Lockdown, p.12
Lockdown, page 12
part #4 of Liars Series
‘I don’t trust you,’ Blanco said.
Reynolds looked hurt, but Blanco was pretty sure she was faking it.
‘Why do you think your witness is inside that building?’ Reynolds asked. ‘Is it because there are so many worried parents out here?’
Blanco’s eyes narrowed. Witness 0 was a schoolkid. Reynolds was implying that her source was too. Could be just a lucky guess. Or . . .
‘Does this sound familiar?’ Reynolds asked. ‘You receive an email. The sender says he knows who Viper is, but that it’s only safe to reveal that information in person. Then he goes dark.’
‘How do you know that?’ Blanco was shocked.
‘Same person, then.’ Reynolds didn’t look disappointed—in fact, she seemed relieved that only one person knew who Viper was. Maybe she had been worried about losing her scoop.
‘How about this,’ Blanco said. ‘I’ll give you his first initial. You give me his last initial. Then we’ll know if we’re talking about the same person.’
‘Agreed,’ Reynolds said.
‘J.’
‘D.’
Blanco sucked in a sharp breath through her teeth. They were talking about the same person. The message about Viper’s identity had come from the email account of JARLI DURRAS.
NEVER TRUST A SNAKE
Anaconda hated basements.
Firstly, because the ceilings were so low. At two hundred and forty-five centimetres tall and with shoulders more than a metre across, Anaconda already struggled to fit through doorways and had to stoop in most rooms. Basements tended to be even more cramped, because the builders never wanted to dig too deep.
Secondly, because they were windowless. They reminded him of the prison cell where he had spent eight years for armed robbery. The guards and the other prisoners had made fun of him, making gorilla noises from behind the safety of the shatterproof glass. Someone had thought it would be hilarious to send him child-sized amenities—a tiny toothbrush, a tiny pillow, tiny shoes. They had guffawed, seeing the miniature objects in his gigantic hands.
They had all assumed he was stupid. In their minds, ‘big’ meant ‘dumb’. But Anaconda was brilliant. He had memorised the angle of every surveillance camera, and the number of seconds it took each guard to get from one end of his patrol to the other and back. His hands may have been huge, but they were dextrous. When Viper mailed the set of lock-picks to Anaconda—cleverly hidden inside a child-sized laptop—he had already known how to use them.
Viper had told him to hurry out of the prison, but Anaconda hadn’t. He had made several stops on his way. None of those creeps would ever mock him again.
Anaconda carried the jackhammer down the stairs with one hand, and dumped it behind the incinerator. Then he measured. Half a metre from the south wall, one point one metres from the east. This was the spot.
He was supposed to have done all this half an hour ago. His run-in with those kids had been an infuriating setback. If he found them again, he would tear them to pieces.
He plugged the jackhammer into the power point and thumbed the switch to start the motor. The steel wedge shuddered back and forth like an electric carving knife. If the concrete floor wasn’t reinforced, he would break through to the tunnel below in about ten minutes. If it was reinforced, the task would take a little longer.
Anaconda balanced the jackhammer’s chisel on the concrete and started digging. Most construction workers relied on the weight of the jackhammer to break up the concrete. Anaconda weighed almost two hundred kilograms—when he leaned on the handle, the blade sank right into the floor. Chips of concrete flew like ice. A TOXIC FOG lof concrete dust rolled out under his feet. Sweat poured down his brow. No reinforcing steel. That was good. He would be out of here soon.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Anaconda quickly lifted the hot jackhammer off the floor. What was that?
It looked like metal, but not the kind used to reinforce concrete. It was a flat plate with a silvery sheen. The letter U was stamped in it, which was the chemical symbol for uranium.
Anaconda knew that uranium was highly radioactive. Exposure to it had damaged his pituitary gland as a child, causing him to grow to a spectacular size.
But judging by the colour, this was titanium. Either way, Anaconda wouldn’t be able to drill through it. He chose another spot—one step to the right—and started the jackhammer again.
