Blackout (23 page)

Jack kept an eye on the guards’ door at the end of the corridor.

Slink’s feet slipped and he hung by just his hands.

One foot swung past the front of the camera.

‘I saw that on their monitor,’ Obi said.

Charlie flinched. ‘Did the guards?’

‘No.’

Jack shook his head.

Charlie looked pale.

Slink regained his grip and pulled his feet back up. He shimmied along the pipes, then pushed open a ceiling panel. With a quick glance down at the others, he hauled himself inside and vanished.

After several seconds, he reappeared and gave them the
OK
signal: he’d found and severed the phone line, along with the main alarm. Now there was no way the guards could call for help.

Slink lowered himself back to the pipes and continued to shimmy along them until he was directly above the camera mounted on the wall.

Jack, Hector and Wren stayed back as Charlie reached into her bag and pulled out a telescopic rod. She extended it out to a metre or so and clipped a modified camera and projector to the end of it.

While she checked it was on and working, Jack motioned for Hector to get ready. ‘You’re up.’

Hector slipped off his backpack and removed his hoodie, revealing a long-sleeved white shirt underneath.

Next, he took off his shoes and jeans. Beneath them he was wearing white jogging bottoms tucked into white socks. He pulled a pair of white gloves from his pocket and put them on too.

Charlie stepped up on to the handrail and extended the device on the rod out to Slink.

Slink reached, but couldn’t quite grab it. He shifted his weight, held on by one hand and tried again, but still couldn’t grasp it.

Jack motioned for Charlie to step down. He unclipped the device from the rod, looked up at Slink and mouthed, ‘Ready?’

Slink nodded.

In one fluid movement, Jack tossed it up to him and Slink deftly caught it with his free hand.

Jack turned and smiled at Charlie.

She cocked an eyebrow at him.

Slink clipped the modified device to the bracket directly above the CCTV camera.

Charlie held up her smartphone and checked the display. The modified camera showed the exact same view of the corridor as the CCTV camera. Also, as it panned slowly left and right, the custom camera followed. They looked identical.

Charlie recorded the video as it moved back and forth a few times, then looked at Hector. ‘Ready.’ She handed him a swipe card with a circuit board on the back and a transmitter.

Hector slipped them into his pocket and pulled on a white balaclava. He was now dressed in white head-to-toe, like a strange negative image of a ninja. Except for his eyes, not a single part of him showed.

Charlie pressed a button on her smartphone and the tiny projector above the camera came on. It transmitted a recorded image of the hallway and she adjusted it until it perfectly overlaid the real thing.

‘Looks aligned,’ Charlie said to Hector.

Wren frowned. ‘I don’t get it. What’s the point of that?’

‘Watch,’ Charlie said.

Hector reached the bottom of the stairs and, keeping his face to the wall, edged down the corridor.

The CCTV camera swung in his direction and the image of the hallway was projected on to his body.

Hector’s white clothes acted like a projector screen. From Jack’s vantage point, he could see Hector clearly, because the image didn’t line up, but from the guard’s point of view, Hector was invisible.

‘Can’t see him on the guard’s monitor,’ Obi said. ‘It’s brilliant, Charlie.’

Charlie grinned.

She’d made the micro projector device a year back, and had been itching to try it out ever since.

Jack kept looking between the CCTV camera and to Hector edging up the corridor.

Each step was slow and precise.

And each second stretched to eternity.

Jack, Charlie, Slink and Wren waited, keeping as still as statues, hardly daring to breath.

Finally, Hector made it to the end of the corridor and turned to face the door. He pulled Charlie’s swipe card with the circuit board from his pocket and silently slipped it into the lock on the door.

He stepped aside and waved his hand up and down.

Charlie connected her phone via Bluetooth to the card. She pressed a few buttons and there was a click from the lock. ‘Got it,’ she said. ‘They ain’t getting out of there.’ She turned to the others. ‘Come on.’

They hurried down the steps.

Hector pulled off his balaclava and knocked on the door. ‘All right in there?’

‘What are you doing, you idiot?’ Jack said, storming over to him.

The lock rattled and there were muffled shouts and banging.

Jack threw his arms up. ‘Great, now they know we’re here.’

‘Why does it matter?’ Hector said.

‘Because the guards might have sat there for ages,’ Jack said, annoyed. ‘It was clean. Now they know we’re here and will try everything to get out.’ He shot Hector a contemptuous look and marched to the server room door. He opened it and gestured them all inside.

They now stood in front of the rows of server cabinets.

‘Nexus,’ Hector breathed, his eyes wide. He glanced at Jack. ‘I wish I had time to see it.’

Jack strode over to the main terminal. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a USB drive. ‘I’ll transfer the virus to this.’

‘Is that the same program you used to put the virus into Proteus’s servers?’ Hector asked.

Jack hesitated.

‘What’s wrong?’ Hector said.

Jack shook himself. ‘Nothing.’

Hector turned to the server cabinets.

Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out another USB pen stick and slid it into one of the sockets.

He took a breath and set to work. He typed a quick program, checked the code, and straightened up. A progress bar moved quickly, filling up with red. ‘We’ll have the virus in less than a minute.’ He turned around.

Hector was frowning at the server cabinets.

Charlie noticed him. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’ve been thinking,’ Hector said. ‘I bet they’ve copied the virus already.’ He glanced at the monitor and the progress bar, then back to the server cab­inets. ‘That’s what I would do if it was me. You know, just in case the virus escaped or something. I’d make sure there was a backup.’

‘How do you think they’ve done it?’ Charlie said.

Hector pointed to a cluster of cabinets at the back of the room. ‘Look at the connections. Those look like backup servers. I reckon they’ve taken a clone of the Nexus, which will include the virus’s program. We need to destroy them.’

