Cyber Terror (21 page)

“Yes,” Jordan whispered into his phone. “The car’s here. No sign of anyone, though.”

The voice in his ear replied, “Proceed with caution.”

Somewhere behind the factory, an aeroplane’s engines roared. By the time Jordan saw the plane, it was climbing into the sky on its way to some distant destination. He thought of Ecuador
and Edinburgh.

Walking up to the factory’s main entrance, he looked through a window. He could make out nothing but earth-moving equipment, scaffolding components, concrete mixers and a lot of other
heavy machinery. There was no movement. He couldn’t see into the upper storey.

The entrance did not appear to have been forced open. It was firmly locked. The huge sliding door – used to get the bulky items in and out – was also intact and secure. Jordan went
to the right and began to walk round the brick-built factory. Turning the corner, he saw a large field beyond the sturdy wire fence. It belonged to the airport. Another plane was now hurtling along
the runway, not yet off the ground. The tall fence was topped with vicious razor wire.

The side door bore a large sign.
Staff Only
. Like the entry at the front, it was intact and did not respond to Jordan’s pushing and pulling. If Raven was inside the works, maybe
she’d got hold of a key.

To Jordan’s enhanced power of smell, the whole area reeked of fumes from aviation fuel. Against a background of aircraft coming and going at regular intervals, he continued his examination
of the factory. The back of the building – the wall nearest to the airport enclosure – was almost entirely brickwork. It was decorated only by graffiti and a narrow door. But this one
had been levered open. The wooden frame bore the marks of a crowbar and the door itself was dented around the lock.

“Someone’s forced their way in,” Jordan reported quietly. “I’m checking it out.”

The ground floor was oddly still and sinister, filled with strange giant shapes. Girders and cranes reached up and out like huge framework arms, metallic and rigid. Jordan’s footfalls
echoed around the vast space. Even with his hearing on maximum, the drone of aircraft and his own footsteps were the only sounds that he could detect.

He made for the aluminium steps up to the offices. Perhaps, if Raven was somewhere among the machinery on the ground floor, he’d spot her from high up on the stairs.

He placed his foot silently on the metallic grid that formed the first step and eased himself up quietly. He didn’t place his right hand on the aluminium banister in case it made a
clunking sound. He continued up the stairs slowly and noiselessly.

From halfway up, he hung over the rail and surveyed the works below. Using visible and infrared wavelengths, he saw no evidence of anyone else. Everything was colder than a human being so his
night vision detected only dull blues and greys. There was no telltale glow from a warm body.

Taking a deep breath, he carried on cautiously to the top of the framework steps.

The upper storey wasn’t divided into small rooms. There was a corridor leading to two massive open-plan offices. At a glance, both were empty of people. If Raven was in the building, she
could have concealed herself behind a photocopier, desk or partition. She could even be hiding in a cupboard. Jordan’s terahertz vision didn’t reveal anything and he couldn’t hear
the distinctive sound of breathing.

At the end of the corridor, there was a ladder leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. Before he searched the offices more carefully, he decided to poke his head out, just in case Raven had gone
out onto the roof.

He grasped the rails and climbed the rungs. Noting that the bolts were undone, he pushed open the hatch. The flat roof had a thick plastic waterproof coating. At the end of a long pole in the
centre of the structure, the flag flapped noisily in the wind. Beyond was a clear view of the whole airport. An Airbus lifted off the ground and rose steeply into the blue sky and scattered cloud.
With her back to Jordan, Raven watched it go. Just like the flag, her long black hair streamed out behind her.

It was windy, but not windy enough to make the roof scary and dangerous. His heart racing, Jordan clambered quietly onto the flat surface and tiptoed towards her. He hoped the scream of the
receding jet would cover the sound of his footsteps as he prepared for the final confrontation, as he prepared to grab Short Circuit.

He’d taken only four steps when she called out, “Ah. My cyber workmate. I wondered when you’d find me. Too late, as far as you’re concerned.” Without turning, she
pointed downwards. “The Jag’s a bit of a giveaway.”

There were only two cars in the parking area. The morning sunlight glinted on the black metallic surface of his XJ Sentinel.

