Robin hood 5, p.4
Robin Hood 5, page 4
Will and Emma expected to see a girlfriend or child when Lairde unlocked his phone to show a picture. But they saw a professionally lit shot of four large dogs against a white background. They had cream-coloured coats and unusual dreadlocked fur that made them look like giant shaggy floor mops.
‘Komondors,’ Lairde explained. ‘Otherwise known as Hungarian Sheepdogs, or, less flatteringly, mop dogs.’
‘They’re unusual,’ Emma noted. ‘Quite beautiful too.’
Lairde smiled at the compliment. ‘Their financial value is only a few thousand pounds, but my family has been breeding this line of dogs since I was a boy. To me they’re priceless.’
‘How much do they want you to pay to get the dogs back?’ Will asked, noticing D’Angela distractedly tapping away at her phone.
‘They want one hundred million,’ Lairde said. ‘Seventy to compensate for the money the police seized and thirty to compensate for the loss of the hackers. They’ve given me two weeks to organise the payment, after which the kidnappers say they will shoot one dog every five days until I do.’
‘But we can’t trust that group,’ D’Angela added, still looking at her phone. ‘Even if Mr Lairde pays, they might ask for more.’
Rex Lairde nodded and narrowed his eyes. ‘I could not have made TwoTu a success without a reputation for strength. I love my dogs, but I will not pay a cent to those dirtbags. If I show weakness by paying out a large ransom, every crook in South Africa, Russia and the rest of the bloody world will start looking for ways to rip me off.’
‘I still don’t get where we fit in to this,’ Will said.
Before Will got his answer, a deafening klaxon erupted. Robin gasped as he took his vibrating phone from his pocket.
‘Put it on silent, doofus,’ Marion said, then frantically tried to crawl out of sight, hitting her head on the underside of a dining table as she went.
Robin glanced at his phone. Pixelated zombies ran all over his screen, banging up against the sides and saying, ‘Let me out’ in speech bubbles. When he pressed the volume or tried to unlock it, the buttons were dead.
‘I don’t know what it’s doing,’ Robin told Marion, exasperated, trying to scramble away behind her.
Down below, Lairde’s bodyguard dropped into a shooting stance but D’Angela stood and made a don’t bother gesture.
‘Stop sneaking around and come join us, Robin Hood,’ D’Angela yelled. ‘Mr Lairde won’t mind, and if you’re lucky I’ll explain how pathetically easy it was to hack your phone.’
10. SOMEWHAT EMBARRASSING
Robin was still locked out of his zombie-infested phone as he walked down the curved wooden staircase towards Tortilla Durango’s first floor, a sheepish Marion a few steps behind. Will and Emma Scarlock looked furious, but Rex Lairde smirked and D’Angela strode across to meet them.
‘If you tap the top of the screen four times you’ll get back control of your phone,’ D’Angela told Robin as she got close. ‘But you have to stop downloading random games and apps every time you’re bored, unless you want any halfwit hacker to be able to see all your secrets.’
‘You saw me up there and hacked my phone in, like, a minute,’ Robin said, impressed but also embarrassed.
As Robin followed D’Angela’s instructions and silenced his phone, she held out her hand to him. It had lots of rings and chewed nails.
‘D’Angela Dominguez Doncastro,’ she announced rapidly, as Robin shook her hand. ‘I’m actually a massive admirer of yours, Robin. Lots of people in the hacker community say you’re a skid. But I say better a skid with the balls to take down bad guys than some brainiac who knows it all but never leaves his mom’s basement.’
Robin’s wounded expression made Marion curious. ‘What’s a skid?’ she asked.
‘Abbreviation of Script Kiddie,’ D’Angela explained, with an accent Marion couldn’t pin down, still speaking super fast. ‘A skid is the lowest rung in the hacker community – when all you can do is hack by uploading other people’s scripts, rather than having the programming skills to develop new exploits yourself.’
‘I’m only thirteen,’ Robin said.
‘Just a skid!’ Marion said, relishing a new way to tease her best friend.
D’Angela gave a deep laugh. ‘I said I was a fan, Robin. Don’t sweat it.’
‘Why aren’t you two in lessons?’ Will asked, hands on hips.