Charlie looked at Jack. ‘He has a point.’

Jack stared at Hector and didn’t respond.

‘First, we need to pull out the wires from the backup Nexus to the main Nexus,’ Hector said. ‘Then we can wipe the hard drives and destroy the copy.’

‘Ok,’ Jack said, eyeing him. ‘Let’s see what happens.’

Charlie hurried over to the cabinets. ‘Open them all,’ she said.

Jack, Slink and Wren opened the front of the cab­inets and Charlie started disconnecting wires.

The main door slammed shut.

‘No,’ Slink shouted. He ran to the door and tried the handle. ‘It’s locked.’

Understanding what had just happened, Jack casually walked between the cabinets and looked through the window. As he’d expected, he couldn’t see any guards but on the window ledge was a chewing gum wrapper folded into the shape of a crow.

Hector stepped into view, on the other side of the glass, and held up a USB drive. He waved it back and forth.

‘What are you doing?’ Slink shouted.

Jack glanced at the computer terminal, but he needn’t have bothered, he knew it was his drive. In its place was a blue one. Obviously, Hector had replaced it.

Jack didn’t bother to grab the blue drive from the USB port. Hector’s program would have infected the system already.

Jack’s gaze moved back to the window.

Hector adjusted his headset. ‘Well, well,’ he said in a smug tone. ‘You’re all as stupid as I thought you were.’ He moved close to the glass. ‘I’ve won . . .
I’ve won
. You hear that, Jack?’ Hector straightened up and continued, ‘I suppose you’re wondering what’s happened to you?’

‘Not really,’ Jack said.

Hector’s eyes flickered. ‘Now, now, Jack. No need to be rude. No one likes a sore loser. I’m sure the others want to understand what’s going on.’ He looked at Charlie, Slink and Wren. ‘Right?’

None of them responded.

Hector paced back and forth in front of the window. ‘My real name is Quentin Del Sarto.’ He paused, as if letting that piece of news sink in.

Charlie looked at Jack. ‘Del Sarto.’

‘I’m glad you recognise the name.’ Hector’s lip curled and his voice was full of venom. ‘Benito del Sarto is my father.’

‘
Is
?’ Slink said. ‘You mean he’s still alive?’

Hector’s cold eyes moved to Slink, then back to Jack. ‘You almost killed him in that theatre. You left him for dead. The fire.’ Hector took a breath, seeming to compose himself. ‘My father is in a coma. He has third degree burns over eighty per cent of his body.’

‘He did that himself,’ Wren said.

Hector shot her a nasty look. ‘Shut your mouth.’

‘Hey,’ Slink said, stepping in front of Wren. ‘When I get hold of you, I’m gonna –’

‘You couldn’t do a thing to me,’ Hector snarled.

‘Oh, yeah?’ Slink moved to the window. ‘Open the door and find out.’

Hector laughed at him. ‘Pathetic.’ He looked at the others. ‘Now I have the virus, I’m going to finish what my dad started. I’m going to find this bunker of yours and destroy it. Then I’m going to expose your little gang to the rest of the world.’ He smiled. ‘Consider this payback.’

Hector spun on his heels and marched up the steps.

An alarm sounded.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Slink shouted above the alarm, ‘I thought I got that?’

‘You did.’ Jack rushed over to the computer terminal. He typed a few commands and the alarm stopped, but the damage was done. The police would be on their way.

‘Jack, I’ve been thinking.’ Slink leant against the wall and crossed his arms. ‘I’ve changed my mind. I’m not sure we should let Hector join the Urban Outlaws.’

‘Me neither,’ Wren said.

‘That goes for me too,’ Obi said in their ears.

Charlie was still staring through the window. ‘He tricked us.’ She looked at Jack. ‘He tricked us, Jack. How did that happen?’

The fans in the server cabinets started to speed up.

‘What now?’ she said.

Jack checked the computer terminal. ‘Payback is right,’ he muttered.

Knowing they’d disabled the main building’s alarm, Hector had infected the servers, triggering their internal alarms. He’d also planted his own program and it was now overheating the processors. Hector’s plan was either to burn the Outlaws to a crisp in there – like Del Sarto senior – or, if they survived that, the police would turn up and arrest them.

Either way, Hector had planned this moment carefully.

Charlie examined the door, but there was no way to open it from the inside.

Slink looked up at the ceiling. ‘There has to be a way out of here.’ But his eyes gave away that he knew as well as Jack did. They were trapped.

The ceiling was solid plaster and it had no panels, hatches, or air vents big enough for Slink to crawl into.

‘Hector’s got the virus,’ Wren said to Jack, her eyes wide and panicked. ‘We have to stop him.’

Jack held up a USB stick. ‘No he doesn’t.’ He yanked out Hector’s drive, threw it across the room, plugged in his own USB stick with the program on it and started the transfer. In a minute or so, the virus would be on Jack’s drive as originally planned.

‘What? Wait a sec,’ Charlie said. ‘Hector
hasn’t
got the virus?’

Jack shook his head.

Charlie pointed at the terminal. ‘It’s still on there?’

Jack nodded.

Charlie put her hands on her hips. ‘OK. How long have you known?’

‘Known what?’ Jack said with an air of inno­­­c­­­ence.

‘How long have you known that Hector was going to stitch us up? That he wasn’t who he said he was?’

‘That he’s a lying worm,’ Slink added.

‘I didn’t know for certain,’ Jack said. ‘Well, not until about five minutes ago. It was then that I guessed something wasn’t right.’

‘Guessed something wasn’t right?’ Charlie repeated, her voice raising an octave. ‘When? What?’

‘It was just before I plugged in my drive,’ Jack said. ‘Hector asked me if I was going to use the program I’d used to attract the virus on to Proteus’s servers.’