Dangerous Reality (12 page)

Chapter Seventeen

Rescue

‘
VIMS, OVER HERE
. Behind you,’ Jack screamed out from the landing. I was too petrified to even turn my head to look at him. Out of the corner of one eye I could see him waving his hands above his head to attract VIMS’ attention.

VIMS took another step towards me. One of his feet was now on my bed. The mattress groaned under his weight. One more step and he would reach me. I sat back even further, trying to push my back through the wall behind me.

‘VIMS, come and get me,’ Jack shouted.

VIMS halted in his tracks. The dome that was his head spun round. I couldn’t see Jack now. I could see nothing but VIMS, standing before me, just a heartbeat away from ripping me apart. Something hit VIMS on the back of the head. VIMS backed away from me and stepped off the bed before
rolling
over the object that had hit him. I glanced down without moving my head. It was a towel.

VIMS carried on rolling out of the door. He was after Jack now. He’d obviously assessed him as the bigger threat. And once he had dealt with Jack, he would be back for me …

‘Dominic, what’s the password?’ Jack shouted frantically.

I opened my mouth, but the words wouldn’t come.

‘Dominic! Quick! The password,’ Jack called.

If I didn’t do something – and fast – Jack would be killed. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t. I sprang off the bed and ran after VIMS and Jack.

‘VIMS, have you heard the one about the painter, the decorator and the window cleaner? VIMS, stop!’

I cursed myself for inventing such a stupid password. At the time I’d thought I was being so clever. Jack ran into Mum’s bedroom. He tried to slam the door shut behind him but VIMS shoved it open. Jack fell to the floor and immediately started scrambling backwards. VIMS drew himself up to his full height, totally overwhelming and overpowering. He took a step forwards. He raised his other foot, ready to bring it down on Jack’s chest. Jack was against the wall. There was nowhere else to run.

‘VIMS, HAVE YOU HEARD THE ONE ABOUT
THE
PAINTER, THE DECORATOR AND THE WINDOW CLEANER? VIMS, STOP!’

Please don’t let anything happen to Dad, I prayed. Please let him be all right.

‘VIMS, STOP NOW. STOP!’

VIMS’ leg moved downwards. He was going to crush Jack. But then the leg slowed and stopped, freezing just a few centimetres above Jack’s chest. Jack immediately rolled out from beneath VIMS’ foot.

‘Dad, are you OK?’

I ran into the room. Jack was breathing heavily, a horror-stricken look on his face. His eyes were wide open and it was as if they’d been welded that way. Neither of us said a word for several moments.

‘Dominic, are you OK?’ Jack whispered at last.

I found that I couldn’t speak, so I shook my head instead. It’d be a long time before I was OK again.

Jack came over to me and hugged me. ‘I never want to go through that again,’ he said. ‘I thought we’d both had it!’

‘Thanks for saving my life, Dad.’ The words came out in a cough. I pulled away from Jack, embarrassed.

‘Thank
you
for saving my life,’ Jack returned. He turned to VIMS. ‘VIMS, security override A-4-27R. VIMS, shut down.’

VIMS’ leg moved downwards to touch the ground.
Then
he folded in on himself until he was no more than a box on the ground. But I didn’t even have to close my eyes to remember how he’d looked when he was coming for me. Relentless and terrifying.

‘Are you sure you’re OK?’ Jack asked again.

I nodded.

‘If anything had happened to you …’ Jack actually shuddered. ‘Why on earth did you re-activate the password on VIMS?’

‘I … I thought it would be safer until he got back to Desica,’ I whispered.

‘I had to drive like a bat out of hell to get here,’ Jack said grimly. ‘I thought I’d be too late …’

‘Why did she do it?’

‘Pardon?’

‘Julie Resnick. Why did she reprogram VIMS to come here? Why did she want to hurt me?’

‘What d’you mean?’

‘She gave VIMS a new set of co-ordinates so that he would come here instead and she told VIMS to secure the area. That’s why he kept coming after me.’

‘I see.’

‘We should call the police,’ I said. My voice was getting stronger now, and with each passing second, so was my fury.

‘No,’ said Jack thoughtfully. ‘Leave Julie to me.’

‘What’re you going to do?’

‘I’m going to finish this, once and for all,’ Jack said.

And there was a grimness in his voice, a determination that told me Julie wasn’t going to get away with trying to hurt me or my mum. Jack was going to see to that.

