Under Fire: (A Dan Taylor thriller) (26 page)

As news of the submarine’s demise filtered through to the gas facility, a loud cheer chorused through the controls centre. Engineers high-fived and walked around slapping each other on the back, the relief evident in their voices and body language.

Dan walked through the small crowd and crossed the room to where Grant sat at his laptop, frowning at the screen. He looked up as Dan approached.

‘Everything okay?’

Grant nodded briefly. ‘We’ll see. The first threat’s out of the way. Let’s see if the second threat is just as simple to defeat before we celebrate.’

Dan nodded and glanced out of a floor-to-ceiling window which overlooked the seaward approach from the Thames Estuary to the River Medway, then turned to one of the computer operators.

‘How long before the tanker arrives?’ he asked.

The man glanced at his screen, then his wristwatch, before pointing out the window and along the coastline. ‘About ten minutes,’ he said, ‘then you’ll see it come round that spit.’

Dan raised his eyebrows in surprise. ‘That fast?’

The engineer grinned. ‘They don’t hang about when they’re loaded. Gas contracts are based on supply and demand – the captain wouldn’t be very popular with the owners if he was late.’

Dan snorted. ‘The owners do realise they’re lucky they’ve got a captain and ship still intact?’

The engineer shrugged, reluctant to comment.

Dan shook his head and wandered across the room to where Mitch and Antonia stood chatting with the operations manager. He stepped next to Antonia, slipped his hand around her waist and hugged her to him.

She looked up at him, her eyes glinting. ‘We’re halfway there,’ she murmured.

He looked down at her and squeezed her gently. ‘I hope this works.’ He glanced over his shoulder at Grant, who was rushing from monitor to monitor, checking and re-checking the programmers’ work. ‘I guess we’ll soon find out.’

At a shout from one of the engineers, the team looked up as one to see the prow of an enormous LNG tanker emerge from the Thames Estuary and begin its final approach along the River Medway towards the gas facility.

‘Holy shit, that’s a big boat,’ breathed Mitch. ‘Reading the dimensions off a report doesn’t do it justice.’

Dan joined him at the window. ‘This had better work,’ he growled.

‘Well, if it doesn’t, you can kiss your annual bonus goodbye,’ said Mitch.

Dan rolled his eyes and strode over to Grant’s workstation. ‘Anything?’

Grant’s eyes flickered across the various displays in front of him before glancing down at his laptop, his finger hovering over the mouse, ready to deploy the anti-hacking software.

‘Not yet,’ he said, ‘but reading the reports from Ras Laffan, they didn’t even know someone else was in the system until the ship docked at the jetty.’

Dan nodded and stood behind the engineer, his arms folded as he watched the screen in silence.

Ted Harris appeared at Dan’s arm. ‘We’ve just received word from the Minister for Energy that he wants this gas pumped off the ship now,’ he said. ‘They’ve already got blackouts in Norfolk.’

Dan choked out a laugh. ‘He does realise we’ve got a bigger issue down here at the moment?’

‘Yes, but Norfolk’s where his constituency is, so he’s probably worried about re-election issues at the moment.’

‘Jesus. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.’

‘Okay people,’ said Grant, raising his voice, ‘take your places. Things could get interesting any time soon.’

The other engineers each ran to a desk and signed into the system.

‘Antonia – you’re on watch,’ called Grant. ‘Keep a lookout for any strange activity while these guys get that tanker hooked up and the gas piped off.’

Antonia held up her hand in acknowledgement, then concentrated on her screen, pulling up different views as her computer piggy-backed onto the engineers’ systems while they worked.

‘With no submarine to launch an attack, what’s the hacker trying to achieve?’ asked Dan, glancing down at Grant and noticing a bead of sweat working its way down the man’s face.

‘If anyone gained control of these systems, they could use the pressure in the pipes to damage the whole facility,’ Grant explained, using the cuff of his shirt to wipe his forehead. ‘Remember, the gas is cooled at minus one hundred and sixty degrees Celsius to transport it in a liquid form – this facility was designed to have that running from the ship through specially designed pipes to the processing plant. At the same time, it’s gradually heated and turned back into gas.’

‘It’s a very, very delicate balancing act,’ said Harris. He lowered his voice. ‘If the hacker managed to alter the chemical and physical balances we have here, he could cause a huge amount of damage through the whole system.’

Dan nodded, understanding. ‘And not just to the ship and pipework I guess – we have to protect the gas reserves stored here too, or else the people depending on it are going to die in this weather.’

‘Five minutes!’ called an engineer.

Dan glanced up and saw the huge Q-max tanker slowing as it crawled closer and closer to the jetty.