Jordan froze and muttered under his breath. She’d known he was there all along. Even so, he sensed the end of his mission. Physically, she was no match for an enhanced agent. For the first
time, he stripped away her clothing with his terahertz vision. She wasn’t even carrying a hidden weapon.

Before he could take another step, though, he felt as if a light had gone out in his head. He blinked and gulped. He was no longer online. He was isolated and lightheaded. And he no longer
picked up the smell of aviation fuel.

Raven turned to face him. She had a small computer in her left hand and she was typing with her right. One by one, she was disabling his enhancements, just like Eli Kennington had done in
Cambridge.

Next, his robotic arm slammed against his side. No longer a limb, it was a lifeless piece of metal.

Raven had no need of a gun or a knife. In her hands, a computer was a very effective weapon. She was about to click another button, but she stopped herself. “You can keep your hearing and
vision. They’re no threat to me. That way, you can see and hear the planes coming in and taking off. They’re a miracle of modern engineering, aren’t they? They’re so big,
it’s amazing they ever get off the ground. From up here,” she said, “you get a direct line-of-sight view of the whole airport.”

“You’re using Eli’s hardware Trojans again, aren’t you? That’s why you need to be near the runway. To activate them with a radio signal.”

“You don’t have to be a genius to work that out.”

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

She closed the lid of her laptop. “Wrong question. It’s already done.”

“What is?”

“I learned a lot by crashing those first two planes and even more when I took over control systems. Two different skills. Now I’m combining them. Out there,” she said, nodding
towards Gatwick, “two of the planes that are about to take off will switch to autopilot once they’re away from the airport. That’s what I’ve just programmed them to do and
the pilots won’t be able to get control back. They’ll divert to the destination I’ve locked into their flight and control systems. Both will arrive at the same time. Actually, one
would do the job, but it’s good to have backup, isn’t it? Just in case.”

“Where?”

“Wait and find out. Or work it out for yourself. But they’ll wish they’d never got off the ground.” She walked towards the hatch and said, “You’re useless
without your enhancements, aren’t you?”

Jordan’s GPS probably wasn’t working any more, but Angel knew exactly where he was. He hoped that Kate was on her way, so Jordan needed to keep Raven talking for as long as possible.
“You started out on Paige Ottaway’s medical robot.”

“Yes?”

“But it was you who first told me about Paige Ottaway. You must have been confident that I wouldn’t nail you or you’d have kept quiet. Maybe you thought you’d look guilty
if I found out about her later and you hadn’t told me.”

She shrugged. “I didn’t care much. I set Kennington up. If you got close to cracking the case, I knew you’d go after him, not me. I told you: it’s good to have a safety
net.”

He said, “But you deleted all the details of his trial – like the jury list.”

“Think about it,” Raven replied. “I didn’t want to make it too easy. If Kennington had been behind everything, he would’ve wiped the trial details, so I did as
well.”

“You’ve been twisting and turning all along, haven’t you?”

She smiled sweetly. “I’ve thrown a few distractions into the ring.”

“You’ve been brainwashed into it by terrorists.”

“I’ve had a rubbish life. A rubbish family for sure. I had a job then lost it. I had a boyfriend and then lost him. After I joined Unit Red, there wasn’t any time for him, so
he walked away. Too many sacrifices.”

For an instant, Jordan thought about his own sacrifices. He’d lost his family, his place at normal school and, after his first mission, his best friend.

“I suppose I’m showing my contempt for community – and the way it’s going,” she said. “Those terrorists – as you called them – welcomed me with
open arms. We don’t see eye-to-eye on everything, it’s true, but one message is loud and clear. It’s about the type of society we want. We’ve become dehumanized. Look at
you. Part human, part robot. It’s going too far. It’s about tearing down what we’ve got and building something better.”

“But...”

“No more. Your GPS will have told the others where you are. I’m not hanging around to take on the lot of you. I’ve got a busy day. Don’t think the planes are the only
thing I’m doing today. They’re just the starting pistol.”

“What?”

“There’s a cybernetics factory. Maybe even HiSpec,” she said, plainly teasing him. “After all, they’re supplying the microchips.”

