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05:11 Monday 28 October 2069
It was still dark as the invisible and inaudible motorcycle pulled up about a mile from the prison. The lights of HMP666 were glistening in the cool night air. Michelle guided the motorbike into some adjoining woodland and once she and Buzz had dismounted, lifted it onto its stand. Buzz, as always, was full of questions.
“Why couldn’t we leave it on the road?”
Michelle looked at him like a teacher would look at a pupil who has just asked a foolish question.
“Just because it’s invisible it doesn’t mean it’s not there. All it takes is for a truck to smash into it and we’re stranded here.”
She gestured towards the prison.
“That’s where we’re going. You’re going to help me rescue my sister.”
“Cool! So what’s your plan?”
This was the point when Michelle had to admit to herself that she didn’t really have much of a plan. She didn’t know how she was going to get into the prison – or out again for that matter. Essentially she was winging it. She had a comms device in her ear that she could use to communicate with Adam back in Portsmouth, but that hadn’t been entirely thought through either. There were so many things that could go wrong. There might be no viable way of getting into the prison. She might lose communication with Adam who, in turn, might be discovered to be using his computer in an unauthorized manner. She might not be able to find Caitlin, in which case she would have risked her life and career for nothing. Worse than that, she had a ten year old boy along with her; what if he got killed?
“Buzz. I could really use your help but I have to be honest with you. What we’re going to do is dangerous. There’s an outside chance you and I could be killed. If you want to stay here, I’ll understand.”
“What? And miss all the fun? Don’t worry about me, Michelle. I’ve been killed before. It doesn’t worry me that much. I just think of every life as an adventure. That’s probably why I’ve lived more lives than the average person. I don’t mind taking risks, especially for a good cause. I was a bomb disposal expert in the Second World War and an active member of the SAS during the Falklands War in 1982. I live for adventure, me. And quite often I die for it too.”
Michelle found Buzz’s relaxed attitude to danger unsettling.
“Okay. I get it. You like the adrenalin rush. But don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Don’t worry about me, Michelle. I don’t set out to die, and I don’t do anything to speed my death up. But if it happens, I just see it as a new life about to start. And I certainly won’t do anything that might get you killed. Not if I can help it.”
The two of them started walking towards the prison. HMP666, like all prisons, had minimal security. The inmates were a no flight risk, due to their being kept in stasis and attempts to release prisoners were virtually non-existent. Not knowing about the brutally humiliating registration process, the British public had accepted that this method of incarceration was humane, and anyway it was used only for minor offences. To the public, the punishment was the inconvenience to the prisoner’s life. A prisoner who was sentenced to five years in stasis, and who had young children would miss out on five years of those children’s’ lives. That was quite a severe punishment for a parent and hopefully an effective deterrent.
Michelle heard a voice in her earpiece.
“Michelle? Can you hear me?”
“Yes. And you’re supposed to say ‘do you read me’.”
“I’m off duty Michelle. I’m not going to stick 100% to comms protocol. I have your electronic signature so I can keep tabs on you. Who’s the kid? I assume you’ve got a kid with you, or a dwarf maybe.”
“His name is Buzz and he’s going to help me get my sister back.”
“Okay. Give me a couple of seconds to register him into my system. It’s a prototype and we’re not supposed to use it yet, but I designed it so I think I deserve a few perks. Right - all done. About fifty metres to your left there should be a drain inspection cover. That’ll lead you into and underneath the building. Once inside I’ll guide you to the stasis chamber where Caitlin is being held.”
Michelle and Buzz quickly found the drain cover.
“Found it, Adam.”
“Once you’re inside, make sure you turn right. That’ll lead you to the prison.”
Together Michelle and Buzz heaved aside the cover and peered into the darkness. Michelle picked up a nearby stone and dropped it inside. The splash as the stone entered the water inside was almost immediate.
“Good. Not too far a drop. What can we expect to find, Adam?”
Buzz exaggeratingly palm-fisted his forehead.
“Are you serious? It’s a drain. We’re gonna get covered with shit and piss, albeit a bit diluted because of the water. We might find ourselves fighting off rats too.”
Adam tried to be positive.
“You three can take a nice warm shower when it’s over. Don’t worry.”