Grant glanced up at him. ‘Decision time, Mr Taylor. Do we try to catch the hacker and attempt to lure him out by allowing him to access the systems, or do we put the programme in place straight away?’

Dan began pacing the floor behind Grant’s chair, tapping his bottom lip. ‘How much time will we have?’

‘Depends on his typing speed,’ said Grant drily.

 ‘Okay, let me rephrase that,’ said Dan through gritted teeth. ‘If you spot the hacker deliberately trying to alter the pressure in the pipes, how soon after hitting the ‘go’ button will your programme kick in?’

Grant shrugged. ‘About five seconds if all goes well.’

Dan breathed out slowly, and then turned to Harris. ‘How fast does the gas travel through these pipes?’

‘About one point three tons per second.’

Dan closed his eyes and moved his neck from left to right, savouring the sound of a muscle clicking into place. He opened his eyes and breathed in, then slowly out again, concentrating on keeping his heart rate steady.

‘It’s going to be close,’ he murmured. ‘Stop the attack – it’s a bonus if we can catch the hacker too, but from what I understand, the forensic team can always do a search through the data afterwards and try to locate where the attack comes from.’

 ‘We’ve been hit!’ shouted one of the engineers. ‘My system’s just locked me out!’

Stepping back, Dan moved out of the way as Grant leapt towards his computer and began typing in coded information.

‘Talk to me, Antonia,’ Grant called. ‘What can you see?’

‘Typical DDOS attack,’ she said, peering over her computer screen at him. ‘Several IP addresses – it’s going to take me a while to track down the source.’

‘Okay, here we go,’ said Grant, flexing his fingers and beginning to type.

Dan watched, fascinated, as Grant’s computer screen blinked and flashed with the data speeding through the system. Although the anti-virus software had been explained to him, watching it hunt down the rogue codes in real time left him with new respect for the software engineer.

‘Shit.’

Dan glanced down at Grant. ‘What?’

‘This guy’s
good
. As fast as the software is finding him, he’s dropping off and appearing somewhere else in the system.’

‘Can you stop him?’

‘We’ll soon find out,’ said Grant. ‘I always did like a challenge.’

The engineer’s hands flew over the keyboard as he parried with the hacker. Each time Grant shut a valve in the system, the hacker jumped to the next down the line, causing the valve to open and shut quickly, in an attempt to break the delicate machinery.

‘Antonia – how’s the system holding up elsewhere?’ asked Grant.

‘Getting stressed,’ she said. ‘We’ve got three of the six SCADA computers out of action – the hacker’s using one of them to influence the others by the look of it.’

Grant began to type in the commands which would re-route the gas through the plant and jabbed the keys ferociously as he frantically used the controls system to close all the valves along the pipelines leading from the jetty, knowing the slightest breach would cause a catastrophe.

Dan glanced over his shoulder and out the observation window. The jetty was a hub of activity, with the ship now connected to the facility through a series of pipes. He swallowed. There were so many people dependent upon the man in front of him, and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do except watch.

‘Ah, now I’ve got you,’ Grant murmured.

‘Do you need my help?’ asked Antonia.

‘Hang on.’

Dan turned back to look at Grant’s computer as the software engineer suddenly switched the view on his screen to another view of the facility’s schematics and began typing furiously.

‘What…’

‘Don’t talk to me,’ growled Grant. ‘Not now.’

Clenching his fists, Dan held his breath as he frowned and tried to keep up with what Grant was doing.

‘Gotcha.’ Grant finished typing a final string of code into the system, hit the ‘Enter’ key and pushed himself away from his desk.

Dan’s head turned from the computer screen to Grant and back again. ‘What did you just do?’

The engineer grinned. ‘It suddenly occurred to me I could use the hacker’s own seek and destroy code to turn it on the hacker himself. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before – watch.’

Dan looked at the screens around the room as they all began to flicker, and then settle back to normal. ‘Is that it?’

‘Almost,’ said Grant, relaxing into his seat. ‘Now it’s kicked the hacker out of the system, the seek and destroy code will keep working in the background until it finds the real location of the hacker’s computer – it might take a few hours, but it’s going to freeze the network connection and your team of specialists will know exactly where and
who
the hacker is.’

‘So,’ said Dan, as he watched Grant sift through reporting data on his computer with a glass of champagne balanced in one hand, ‘what are you doing for your wedding anniversary next year?’

Grant spluttered, sending champagne shooting up his nose. He coughed, blinked and patted his chest. ‘We’re going away,’ he wheezed. ‘A
long
way away.’

Dan laughed and began to walk around the room, shaking hands and congratulating the team.

Amid the celebrating, he looked around for Antonia. He frowned, put down the two glasses of champagne which had been thrust into his hands and wandered over to Mitch, apologising to the person he was talking to before pulling him to one side.

