Blackout (9 page)

He typed a quick command into the terminal and his program started to send out a signal to the virus.

‘Is it working?’ Charlie said.

Jack nodded. The virus had taken the bait and was now flowing to his USB stick. In a couple of minutes, they’d have it.

They heard hurried footfall coming from the hall­way.

Jack cursed and glanced around the room. There was nowhere to hide.

He looked at the USB. Its red light blinked as the virus transferred to it.

The footsteps sounded louder now – there wasn’t any time left.

Jack grabbed a coffee coaster from next to the keyboard and rested it over the USB stick, hiding the flashing red light.

He pulled his hand back and spun around just as the door burst open. Three men stood in the doorway. Two were guards; the other had a name badge that read ‘Night Duty Manager’.

He stepped forward and snarled, ‘Look what we have here.’

CHAPTER FIVE

The night duty manager and the two guards escorted Jack and Charlie down a wind­­­­­ing corridor, with the lights flickering on and off all the while. Unfortunately, they never went out long enough for Jack and Charlie to make a run for it. That, coupled with the fact that one of the guards had Jack’s shoulder in a painful grip, made an escape impossible.

It also seemed to Jack that the power outages were becoming more frequent. At least he knew his program was working hard at capturing the virus, even if they didn’t know how they were going to retrieve the USB stick once it had done its job.

As they walked, the night duty manager said, ‘Is all this your fault? The power?’

Jack glanced at Charlie and then at the guards. ‘How can it be
our
fault? We’ve only just got here.’

The man snarled. ‘And what exactly were you two doing?’

‘We got split up from our tour group,’ Charlie said, with a huge measure of sarcasm.

The night duty manager’s eyes narrowed. ‘Funny kid.’ He reached over and yanked both of their hoods and bandanas down. ‘Now the real reason.’

Jack tried his best to appear innocent. ‘We were just having a look around. We saw the power kept going on and off, so we sneaked in. We’re urban explorers.’

‘Try again, sunshine,’ the night duty manager said. ‘I wasn’t born yesterday.’

Jack realised they were not going to be able to talk their way out of this. He wondered if Obi had seen what had happened and told Slink and Wren. Would they escape before the other guards went to investigate? Jack hoped they’d all got away.

At the end of the hallway, the guards stopped, removed Jack and Charlie’s backpacks and threw them to the floor.

‘Hey,’ Charlie shouted. ‘Be careful with my stuff.’

The guards opened a door and shoved them inside.

The night duty manager turned to one guard. ‘Wait here.’ He looked at Jack and Charlie. ‘The police will deal with you.’ He motioned for the other guard to follow him.

The remaining guard smirked and slammed the door shut.

The lock clicked.

Jack stared at the door, then spun around.

They were in a small room lined with shelves, each crammed full of cleaning supplies.

Jack looked for an escape route. There was only a small ventilation grate – no way in there, and the suspended ceiling didn’t look strong enough to take their weight anyway.

There were no other doors.

No windows.

Jack tried his headset again, but Obi still didn’t respond. He looked at Charlie. ‘We’re trapped.’

‘Mm-hmm.’ Charlie moved along the shelves, muttering under her breath.

The lights went out.

Jack reached into his pocket, pulled out his torch and flicked it on.

‘Give me that,’ Charlie said, taking it from him and turning back to the shelves.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Reading.’

Jack frowned at her. ‘Reading what?’

Charlie picked up a white bottle with a red skull and crossbones emblazoned on it. ‘Labels.’ She grab­­­bed another, smaller, green bottle. ‘Hold these.’

Jack took them from her.

Finally, Charlie removed a large black bottle and a bucket from the bottom shelf. She put the bucket in the corner of the room, opened the black bottle and upended it.

The
glug, glug
of the green liquid smelt like pine disinfectant.

Once emptied, Charlie tossed the bottle aside and motioned for Jack to hand her the other two.

She rechecked the labels, opened the white bottle and tipped half of its contents into the bucket. This one smelt like bleach mixed with alcohol.

Jack screwed his nose up and took a step back as it started to hiss.

Charlie opened the last bottle and hesitated. ‘We need a few other things first.’ She set the bottle down and refocused her attention on the shelves.

After a moment, she opened a pack of cleaning cloths and tossed two of them to Jack.

‘What are these for?’

Charlie pointed to a mop and bucket by the door. ‘Dip them in that water.’

Jack walked over and peered inside.

There were hair and leaves floating in it. ‘It’s not exactly clean water, Charlie,’ he said, screwing his nose up at the brown liquid.

‘Just do it,’ Charlie said. ‘What do you want? Mineral water?’

Reluctantly, Jack dipped the cloths in the dirty liquid.

When he was done, Charlie took one of them from him and returned to the other bucket.

‘Right,’ she said. ‘This might not work.’

‘What exactly are you doing?’

Charlie pointed to the ceiling directly above her. There was a fire alarm – its red light blinking.

Jack looked at the bucket. ‘You’re gonna set it off with the chemicals?’

She nodded. ‘You might want to put that over your nose and mouth.’

Jack stared at the wet cloth. Yellow-brown water dripped to the floor. ‘Put it over my mouth?’ he said, incredulous. ‘Are you kidding me?’

Charlie held her own cloth in one hand and the bottle poised over the bucket in the other. ‘I’m not sure how toxic this will be.’

‘Toxic?’ Jack said. ‘Is this likely to cause any
permanent
damage to us?’

Charlie looked at the bucket, the bottle in her hand and then considered him for a moment. ‘Maybe.’

