‘The rhino’s really close Jack, we can’t get out.’
‘Perhaps someone will rescue us if we try the radio?’ Timmo’s idea was great until they tried it and found it had been broken in the crash.
‘We could get out and push the Landrover back onto its wheels, then we could drive back to Kilimanjaro?’ They all looked at Roger, who was intelligent but not very practical.
Marshall replied. ‘Great thinking mate. What about the rhino and who the hell can drive?’
‘Ah! Point taken.’ Roger started to rethink his bright idea before continuing. ‘The problem is, I can smell diesel leaking out of the tank...’ They all realised they were between a rock and a hard place. Get charged by a rhino or die in a vehicle fire. ‘Maybe we should try running for it?’
Marshall pointed out the practical issue. ‘It would kill Timmo first as he’d be so slow.’ That was when they heard an engine. Jack clambered up the bench seat and pushed himself against Kate to get his head out of the side window. She blushed bright red as he leaned his hard body against her soft one. On his right he could see a camouflaged Hummer. Its window was wound down as Brett levelled his dart gun at the rhino. Jack heard the blast of air as the dart hit the rhino. Within five minutes the beast had sunk to its knees and finally lay on its side, fast asleep.
The yank walked up to the Landrover and pulled open the door. ‘Need any help Limeys?’ Boy were they glad to see Brett. ‘I’m going to rig a steel cable around your axle and pull you upright with my Hummer, so hold on tight.’ They braced themselves as they crashed back onto their tyres. He walked back and undid the cable before standing alongside. ‘All OK then?’
‘How did you know?’ It was Roger who asked.
‘Satellites and the SAS. Remember we are here to help if anything goes wrong. So...’ He looked at the children and the still unconscious driver. ‘I need to make myself scarce, do you have a package for us yet?’
‘Sorry Brett,’ Jack apologised, ‘we’ll try harder, we are really sorry.’
‘Don’t apologise, just do your best and most importantly, stay safe. Now then, who can drive the Landie?’
‘I can.’ They looked at Marshall in amazement. ‘I nicked a car with a mate once,’ he too wanted to apologise, ‘everyone was doing it in my neighbourhood!’
Brett was abrupt, ‘don’t bother with all that Marshall, just do it, and go slowly.’ And then he was gone before the Maasai or another Landrover had time to appear.
* * *
Back in the volcano, the children sat on Jack’s bed in their quarters. The safari hadn’t distracted them at all, unlike the rest of the gamers, who were now more relaxed with each other. The team were leaning their heads close to Jack’s as he spoke softly. It was a wise precaution against hidden microphones or lip synching CCTV.
‘Look we know something is going to happen soon and so we need to make a move.’
‘I’m scared Jack. Is that honest enough?’ It was Kit Kat who had spoken. ‘This is the scariest thing I can imagine.’
Timmo’s wheelchair had been shunted next to the bed. ‘What? Scarier than having teeth out at the dentist in Chester?’
‘One hundred times worse,’ she replied.
‘Really?’ said Timmo, ‘How many teeth have you had out at one time, cos I had four big ones out in the spring, and they used gas!’
‘Listen you two, just focus on the mission please.’ It was Marshall who had intervened. ‘Listen to Jack.’
Jack continued more forcibly. ‘One step at a time okay? First I need to take the memory stick and find a place where we can upload their plans.’
Roger pointed out the obvious. ‘That may be easy but how do you propose to get it to Brett?’ There was no answer at first. ‘Somehow okay? First the upload, second we have to find the key. Has anyone got any ideas?’
‘The easiest place to access their IS network has to be Techno’s AIC.’
‘That’s a great idea splodger. What about the key?’
Splodger had an idea. ‘I suggest Timmo and I try to get closer to Techno as he seems to like us. You know, follow him around, just like real spies would.’
‘Great, then it’s settled. I’ll wake you at 3 am and we can head to Techno’s AIC. Timmo, you have to stay here tonight with Marshall and then tomorrow you will both be fresh and alert to work on Techno.’ They all moved to their separate beds and Jack walked to the light switch. ‘Night everyone, see you at breakfast.’ He turned the light off and climbed into his bed. It was a cold evening and he snuggled under the covers as much for a sense of security as warmth.
