Urban Outlaws (16 page)

Somewhere, in a server room, a rainbow flickered across the crystals of an LCD monitor as light pushed through them and delivered Jack’s signal.

Jack opened his eyes and watched the screen in front of him.

A box popped up and the tracking program he’d written started to work its magic. The progress bar moved slowly.

In the bottom corner a warning flashed red.

TRACE ACTIVATED.

Jack stared at it, momentarily stunned. ‘They’re tracing us.’

‘Already?’ Noble said. ‘They must be using Proteus to help them.’

The red stopped flashing and a new message replaced it.

TRACE COMPLETE.

Noble threw the stopwatch into the passenger footwell in disgust. So much for having at least five minutes – they’d underestimated by a long way.

Proteus now had Jack’s mobile number and would be calling the cavalry, sending their approximate location, triangulated using phone masts.

It was a race to the finish line.

Either the program Jack had written would find the virus in time, or the agents would get to them first.

The next few minutes passed like hours.

Noble thumped the steering wheel. ‘Come on.’ The car in front began to move forward. He followed, close to its bumper.

‘Just try to keep us moving,’ Jack said, refocusing on the LCD screen. So far, the program had not found any clue as to the virus’s location. ‘Where is it?’ he said through clenched teeth.

‘Company,’ Charlie said.

Jack looked up and she pulled the curtain back so he could see. Five cars behind them, the black SUV slid out of a side street and entered the traffic.

Jack muttered to himself and returned his attention to the screen.

Still no sign of the virus.

‘Where is it?’

The SUV sounded its horn, squeezed its way past two cars, and drew nearer.

Jack stared at the laptop screen, willing it to complete its task. It had to be close to finding the virus. They just needed a few more minutes. He looked through the rear window and realised they didn’t have a few minutes – the SUV was almost on them.

‘I’m sorry, Jack, they’ve got us.’ Noble glanced into the side mirror and gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles stretched white.

Charlie said, ‘Turn off the phone.’

‘That won’t work,’ Jack said, watching the SUV’s progress.

‘Why not?’

‘They’ll have the phone’s number and know it’s in one of just a few cars,’ Noble said. ‘All they need to do is stop the traffic ahead of us and search each vehicle in turn.’

Jack said, ‘My bet is they’ll start with the big blue hippy bus.’

Noble winced. ‘Sorry.’

Jack looked back at the screen again – still no sign of the virus. They just didn’t have enough time.

With a grunt of annoyance, he disconnected the phone and clutched it in his hands, staring out of the window, searching for inspiration.

‘Turn it off, Jack,’ Charlie said. ‘They might not find us.’

Too much to hope for
.

Jack stood and looked over Noble’s shoulder. ‘Pull up over there,’ he said, pointing to a gap in the cars parked at the side of the road.

Noble looked confused. ‘What?’

‘Just do it.’

Noble did as Jack asked and pulled into the empty space.

Jack looked out the rear window. The SUV was just a couple of cars back. He slid open the rear door and went to step out.

Charlie grabbed his jacket, pulling him back. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Go down a couple of roads and park. I’ll come and find you there.’

‘I’m coming with you.’

‘No,’ Jack said, ‘that’ll double our chances of getting caught.’ He shrugged her free, got out, shut the door, and – keeping low, his face hidden – disappeared into the busy crowd. He glanced back to see the camper van pull out of the space and back into the flow of traffic.

The SUV stopped in the same vacant space and Agents Cloud and Monday stepped out. Agent Cloud held a phone signal tracker in front of her.

Good
, Jack thought. They were following the signal and not the camper. He gripped the phone and darted into a busy shopping centre.

Moving through the sea of people, Jack looked back and saw Agent Cloud stop outside the doors. She said something and gestured in his direction. Agent Monday pushed open the doors and they entered.

Jack brushed past people, and kept glancing over his shoulder. He slammed into something solid and looked up to see a man in his early twenties, over six feet tall, and built like an American football player, snarl at him.

‘Watch where you’re going.’ He shoved Jack hard in the chest and Jack staggered backward.

‘Sorry,’ Jack said, raising his hands.

‘Too right you’re sorry,’ the man growled, fists clenched. He stormed past Jack, almost knocking him over.

Jack turned and pushed through the shoppers.

He spotted a fire exit at the end of a deserted corridor, and made his way quickly towards it.

As the exit drew nearer, he took another look over his shoulder.

Agent Cloud and Agent Monday stopped at the end of the corridor, Agent Cloud transfixed on the tracker image, and Monday looking in the opposite direction.

Jack continued to stride towards the exit, body tensed, eyes squeezed to a squint, ready for the capture. He considered running, but knew this would draw attention.

After an eternity, he reached the exit, took a deep breath, and grabbed the emergency bar.

One last glance up the corridor and he saw Agent Cloud look at the tracker for confirmation, and back at Agent Monday.

She pointed at the football player who was looking in a shop window.

In two strides, Agent Monday was on the guy. He roughly patted him down and pulled the mobile phone from his pocket.

Jack didn’t hang around to see the outcome, and he slid out into the sunshine.

•   •   •

Noble was tapping the steering wheel when Jack opened the side door and hopped in.

Charlie let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Fine,’ Jack said. He looked at Noble. ‘Let’s get out of here.’

Noble nodded and pulled away from the kerb.

Jack dropped into the chair, deflated. ‘Well, that was a waste of time,’ he mumbled.

‘Jack,’ Noble said in a calm voice, ‘you tried your best.’

‘What now?’ Charlie said.

Jack turned to Noble. ‘If you have any ideas, now would be a good time.’

A wry grin played on Noble’s lips and the corner of his mouth twitched. ‘Well, it just so happens that there is something else we could try. It’s a long shot.’