Chapter Eighteen

Mum in Charge

WHEN I WOKE
up the following morning, I got the shock of my life. No, I take that back. What had happened the night before was the biggest one. So I’ll change that to I got the second biggest shock of my life. Mum was home. I should’ve realized when I awoke to the smell of bacon and toast. Dad was strictly a cereal and fruit juice man.

‘Mum, what’re you doing here?’ I asked, stunned.

‘What does it look like?’ Mum asked. ‘I’m making some breakfast and then you, me and VIMS are going to the power plant.’

‘What for?’

‘To prove that VIMS isn’t dangerous, of course. To prove that he can do exactly what I said he could do.’

An image of VIMS, tall and menacing as he’d been the previous night, flashed in my head. VIMS
was
dangerous – as dangerous as the person who issued his commands. His actions could be dictated by the person
controlling
him. And if that person was a serious nutter like Julie, then look out!

‘Does Rayner know about this?’ I asked at last.

‘I phoned him late last night. He’s already at the plant, waiting for us.’

‘On a Saturday?’

‘The power plant runs twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,’ Mum informed me. ‘So why not on a Saturday?’

I bet Rayner’s wife Monica loves you for dragging Rayner out of the house on a Saturday, I thought – but I decided to keep the thought to myself. I toyed with the idea of telling Mum what had happened the night before, but Dad had said he wanted to tell Mum himself – in his own way and in his own time so that it wouldn’t make her do anything silly. From the look of it, he was too late.

‘Where’s Dad?’ I asked, looking around. This was one of those times when I knew I wouldn’t be able to talk any sense into Mum at all. This was definitely a job for Jack.

Mum frowned. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to him. I must admit I was expecting to see him when I arrived here.’

‘I can’t believe the hospital let you out so quickly,’ I said, shaking my head. ‘I know there’s a shortage of beds but this is ridiculous.’

‘They didn’t exactly let me out,’ Mum mumbled.

‘Then what did they do – exactly?’

‘I discharged myself.’

‘You did what?’ I said, astounded. ‘Why would you do anything so stupid?’

‘You sound just like Jack,’ Mum said defensively.

‘So you have seen him this morning …’ I asked, confused.

‘I haven’t,’ Mum denied. ‘But if he was here, that’s exactly what he would be saying!’

‘Mum, you have to go back to hospital.’

‘No, what I have to do is stop Julie from dismantling VIMS,’ said Mum, holding her side. ‘Besides, I only had concussion and that’s gone now and my side only hurts when I laugh – and believe me, I’m not in a laughing mood. I have to stop Julie before it’s too late.’

It’s already too late, I thought. And Julie had moved beyond just ruining VIMS. For some reason she was now out to get me. Was it because I hadn’t told her where VIMS was? Or was it her way of trying to get Jack to toe the line? ‘Mum, VIMS is upstairs.’

‘Upstairs?’ Mum stared at me. ‘What’s he doing up there?’

‘It’s a long story,’ I sighed.

‘I’m all ears.’

‘Dad said he’d tell you.’

Breakfast was forgotten as Mum tried to dash out of
the
room, although a quick grunt of pain soon put paid to that. Holding onto the banister, she went up the stairs as fast as she could. VIMS was in the house. Everything else could wait.

‘He’s in your bedroom,’ I told her.

Mum fussed and clucked over him for ages. I was surprised that she didn’t try to tickle him under his metal chin! Mum made for her work room to switch on the remote system.

‘Er … Mum, there’s something I should tell you …’

Mum opened the work-room door. ‘What on earth …?’ She stared when she saw the room and the window. Jack had taped cardboard across it as best he could, but it was a real mess. Mum turned to glare at me.

‘I didn’t do it. VIMS did,’ I protested.

‘Just what’s been going on here?’

‘Dad said—’

‘That he’d tell me. Yes, so you keep saying.’ Mum frowned.

I wasn’t going to argue with her. I stayed close by while Mum activated VIMS. And I kept VIMS at a respectable distance. I felt uncomfortable even being in the same building with the thing. Last night, Dad had told me more than once that now it was shut down, VIMS was perfectly safe. Dad had even used the remote system to ensure that when VIMS was reactivated, it would be under the control of the remote system only
until
that command was specifically changed. That way Julie couldn’t issue any more commands from the control panel at Desica.

‘Dominic, VIMS is safe, I promise you,’ he told me. ‘I wouldn’t let anything happen to you or your mum.’