Before Robin had to answer, Rex Lairde stepped up and offered Robin his hand to shake.
‘The famous outlaw Robin Hood!’ he said, cracking a big smile. ‘Amazing to meet you!’
Robin wondered if he’d nodded off in class and was about to wake up as his hand got squashed by one of the richest people in the world: a man with plans to build his own space station and who’d allegedly overthrown the South African government when it had tried to make TwoTu pay more tax.
‘The famously rich Rex Lairde,’ Robin answered cheekily, which made Lairde break into a booming laugh.
Emma grabbed a table and two chairs from a mound the flood had swept them into, then barked at Robin and Marion. ‘You two sit there and keep quiet. You should be in school and we’ll discuss this later.’
D’Angela wagged her finger and silently mouthed, you’re in trouble, which made Robin smirk.
‘Sit still and zip it!’ Emma growled. Will, D’Angela and Lairde settled back at the grown-ups’ table.
‘So, they kidnapped your dogs,’ Will said, picking up Lairde’s story. ‘You want to get them back without paying the ransom. Since you’re here, my guess is that you think they’re being held in Sherwood Forest.’
D’Angela nodded. ‘I’ve been able to track the dog-nappers to the forest, but after that the trail goes cold.’
‘Probably off-grid,’ Robin said from the side table.
Emma gave Robin another look, but D’Angela beamed at him. ‘Robin is correct. The bad guys know that Mr Lairde has access to advanced technology and a highly skilled information security unit. The logical thing to do was hide deep in Sherwood Forest.’
‘Police and Forest Rangers have no presence in the forest away from major roads,’ Lairde said. ‘And corruption is so rampant, they’re more likely to sell the story of my kidnapped dogs to the media than they are to find them.
‘I’ve got search drones, satellite imagery and all the best tech. But we don’t know the forest the way you people do and if we find my dogs, I’ll need people who know the forest to stage a rescue operation.’
Will rubbed his palms together awkwardly. ‘I’d happily put you in touch with people who can help. But I am in a delicate position. There are hundreds of gangs in Sherwood Forest. My organisation helps Forest People who need food, shelter and medical care, but we’re not a police force. If rebel security patrols encounter something unjust, we’ll do our best to stop it. But if I start sending patrols into the forest to hunt people down, I’ll make a lot of enemies.’
‘More enemies than we have the resources to fight,’ Emma added.
Rex Lairde steepled his fingers and laughed. ‘Mr and Mrs Scarlock, it may have escaped your attention, but I am staggeringly rich. So here is what I am proposing. First, TwoTu has a medical equipment subsidiary. I understand that you lost all medical equipment when your base at Designer Outlets was burned. As an opening gesture, TwoTu is willing to donate a million pounds’ worth of medical equipment.’
Will’s eyes lit up; Forest People regularly suffered or died due to poor medical care. But on the other hand . . .
‘Most modern medical gear is of little use without electricity,’ Emma said. ‘For example, Dr Gladys would love an X-ray machine. But they use twenty kilowatts, which is more than we have to power the entire castle on a cloudy day.’
Lairde nodded. ‘Which brings me to the second part of my offer. TwoTu has been investing heavily in renewable energy for our warehouses and state-of-the-art electric delivery vehicles.’
Robin and Marion gawped. Will and Emma looked wary.
‘Have you really?’ Will said, trying to look innocent.
‘We recently opened a vehicle charging station on Route 24, less than four kilometres from here. My chief electrical engineer says she can restore power to Sherwood Castle by laying an eight-hundred-metre high-voltage cable between the TwoTu charging station and the existing power lines that fed Sherwood Castle before Sheriff Marjorie had your electricity cut off.
‘You’ll have all the power you need for as long as you need it. In return, I want you to give D’Angela a quiet space to work here at Sherwood Castle. When she locates the scum who stole my dogs, I want you to make your best people available to help with a rescue mission.’
‘We’d have to be discreet,’ Will said, after a pause. ‘Sheriff Marjorie’s people will start sniffing around if Sherwood Castle suddenly lights up at night.’
