Blackout (8 page)

Slink knelt down, rubbed his hands on the wet grass and flicked water over the keypad.

‘What’s he doing?’ Wren said.

‘Making it look like rain is getting on the keypad and shorting out the circuit,’ Jack said. ‘It’ll buy him the time he needs.’

Slink flicked water on the keypad twice more before typing in a code.

The light above the keypad turned red.

‘First wrong code.’ Jack glanced up at the guard. He hadn’t moved.

‘What’s Slink doing?’ Wren said, wringing her hands.

‘Three wrong attempts and a warning will trigger on the guard’s console,’ Charlie said.

Slink typed a second set of numbers and the keypad’s red light came on again, but the guard still hadn’t risen from his seat.

Slink pulled back and looked at the others.

‘One more time,’ Charlie said, into her headset.

Slink nodded and typed in a third code.

Jack watched as the guard looked at something in front of him, then got out of his chair and disappeared from view as he descended the steps inside to come and take a look.

Jack waved at Slink. ‘Go.’ He, Charlie and Wren crouched down on the sub, staying out of view.

Slink jumped up and gripped the roof above the doorframe, then hauled himself on to it.

The door opened and a guard peered out. He flicked on a torch, took a couple of steps forward and scanned the area.

Slink silently lowered himself to the ground behind the guard, backed into the tower and pulled the door closed.

The guard spun around, rushed to the door and rattled the handle, but it was locked. He cursed to himself and looked at the keypad.

Meanwhile, Jack could make out Slink up in the tower.

‘I’m here, Obi,’ came his urgent whisper over the headset.

‘Hook me in,’ Obi said.

Slink ducked below the window.

He was now planting a wireless USB stick that Obi could use to hack into the power station’s security systems.

Jack glanced back at the base of the tower. The guard was wiping rain from the keypad with his sleeve.

‘Hurry up, guys,’ Jack said into his headset.

‘It’s in,’ Slink said.

‘On it.’ Obi’s voice sounded calm, but then suddenly changed. ‘Oh, no.’

‘What?’ Jack said.

‘They’ve got internal firewalls.’

‘Use the Dragon program I wrote.’

‘Give me a second.’

Jack glanced back at the tower just as the door closed. ‘Too late. Slink, the guard’s on his way back.’

Slink’s head popped up and he looked around, obviously weighing up his options.

‘Obi, hurry,’ Jack said. ‘Cut the lights.’

‘I can’t. I’m not in yet. They’re well protected.’

Time was up
.

Slink ran to the window, opened it and climbed out.

Jack tensed. This was not the plan.

Slink pushed the window closed and hauled himself on to the roof, his feet disappearing just as the guard stepped back into the tower room.

‘Oh, brilliant,’ Charlie muttered. She turned to Jack. ‘I bet you wish I’d brought the rapid winch now, huh?’

The guard sat down at the computer console.

Obi said, ‘I’m in. Right, let’s see what we’ve got to play with.’

‘Take your time, big guy.’ Slink sat cross-legged on the roof, seemingly resigned to his fate.

There had to be a way to get him down from there, but in order to do so, they had to get the guard out of that tower again.

Jack’s mind turned over the options.

‘OK,’ Obi said. ‘I’ve found it.’

The light above the electric fence was still blinking on and off.

‘Are you sure?’ Charlie said.

‘One hundred per cent,’ Obi said. ‘I’ve isolated the lights from the fence’s main power. You’re good to go.’

Charlie stepped forward and stretched out her hand. She glanced at Jack, then tapped one of the wires. Nothing happened so she tapped another one. Finally satisfied the power was definitely off, Charlie slid a pair of bolt cutters out of her bag and set to work cutting the wires.

Jack looked up at Slink. ‘Just stay there. I’m still thinking.’

Slink adjusted his hood and crossed his arms. ‘I’m not going anywhere.’

‘And I’m guessing there’re no anchor points?’ Jack said.

Slink glanced around. ‘Nope.’

‘That’s going to be a problem.’

Slink bowed his head. ‘Ace.’

Jack looked at Charlie – she was still cutting through the fence.

Suddenly, Jack had an idea. He turned to Wren.

‘What?’ she said, noticing his expression.

Jack glanced back up at the tower. ‘Slink, is there anywhere to brace your feet?’

Slink looked around and said, ‘Yeah. Why?’

‘Do you think you could lift Wren up to you?’

There was a short pause, then Slink said, ‘Sure, but what’s the point of us both being stuck up here?’

‘I have a plan. Get ready, OK?’

Slink slipped off his backpack and pulled out a coil of rope.

‘Make sure the guard doesn’t see it,’ Jack said. ‘Feed the rope down between the windows.’

‘Ready.’ Charlie had cut the fence and folded back the wires, making a big hole.

Jack, Charlie and Wren ducked through the fence and sprinted to the base of the tower.

‘OK,’ Jack whispered. ‘We need to time this right.’ He grabbed the end of Slink’s rope and tied it securely around Wren’s waist. Jack spoke quietly into his headset. ‘Slink, haul her up to you. Understood?’

‘Understood,’ came the reply.

Jack turned to Wren. ‘Use your feet to keep yourself steady, stop yourself spinning and make sure the guard doesn’t spot you.’

Wren held tightly on to the rope as Slink lifted her.

‘Hey, Wren,’ Slink said through heavy breaths. ‘What have you been eating? You weigh a ton.’

Wren giggled.

‘Pack it in,’ Jack said. ‘The guard will hear you.’

When Wren was safely on the roof with Slink, Jack and Charlie hurried back to the fence and crouched down.

