Lights Out (11 page)

At the foot of the escalator they were greeted by two, closed, metal
gates. The right gate led them into a safety deposit room, and the left,
straight into where the money, bonds and gold bullion lay.

For the last time that night, Ryan punched in a six-digit number on
the left hand gate keypad, and the gate swung open effortlessly, welcoming them
in.

Ghost Face nodded at the four men and held up 1 finger, indicating
that they had one minute. They nodded and set to work. Lily pulled Ryan back
out of the way, and they watched in silence as the men set to work.

Ryan watched in amazement at the speed of which the men were moving
around. It was clear that they had trained for this. Each man had a duty and
they worked together as a team, quickly, silently and without falter. One man
swiftly removed a black backpack and pulled out five oversize duffle bags, the
zips were already open and he lay them carefully out on the floor, opening the
mouth of the bags whilst the other three men were lifting and carrying the
plastic wrapped stacks of notes to and from the bags. As each bag became full,
the zip was closed and each bag was swiftly carried out of the vault and to the
bottom of the escalator.

In less than one minute all five duffle bags were full and ready.
Ghost Face nodded again and motioned with his fingers that they had just four
minutes remaining. Each man helped the other to load the duffle bags onto their
backs. The final bag went onto Ryan’s back. The sudden weight of the bag took
Ryan by surprise and he had to steady himself to keep his balance forwards. One
of the men made an “OK” sign with his hand, and Ryan nodded and replied with
another ‘OK’. Lily guided Ryan towards the escalator and they started to ascend.
They were slower this time. They
had to rely on the escalators speed to get them to the top. Behind them Ghost
Face closed the vault gate and quickly caught them up, taking two steps at a
time until he was directly behind his men.

Once they reached the top, Ryan turned and closed the vault entrance,
every time relieved that an alarm didn’t sound as he heard the click of the
door.

Ryan began to relax. He knew that they only had two more doors and
they would be outside, and it would be over. He reminded himself why he was
doing this, and kept the image of Rob’s bloodied face clear in his mind.

But instead of retracing their steps to the next door, Ghost Face and
the invisible team suddenly turned left towards the service lift. Confused,
Ryan followed, the dead weight on his back was beginning to pull down hard on
his shoulders and dig in to his skin. He could feel sweat trickling down his
back and beading across his forehead. He looked across at Lily, hoping that she
could read the confusion in his eyes. She stood calmly like the others as they
waited for the lift to arrive.

Finally the lift door opened and they all stepped inside. One of the
men pressed the button for the fourth floor and the elevator doors closed. The
lift heaved and whined as it ascended through the bank, sending echoes
throughout the empty building. Eventually the lift creaked to a stop and the
doors opened. They all stepped out onto the floor and quickly walked towards
some double doors to the right. It took Ryan just seconds to
realise
where they were heading. Everyone who worked in the
building knew that this is where the renovations were being carried out, but
this now confused Ryan even further.
Why
were they coming here?
Ryan thought.
Surely
they needed to get the money out, and fast?

Ryan blindly followed Ghost Face, Lily and the men into the room.
Unsurprisingly the door wasn’t locked and there was clearly nothing of value
inside. Upon entering the men swiftly dropped the duffle bags and helped Ryan
to take his bag off, dropping it to the floor next to theirs. Ryan rubbed his
shoulders with relief to be rid of his heavy load. He watched in silence as the
men swiftly opened up five white and blue woven rubble sacks and in pairs
deposited a duffle bag inside each one, quickly tying off the top securely with
black cable ties. They placed the bags in among the other identical rubble
sacks that had been filled that day. At a glance, nothing looked amiss. It was
just a pile of rubble and sacks. Only the seven people in the room knew that
there was a huge amount of money sitting unprotected waiting to be collected.
As soon as they had finished tying off the last sack, Ghost Face tapped his
watch and motioned forty seconds. When they exited the room, Lily was already
at the lift holding the doors open. They descended the four floors quickly and
silently. As soon as the doors opened on to the ground floor, all seven of them
poured out and ran as fast as they could to the final door. Ryan was at the
back, fear now superseding the panic that he had felt earlier. Pressing the red
exit button, the last door swung open and they all walked through, no one
waited this time to check if it closed behind them. As they drew closer to the
main doors, they could hear the noise and excitement outside. Ghost Face pulled
off his balaclava and stuffed it into his trouser pocket and everyone else
followed suit. Ryan was relieved to take his off and momentarily enjoyed the
coolness as the air hit his hot and sweaty face. Lily looked across at Ryan and
winked as they casually walked through the door. The sheer clamor of the crowds
hit them as they once again slipped past the security guard and exited the
building.

