Lights Out

by Stopforth, W. J.

  Once they reached the top, Ryan turned and closed the vault entrance, every time relieved that an alarm didn’t sound as he heard the click of the door.

  Ryan began to relax. He knew that they only had two more doors and they would be outside, and it would be over. He reminded himself why he was doing this, and kept the image of Rob’s bloodied face clear in his mind.

  But instead of retracing their steps to the next door, Ghost Face and the invisible team suddenly turned left towards the service lift. Confused, Ryan followed, the dead weight on his back was beginning to pull down hard on his shoulders and dig in to his skin. He could feel sweat trickling down his back and beading across his forehead. He looked across at Lily, hoping that she could read the confusion in his eyes. She stood calmly like the others as they waited for the lift to arrive.

  Finally the lift door opened and they all stepped inside. One of the men pressed the button for the fourth floor and the elevator doors closed. The lift heaved and whined as it ascended through the bank, sending echoes throughout the empty building. Eventually the lift creaked to a stop and the doors opened. They all stepped out onto the floor and quickly walked towards some double doors to the right. It took Ryan just seconds to realise where they were heading. Everyone who worked in the building knew that this is where the renovations were being carried out, but this now confused Ryan even further. Why were they coming here? Ryan thought. Surely they needed to get the money out, and fast?

  Ryan blindly followed Ghost Face, Lily and the men into the room. Unsurprisingly the door wasn’t locked and there was clearly nothing of value inside. Upon entering the men swiftly dropped the duffle bags and helped Ryan to take his bag off, dropping it to the floor next to theirs. Ryan rubbed his shoulders with relief to be rid of his heavy load. He watched in silence as the men swiftly opened up five white and blue woven rubble sacks and in pairs deposited a duffle bag inside each one, quickly tying off the top securely with black cable ties. They placed the bags in among the other identical rubble sacks that had been filled that day. At a glance, nothing looked amiss. It was just a pile of rubble and sacks. Only the seven people in the room knew that there was a huge amount of money sitting unprotected waiting to be collected. As soon as they had finished tying off the last sack, Ghost Face tapped his watch and motioned forty seconds. When they exited the room, Lily was already at the lift holding the doors open. They descended the four floors quickly and silently. As soon as the doors opened on to the ground floor, all seven of them poured out and ran as fast as they could to the final door. Ryan was at the back, fear now superseding the panic that he had felt earlier. Pressing the red exit button, the last door swung open and they all walked through, no one waited this time to check if it closed behind them. As they drew closer to the main doors, they could hear the noise and excitement outside. Ghost Face pulled off his balaclava and stuffed it into his trouser pocket and everyone else followed suit. Ryan was relieved to take his off and momentarily enjoyed the coolness as the air hit his hot and sweaty face. Lily looked across at Ryan and winked as they casually walked through the door. The sheer clamor of the crowds hit them as they once again slipped past the security guard and exited the building.

  Ryan looked around him. He was immediately swept up by the hundreds of people surrounding the bank. Everyone was getting ready for the second count down. Ryan was being ushered by Ghost Face in the direction of where the car had dropped them off. They found it harder this time, pushing through the crowds against the natural flow of people. He turned to see where Lily was, so that he could talk to her, but she was already on her mobile phone and working her way through the crowds in the opposite direction to them. It was too loud for him to shout her name, she would never hear him over the deafening noise of people. The remaining four men had simply disappeared out of sight. Truly invisible. Ryan thought.

  People around them were chanting the countdown. “Ten, nine, eight.” Ryan turned once more to look back towards the bank, no one was following them, there was no sign of an alarm going off, and there were no distant sirens. He was truly amazed that they had pulled this off, impressed even.

  Ghost Face pushed Ryan forwards towards the car. As soon as they were in sight, the driver stepped out of the Mercedes and opened up the back door. Ryan looked at Ghost Face, and he motioned for Ryan to climb in. Ryan bent forwards and began to climb in to the back of the car. Suddenly he felt a searing pain across the back of his neck, he reached his hands up to clutch his head, but the pain was too much to bear. He slumped forward, a dead weight himself now, and the driver quickly slipped his black baton back inside the belt of his pants and shoved Ryan’s limp body into the back seat. Silently the Mercedes pulled away from the curb and began to slowly weave its way through the busy streets.

  “Two, one.” The whole of Hong Kong erupted at once as the City lights lit-up the sky again, erasing the stars and the darkness. The bubbly news reporter was beside herself with excitement as she eagerly talked into the camera, telling everyone watching what a success the Lights Out campaign had been, and now, Hong Kong had truly made it’s mark and was well on the way to wiping out pollution altogether.

  Chapter 15

  AUGUST 9

  Ryan lay heavily on his front, his breathing ragged and laboured. His right leg had slipped completely off the couch at some point during the night, and his right arm hung down low, the back of his hand gently touching the floor.

  The sunlight was bursting through the window and now rested on his face, burning fiercely under his eyelids.