‘Slink,’ Jack said. ‘I want Wren to execute Oper­ation Handshake. Then you drop down the other side of the tower to her, understood?’

There was a short pause, then Slink said, ‘This is going to be funny.’ He pulled a penknife from his pocket and started cutting the rope, while explaining the plan to Wren.

‘Tell me when you’re ready.’ Jack stared at the guard – who was completely oblivious to what was going on above him.

A minute later, Slink had cut the rope into two halves, tied knots and said, ‘We’re good to go.’

Jack took a deep breath. ‘Count to five and lower her down.’

‘Jack,’ Charlie whispered, ‘if he drops her –’

‘He won’t,’ Jack said, but his stomach knotted with anxiety anyway.

‘Five.’ Slink braced his feet against the edge of the roof and held on to Wren’s rope. ‘Four.’

Wren was grinning as though she was going to enjoy this.

‘Three.’

Jack glanced at Charlie. She was biting her nails.

‘Two.’

Slink redoubled his grip. ‘
One.
’ He lowered Wren down.

Suddenly, she appeared directly in front of the guard’s station.

At first he didn’t notice her.

Wren thrashed about as though she was pan­icking.

The guard’s eyes snapped up and his gaze locked on to her. He dropped his sandwich, leapt from his chair, reached over to the window and opened it.

‘Help me,’ Wren screamed, and held out her hand.

The guard grabbed hold of it in both of his, went to pull her inside, but Wren slipped the second rope around his wrists and yanked it tight, so he could no longer move them.

‘Now,’ Wren shouted, and she held on to the window frame as Slink released her rope, grabbed the end of the rope that was attached to the guard’s wrists and leapt off the other side of the tower.

The guard shouted in pain as he was pulled halfway out of the window.

Wren hauled herself over him, ran across the room and opened the opposite window.

Slink clambered through and quickly tied the end of the guard’s rope around a stair rail.

The guard shouted as he struggled to pull himself back into the tower, but it was no use – the rope tying his wrists was too tight.

Slink removed his bandana and, with a lot of effort, managed to gag the guard’s mouth with it. He then gestured for Wren to let the others in. Jack and Charlie ran to the base of the tower. Wren opened the door and they quickly slipped inside.

As they passed Wren, Charlie smiled at her. ‘That was awesome.’

Jack reached the top of the stairs, walked over to the guard and unclipped a set of keys from his belt. ‘Right,’ he said, turning back to Slink and Wren. ‘You two stay here. Keep an eye on him and look out for more guards. Let us know if you spot any trouble.’ He turned to the stairs.

‘Wait,’ Slink said. ‘Shouldn’t I come with you?’

‘No,’ Jack said. ‘The more of us who go in, the higher the risk of being caught.’

The guard struggled again and almost toppled out of the window.

‘Careful,’ Slink said. ‘I’m not sure the rope can take your weight.’

The guard’s shoulders slumped as he realised there was no escape.

Jack and Charlie hurried down the stairs and back into the compound. Keeping low, they sprinted over to the emergency exit of the main building.

‘Obi?’ Jack said into his headset microphone. ‘Is it clear?’

‘Yes,’ Obi said. ‘The engineers and other guards are in the main control room. The corridors are empty.’

Jack unlocked the door with the guard’s keys, gestured Charlie through and they crept inside.

They moved along a narrow corridor with fluorescent light strips every few metres. Thick pipes ran along the walls and ceiling.

Jack and Charlie reached a T-junction at the end. The lights flickered on and off.

‘Which way?’ Charlie whispered.

Jack unclipped his torch and looked left – that way led to the main control room and according to Obi that was the last place they wanted to be.

Jack closed his eyes and visualised the plan of the power station that he’d committed to memory. When he was sure which way they had to go – he opened his eyes again and pointed down the right-hand corridor.

Charlie nodded and they jogged along it.

They took several turns, went down a short flight of steps, then ran along another hallway.

It was like a maze, made even more confusing by the lights constantly flickering off and on.

At the end of the next hallway, they stopped outside an unmarked door.

Charlie took the guard’s keys from Jack. ‘I hope you know your way out of here.’

‘So do I.’ Jack gave her a weak smile.

Charlie found the right key and opened the door.

Jack glanced around and followed her inside.

The room beyond was ten metres on each side and very hot. Fans from server cabinets whirred. Jack stared at them and wondered if they ran that hot normally, or was it the virus at work? He im­agined it moving through the network wires like sickness through the veins of a diseased animal.

He scanned the room. There were thick power cables disappearing through the wall. Obviously, the computers ran on their own isolated supply – probably the same generator that fed the tower.

That was a huge mistake, Jack thought. It would have been better if the computers had been shut down. That way the virus wouldn’t do any more damage.

He spotted a terminal jutting out from one of the cabinets and he and Charlie hurried over to it.

A network cable hung loose from the hub, where the techies had severed the link to the outside world to prevent more damage. Now the virus had nowhere to escape to – but that was just what Jack needed to put a stop to this once and for all.

He pulled out the USB stick with his program on it and plugged it into the main terminal. ‘I hope this works.’

Charlie nodded. ‘So do I.’

Jack smiled.

A pop-up box appeared on the screen.

‘Guys?’ It was Obi.

They both froze.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jack said.

‘We’ve got trouble. There’s a –’

A crackling sound made Jack wince.

He pulled the headset away from his ear for a moment and said, ‘Obi? You there?’

No answer.

‘Obi?’

Still no answer.

The connection had been lost.

Jack looked at Charlie.

‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘Power cuts again?’

‘I don’t know.’ Jack had one of his bad feelings. ‘Let’s get this sorted and get out of here.’