Ryan looked around him.
He was immediately swept up
by the hundreds of people surrounding the bank
. Everyone was getting
ready for the second count down. Ryan was being ushered by Ghost Face in the
direction of where the car had dropped them off. They found it harder this
time, pushing through the crowds against the natural flow of people. He turned
to see where Lily was, so that he could talk to her, but she was already on her
mobile phone and working her way through the crowds in the opposite direction
to them. It was too loud for him to shout her
name,
she would never hear him over the deafening noise of people. The remaining four
men had simply disappeared out of sight.
Truly invisible.
Ryan thought.

People around them were chanting the countdown. “Ten, nine, eight.”
Ryan turned once more to look back towards the bank, no one was following them,
there was no sign of an alarm going off, and there were no distant sirens. He
was truly amazed that they had pulled this off, impressed even.

Ghost Face pushed Ryan forwards towards the car. As soon as they were
in sight, the driver stepped out of the Mercedes and opened up the back door.
Ryan looked at Ghost Face, and he motioned for Ryan to climb in. Ryan bent
forwards and began to climb in to the back of the car. Suddenly he felt a
searing pain across the back of his neck, he reached his hands up to clutch his
head, but the pain was too much to bear. He slumped forward, a dead weight
himself now, and the driver quickly slipped his black baton back inside the
belt of his pants and shoved Ryan’s limp body into the back seat. Silently the
Mercedes pulled away from the curb and began to slowly weave its way through
the busy streets.

“Two, one.” The whole of Hong Kong erupted at once as the City lights
lit-up the sky again, erasing the stars and the darkness. The bubbly news
reporter was beside herself with excitement as she eagerly talked into the
camera, telling everyone watching what a success the Lights Out campaign had
been, and now, Hong Kong had truly made it’s mark and was well on the way to
wiping out pollution altogether.

AUGUST 9

Ryan lay heavily on his front, his breathing ragged and
laboured
. His right leg had slipped completely off the
couch at some point during the night, and his right arm hung down low, the back
of his hand gently touching the floor.

The sunlight was bursting through the window and now rested on his
face, burning fiercely under his eyelids.

Ryan slowly started to wake up, but the throbbing on the back of his
head coupled with a sudden wave of nausea rendered him motionless. He lay still
for a few seconds and waited for the feeling to subside. In his unconscious
state he had dribbled saliva out of his mouth and now Ryan was aware of the
cool wet patch under his left cheek. His mouth felt dry, and he tried to wet
his lips with his tongue, which used all of his remaining energy. He had a
strange metallic taste in his mouth, which he couldn’t place and he held
himself still again as the second wave hit him, disabling him once more. Once
the nausea had ebbed away, he slowly moved himself into a sitting position and
carefully rested his fragile head in his trembling hands. Taking a few deep
breaths Ryan pushed
himself
upright into a sitting
position and tried to open his eyes. The sudden shift of position made him
dizzy for a moment and he kept his eyes closed tightly whilst he breathed his
way through the black spots and the head rush.

He opened his eyes to the glare of the sunlight and immediately the
pain came searing up the back of his head once more and he shut them tight
again. Ryan pressed his hands against his head to try and alleviate some of the
pain.