‘Have you seen Antonia?’

Mitch glanced around the room. ‘No – I thought she was with you.’

Dan shook his head. ‘No.’ He looked around, then back at Mitch. ‘I’ll find out where she is – can’t have her missing the celebrations.’

‘No worries,’ said Mitch. He glanced across the room and frowned. ‘When Grant reappears, grab him as well and I’ll see you all back at the car.’

Dan threw a wave of acknowledgement over his shoulder as he left the room. The carpeted floor silenced his footsteps as he walked along the passageway, the voices of the team talking and laughing gradually fading. Dan ducked his head around office doors as he went, but Antonia was nowhere to be found. He walked a little further, and then saw a familiar figure etched onto a metal plate stuck to another door.
Ladies
.

He leaned against the opposite wall and waited with a smile on his face as he replayed in his mind the success of the mission. He frowned, glanced at his watch then eased himself away from the wall.

He turned at the sound of running feet. Mitch and Harris were approaching him fast, both with lines of concern etched across their faces.

‘What?’ Dan asked as they stopped.

‘I tried to catch you before you left the room,’ said Harris, sucking in deep breaths. ‘I was talking to Grant and Philippa about the attack on our systems while you were all celebrating – they seemed to think the attack happened from
within
the controls room.’

Dan glanced at Mitch, whose complexion had paled. ‘What do you mean?’ he asked, turning back to Harris.

‘It’s Antonia,’ said Mitch. ‘She’s the hacker.’

Dan’s head whipped round to face Mitch. ‘You’d better explain that comment.’

Mitch held up his hands. ‘David ordered Grant to monitor her work – no explanation. I think he just had a gut feeling something wasn’t right so, to protect the team, everything she worked on was recorded by Grant’s laptop. Philippa was just analysing it while everyone was celebrating.’

Dan took a step towards him, glaring. ‘And you
knew
about this?’

Mitch stepped backwards. ‘I didn’t say I liked the idea. I was under orders to let it play out in case David’s hunch was right.’

‘You bastard.’ The skin on his knuckles split open as his fist connected with the other man’s jawbone.

Mitch sank to the ground. He shook his head, tested his jaw with his hand, and looked up as Dan stalked off. ‘Dan – wait!’

Dan extended his middle finger over his shoulder, pulled out his Sig Sauer and kicked open the door to the ladies’ toilet.

‘Antonia?’ He pushed open the door a crack. ‘Are you…?’

His eyes widened at the blood spattered up the walls. His heart pounding in his chest, he edged slowly into the room, his gun pointing in front of him. He swung left, checked he was alone, and then right, his grip steady, and froze.

Blood was smeared across the floor, as if someone had been dragged or had crawled across the surface. A
lot
of blood. A lot of trouble.

The blood trail disappeared round a corner. Dan stepped over the blood, swung round the wall, his gun raised, then stopped, his skin crawling.

Philippa lay on the floor, blood pooling around her body. Her neck had been sliced open, the wound still bubbling blood. Her body had been dragged under one of the wash basins, her arms cradling her stomach, her eyes wide in shock and pain.

Fighting the bile rising in his throat, Dan crouched down and pressed his fingers against her neck, knowing in his heart the woman’s life had already drained out onto the floor.

‘I’m so sorry, Pip,’ he whispered as he searched her jacket and the belt of her jeans.

Her gun was missing.

Dan burst out of the washroom and ran up the passageway. As he moved, his mind raced. There was only one logical place Grant would be taken. He slowed as he neared the end of the corridor and edged round the corner. The double doors were open.

‘Stop right there.’

His heart lurched in his chest.

Antonia sat on the edge of the central control room desk, a gun pointed to Grant’s head. The engineer slumped in one of the high-back chairs, sweat beading on his forehead.

‘Antonia? What the
fuck
is going on?’ Dan kept his gun aimed at her.

She shook her head slowly. ‘Don’t, Dan. He’ll be dead before you finish pulling the trigger.’

Dan kept his gun trained on her. ‘Why?’ His voice was hoarse, little more than a whisper.

Antonia laughed – a short, brittle laugh which didn’t reach her eyes. She shook her head, slowly. ‘Poor Dan. Betrayed, coerced, tricked – you didn’t have a clue, did you?’

Dan’s mind spun. ‘The submarine?’

‘A suicide mission,’ said Antonia.

‘The men in there – the men who just died – do you have any idea what it must have been like for them?’

She shrugged, calmly keeping her gun pointed at Grant’s temple. ‘Everybody has to make a sacrifice at some point.’

‘If you shoot him, it’s over,’ said Dan. ‘He’s the only one who knows the data code, remember?’

