterated panic. He definitely hadn’t been a natural father to start with, but he eventually grew into the role.
Thinking of Jess triggered a torrent of doubts. What was she doing? Heading off when Jess was lying in hospital? She should be by her daughter’s side, ready for when she woke up. Or, God forbid, if she takes a turn for the worse.
Then Louisa thought about Claire. No-one had been with the girl in her last moments. She died alone. Louisa could only imagine how scared she must have been.
What would Jess want her to do? The question came to her as the sun slowly rose above the city’s skyline. As she felt the warmth on her face the last of the night’s shadows were chased away, and took her doubts with them.
*
Louisa was fifteen miles north west of Greater London when the signal strength warning flashed up the dashboard. She was reaching the effective limits of Portal’s network. The signal percentage gradually fell from five down to one, and then zero.
She was outside of Portal. It was a strange feeling. The car was still running, as she knew it would, but all the Portal capabilities were now gone. She couldn’t connect to the Traffic Subnet. The car’s navigation would probably have continued to work as both her terminal and the car contained Galileo receivers for global positioning. But she hadn’t input a destination. For all that had happened in the last few days Louisa thought she’d earned the right to be paranoid about who could be monitoring her profile.
She turned off the motorway at a sign marked ‘Portal Road Services’ and written underneath: ‘We cater for all your Portal needs—Portal registrations processed—Portal integrated car hire’. Similar stations were positioned all around Portal’s perimeter and served as stop-off points for visitors to London who wanted to be ready to access Portal as soon as they entered the city. They even had a few standard cars for Londoners who for some reason wanted to rough-it.
Louisa hired a similar model to her own car, albeit without Portal integration. She sat in the driver’s seat and reacquainted herself with the old technology. The car’s key fob inserted into the dashboard. It was weird not having the Portal overlay automatically popping up on the windscreen. The Portal glass had numerous driver’s aids she’d got used to having over the years. Even if VANS was deactivated Portal still accentuated the edges of the road and traffic lanes. Signs would pop up on the display indicating road names and an overhead mini-map would show an aerial view of the surrounding streets with colour-coded traffic flow state indicators. Even potential road hazards like pedestrians and cyclists were identified and highlighted. With all the information gone, the windscreen seemed…blank.
Her terminal indicated it had connected to one of the national mobile phone networks. There weren’t any sense strips outside Portal, but the terminal would still be reporting back her position and any calls she made on the mobile network. Louisa deactivated it and checked the prepay mobile phone she’d bought in London was still switched on.
Before she left London she’d called John. He was still at the hospital. Once he assured her there was no change in Jess’ condition she gave him the number of the new phone, saying she had to take a trip for work. She’d mentally prepared herself for the barrage of questions she assumed would follow, but to her relief, he wished her a safe trip. It was out of character. He never gave up when he wanted to find out something. It was his nature—probably why he enjoyed being a barrister so much. It renewed her hope that they could introduce a degree of civility to their relationship. If only for the sake of Jess and Charlie.
She desperately wanted to speak to Charlie, to tell him everything would be all right, but in the end she didn’t call Abigail. She told herself it was because it was too early and he’d still be in bed. But deep down she knew if she spoke to him and he grew upset she’d abandon the trip and drive straight over. You’ll see him again soon. Then you can make it up to him.
She’d bought a paper road map in the station and had it unfolded on the passenger seat. The front of the map was badly faded from being in the window for so long. The boy serving her had given a strange look. Maybe it had been part of a retro window display. The important thing was it had latitude and longitude coordinates along the edges. She marked the location given to her by Ken with a small X.
The weather had taken a turn for the worse. The temperature was dropping rapidly; snow was even forecast for Scotland. Louisa was poorly equipped for wintery conditions, having only brought a light waterproof coat. She turned on the car heater and ramped up the temperature to take the edge off.
Five hours later, she thought she was in the general vicinity of the X but she wasn’t entirely sure. She was properly off the beaten track now. The road twisted and turned. It wasn’t much wider than her car and was edged by hand-built dry stone walls. She slowed to a crawl, aware if she met another car on one of the bends she’d have little time to pull in. She’d passed a village a half an hour previously and regretted not stopping for directions.
She made up her mind to turn at the next junction and return to the village when she spotted a break in the stone wall coming up on the left. A driveway with a high wrought iron gate prevented her from proceeding any further. An intercom was set into a concrete pillar.
Could this be it?
It seemed strange to have such security in the middle of nowhere. Either way, asking for directions couldn’t hurt.
Louisa got out and tapped the intercom. The screen pulsed white.
‘Hello?’ A man’s voice boomed from the intercom.
‘Yes, hello,’ Louisa said, ‘I’m Detective Sergeant Louisa Bennett, from the Metropolitan Police. Do you mind if I come in and speak to you for a moment?’
‘This isn’t London.’ The man had a strange accent. Northern European maybe, but Louisa couldn’t place it.
‘No, but I would appreciate it if I could ask you a few questions.’
‘Who am I?’
Louisa hesitated, thrown for a moment by the question. ‘I’m sorry?’
‘It’s a simple question. If you want to ask me something in an official capacity you must surely know who I am.’
Louisa hadn’t expected so many questions. She assumed she’d be meeting with the person who’d sent the email to Ken. That’s why I was brought here, wasn’t it? Maybe this is the wrong place. But it was the only house she’d passed in miles. ‘I’m not here on official police business, exactly. I was given this location. It’s a long story. Better told face to face.’
The man didn’t take the hint. ‘Who gave you this location?’
Louisa considered her response. She was going to say White Hat but it sounded ridiculous, like she was looking for a character from Alice In Wonderland. ‘Kenneth Barry.’
There was a long moment of silence from the intercom. ‘Well then, you’d better come in, Detective.’
*
She drove along a narrow dirt track with grass growing up the middle. It meandered through a dense woodland before reaching the farmhouse—a small two-storey building that could kindly be described as utilitarian rather than picturesque. The roof was made from raggedly cut slate and the walls sandstone, long ago discoloured by the elements. Behind the house were two larger barn-like structures. The property was surrounded by green fields.
The London Project (Portal Book 1) Page 24