At 3 am, Jack’s Casio watch alarm bleeped three times. He was wide-awake as soon as it bleeped after a fitful sleep. Quietly he slid out of bed and woke the others, leaving Timmo and Marshall asleep. Within five minutes they were assembled by the door of their accommodation. He used the silent sign language learned on their training patrols at Brecon and motioned them forward. As they went down the dark corridor towards the AICs his team adopted standard SAS patrol procedures. One would dart forward on tiptoe and check the next junction. A second would move forward on the all clear signal. It was as if they had done it all their lives.
They crouched behind Techno’s AIC. Only a handful of other AICs were in use that night as most of the technicians had acted as drivers on the safari. Therefore, the night shift had an official night off. Only the nerds were burning the midnight oil.
Jack sat cross-legged and twisted the heel of his trainer clockwise through 720 degrees. He then turned it backwards another 360 degrees. Immediately it popped off and the red memory stick fell into his hands. He whispered to the others. ‘Roger, take my Swiss army knife and pick the door lock, then come back immediately. Kate, hide yourself nearby and watch for anyone coming. Come over and tap the walls of an AIC if you see anyone approaching.’ The three children went about their tasks.
Roger arrived back and put his head close to Jack’s. ‘All done. By the way, when you put the memory stick in Techno’s PC, Wolf said you needed to follow the instructions by inputting any commands as it uploads their data.
‘Yep, so what?’ Jack wasn’t thinking.
‘So use the brain hugger to save time.’
‘I can’t mate, I need a bald head.’ Roger was silent for a few seconds.
‘I know what you can do. The spinal cord is linked through the back of the neck to the cortex of the brain, so if you attached the four headsets side by side as close to the nape of your neck as possible, well then you dramatically reduce the time to siphon off their plans.’
‘You are so clever mate, that’s fabtastic. Then we have the same effect on data speed but no one will see the bite marks beneath the collar of my sweatshirt, especially if I leave it turned up.’
‘Exactly’ said Roger, ‘Just like that love bite you got off Kit Kat.’ Jack punched his friend hard on the arm.
‘I never!’
‘Did too!’
Kate had returned and was listening aghast. ‘For goodness sake you two. Stop arguing, we need three minutes to download their plans so get on with it.’ She looked anxiously up and down the lines of AICs. The giant snails sat stationary but in her mind’s eye, they were closing together to devour her.
Roger handed Jack, Timmo’s 3D glasses. Jack gestured why? By shrugging his shoulders. ‘Just take them, it was Timmo’s idea.’ Jack left the two of them and entered the AIC, silently closing the door behind him.
He punched the power button and waited. ‘What would Techno have done to protect his secrets? The door was too easy to open.’ He was thinking hard. Before he reached for the brain hugger the screen brightened, it looked hazy and he couldn’t make out any of the start up messages. He slid the memory stick into the USB socket alongside the screen. Colours flickered across the screen but still he couldn’t make anything out. He put his hands on his head in exasperation and then he felt the 3D glasses perched on top of his forehead. Pulling them over his eyes he was amazed to see the messag
es on the screen centralise and become totally visible. ‘Good boy bro.’ He reached for the brain huggers and gasped as they dug their brain-seeking claws into his neck. He felt the warm blood as it trickled down his back but immediately he was in command and started to think his way through the program. The commands came through on the screen every ten seconds. It was a simple tick list which fronted the antivirus detection software. As no barriers were encountered he just kept hitting the enter button. Within a minute it was all over and he had the data on the stick which he secreted back into the heel of his trainer. Pressing the off button on the PC, he glanced around before leaving the AIC and joining his friends. He did a joyous thumbs up to them all and motioned everyone to move back towards their beds.
The four friends were gasping for breath, it wasn’t the silent run from the scene of their espionage, it was constant fear of discovery. And then they arrived at a relatively safe area. The gang were hiding in a darkened corner of sector one, on level three. They were crouched and leaning against the cold rock of the cavern. No one spoke, it wasn’t safe. The AICs were 200 metres to their left, the fun zone was to their right and a safe and secure bed was behind them.