And whilst I believed Dad, somehow I still didn’t quite trust it. Last night, it had only done what it’d been programmed to do but … But. I also realized with a start that I’d gone back to calling VIMS ‘it’.

I sat down behind Mum. Ten minutes later, her hands were still moving like greased lightning across the keyboard as she fiddled with VIMS’ programming.

‘What’re you doing?’

‘Just isolating some code that’s been changed in the last couple of days. I’ll work out who changed it later after the test at the power plant.’

‘I know who changed the code,’ I told Mum. ‘It was Julie Resnick.’

‘Julie?’ Mum gave a start of surprise. ‘Why d’you say that?’

‘VIMS told me.’

‘He did? That’s interesting …’

‘You don’t sound very put out about it,’ I said. And she didn’t. Her tone was thoughtful rather than angry.

‘Come on, Mum. Share! Why’re you so calm about the fact that Julie is the saboteur?’

‘I’m not convinced she is,’ Mum told me at last.

‘But VIMS said—’

‘VIMS said what he was programmed to say,’ Mum interrupted. ‘The saboteur has been covering his or her tracks like a real expert. So why get careless now? It’s all a bit too convenient.’

‘Maybe Julie slipped up and forgot to cover her tracks?’ I suggested.

‘Possible, but very unlikely,’ Mum dismissed.

And now I’d had a chance to think about it, I agreed with Mum. ‘So you think someone was just trying to put the blame on Julie?’

‘It looks that way to me,’ said Mum. ‘But at the moment, my first priority is to get VIMS to the power plant and to prove once and for all that VIMS works as he should. If everything goes well then Rayner can give me a lot of good publicity.’

‘And that will make it harder for Desica to shut you down.’

‘Exactly.’ Mum smiled. ‘Now I’ve re-routed a couple of his command pathways so that he should bypass the changed code and behave himself.’

‘Are you going to the power plant now?’

‘Yep. And you’re coming with me.’

‘I am?’

‘I’m not up to fetching and carrying at the moment. I’ll need your help,’ said Mum. ‘I’ll leave a note for Jack telling him where we’re going. If he gets back in time,
he
can catch up with us there. Help me load the remote control unit into the car.’

It didn’t take too long to load up the car. VIMS was the most bother. Mum had to put on the VR visor and gloves and direct VIMS to climb up into the boot of our car, then fold itself up. As it moved through the house, I kept a wary eye on it and didn’t get too close. I thought more than once about telling Mum what’d happened the night before, but Dad had stressed that he wanted to be the one to explain everything to Mum.

Within half an hour, Mum was driving us to the power station. After the first couple of miles, Mum got me to change gear whilst she pressed down on the clutch pedal. I could only hope that we didn’t get spotted by the police. And although I was sitting next to her in the passenger seat, I spent most of my time glancing behind me to make sure VIMS wasn’t trying to enter the car from the boot or something. Every time Mum turned a corner she winced or flinched so that by the time we reached the power station, I knew she was in a lot of pain.

‘Mum, you should be in hospital,’ I told her. ‘Dad’s going to hit the roof when he realizes what you’ve done.’

‘He’ll understand.’

‘He’ll still be as mad as a whacked wasp at you.’

Mum started laughing at that, only to stop abruptly and hold her side.

‘Mum, this is silly. It can wait a couple more days, can’t it?’

‘No. It’s now or never,’ Mum insisted. ‘I need to buy some time and this will do it for me. I took some painkillers so I’ll be able to manage for another couple of hours.’

‘You took some painkillers?’ I asked. ‘But look at the state of you. You should be in hospital.’

‘Dominic.’ Mum looked me straight in the eyes. ‘Give it a rest!’

So with a heavy huff and a pouty puff, I shut up!

At the power plant’s security gate, a beefy guard in a grey uniform stepped forward. ‘Can I help you?’

‘Er … yes. We’re here to see Rayner Alten. He’s expecting us.’

‘Just a moment.’ The guard went back to his little cubby hole and picked up the phone. We had to wait over a minute before he put it down and walked back to us.

‘Drive up to the main building, then turn left and carry on for about a quarter of a mile to the maintenance building A to D.’

As Mum drove off, I asked, ‘How big is this place anyway?’

‘Huge.’ Mum stated the obvious. ‘And the pipework
and
cabling under this place stretches out for hundreds of kilometres.’