He tried to remain as still as possible whilst he attempted to
arrange his thoughts. Everything was replaying at full speed in his head;
colours
, pictures and faces were darting in front of his
eyes too fast for him to see what they were. Everything appeared jumbled and
disjointed. It was like the worst migraine that he had ever suffered coupled
with a hangover. Abruptly and painfully everything came rushing back into
focus. Rob’s bloodied face, the city lights going out, the bank robbery, the
black Mercedes, the pain on the back of his head. Ryan slowly opened his eyes
and started to familiarize himself with his surroundings. He was a relieved to
see that he was at least back in his own apartment, he was on his own couch and
it was daytime. That much he knew for certain. Ryan carefully moved his hand
around to the back of his head and he could feel a huge bump where he had
obviously been hit. His hair felt matted, and he guessed that his head had been
bleeding at some point. He gently prodded around until he located the wound.
The cut didn’t appear to be too deep and the bleeding had stopped.

Something small and white on his coffee table caught his attention.
A pill bottle.
Ryan reached for the bottle and read the
label.
Temazepam
. He recognized the name immediately.
A well known sleeping pill,
a strong one
,
he remembered reading that somewhere. He shook the bottle, and popped open the
round plastic lid, a few remaining small white pills sat at the bottom.

I’ve been drugged
, Ryan thought, suddenly aghast.
That explains the metallic taste
, he
thought.

But why drug me?
Ryan didn’t want to think whilst his
head hurt so much. He was sure that he would find out sooner or later. For now,
he was happy to be in his apartment, and happy to be alive.

Ryan stood up slowly and resting his hand on the arm of his couch, he
started to work his was around his apartment to check if he was alone. He was.
His front door was locked and all of his windows were closed.

Ryan walked to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of cold water
from his fridge, which he drank in just a few thirsty gulps. The water helped
to sharpen his senses and numb some of the dull pain in his head. He opened his
kitchen draw and fished around blindly for some
Panadol
,
hoping that it may just take the edge off the headache that threatened to
remain. He located the foil packet, and popped out two pills, washing it down
with the remainder of the water in the fridge.

Ryan looked at his watch. It was just after 11am. He walked through
to his lounge and switched on the TV.

The same bubbly new reporter that Ryan recognized from the day before
was talking into the camera. Ryan turned up the volume.

“ After the great success of the Lights
Out Campaign last night, we have woken up this morning to the news that the
World Asia Bank was robbed during the eight-minute black out. At this stage the
police are unclear of the details. The bank is closed this morning whilst
investigators interview staff and members of the public. What we do know is
that a large unconfirmed amount of money has been taken. Police are urging
members of the public, or anyone in vicinity of the Bank during last
nights
event, that saw anything to please come forward. This
comes just days after an armed man, suspected to be from the Mainland, walk
into the same Bank and attempt to bypass security, which ended in a fatal shoot
out.”

Ryan switched the TV to mute, leaving the news reporter on the screen
talking silently to the camera.

Ryan sat for a moment weighing up his options. He probably needed to
go to the Police, but first he needed to make sure that Rob was OK. He fumbled
around for his phone and finally found it stuffed down the side of his couch.
Punching in Rob’s number he sat patiently listening to the ringing tone.
Eventually after several rings, the phone beeped and the answer phone clicked
in. He listened to Rob’s familiar voice, asking the caller to leave a message
after the tone. Ryan left a short garbled message asking Rob to call him back and
clicked off the phone.

Ryan considered calling Lily, then decided against it. He wasn’t
ready to speak to her yet. What would he say if he did call? He mused.
Hi Lily, I’ve just woken up, and by the way,
why did you drug me last night
and is
Rob still alive? No
, he thought to himself. They needed him to be asleep
for a reason and until he knew why, he needed to tread very carefully.

Next Ryan thought about the police. If he called them now would it
still put Rob’s life in danger? His gut feeling was to call Detective Lam and
tell her everything, but if anything happened to Rob because of his phone call.
It would have been all for nothing. He first needed to find his friend.

A scraping noise pulled Ryan away from his thoughts.

He listened again. He was sure that he had heard something. He waited
a few seconds. There it was again, definitely a scraping sound, possibly
footsteps. Ryan walked silently towards his front door. He pressed his ear
against the door. He could hear muffled whispers.