Jack had his hands on his knees as he quietly spoke to Roger who leaned next to him. ‘All we need to do now, is get it to Brett.’ He stood up and placed his hands on the rock wall behind him. It was slightly damp as the warm air of the volcano had condensed on the colder rock face. Jack took a few more deep breaths. He was thinking fast. ‘Have we got any spare time left this morning splodger?’
Roger gave the answer. ‘Well it’s about 3.30 am now. The AICs are still partly manned but everywhere else is relatively dead apart from a few weirdos in the fun zone. Why do you ask?’
‘Remember the gyroscopes in sector two?’
‘You are joking Jack.’ Roger was appalled. ‘You can’t fly one for a start and if someone sees you.’
‘They have SAM missiles!’ Kate was scared of losing Jack.
Jack smiled and pulled his friends closer to him, he could smell Kate’s perfume. What a girly girl, wearing perfume on a mission. ‘Look, we are talking about the fate of the civilised world here. It’s not a computer game anymore. Kate, leave this to us and go back to bed.’ She didn’t want to leave her Jack but he gave her no choice. Kate turned away to follow the rock wall back towards their accommodation, staying in the shadows to avoid detection by CCTV.
She hadn’t argued with Jack, which made the mission run smoothly. A strong leader was essential.
As Jack led Roger towards the gyroscope hanger, he whispered to his pal, ‘they must fly like a plane, and anyway, I’m only going to borrow one.’ Roger stayed quiet. He thought his friend had gone barking mad. Within five minutes Jack was sat in the small cockpit of a gyroscope close to the hangar door. He was looking down at the controls as Roger pointed out the obvious similarities with the plane they had flown. They were both whispering and occasionally glancing around but there were no guards. Jack started to play with the satnav which was just like in his dad’s car. Quickly Jack input the latitude and longitude given to him by Brett in the carpark. He looked around at the controls for a last time. Turning on the cloaking would be easy, there was a large red button and underneath it was written the word “cloak”.
‘Give us your watch Roger, I can’t see my Casio in the dark, it’s an old LCD.’ His friend handed his watch over. ‘Use the clock on the wall mate and stick exactly with the timing I’m going to give you. Is that okay?’
‘You are stark staring bonkers Jack.’
‘Yep.’
Roger decided to do the calculations, maths wasn’t Jack’s strongest subject at school. ‘Okay then, assuming 15 minutes to Outspan based on the satnav, 7 minutes on the ground and 15 back, I will reopen the hangar door in exactly 37 minutes, okay?’
‘Okay splodge, just make sure you don’t get caught here.’
‘Never mind me, I can find a good hiding place nearby.’ He was quite emotional, ‘good luck Jack and break a leg.’
‘What?’
‘It’s an expression they use in the theatre, “break a leg”, it means good luck.’
‘Whatever mate, see you in half an hour.’
‘40 minutes!’
‘Yep that too, bye mate.’
Roger ran towards the door controls and Jack started the engine on the gyroscope. It was almost soundless. He pressed the red button of the cloaking device and kicked on both foot pedals to release the brakes – just like in the Cessna. The force of the propeller immediately drove the machine across the floor at high speed and towards the door as it gaped open. Gaining speed the machine went over the precipice beyond the door as Roger pressed the close button and settled down to wait behind some barrels of diesel.
‘Flippin heck.’ Jack never usually swore but as the gyroscope skated out of the door, it fell off the edge of the ledge, leaving him plunging at 45 degrees down the side of the volcano. For a moment, fear made him panic. He knew the engine was running, turning the large propeller and he was valiantly pulling backwards on the joystick. But, the gyroscope continued its plunge, even in the dark night he could make out the rocks 500 metres below and getting closer every second.