‘Discretion is in all of our interests,’ Rex Lairde agreed. ‘I don’t want word to get out that I’m setting up an illegal electricity connection between a TwoTu charging station and the base of a banned terrorist group. And I’m sure you don’t want the world to know that you’ve cut a deal with one of those evil profit-obsessed billionaires that folks like you are supposed to despise.’
Will wasn’t comfortable with Lairde’s proposal, but felt that he was someone they could do business with.
‘Power and medical equipment will save lives,’ Emma told her husband keenly. Then to Lairde, ‘The electricity stays on for as long as we need it?’
Lairde nodded. ‘But if the illegal connection is unearthed by Forest Rangers or the Sheriff’s people, I will have to deny all knowledge and say it was installed by rebels without anyone from TwoTu knowing.’
‘Sounds fair,’ Will said.
Lairde reached across the table to shake on the deal. ‘One last thing before I head home,’ he said, withdrawing his outstretched hand.
‘What?’ Will asked.
Lairde cracked a big smile. ‘You have to stop stealing my bloody delivery vans.’
Marion and Robin laughed as the rebel leader and the tax-dodging billionaire shook hands.
11. OUT OF KHAN’S GRASP
Eight centimetres of snow had fallen overnight. As Robin stepped out of his room into the penthouse’s marble hallway, Marion’s little brothers Finn and Otto were crashing around on the balcony having a snowball fight.
‘Morning, all,’ Robin said, rubbing his hands to stay warm as he walked into the kitchen for breakfast. ‘Is it me, or is today even colder?’
Karma was changing baby Zack’s nappy near the door. Robin tried not to inhale as he passed by. Matt and Marion were already stuffing their faces with breakfast at the long marble-topped dining table. Since the swanky kitchen’s six-ring induction hob had no power, Indio was using a two-ring gas camping stove to cook scrambled eggs and keep a saucepan of milk warm.
‘Forecast said it’s minus nine,’ Matt said as Robin put Cheerios in a bowl, then held it out for Indio to pour on hot milk.
‘Eggs won’t be long, and there’s heaps of bread,’ Indio said.
Karma put Zack in his high chair then yelled for the two squealing boys on the balcony to come inside for breakfast, then yelled at them again to take their shoes off before they traipsed water all over the marble floors.
‘You two are soaked,’ Indio complained when Finn and Otto stumbled in, red-cheeked and breathless. ‘You’ve only just got over colds and coughs.’
Otto cracked a huge fart as he lined up for his hot milk. Marion looked furious.
‘Can I get through one meal without having to inhale microscopic particles of someone else’s poop?’ she complained.
Robin’s laugh was stifled because he was starving, and his cheeks were stuffed with bread dunked in hot milk from his cereal bowl. Maid family meals were always noisy and chaotic, but Robin loved them because they made him feel like he had a proper family, even though his mum was dead and his dad was in prison.
‘You want eggs?’ Matt asked Robin.
‘Cheers, mate,’ Robin said.
‘Me too, while you’re up,’ Marion said.
‘Only got two hands,’ Matt told his sister, handing Robin a plate stacked with rich yellow scrambled eggs, then giving Marion the finger.
Marion tried to steal Matt’s eggs, but he swept them out of reach.
‘So predictable,’ Matt taunted.
‘Sheila’s eggs are the best,’ Robin said, tucking in as Finn and Otto settled on his side of the table’s long bench seat.
‘Did you help in the chicken sheds this morning?’ Karma asked Robin as she checked the temperature of Zack’s bottle.
‘Only twice a week now,’ Robin said. ‘With food so hard to come by, Sheila’s got heaps of volunteers who’ll work all day for a tray of eggs. And I might not be able to go at all this week if I’m gonna be helping D’Angela set up her gear.’
Marion tutted. ‘I can’t believe you got out of school again.’
Matt flung himself back from the table excitedly, like he’d had the best idea in history. ‘Oh, Robin, yeah! Can you ask D’Angela if she needs another assistant?’
‘She wants me because of my hacking skills,’ Robin said.
Marion smirked. ‘If you say so, skid.’
‘But I rescued you yesterday,’ Matt told Robin. ‘You owe me. Please just ask?’
‘Matt’s got a maths test today,’ Otto explained. ‘He’s desperate to get out of it.’