The pair dropped into the shaft and true to Buzz’s prediction found themselves knee-deep in water and excrement. It wasn’t the ideal way to enter the building, but needs must when the Devil drives. The drain cover was a little out of reach so they had to leave the entrance open, but this might be prudent anyway; they may have to leave by the same route - quickly - although Michelle hadn’t really considered a detailed exit plan. That’s why she persuaded Adam to help (not that he needed much persuading).
The moon was almost full and temporarily illuminated the darkness of the tunnel. Michelle pulled two adhesive LED lamps out of one of her breast pockets and handed one to Buzz.
“Stick it onto your forehead and it’ll switch on. We need to be able to see where we’re going. As soon as we move away from the shaft it’ll be pitch black.”
“Why is it sticky? Why not have a headband?”
“Headbands can fall off. This won’t.”
The pair stuck the lamps to their foreheads and the tunnel was suddenly illuminated. But they were not alone.
A couple of feet away there was an indent in the wall and they could see a large rat staring right at them.
“Don’t worry Michelle. He’s probably more scared of us than we are of him.”
Sure enough, the rat decided not to hang around and jumped into the water, doggy-paddling its way into the darkness. Michelle’s earpiece spoke again.
“Right. I’ve had a look at the schematics. If you keep going ahead for about one hundred yards you’ll see a fork in the tunnel. Take the right hand fork. That’ll lead you close to the stasis chamber room.”
Michelle was relieved that Adam had agreed to come on board. Without his input, they’d have had no idea which fork to take or what to expect when they arrived. Progress was pretty slow - walking or running in water always is – but the benefit was that they remained clean above their knee-caps. That is, Michelle was able to stay mostly clean. Buzz was up to his waist in excrement and water but it didn’t seem to bother him. He grinned at Michelle.
“Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. This is nothing.”
A few minutes later Adam told them to stop.
“You should be right underneath a staff bathroom now, Michelle.”
“Should be or am?”
“By my reckoning, you’re underneath a toilet bowl in the third of four cubicles. Got your grenades?”
“More than I’ll need, hopefully.”
“Good. Place the grenade right above your head.”
Michelle told Buzz to move back five metres. There was no undue pressure to use a short fuse so she set the timer for twenty seconds, allowing herself plenty of time to leave the kill-zone. She pressed the red button and sloshed her way back to where Buzz was standing. He grinned again.
“I hope nobody’s taking a dump at this time of the morning.”
“If they are, they’re going to get a nasty surprise.”
“Yeah. They’ll shit themselves good and proper.”
The grenade activated and a hole opened up where the ceiling of the tunnel and the floor of the toilet cubicle had been. Buzz gave Michelle a leg up and she clambered into what was left of the bathroom floor. She pulled Buzz up behind her. They looked around. All was quiet. There would certainly be a skeleton staff on patrol but they were nowhere near the stasis chamber at the moment. The prison had been built in Victorian times and updated every so often, but with hibernating inmates unable to escape, the security systems hadn’t been deemed necessary to be state of the art. As often happened, money for improvements had mysteriously found its way into the wallets of the staff and the administrative authorities.
Michelle was about to open the bathroom door but stopped herself.
“Adam? What about the video surveillance cameras?”
“One step ahead of you, my dear. I’ve disabled them already. And I’ve disabled the monitoring program that checks for malfunctions. Just call me Mr Wonderful.”
“Thank you Mr Wonderful.”
Michelle and Buzz stepped out into a spacious chamber full of stasis tubes which were separated at regular intervals by blue monitoring boxes.
“Michelle?”
“Yes, Adam.”
“Look for a blue box with the number seven on it.”
There were probably four dozen such boxes so Michelle and Buzz decided to split up. After a few seconds, Buzz called out.
“Michelle. It’s over here. Box seven.”
Michelle rushed across to where Buzz was standing, pointing at the box.
“Found it, Adam.”
“Well done. Count eight tubes to the right. That should be tube 0864-7. That’s Caitlin’s tube.”
Michelle sprinted over to tube 0864-7.
“Adam?”
“Yes, Michelle? Have you found Caitlin?”
“Adam... she’s not here.”