  Ryan slowly started to wake up, but the throbbing on the back of his head coupled with a sudden wave of nausea rendered him motionless. He lay still for a few seconds and waited for the feeling to subside. In his unconscious state he had dribbled saliva out of his mouth and now Ryan was aware of the cool wet patch under his left cheek. His mouth felt dry, and he tried to wet his lips with his tongue, which used all of his remaining energy. He had a strange metallic taste in his mouth, which he couldn’t place and he held himself still again as the second wave hit him, disabling him once more. Once the nausea had ebbed away, he slowly moved himself into a sitting position and carefully rested his fragile head in his trembling hands. Taking a few deep breaths Ryan pushed himself upright into a sitting position and tried to open his eyes. The sudden shift of position made him dizzy for a moment and he kept his eyes closed tightly whilst he breathed his way through the black spots and the head rush.

  He opened his eyes to the glare of the sunlight and immediately the pain came searing up the back of his head once more and he shut them tight again. Ryan pressed his hands against his head to try and alleviate some of the pain.

  He tried to remain as still as possible whilst he attempted to arrange his thoughts. Everything was replaying at full speed in his head; colours, pictures and faces were darting in front of his eyes too fast for him to see what they were. Everything appeared jumbled and disjointed. It was like the worst migraine that he had ever suffered coupled with a hangover. Abruptly and painfully everything came rushing back into focus. Rob’s bloodied face, the city lights going out, the bank robbery, the black Mercedes, the pain on the back of his head. Ryan slowly opened his eyes and started to familiarize himself with his surroundings. He was a relieved to see that he was at least back in his own apartment, he was on his own couch and it was daytime. That much he knew for certain. Ryan carefully moved his hand around to the back of his head and he could feel a huge bump where he had obviously been hit. His hair felt matted, and he guessed that his head had been bleeding at some point. He gently prodded around until he located the wound. The cut didn’t appear to be too deep and the bleeding had stopped.

  Something small and white on his coffee table caught his attention. A pill bottle. Ryan reached for the bottle and read the label. Temazepam. He recognized the name immediately. A well known sleeping pill, a strong one, he remembered reading that somewhere. He shook the bottle, and popped open the round plastic lid, a few remaini
ng small white pills sat at the bottom.

  I’ve been drugged, Ryan thought, suddenly aghast. That explains the metallic taste, he thought.

  But why drug me? Ryan didn’t want to think whilst his head hurt so much. He was sure that he would find out sooner or later. For now, he was happy to be in his apartment, and happy to be alive.

  Ryan stood up slowly and resting his hand on the arm of his couch, he started to work his was around his apartment to check if he was alone. He was. His front door was locked and all of his windows were closed.

  Ryan walked to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of cold water from his fridge, which he drank in just a few thirsty gulps. The water helped to sharpen his senses and numb some of the dull pain in his head. He opened his kitchen draw and fished around blindly for some Panadol, hoping that it may just take the edge off the headache that threatened to remain. He located the foil packet, and popped out two pills, washing it down with the remainder of the water in the fridge.

  Ryan looked at his watch. It was just after 11am. He walked through to his lounge and switched on the TV.

  The same bubbly new reporter that Ryan recognized from the day before was talking into the camera. Ryan turned up the volume.

  “ After the great success of the Lights Out Campaign last night, we have woken up this morning to the news that the World Asia Bank was robbed during the eight-minute black out. At this stage the police are unclear of the details. The bank is closed this morning whilst investigators interview staff and members of the public. What we do know is that a large unconfirmed amount of money has been taken. Police are urging members of the public, or anyone in vicinity of the Bank during last nights event, that saw anything to please come forward. This comes just days after an armed man, suspected to be from the Mainland, walk into the same Bank and attempt to bypass security, which ended in a fatal shoot out.”

  Ryan switched the TV to mute, leaving the news reporter on the screen talking silently to the camera.

  Ryan sat for a moment weighing up his options. He probably needed to go to the Police, but first he needed to make sure that Rob was OK. He fumbled around for his phone and finally found it stuffed down the side of his couch. Punching in Rob’s number he sat patiently listening to the ringing tone. Eventually after several rings, the phone beeped and the answer phone clicked in. He listened to Rob’s familiar voice, asking the caller to leave a message after the tone. Ryan left a short garbled message asking Rob to call him back and clicked off the phone.

  Ryan considered calling Lily, then decided against it. He wasn’t ready to speak to her yet. What would he say if he did call? He mused. Hi Lily, I’ve just woken up, and by the way, why did you drug me last night and is Rob still alive? No, he thought to himself. They needed him to be asleep for a reason and until he knew why, he needed to tread very carefully.

  Next Ryan thought about the police. If he called them now would it still put Rob’s life in danger? His gut feeling was to call Detective Lam and tell her everything, but if anything happened to Rob because of his phone call. It would have been all for nothing. He first needed to find his friend.

  A scraping noise pulled Ryan away from his thoughts.

  He listened again. He was sure that he had heard something. He waited a few seconds. There it was again, definitely a scraping sound, possibly footsteps. Ryan walked silently towards his front door. He pressed his ear against the door. He could hear muffled whispers.