Indio cut in before Robin could answer. ‘Matthew Maid, your last grades were terrible,’ she began. ‘Mr Khan called me down twice in the last month because you’ve been fighting, and you missed a whole day of school yesterday. So to be clear: your chances of getting another day off school are the same as my chances of sitting down and eating a meal in peace before you lot all grow up and leave home.’
‘I didn’t make you have so many babies,’ Matt blurted furiously.
Robin tried not to laugh as Karma told Matt off for being cheeky. Otto suggested that Matt should be grounded for a month, and Finn knocked his cereal bowl over.
‘Thanks for breakfast – gotta go meet D’Angela!’ Robin said as he put his cutlery in the sink and bolted for the penthouse exit.
12. THE NEST
Robin took his thick winter coat and phone from his room, then charged down twenty-two flights to the ground floor. D’Angela gave Robin a big smile when they met in the resort’s flood-damaged reception.
‘Sleep OK?’ Robin asked.
‘Kinda,’ D’Angela said. ‘Had a boozy dinner with the Scarlock family after Rex Lairde left and Will set me up with a nice hotel room, but this building is creepy at night with nothing but torchlight. It took three duvets to stay warm, and I gave up on showering because the queue was massive.’
‘I’d like to tell you you’ll get used to it,’ Robin said, half smiling. ‘But when it’s this cold it’s basically crap all the time.’
‘Will arranged for the hacking and surveillance equipment I need to be carried in through the forest overnight,’ D’Angela said. ‘Since we want as few people as possible to know what I’m doing here, Will has had it taken to the casino security office up on the third floor. But I’m not sure where that is.’
Around five hundred rebels had made Sherwood Castle their new home, while a transient population of refugees and Forest People who needed shelter meant over a thousand people typically slept under Sherwood Castle’s roof each night.
But everyone stuck to the hotel towers and upstairs lobby where there was light – and very occasionally heat. The rest of the vast resort, from wedding chapels and conference venues to the golf course clubhouses and the sprawling Blue Monday nightclub, was utterly deserted.
Robin showed D’Angela the way to her new operations room. They walked over a thick, luxurious carpet past the second-floor casino’s roulette wheels and slot machines.
‘So where are you from originally?’ Robin asked as they walked.
‘Can’t you tell from my accent?’ D’Angela teased, then after a pause said, ‘Argentina.’
Robin tried to think of something he knew about Argentina, but only came up with, ‘That’s South America, right?’
‘Right,’ D’Angela said, mocking Robin’s tone.
‘Is hacking big there?’ Robin asked.
‘Hell, yes,’ D’Angela said enthusiastically. ‘You ever hear of Ekoparty? That’s where I first made my name in the community.’
‘Is it like a club or something?’
‘It’s the biggest infosec gathering outside of the United States,’ D’Angela explained. ‘Thousands of hackers, spies and industry people come to Buenos Aires for three whole days. Most are just skids and wannabes, some as young as you.’
‘Many girls?’ Robin queried.
‘Not many,’ D’Angela said. ‘You learn heaps. Famous hackers give talks, there are workshops, parties, steal-the-flag challenges and stuff. But if you want to make a name for yourself, the most important part is hackathons. They set you a hacking challenge and your team gets a few hours to beat it.’
‘Sounds awesome,’ Robin said. ‘Though I wouldn’t get far since I’m just a skid who uses other people’s work.’
D’Angela laughed. ‘Hopefully I’ll be around long enough to start turning you into a real hacker . . . So, my first Ekoparty, I was thirteen and my dad said I couldn’t go. But I skipped school, bought a ticket and rode the bus for six hours. My parents had this little computer repair shop/internet café type thing, way out in cattle country.’
Robin grinned. ‘My dad taught computer repairs.’
‘I read your story in the news.’ D’Angela smiled back. ‘That’s one of the many reasons I’m a fan of your work.’
Robin was glad the casino was dark, because his cheeks flushed.
‘I arrived at Ekoparty with two older guys from my town who were also into hacking. It’s sketchy now I look back on it, because we barely had money for food, let alone a safe place to sleep. We entered one of the big hackathons and placed fifth, which doesn’t sound amazing, but we were schoolkids and all the teams ahead of us were security industry professionals or university graduates.