Before too long, there was another clang. Another metal plate. This time he could see the letter D.
Getting frustrated, Anaconda tried another spot. Clang. Another. Clang. Soon he realised that the thick titanium plate covered the entire roof of the tunnel beneath, making it impossible to dig through. He and his colleagues were trapped here in the hospital, surrounded by police.
And there was a message stamped in the titanium plate.
Anaconda threw the jackhammer aside and screamed with rage.
BETRAYED
Something was happening outside. There was movement among the police. Bess pressed her face against the window, watching people collect equipment and strap armour onto their bodies. The crowd had been pushed back, further away from the temporary fence.
The police are coming in, Bess thought. No! Not yet!
If the cops waited five more minutes, the criminals would be gone, out through their secret tunnel. Bess didn’t want the bad guys to escape. But if they were still here when the police broke in, she didn’t think they would surrender peacefully. And then the hostages would get caught in the crossfire.
Bess started mouthing words at the police. Don’t come in yet! The bad guys are leaving! They’re leaving!
But it was dark out there, and still raining. Bess would be silhouetted by the fluorescent lights behind her. None of the police were close enough to read her lips. It didn’t even look like anyone had noticed that she was trying to communicate.
She couldn’t warn the police.
But she could warn the criminals.
A sick feeling formed in her guts, like a sea monster emerging from the deep. The criminals hadn’t noticed the activity outside. If Bess told them that the police were about to come in, that might make them leave more quickly. The hostages would be less likely to get hurt.
Or the criminals might start preparing for the assault instead. A police officer might get shot with a crossbow bolt, or blown up by a grenade. And it would be Bess’s fault. More blood on her hands.
Mr Hayes was distracted—he was whispering to another student. If Bess was going to warn the criminals about the impending invasion without him stopping her, now was the time.
She didn’t. She decided to keep her mouth shut, and hope like crazy that no-one got hurt.
The jammer phone rang.
Bess jumped. The tension was killing her. In the reflection, she saw Taipan answer the phone.
‘Anaconda,’ he said. ‘Have you made it through into the tunnel?’
There was a pause. As he listened, Taipan’s face turned purple with anger.
‘If you’re lying to me . . he began. Bess didn’t need to read his lips. Everyone in the room could hear him.
There was another pause.
‘What?’ Mamba demanded.
Taipan raised a hand, silencing her. Then he said, ‘Fine. Go up to Theatre One. Kill Plowman. If Viper wants him alive, I want him dead. Let me know when it’s done.’
Bess gasped. So did several other students.
Taipan ended the call. He was about to pocket the phone when Rattler grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall. ‘Are you crazy?’ she snarled. ‘If we betray Viper—’
‘Viper betrayed us,’ Taipan said. ‘He’s sealed up the tunnel with titanium plates. Anaconda can’t dig through. We don’t have a way out.’
‘Why would Viper do that?’ Mamba demanded.
‘Anaconda said there was a message about Malburse. Maybe Viper knew one of the people who died there. This is his revenge.’
‘That doesn’t make sense,’ Mamba said. ‘If we get caught, the cops could use us to identify him.’
Taipan said nothing.
‘Because you know his real name,’ Mamba continued. ‘Right?’
‘No,’ Taipan muttered.
‘But you at least know what he looks like.’ There was a warning tone in Mamba’s voice. ‘Because you told us you met him. Remember?’
Taipan was silent.
Mamba suddenly aimed her crossbow at Taipan’s head. ‘You sneaky, stupid little—’
‘Hey!’ Taipan raised his hands. ‘How was I supposed to know Viper would do this? His jobs have always gone smoothly in the past.’
Rattler was aghast. ‘You have us working for someone you’ve never even met?’
‘You need me,’ Taipan said. ‘If you think you can face the police with a just a sword and a crossbow—’
‘You’re right,’ Rattler said. ‘We’re much better off with a sword, a crossbow and an idiot.’
Bess had changed her mind. This was the perfect time for the police to attack, while the criminals were distracted.
Now, she mouthed at the window. Come now!
