Mitch removed a ceiling panel and looked down at the eighth floor of Lawrence’s building. He felt his phone to vibrate on silent in his pocket.
“Damn.”
“What is it?” Adam asked.
“Phone.”
He reached for it, taking it out of his pocket slowly.
“Whatever you do, don’t drop it,” Adam said. “It just has to pass through that sensor below and the place will be all bells and whistles.”
“Yeah, thanks for that,” Mitch gave Adam a sideways glance. His eyes strayed back to the phone screen.
“John,” he answered, “everything alright?”
“Fine my end, how about your way?” John asked.
“All OK. Got to go though, we’re inside.”
“Call me when you’re done.”
Mitch hung up.
“That it?” Adam asked.
“No, I thought I’d call my mother,” Mitch grimaced. “I’ve got other operatives on the job, I need to take their calls in case there’s a problem.”
Mitch returned the phone to his vest pocket and secured it.
“Ready, Sam,” he said into his microphone.
“OK,” she started. “On each floor is a blue light motion sensor.”
“We’ve got that in sight,” Mitch confirmed.
“Good. What we need to do now is find the security box on the floors that we want to enter, isolate the wiring and use the laser beam to fuse through it to disconnect that sensor. Cool?”
“Right,” Mitch said.
Samantha continued. “When we find the security box, we need to pinpoint the laser beam onto the correct circuit and burn that area with the laser; it will shut it down and kill the alarm.”
“Easy,” Adam said frowning at Mitch.
Mitch scanned the room looking for the box.
“The only problem … ” Samantha’s voice broke his concentration.
“Yes?” Mitch responded.
“Is that there are two security boxes that appear to be linked on floor eight and two on floor nine – double the security, I guess.”
“Good,” Mitch said without enthusiasm.
“And on your floor, it looks like one’s a wall unit and the other is … in the telephone.”
Mitch and Adam looked down and around.
“We’ve got them. I’ll take the phone,” Mitch told Adam, “you take the wall box.”
“Now, Mitch, Adam …” Samantha continued, “we need to count it down and you need to be synchronized in the timing or one of them will read the other is not functioning and start the alarms. Once you give me the all-clear, we’ve got a window of a few seconds for me to isolate the eighth floor from the other areas so that the sensors don’t pick up that there has been a shut down.”
“What happens if they do?” Mitch asked.
“They could set off the alarms or override the system and turn it back on.”
Mitch frowned. “It can do that?”
“It can,” Samantha confirmed.
“OK, let’s get to it,” he said facing Adam. They crawled along the ceiling frames, removing two panels closest to the security boxes. Wedging a boot on each side of the frames, they lowered themselves upside down from the ceiling.
“Sam, I’ve got three telephone lines here, any idea which is the main one?” Mitch asked into his headset.
“No. My guess would be the one in closest proximity to the security box,” she answered.
“Guess?”
“An educated guess,” Samantha assured him.
Mitch selected the nearest telephone line. He reached for his laser pen. With a quick glance to check on Adam who was propping himself up on the security box, Mitch prompted Samantha. “We’re ready.”
“OK, let’s do this,” she issued instructions. “Adam, in the main box, find an input line with a yellow circle around it.”
“Hang on,” Adam surveyed the box, “there are a thousand buttons, lights and gadgets. Got it.”
“That’s the one you need to disable. Now, Mitch, you’re looking for where the yellow wire joins the blue wire, use the laser to burn through them. Try and slice the yellow cleanly off and avoid the blue. Basically, your laser light has to penetrate an area no wider than a pinhead.”
“Right,” Mitch said. “OK, go on three.”
Mitch and Adam, hanging next to each other, aimed their narrow pen laser beams at their targets.
Stay steady, Mitch concentrated. Breathe out, relax.
Mitch counted it down.
“One, two, three.”
Mitch tensed his body. Aiming for accuracy, he used one hand to steady the other, listening to the soft buzz of the lasers in the silence of the room.
Hold on, Mitch felt the ache in his arms. Just a bit longer. He tried to control the shaking and groaned with the effort of keeping steady.
“Done,” Mitch breathed out.
“Me too,” Adam announced.
“Clear and hold,” Samantha called, “both lights have gone to black … isolating now …”
Mitch waited for Samantha to do her part. He looked to Adam; they both hung in limbo.
“Done,” she confirmed.
Mitch and Adam swung back up and grabbed the ceiling beams, the blood rushing down their bodies. Mitch looked down, the blue beam had disappeared. He lowered his feet to the ground and landing with a soft thud, froze and waited.
“OK, Adam, I think we’ve done it.”
Adam dropped down beside him.
Mitch and Adam headed to the two nearest computers. Mitch looked up as Samantha lowered herself through the ceiling minutes later.
“You alright?” Mitch asked not taking his eyes from the computer.
“Fine,” she headed towards another computer terminal. “I’ll try and get you your external access so you can log into this system from outside the building.”