Desperate to detain her, he said, “Why don’t you kill me?”

She smiled. “I want the powers-that-be to see you fail. I want them – and you – to see robotics isn’t the answer.”

“If you can beat me with hardware Trojans, you’ll always be able to stop machines taking over, won’t you?”

She shook her head. “If only. The old spiked chips will be replaced. Design will be tightened up. No more Trojans.” Tapping her watch, she took some more steps towards the opening
that led down to the offices. “You’re trying to delay me, hoping the cavalry will arrive. It won’t work. And, yes, both planes will have taken off by now.” She disappeared
into the hole and, before Jordan could reach it, she slammed down the hatch and bolted it from inside.

To Jordan, it felt as if she’d retreated to the safety of a submarine and locked him outside to face the cruel waves without a means of escape.

He assumed she’d make her getaway in the stolen car. He had to find a way to follow her, but he was hampered by an uncooperative body. He went right to the edge of the roof. He was a long
way up – much too high to jump. If he had been wearing his high-tech shoes and gloves, he could have crawled down the wall like a sure-footed beetle. That way, he might even have beaten Raven
to the car park. But his gear with microscopic Velcro was in the XJ. He was trapped.

He couldn’t even ram her car with his own because he needed a working BCI to operate the Jaguar remotely.

As he looked around for inspiration, he updated Angel on his mobile.

“Okay,” Angel said. “I’ll get on to air traffic control and find out if they’ve got any rogue aircraft. You get after her, Jordan.”

“Easier said than...” He stopped talking as he stared at the flagpole. “I’m onto it.” He put the phone away and grabbed the rope. Hauling on it with his left hand,
he lowered the flag and uncoupled the rope from the pulley. Hoping that it was long enough, he forced the thick rope past the rigid thumb into his clenched right fist. Then he yanked on it.
Luckily, it slid through the fingers. Perhaps it was even threaded too freely. But he didn’t have a choice. His couldn’t tighten the grip because the motors in his fingers weren’t
working.

He made sure one end of the rope was well anchored to the flagpole and then he laid it out to the front edge of the building. He looked down again. It was a long drop to the tarmac path. Heights
had never bothered him, but falling was a different matter. He threw the rest of the rope over the edge and watched it dangling. He couldn’t see clearly where it ended, but he was sure it
hadn’t reached the tarmac below. He hoped it was close enough. He also hoped that his lame false hand would provide the brake he needed if he wasn’t going to die when he hit the
ground.

His shoulders rose and fell as he took a deep breath. Then he jumped off the roof and the rope ran through his fist.

There was no longer anything solid beneath his feet. Rushing through his artificial fingers, the rope yanked his disabled arm up above his head. But there wasn’t enough
friction between his fist and the rope so he plummeted down at breathtaking speed.

He’d never been abseiling, but this had to be similar. Without any of the safety features. And without the style. He had much more bravery than expertise. Swinging inwards, he crunched
into the brick wall, bruising his back and legs.

Below him, Raven’s car accelerated down the narrow lane towards the main road.

He was falling far too fast. The tarmac seemed to be zooming up at him alarmingly. At this pace, he knew he’d break both legs when he hit the ground. To increase the resistance between his
false fingers and the threads of the rope, he twisted his whole body so the rope had to zigzag through his unresponsive fist. At once, even his disabled sense of smell detected the burning of
synthetic skin, but he had no sensation of the heat. At least he was slowing.

As he neared the ground, the rope sliced into his artificial skin, shedding strips of silicone from his palm. Then, suddenly, he fell free of the rope and his right arm collapsed against his
side. He hit the tarmac.

He felt the jolt first in his ankles, knees and hips. The shock wave flew up the rest of his body to his neck like an earth tremor, but the pain was confined to his legs as he crumpled onto the
ground with a grunt.

He didn’t have time to worry about the stinging sensation. He got to his feet and looked around. His Jag was right in front of him, but he couldn’t use it. He couldn’t transmit
the codes he needed to operate it. But he had another idea. He limped towards the factory. Through the large window, he could see two huge diggers and a dumper truck.