But once again, no-one saw.
‘We can demand a vehicle in exchange for releasing most of the hostages,’ Taipan said. ‘We take one hostage with us so the police can’t attack it on the way.’
‘And drive where, genius? The police will just follow. They have helicopters.’
‘You know me—I always have a plan B. Remember the last job? The rocket Viper asked us to steal? I took two, and stashed the spare outside of town. Anything that follows us, we can shoot it out of the sky.’
Mr Hayes nudged Bess with his foot. ‘Hey,’ he muttered. ‘Get ready to run. As fast as you can.’
‘What? Where?’ Bess whispered back.
‘Follow the other kids, and the hospital staff. They’re going to run through those double doors, deeper into the hospital. You’ll probably be last through—don’t wait for me. You can lock the doors from the other side, and trap the criminals in here. Then when the police come in, they can’t use you guys as human shields.’
Bess didn’t understand. ‘But we’ll never get past them!’
Hayes swallowed. ‘I’m going to keep them busy.’
‘How?’
‘Just trust me.’ Hayes stood up.
Mamba noticed first. ‘Hey!’ she snapped. ‘Sit back down.’
The PE teacher cleared his throat. ‘No.’
Mamba stormed over to him, crossbow raised. ‘You picked a really bad time to make me mad,’ she said. ‘You have five seconds to get back on the ground.’
‘It’s my job to look after these kids,’ Hayes said.
‘I can’t let you take any of them with you.’
‘You seem to be forgetting who’s boss around here.’ Mamba moved closer, flanked by Taipan. At this range, she couldn’t possibly miss. ‘Five,’ she said. ‘Four. Three—’
‘OK, OK.’ Hayes bent over, like he was going to sit . . .
But then he lashed out with one of his lanky arms and grabbed the crossbow.
Mamba pulled the trigger. But the mechanism jammed, catching on Hayes’s hand. Hayes grunted as the bow slapped his fingers. The crossbow bolt fell out instead of firing, jingling harmlessly to the floor. Then Hayes—still with the crossbow tangled around his hand—tackled Taipan.
As both men hit the ground, the other hostages all dashed towards the double doors. Bess wasn’t the only one Hayes had warned. Everyone knew the plan.
Bess limped after them as quickly as she could. It was her worst nightmare—her life depended on staying with the group, and everyone else was too fast. She couldn’t even keep up with the elderly patients. She was the fish right on the edge of the school, about to get swallowed by a shark. Doug wouldn’t have left her behind. But Doug was gone.
Bess sneaked a glance back as she hobbled towards the doors. Mamba and Taipan were both wrestling with Hayes, fighting for control of the crossbow.
But Rattler was chasing the kids instead. She knew that without hostages, there was no way to escape through the police cordon.
Rattler was fast. She ignored Bess completely, overtaking her and catching up to the other students with ease. Perhaps she didn’t think Bess was a threat.
She was wrong.
Rattler raised her sword as she ran. It looked like she was going to slash at the knees of the screaming kids, stopping them from running away.
Bess swung one of her crutches at Rattler’s ankles. Thwack! Rattler stumbled, but didn’t fall. Her sword whipped harmlessly through the air.
Rattler whirled around to see Bess balanced on one crutch and holding the other like a baseball bat.
‘Don’t mess with me, kid,’ she snarled.
‘Don’t mess with me!’ Bess said, and swung the crutch at Rattler’s head with all her strength.
Rattler expertly parried the blow aside. The leftover momentum nearly knocked Bess over. By the time she regained her balance, Rattler was driving the cutlass towards her face.
Bess raised her crutch. Clang! The impact sent SHOCKWAVES up her arm. She staggered backwards.
Rattler was already attacking again, this time stabbing at Bess’s heart. It was even worse than when her parents made her try fencing. This time she had no mesh mask, or hard plastic bib.
Bess twisted aside. The sword missed her, but caught her shirt. The blade was so sharp that she didn’t even feel the tug as it sliced through the fabric.