Jack sat back. ‘Everything we’ve done recently has been a long shot.’

CHAPTER TEN

Noble drove Jack and Charlie to Bakerlin, a small town just outside London. The train station was like something out of a nineteen-fifties photograph, with its redbrick walls and four tall chimneys jutting from a pitched roof.

Tall, slender windows, spaced a metre or so apart, still had their original sliding mechanisms.

Jack, Charlie and Noble went to the ticket office. The only hint of the modern world was the computer the attendant used behind the small glass window. She stared at Noble when he asked for three tickets. His striking appearance did seem more out of place the further from London he got.

A little while later, they stepped on to the platform. Solid wood canopies covered the waiting passengers, protecting them from the non-existent rain on the cloud-free day. The station even had the original green signage. No fear of there being CCTV cameras in a place like this.

Charlie looked concerned as they waited for the train.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jack asked her.

‘Do you think it’s safe to call the others?’

‘I guess so.’ Jack just didn’t think it was wise to go anywhere near the bunker, not until they worked out what was happening.

Charlie pulled a phone from her pocket, dialled, and put it on speakerphone.

‘Hey, what’s going on with you guys?’ It was Obi.

‘We’re with someone,’ Charlie said.

Noble leant over and spoke into the phone. ‘Hello, Obi.’

‘Noble,’ Obi exclaimed, ‘what –’

‘Hi, Noble,’ came another voice through the speaker.

‘Slink. How are you?’

‘Get off,’ Obi said. There was a rustle and Jack imagined him grabbing the phone back from Slink. ‘Where are you?’

Jack glanced around to make sure no one was listening. ‘We’ll tell you about it when we get back. Will you be OK for a day or so? Do you need any money?’

‘Slink and Wren are cooking,’ Obi said. He lowered his voice. ‘They’re not as good as Charlie.’

‘I’m sure you’ll survive,’ Jack said. ‘Obi, I need you to stay off the net, understood?’

‘Sure.’ He didn’t sound convincing.

‘I mean it. People are looking for us.’

‘Obi,’ Charlie said, ‘promise me you’ll stay offline.’

Obi sighed. ‘OK, I will.’

A man in a suit walked past and looked askance at the three of them.

‘Speak soon,’ Jack said, pressing the End-call button.

The man stopped a little way down the platform and unfolded a newspaper.

‘You’re paranoid,’ Charlie whispered in Jack’s ear as she slipped the phone back into her pocket.

Jack kept his eyes on the man. ‘No, just careful.’

•   •   •

A modern train pulled into the station, not a steam engine that would’ve fitted better with their surroundings.

Jack, Charlie and Noble got on board and found an empty table to sit at.

Noble held out his hand to Charlie. ‘May I borrow that phone?’

Charlie handed it to him.

Noble typed a quick text message. He paused for a few seconds and stared up at the ceiling. ‘Ah, yes.’ He entered a phone number and hit Send. Noble kept the phone in his hand and looked out of the window as the train pulled away from the station.

Jack watched the trees and houses glide past. They seemed artificial to him, like a cartoon background rolling past the windows. The train was stationary – it was the world that was moving.

‘Where are we going?’ Charlie asked Noble.

‘Chesterfield.’

‘
Chesterfield
? How far is that?’

Noble turned back from the window, set down the phone and rested his hands on the table. ‘A couple of hours.’

Charlie let out a small groan. ‘You gonna tell us why we’re going to Chesterfield?’

Jack wanted to know the answer to that too.

Noble glanced around the carriage, seeming to making sure no one else was listening. They were alone but he kept his voice low. ‘When Jack couldn’t find the virus, I realised you were going about it the wrong way.’

Jack frowned. ‘What other way is there to find it?’

‘Exactly that – you were trying to
find
the virus.’

Jack glanced at Charlie, then back to Noble. ‘I don’t get it.’

‘Why not let it come to us?’ Noble lowered his voice even further. ‘When the virus moved from Proteus, what happened?’

‘It messed with the bunker’s computers,’ Jack said.

‘It was looking for processing power.’

Jack stared at him for a moment, then his eyes widened. ‘Ah, man, I get it now.’ Finally, it made sense. ‘I’ve been stupid.’

Charlie folded her arms. ‘Explain.’

Noble said, ‘The virus was obviously designed to use all the resources Proteus had to stop it from working. The more power it finds, the more disruption it causes.’

Charlie frowned. ‘It hunts for power?’

‘In this case, processor power. CPU. Gigahertz.’

‘Wait a minute,’ Charlie said. ‘We took that from it.’ She looked at Jack. ‘We gave the virus a way out.’

‘And,’ Jack said, ‘the bunker computers weren’t enough for it. The virus went hunting for more power. A place to cause more disruption.’

Noble nodded. ‘I think once it’s exhausted a set of computer resources, it moves on. It’s unlikely to go to the same place twice.’

‘So,’ Jack said, ‘when we capture the virus, we’re going to have to force it back into Proteus.’

Charlie looked thoughtful. ‘But why haven’t we seen anything on the news?’

‘Because it’s not done anything that’s news-worthy yet,’ Noble said. ‘It’s just one virus. It doesn’t copy itself. Doesn’t spread. Besides, the internet itself is like a highway, so it can hunt for its next meal. It will graze on smaller systems on the way. Perhaps we’ll hear about them.’ Noble sat back.

‘So,’ Jack said, ‘what’s in Chesterfield?’

‘A supercomputer.’

Jack couldn’t help but smile. He glanced at Charlie. She was looking a little confused. ‘The virus is hunting for power, right?’ She nodded. ‘We’ll use the supercomputer in Chesterfield to attract and trap it.’