Antonia smiled, reached into the pocket of her jeans, and pulled out an object. She held it up for Dan to see, turning it in her hand. ‘I have a back-up.’

Dan groaned.
The data stick
.

Antonia laughed again. ‘It’d be quicker if Grant programmed it in, but trust me, it won’t take me long to figure it out you know.’

‘But for what?’ asked Dan. ‘The submarine’s destroyed – the system’s already locked down. The gas is all piped off the ship now.’

Antonia shook her head and waved the memory stick at him, taunting him. ‘This is a switch, Dan – remember? It turns the gas off
and
on.’ She tilted her head. ‘There’s still enough pressure in those pipes to blow this place to hell if I turn the gas flow back towards the ship without them expecting it.’ She lowered the data stick and placed it on the control console in front of Grant. ‘This is the central control panel for the whole plant – they might’ve hit the ‘off’ switch down the passageway there as a safety precaution, but anything we do here overrides it.’

Dan’s glance fell to Grant, who nodded miserably.

‘She’s right,’ he said. ‘If we release the gas here, there’s nothing they can do to stop it.’

Dan looked at Antonia, his gun never wavering. ‘You still haven’t told me
why
.’

A cold smile played across her lips. ‘Money, of course. Power. Influence throughout the OPEC leaders.
Control
. We’ll have the whole world at our feet.’

‘We?’

‘Hassan is a very generous employer.’

‘He’s a madman. He thinks threatening the UK will force the United Nations to lift their sanctions on Iran,’ said Dan. ‘Except he’s not exactly popular back home either is he?’

‘He has friends of influence,’ said Antonia. ‘They will help him convince the leaders he is right.’

‘And so you’ve been reporting my every move to him all this time.’

Antonia shrugged. ‘We had to keep you close until we managed to speak to the genius here.’ She tapped the gun on the side of Grant’s head, and he flinched. ‘Although you threw that plan out the window when you rescued him.’

‘Which is why you wanted to be there – you were going to kill him if you got to him first!’ Dan glared at her.

‘Hassan will give me a generous cut of the profit he’ll make from his venture.’

‘There
is
no venture, Antonia. It’s over. He’ll dump you and run – same as he’s done with everyone else involved in this scheme of his. He’s using you. Please – put the gun down.’

‘I can’t do that, Dan.’ Antonia shook her head. ‘I’ve got a job to do. Enough talking – we’re running out of time!’ She dug the gun deeper into Grant’s temple.

He whimpered in pain, his hands hovering about the control panel.

‘Do it!’ Antonia screamed.

Dan felt his heart hammering in his chest. He still couldn’t get a clear shot.

‘Antonia.’

The voice came from Dan’s right.

Mitch.

He was standing in a second entrance to the control room, behind Antonia, his gun raised.

Antonia’s head flicked round at the sound of Mitch’s voice, her arm swung away from Grant’s head and she fired, once.

The gunshot filled the enclosed space with a roar.

Mitch yelled as the bullet struck him in the leg and he slumped to the floor, his fingers greased in blood as he tried to stem the flow from the wound.

‘No!’ Dan yelled.

In the split second before Antonia turned back to face him, Dan had his shot.

He pulled the trigger.

Grant yelled and rolled to the ground, covering his head.

Antonia’s body was lifted backwards across the control console with the force of the bullet. Her head rocked back with the velocity of the shot, before her body slumped to the floor.

Dan glanced across at Mitch, who held a hand up.

‘I’m okay,’ he croaked. ‘See to her.’

Dan ran across to where Antonia lay. The bullet had entered the top right of her chest, the ragged exit wound in her shoulder pooling blood into the carpet.

He crouched down, gently turning her body towards him.

She gasped, her breathing ragged as she looked up at him, her eyes trying to focus. Blood dripped from her mouth with each breath. Her hands grasped for Dan’s, seeking him out.

‘I’m here,’ he said and held her hands, squeezing her fingers, ‘Hang on, there’s a medical team on its way.’

Her mouth parted, her eyes urgent.

Dan knelt down and put his ear to her lips.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered, her eyes closing.

A last desperate gasp passed her lips before her body shuddered once, and then fell still.

Dan felt her neck, searching for a pulse.

Nothing.

A chill ricocheted through his body. He pushed past Grant, tears blinding him. He angrily wiped them away as he strode down the passageway and crashed through the fire exit doors, out into the car park.

He threw himself behind the wheel of his car and closed his eyes, forcing himself to breathe deeply. He could smell the faint signature of Antonia’s perfume in the vehicle, permeating the air around him.

The nightmares would return with a vengeance this time, he was sure.

He let his head drop into his hands, and wept.