The rest of the students had escaped through the double doors, but it didn’t look like they had locked them. Come on, guys! Bess thought. Remember the plan!
Rattler swung the blade sideways towards Bess’s throat. Bess raised her crutch just in time. Clang! The collision took a chip out of her aluminium crutch. The cutlass looked unharmed.
Bess couldn’t take much more of this. She had brought a crutch to a swordfight. If she didn’t end this soon, she would end up skewered on that blade.
With a cry of rage, she raised both crutches, wobbling just on her legs. She swung her crutches inwards towards Rattler’s skull, attacking from both sides. Rattler wouldn’t be able to block both.
But just as the blow was about to connect, Bess felt a hand grab the back of her tattered shirt and pull. She lost her balance and tumbled over backwards. Her crutches swooped harmlessly through the air, and then she crashed to the floor on her back.
‘Ow,’ she groaned.
She found herself lying next to Hayes, who was facedown with Mamba’s boot on his back, pinning him to the floor. Taipan stood on the other side—it must have been him who grabbed Bess.
The flesh around one of Hayes’s eyes was swollen, and he had a split lip. ‘That was brave,’ he told Bess.
‘You too,’ Bess said, which didn’t quite make sense, but she hoped he would know what she meant.
She heard the locks click in the double doors. At least the other kids had escaped.
GASLIGHTING
‘Any progress?’ Anya asked.
Jarli ground his teeth together. ‘I’ve done about twenty centimetres.’
‘We cannot climb through a ten-centimetre hole.’
‘Oh, really? I’d better keep going then.’
It was maddening work. The laser scalpel melted the window as it cut through, so the two sides of the slice kept fusing back together. When Jarli had tried to wipe away the liquid glass with some tissues, they had simply burst into flames. If not for the hazmat suit, he would have been scorched. His new plan was to cut around the edges of the window, separating the glass from the metal frame. That seemed more effective, but it was taking way too long.
‘I only have eighteen minutes of air left,’ Anya said.
‘Me too,’ Jarli lied. Anya’s phone didn’t beep— maybe it couldn’t hear him through the suit. The HUD on his visor said he had only ten minutes of air. Because of the heat, and the strain of holding up the heavy laser, he was using it up much faster than Anya.
He tried to focus on his breathing, slowing it down. His hands kept shaking. Was it just the effort of lifting the scalpel? Or was it the deadly botulism-H toxin taking hold, paralysing his muscles?
‘Once we get outside,’ Anya said, ‘we still cannot take these suits off. That might expose others to the toxin.’
‘The cops will have something airtight, right? They must. Like an oxygen tent or whatever.’ Or a body bag, he thought. But it would have felt like jinxing themselves to say it out loud.
‘There’s a big oxygen tank outside. I saw it on the way in.’
‘You think we can refill our suits once we’re out there?’ Jarli was doubtful. The big tank marked O2 had been connected to the wall of the hospital by a narrow pipe, but he hadn’t seen a tap or anything.
‘Maybe we can do it in here.’ Anya examined the wall next to Jarli. ‘Look.’
Jarli glanced away from the laser for a second. Anya was pointing at something which looked like a power point. But the two outlets were round, and were marked OXYGEN and NITROUS OXIDE.
Jarli went back to cutting the glass. Thirty centimetres now.
‘I don’t know how to connect our air tanks to that,’ he said. ‘See if you can figure it out. But don’t get the outlets mixed up. You don’t want to fill your tank with laughing gas.’
Anya bent down to study the outlets. ‘It looks—’
Smash! Something huge flew through the air and shattered against the wall, narrowly missing Jarli’s head. Sharp tools rained down on the floor. Someone had picked up an operating table and thrown it at him!
‘Found you!’ a voice roared.
Jarli spun around in time to see Anaconda sprinting across the theatre towards him like a charging elephant.
Anaconda’s face was twisted into a mask of rage. Veins stood out on his tremendous forehead. His boots slammed the ground so hard that the floor shook.
‘You’re dead!’ the giant snarled.