‘Great,’ Jack said. ‘Let’s just call for an ambulance now. Wait.’ He glanced at the locked door. ‘How are you so sure that guard will open it?’

‘I’m not.’ Charlie upended the bottle.

The liquid in the bucket immediately started bubbling and fumes poured into the air in a billowing plume.

The stench of chemicals made Jack gag.

Reluctantly, he held the wet cloth over his mouth and nose. The smell of dirt and cleaning fluid wasn’t much better.

The bucket continued to pour out grey smoke-like vapour.

Charlie wafted it towards the fire alarm and she stepped back, her own cloth pressed to her face.

For an agonising minute or so, nothing happened and the room filled up with more of the acrid fumes. It stung Jack’s eyes and he squinted up at the fire alarm.

Was it even working?

He could barely see the blinking red LED now.

Jack and Charlie both started coughing.

Finally, just when Jack thought he was going to pass out, the alarm sounded, piercing the quietness.

He heard the guard swear loudly outside the door and fumble with a set of keys.

Jack felt dizzy and had to steady himself against the wall.

Charlie grabbed two bottles of washing-up liquid from the shelf and tossed one to him.

Jack frowned at it. ‘What’s this for?’

The door opened and Charlie burst through, knocking the guard aside, catching him off balance.

Jack ran after her, chucked the cloth away and bent double, coughing and gasping for air.

Surprised, the guard staggered back as the fumes billowed into the hallway. ‘What have you two done?’

Without a word, Charlie scooped her bag up off the floor and ran.

Jack stood stunned for a second, then grabbed his own bag and sprinted after her, with the guard hard on his heels.

‘Stop!’

When Jack caught up with Charlie, she popped the lid off the washing-up liquid and squirted it on to the floor behind them.

Jack immediately did the same and they took a right, sprinting down another corridor.

There was a shout of pain.

Jack glanced back.

The guard had tried to round the corner, but had slammed into the opposite wall. He was now struggling to get his balance. He tried to run after them, but fell flat on his back and let out another roar.

Jack and Charlie carried on running until they reached a T-junction.

‘Which way?’ Charlie said.

They had to go back and grab the USB drive from the computer room.

Jack visualised the floor plan of the power station in his mind. ‘Left.’ He glanced at her. ‘I think.’

They hurried off in that direction, moving as fast as they could. They didn’t want to get caught a second time.

Finally, they reached the computer room and sneaked inside. The program must have worked and the virus was on Jack’s USB drive.

Jack’s feet slipped. He looked down. ‘Why’s the floor wet in here?’

‘Probably from the guards’ boots.’ Charlie hurried over to the terminal. ‘No.’

‘What’s wrong?’ Jack said.

She pointed at the empty USB slot. ‘Where is it?’

Jack’s breath caught. ‘I left it there.’ He glanced up at the camera in the corner of the room. Could Obi see them? ‘The guards,’ he said. ‘They must have taken it.’ Jack hurried over to the terminal and started to type. ‘The virus has definitely gone from their system.’

Charlie frowned. ‘Which means it’s on your drive, right? We need to find out what they’ve done with it.’

They heard shouts coming from down the corridor.

‘We have to go,’ Jack said. He plugged the network cable into the back of the terminal and made a mental note of the IP address.

They then both crept into the hallway.

The shouting was coming from their left. Jack and Charlie ran right, following the twists and turns of the corridor, up the steps, and back outside.

As they sprinted to the fence, Jack glanced up.

The guard was still hanging out of the window and his cold eyes followed them.

Slink held the wire on the fence open and Wren was already climbing into the sub.

Charlie ducked through the hole.

‘We heard the alarms and shouting,’ Slink said. ‘What happened?’

The emergency-exit door banged open and the two guards and night duty manager ran outside. They stopped and looked around.

‘Let’s get out of here.’ Jack ducked through the fence and gestured for Charlie and Slink to get into the submarine.

As they clambered through Stingray’s hatch, the night duty manager caught sight of Jack and for a second he seemed puzzled. It was probably the first time he’d seen a mini submarine bobbing on the surface of the River Thames.

He quickly came to his senses, however, and started running towards the fence. ‘There,’ he shouted at the guards.

Jack swung his legs over the hole and dropped into the sub. He closed the hatch, spun the wheel and sat down.

There was a sudden loud
thunk
above them.

‘What was that?’ Wren said.

Charlie pressed her eyes to the periscope. ‘That dozy idiot has just jumped onboard.’ Her fingers moved over the controls.

There was a squeak above Jack’s head. He looked up and gasped – the wheel to the hatch was turning. Jack grabbed hold of it. ‘Quick, Charlie.’

‘Diving.’

Jack struggled to keep the hatch secured. The wheel moved a couple of centimetres as the man above fought to undo it. ‘Hurry up.’ Jack’s arms strained as the wheel turned a few more centi­metres. The guy was too strong for him.

Suddenly, the pressure on the wheel eased and Jack secured it back into place.

‘It’s OK,’ Charlie said, looking through the periscope. ‘He’s gone for a swim.’

As they dived to the bottom of the Thames, Jack spoke into his headset. ‘Obi, can you hear us now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Please tell me you recorded all the CCTV cameras?’

‘Of course.’

Jack let out a small breath. He could always rely on Obi. ‘And you’ve got a recording for the computer room?’

‘Yeah, I’ve got it.’

‘Great,’ Jack said. ‘I want you to watch that recording from the moment Charlie and I went in there.’

‘I don’t need to,’ Obi said. ‘I was watching it all happen.’