Then it dawned on him. There was a lever by his right that had five different positions. It must alter the position of the top rotor. He jerked it to the opposite setting and immediately the gyroscope started to lift out of its dive. Five degrees at a time, it slowly veered away from the cliff face and just as he was about to crash and die it reached level flight. He missed the ground by 10 metres and manipulating the flight lever he climbed a little higher and set off towards Outspan at an altitude of 100 metres, high enough to miss any trees but low enough to make sure MM’s guards on the outside of the volcano didn’t see him silhouetted against the sky . Jack felt his heart beating hard against his chest and dragged in large gulps of air to calm himself down. After a few minutes he had regained his self control and steered more to the west to bring up the correct course on the satnav and then he relaxed.
‘This is so cool, if only Kit Kat could see me now’ and then he dismissed the thought and concentrated on the horizon. It took only 10 minutes to reach the hotel, which he circled above at about 50 metres altitude hoping to draw Brett’s attention. He could barely see the outline of the building but there was definitely a ribbon of water, maybe a stream alongside. Then he spotted the flares. Brett had heard the whispering motor in the dead of night and guessed it was important. He had taken a gamble on it being a friend and not a foe. He was running below Jack on the flat bank of the stream lighting flares every few metres to make a short runway.
Jack put her down as soon as he could see ten smouldering white flares lying in the grass. He used a combination of the throttle and the lever, which changed the angle of the rotor to slow his descent and after a few bumps he was stationery. A dark figure loomed alongside him.
‘I knew you could do it Jack.’ Brett hugged him tightly and could feel the boy shudder as he sobbed, the fear coming out in a gush of emotion. ‘Come on agent, you’re safe now. You don’t need to go back in there.’
Jack stopped crying and handed over the memory stick. ‘I am going back Brett. Roger is opening the door in exactly 15 minutes time.’
‘No Jack, enough is enough. Come on, let me get this transmitted to London so they can decipher it and then you can go to bed here.’
‘No Brett, I’m going back for my friends and you can’t persuade me otherwise.’ Brett heard the emotion in his voice but he couldn’t see his determined face.
‘The game’s over Jack. Matthews has betrayed you all to MM and Marshall’s brother works for her.’
‘Who’s the brother?’ It was terse and clipped.
‘The driver of the speedboat. Not the albino, the thin gawky one. His name is Robert Jones, his mum changed the family name to Hines after he had run away from home.’
‘Oh god, it’s Techno. He’s one of MM’s three most tr
usted henchmen and acts as her geek.’
Brett breathed out heavily. ‘Marshall and Robert’s mother disappeared in the summer so we think she may be held hostage in the volcano. It’s the only logical conclusion, she is held there to make Techno complete the job but we don’t know for sure. By using Techno’s brother and mother, MM has total control over the man who designed and initiated the software. As I said, the game’s over mate.’
‘Brett, you don’t know me very well do you? The game’s not over until I stop playing.’ Brett heard the determination this time. The nearest flare was starting to flicker before it went out.
‘In that case, you need to go immediately before the flares completely fade. Good luck Jack.’
Jack spun the gyroscope through 180 degrees by gunning the engine in three short bursts and stamping his left pedal. Then he slammed the throttle forward, moved the rotor lever and set off at speed. Pulling on the joystick he lifted her off the ground and narrowly missed an acacia tree. As he swung the gyroscope back towards Mount Kilimanjaro he could see that it was appearing in front of him as the early dawn breached the horizon. He needed to be quick or the external guards would see him. It seemed to Jack, that the flight took hours instead of a few minutes. As he closed on the mountain he could make out a tiny rectangle of light on the northern slope and headed directly for it. He glanced at Roger’s Rolex watch, the fluorescent face and hands helped him calculate that he had been gone 41 minutes. One minute too long. As he came closer to the hangar door and its landing ledge, he could see the shutter starting to drop. Roger must have thought that he wasn’t returning. He watched in horror as it fell slowly and immediately gunned the engine so that he hit the rock ledge too hard. The gyroscope bounced on its rubber tyres and rose a metre off the ground. It was level with the closing door but as it settled onto the rock for a second time, it crept under the half-closed door and into the hangar. Jack cut the engine and hit the brakes making the machine shudder as it slowed. In front of him were six other gyroscopes and he would hit them in a few seconds. He kicked the right pedal and locked a brake and to Roger’s amazement Jack’s machine spun into the exact parking spot he had left 42 minutes earlier.