“Great. Thanks, Sam.”
Adam and Mitch waited while the computer went through its processes. They were prompted for a password.
“Password?” Adam asked.
Mitch fished a list out of his vest. He read the first one on the list.
“Try Mastermind.”
The computer rejected the entry.
“No go,” Adam reported.
“Try MM3,” Mitch suggested reading from the list.
They both tapped it in and gained instant entry. Adam dropped back in his seat.
“That was too easy. Who’s that stupid?”
Mitch shrugged. “Reverse psychology, maybe. I’ll get the Mastermind files. Can you get anything financial?”
“Done,” Adam agreed.
Mitch put a memory stick in the USB port and downloaded the files listed in the Mastermind folders.
They worked silently. Mitch glanced up occasionally, keeping his ear tuned for any noise.
“Almost done. Where are you at, Adam?” Mitch asked.
“Right behind you.”
“Sam?” Mitch enquired.
“I think I’ve done it,” she said.
They heard the lift doors open.
“Shit,” Mitch whispered. “Adam, Sam, log out, get up there now!” He indicated the ceiling.
Adam pulled his memory stick from the computer and turned it off. Samantha logged out.
“They’re going to notice the blue screens … they should be black in standby mode,” she panicked.
“Doesn’t matter, keep going.” Mitch rose and closed the system.
“Quick,” Adam called to Samantha.
She stuck the memory stick in her vest and running towards him, leapt straight into his cupped hands and he pushed her up into the ceiling frame.
“No time, Adam,” Mitch hissed. “Drop!”
Mitch could hear numbers being keyed on the pad outside the door as Adam dropped to the floor beside him.
That keypad sequence was supposed to cut the security. Please don’t let it somehow turn the blue sensor back on again, Mitch prayed.
“Sam, cover!”
He saw her slide the ceiling tile back in place.
Mitch glanced up at the door from where he and Adam hid below desk level. He saw the door open and the legs of someone enter the room. The lights came on.
Mitch moved to get a better view.
It’s a kid … can’t be more than eighteen. He watched the kid with a spiky hairdo, oversized jeans and a sweatshirt with hood, pull out an iPod, ram the earplugs into his ears and drop into a chair at one of the computers closest to the door. The kid started the computer up, pulling a memory stick from his pocket and putting it in. He sang along to the iPod.
Mitch and Adam exchanged looks. Mitch shook his head and looked at his wristwatch.
Nine p.m. Thank God we’re ahead of schedule, he thought and started to calculate backwards – according to Sam, the system goes into backup mode from midnight. Cleaners in from ten p.m. Ideally, I’d like to be gone by ten p.m. if possible – or worst-case scenario, dodge the cleaners and be out by midnight. If we stick with the first scenario, we have one hour to get out of here.
Mitch heard a machine whir nearby.
The printer!
Rising, the kid started around the desks towards them. The two men scuttled along the floor on all fours, Mitch followed Adam.
Go back the same way kid. We’re toast if this kid does a 360.
The kid grabbed the printout from the computer and returned to the desk the same way. Mitch gave a silent prayer of thanks; he didn’t want any casualties.
The kid sat back down again. Mitch and Adam made themselves comfortable.
Anthony Jenkins tapped on the keyboard in beat to the music from his iPod.
“That’s it,” he said out loud. “Log off and Anthony has left the building,” he announced in a low, monotone voice followed by an impersonation of a crowd roar. He grabbed the mouse – then froze.
Hey! This system was last accessed at eight tonight. That’s only twenty minutes ago. He looked around. Who was here at eight? He keyed in a number sequence. MM3. What’s that? I can’t access it without a password. Hang on, it’s linked to another site. He hit the link.
Anthony’s eyes lit up. Mastermind. Haven’t played this one before. He hit on a few links, reading information on the site. Cool! Should I report someone was in here or let it go? Probably all cool, they must have had an access card to get in here … but I could really use the attention for that senior programmer’s job coming up. If I had a bit of profile … you never know, he thought.
He pulled his memory stick free, logged out and stood up.
I’ll mention it to security; get some good kudos happening.
He headed to the door, glanced around the room and killed the lights, closing the door behind him. Mitch heard him enter numbers into the security pad on the outside of the door.
“Adam!” Mitch whispered. “The numbers he’s keying in might allow the mainframe to turn the motion sensor back on.”
Adam tensed. “Shit!”
“Get up on the counter!”
The two men jumped onto the counter.
As the kid finished entering the numbers on the outdoor pad, blue beams flicked around the perimeters of the room. Mitch and Adam sat perched three feet above the sensor.
“Close call!” Adam exclaimed.
Anthony Jenkins caught the lift to the first floor and found the security guard.
Solid white dude! Anthony thought as he approached, taking in the bulging arms and square body. Anthony mentioned MM3 and the security guard suggested he waited while he made a call.