Slowly sliding his body higher up the door, Ryan leaned in and
leveled his eye with the security spy hole. It took only a second for his eye
to adjust to the dark passageway on the other side of the door. Ryan could see
what he thought was two uniformed police officers outside his front door. Ryan
quickly snapped his head away from the small hole before they saw him and
pressed his back against the wall.

What to do?
His mind was racing now, all thoughts of his
throbbing head replaced with thoughts of escape. They had probably already
found his fingerprints all over the Bank. He wasn’t ready for this. Knowing
that he only had a few moments to make a decision, he tried to rationalize
everything that was happening. He heard another noise and decided that there
was no time to get caught up with the robbery until he knew that Rob was safe.

In three strides Ryan was across the room and grabbed whatever he
could get his hands on. His wallet, his keys and his phone and pushed them deep
into his trouser pocket. He ran to his balcony door and fumbling with the lock
for just a moment he let himself out through the full length, glass sliding
doors and onto his small balcony. Now he could hear knocking on his door and
one of the men shouting through the thick wood. ”
Mr
Harper, it’s the police, we’d like to talk with you, please open up.”

Ryan moved to the edge of the balcony and looked down over the
railing. He had three floors to go. He estimated that if he slid over the
balcony he should be able to balance his feet on the handrail on the floor
below and slide onto the terrace. Left with no other choice Ryan slid his body
over the side of the balcony holding tightly to the metal railing above him.
Taking a big breath for courage he dangled his feet below until he could feel
the metal beneath his shoes. He then swung himself forwards and dropped down
onto the next level.

Only two more to go
, he thought.

Ryan heard more shouting, this time it sounded more urgent forcing
him to speed up.

“
Mr
Harper, we need you to open up. Otherwise we will
have to force an entry
”.
The
Policeman sounded more convincing now.

Ryan didn’t need to be told twice. He followed the same procedure
again and lowered himself down to the second floor balcony. The muscles in his
arms were starting to ache as he swung his own body weight between floors. He
balanced for a final time and then dropped down, this time landing on the grass
with a thud. Just as he straightened himself up and dusted down his knees, Ryan
heard the unmistakable sound of wood splitting, as his solid wooden door was
finally forced open. He could hear the loud footsteps as the Officers ran
between each room searching for Ryan. Ryan glued himself to the outside of the
outer building wall, moving as fast as he could around the side of the building
to the front. He hoped that if they looked over the balcony that they wouldn’t
be able to see past the other balconies, which would hide him from view. As he
edged his way around to the front entrance he could see a police car parked in
the car park. He looked more closely to check if there was anyone else inside
the vehicle, and was relieved to find it empty. Ryan scanned the rest of the
car park and his eyes rested on the small security office with the yellow and
white crime scene police tape wrapped around it. He felt a sudden sadness as
the sight of the tape confirmed to him what he already suspected, that
Mr
Wu, the caretaker had been collateral in this whole
affair.

Focusing on the task at hand, Ryan needed to get to the main road and
in to a taxi before the police officers could stop him. Catching a taxi on the
road would be easy enough and then he could disappear into the city, which
would give him enough time to decide what he should do next.

Hearing footsteps and shouts behind him, Ryan was suddenly in motion,
running for his life down the steep sloped driveway, resisting the urge to look
behind him. He ran into the road slamming his hands on to the bonnet of the
first available taxi that he saw, bringing it to an immediate screeching halt.
He swiftly moved around the side and climbed into the back passenger seat.
Still not daring to look back Ryan sat in silence as the taxi driver shouted
expletives at Ryan in the rear view mirror. Ryan didn’t care, he slumped down
as low as he could and accepted the barrage of insults willingly, pleased to be
out of sight.

The two police officers ran out on to the busy road and skidded to a
halt. A sea of red taxi’s greeted them, snaking up and down the steep hairpin
road. In vain they scanned and searched each cab as it drove past them.

Defeated, one of the officers picked up his radio to report the bad
news.

“
Detective Lam
,
he got away.