  Slowly sliding his body higher up the door, Ryan leaned in and leveled his eye with the security spy hole. It took only a second for his eye to adjust to the dark passageway on the other side of the door. Ryan could see what he thought was two uniformed police officers outside his front door. Ryan quickly snapped his head away from the small hole before they saw him and pressed his back against the wall.

  What to do? His mind was racing now, all thoughts of his throbbing head replaced with thoughts of escape. They had probably already found his fingerprints all over the Bank. He wasn’t ready for this. Knowing that he only had a few moments to make a decision, he tried to rationalize everything that was happening. He heard another noise and decided that there was no time to get caught up with the robbery until he knew that Rob was safe.

  In three strides Ryan was across the room and grabbed whatever he could get his hands on. His wallet, his keys and his phone and pushed them deep into his trouser pocket. He ran to his balcony door and fumbling with the lock for just a moment he let himself out through the full length, glass sliding doors and onto his small balcony. Now he could hear knocking on his door and one of the men shouting through the thick wood. ”Mr Harper, it’s the police, we’d like to talk with you, please open up.”

  Ryan moved to the edge of the balcony and looked down over the railing. He had three floors to go. He estimated that if he slid over the balcony he should be able to balance his feet on the handrail on the floor below and slide onto the terrace. Left with no other choice Ryan slid his body over the side of the balcony holding tightly to the metal railing above him. Taking a big breath for courage he dangled his feet below until he could feel the metal beneath his shoes. He then swung himself forwards and dropped down onto the next level.

  Only two more to go, he thought.

  Ryan heard more shouting, this time it sounded more urgent forcing him to speed up.

  “Mr Harper, we need you to open up. Otherwise we will have to force an entry”. The Policeman sounded more convincing now.

  Ryan didn’t need to be told twice. He followed the same procedure again and lowered himself down to the second floor balcony. The muscles in his arms were starting to ache as he swung his own body weight between floors. He balanced for a final time and then dropped down, this time landing on the grass with a thud. Just as he straightened himself up and dusted down his knees, Ryan heard the unmistakable sound of wood splitting, as his solid wooden door was finally forced open. He could hear the loud footsteps as the Officers ran between each room searching for Ryan. Ryan glued himself to the outside of the outer building wall, moving as fast as he could around the side of the building to the front. He hoped that if they looked over the balcony that they wouldn’t be able to see past the other balconies, which would hide him from view. As he edged his way around to the front entrance he could see a police car parked in the car park. He looked more closely to check if there was anyone else inside the vehicle, and was relieved to find it empty. Ryan scanned the rest of the car park and his eyes rested on the small security office with the yellow and white crime scene police tape wrapped around it. He felt a sudden sadness as the sight of the tape confirmed to him what he already suspected, that Mr Wu, the caretaker had been collateral in this whole affair.

  Focusing on the task at hand, Ryan needed to get to the main road and in to a taxi before the police officers could stop him. Catching a taxi on the road would be easy enough and then he could disappear into the city, which would give him enough time to decide what he should do next.

  Hearing footsteps and shouts behind him, Ryan was suddenly in motion, running for his life down the steep sloped driveway, resisting the urge to look behind him. He ran into the road slamming his hands on to the bonnet of the first available taxi that he saw, bringing it to an immediate screeching halt. He swiftly moved around the side and climbed into the back passenger seat. Still not daring to look back Ryan sat in silence as the taxi driver shouted expletives at Ryan in the rear view mirror. Ryan didn’t care, he slumped down as low as he could and accepted the barrage of insults willingly, pleased to be out of sight.

  The two police officers ran out on to the busy road and skidded to a halt. A sea of red taxi’s greeted them, snaking up and down the steep hairpin road. In vain they scanned and searched each cab as it drove past them.

  Defeated, one of the officers picked up his radio to report the bad news.

  “Detective Lam, he got away.

  Chapter 16

  2 hours earlier.

  Sarah Lam arrived at the Ban
k shortly after 9am after being notified of the robbery. She’d tried calling Chow a few times, but his phone was switched off which immediately irritated her. She’d deal with him later, she thought, wondering where he may be.

  She was taken inside the bank by one of the banks security officers to the entrance of the secure vault. The forensics team were already busy dusting for fingerprints and she could see that the bank had their own in-house security team on site, the area was full of people. She wondered for a moment if she would bump into Ryan Harper. As she scanned her the people around her, a familiar tall, grey-haired man walked across the marble floor towards Lam.

  Extending his hand and giving Lam a firm, but friendly handshake he smiled, which made his eyes crinkle in the corners, when he spoke to her.

  “Detective Lam, it’s good to see you again.” John McIntyre said in his deep gruff voice. “It’s a shame that it always seems to be under these circumstances. If you would follow me I’ll talk you through what we know so far.”

  “Thank you”, Lam replied.

  Lam was relieved to be dealing with John directly and not some other lower ranked bank official. She had met him briefly during her previous visit to the bank and had found him both amiable and helpful. She liked his calming manner and the way in which he made her feel respected. He appeared very laid back, Lam observed. Surprising considering the current situation. Lam followed John back to the main entrance.