That’s when Anthony should have run.
“Bloody hell,” Adam swore. “Stupid kid.”
Mitch was thinking. “OK, we’ll have to take a running jump for the ceiling. Sam, are you up there?”
Samantha pulled open the ceiling tile. She saw the blue light around the perimeter of the room.
“Shit!” she exclaimed.
“Doesn’t matter,” Mitch said, “we’ve got what we need from this room.”
“It does matter!” Samantha said alarmed. “If this room is back on, then it needs to be turned back on simultaneously at the main box. Or else, in five minutes it’s going to register as a malfunction and sound the alarm.”
“Move!” Mitch ordered her.
He watched her scurry out of sight on the steel beams in the ceiling over to the fire stairs to get one floor up.
“How much time did we lose?” Mitch turned to Adam.
“At least a minute and a half.”
“Sam,” Mitch spoke into his headset. “You’ve got about three minutes thirty seconds left. What can we do?”
“Nothing. Get out of there just in case.”
Mitch looked at the ground and up at the open part of the ceiling.
“Twelve feet roughly in length from the counter and over seven feet up,” he said thinking aloud. “We’ll have to run off the end of the counter and hope for the best.”
“We could try leaping from here to the next desk,” Adam suggested.
“It’s not much closer.”
“True.”
Mitch looked at his watch. “Sam, two minutes thirty seconds. Where are you?” He could hear her puffing through his head set.
“I’m on the ninth now. It’s going to be close.”
Mitch paced along the counter bench. He turned to Adam. “We’ve got about fourteen feet of counter as runway. Let’s get to it.”
Adam pushed everything to the side. Mitch, standing at the edge of the counter with the roof opening in view, inhaled.
“Here goes.”
He took four huge strides along the counter and leapt from the edge, projecting himself upwards and forward. He was inches from the opening. Stretching full length, he gripped the metal edge with one hand, raising the other to secure himself. He hung there for a second, relieved.
“One minute fifty,” he called for Samantha’s benefit, pulling himself up into the ceiling. “Adam, go for it.”
Adam went to the end of the counter.
“Sprinting was never my thing, I’m more of a cross-country guy,” he said taking off from the end of the counter. Copying Mitch he took a huge leap. Mitch moved out of the entrance to allow him to grip. But he didn’t. He came short by a few inches.
With lightning-fast reflexes, Mitch reached down and grabbed Adam’s arm. Adam jolted to a stop, pulling his feet up, short of the blue light. Mitch groaned as the impact put his shoulder out. Adam reached past him, grabbed the edge and pulled himself up.
Adam thumped Mitch’s shoulder. “That help?”
“No, thanks,” Mitch gritted his teeth.
“One minute ten, Sam. How you going?” Mitch’s voice broke into her concentration.
“I’m nearly there … getting into place,” she lowered herself next to the system. “Looks like everything’s still in order, but the eighth floor is blinking, registering as on.”
“One minute,” Mitch’s countdown continued.
“I’m there now … just finding the right wires.”
“Fifty seconds.”
“Got them … damn,” she fumbled. “Mitch, get out of there, we’re not going to make it.”
“It’s OK, Sam,” Mitch spoke calmly through her headset. “Slow down … breathe … do a step on each of my counts.”
“But …”
“Sam,” he snapped, “on my count.”
She slowed her breathing to correspond with his words.
“OK,” she concentrated, “ready.”
Mitch counted her back.
“Twenty-five … twenty-four …”
Separating the two wires that she previously disconnected, Samantha prepared them, lining them up to reconnect at exactly the same time.
“Fifteen … fourteen …”
Samantha took a step on each count; touching the wires, connecting the wires, applying equal pressure at the same time.
“Five …”
“All clear,” she sighed.
“Well done,” Mitch commended her.
Samantha closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She jumped to full alert as alarms began to wail throughout the building.
“What the …?” she exclaimed.
Hours had passed—five, six, maybe more—Nick had lost count on how long they had been at Broad Arrow. He looked out into the hallway, seeing Ellen bound to a chair in the front office. Colby moved in again, blocking his view, standing in front of him.
He felt another hit and saw the ground rising to meet him.
“I think he needs some more persuasion,” Colby said to Westwood, flexing his fist.
“You could be right,” Westwood nodded.
“Just don’t kill him,” Nick heard Daniel say. “Have your fun, but keep him conscious.”
Nick could see the blackness; he began to drift towards it. He heard Westwood speaking again.
“I think he needs higher stakes. Let’s work the girl over.”
Nick struggled to sit up. He blinked trying to focus on the men.
“Thought that might work. Welcome back, sunshine,” Westwood grinned.
I have to tell them something, Nick panicked. And get help. He remembered the tracker and struggled with the ropes binding his hands. Getting enough movement in his wrist, he pushed in the small button on the side of his watch.
Has Ellen already sent a signal?
Please Mitch, get that message and send help.