Hack.A.I. (The Hack. series Book 1), page 11
“I wouldn’t bet against it. There’s about twenty of them. They are definitely going to raid this train.”
They began to separate and form a formation in alignment with the train doors. Spread apart twenty feet.
“We got to get off.”
“We not. They spot us,”
“Sketch is right, Nate. They’d come after us down the tracks.”
Nate's eyes darted around the train cabin, desperately seeking the answer.
“They might not be here for us,” Cassie said, at a higher pitch than normal.
“Unless a terrorist is on the same — almost empty — train, then I think we can assume they are.”
The train slowed into the station.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have just arrived at Paddington station. But we ask that you remain seated while the transport police run a routine training exercise. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
“See, it’s just a training exercise.” Cassie stated hopefully.
Nate watched what he assumed was a detective, dressed in a suit with a long wool coat, bark orders at the PCs.
“No way would there be a detective at a training exercise.” Nate sat back down. And tugged his laptop out of his bag. And began searching frantically.
“What are you doing?” With a puzzled expression, Cassie asked, her brows furrowing inquisitively.
“Getting us the hell out of here.”
Nate stood up against the exit and stuck a screwdriver that he had in his bag behind one hinge of the control panel door, and pulled hard. The door snapped open.
Cassie and Sketch frantically searched the cabin, their minds racing with worry, certain that someone must have heard the commotion and would soon arrive to investigate.
Nate carefully wedged the corner of his laptop into the panel’s narrow gap, using his arm as support while he rummaged through his backpack for a lock pick.
A group of officers approached Nate’s door as the train stopped.
He slotted the pick into the key slot with the options: Select All Doors, Select Doors Ahead, Select Door Behind. Nate prodded the pick around and the lock clicked and he turned the option to select all doors.
Two officers chatted a little, and then made eye contact with Nate through the window. They glanced at the paper they held, then back at Nate. Their eyes widened and their lips read plain as day, “There he is!”
He selected the option to keep doors closed. And jammed it in place with the screwdriver.
“Okay, I’ve bought us a little time. I doubt they are going to break onto the train in the middle of the day. It’s going to scare everyone. Let’s go.”
Nate stood up and paced his way down the train, followed by an eager Cassie and reluctantly by Sketch.
“Stop! This is the police!” The stouter officer called out, wagging his finger at them.
“What’s your plan, Nate?”
“I’m going to override the train controls and drive us back to the station we just passed.”
“Are you crazy?”
“Got any better ideas?”
Cassie shrugged.
“Give you up. It you they after.” Sketch replied.
“That’s not an option. He’s family.” Cassie said.
All three squeezed past the alarmed train passengers who were standing by the doors, wanting to exit the train.
Nate reached the back end driver's door first, which was electronically operated. He opened the hatch and took a photo with his phone.
Cassie and Sketch finally caught up.
A second later, SQAI highlighted which wire Nate should cut to trip the system and cause the lock to release. He pulled the door handle, and it opened.
The officers who noticed Nate, followed them down the train but failed to open the door with a crowbar.
He placed one of his earbuds in.
“Okay, SQAI, how do I drive this train?” He asked, conscious of the two people watching him over his shoulder.
“I believe they refer to it as running a train, not driving.”
“I don’t care. Show me how?”
He plunged himself into the short driver’s seat.
“Who are you talking to?” Cassie asked, her furrowed brows locked intently on Nate.
“No one.”
The vague response only annoyed Cassie even more.
“On the control panel in front of you there is a lever with reverse written below it, called the reverser. You need to push that lever forward.”
He quickly found the lever and slotted it forward.
“Eh, man, they are trying to smash the windows!” Sketch stated, watching the group of officers smashing a passenger window.
“They are emergency windows. Unless they have the emergency hammer, it will take them ages. Don’t panic.” Nate replied, still staring at the panel.
“To the right-hand side, there is a pull lever for the brakes. This controls the brake pressure along the train. It needs to be released by being pulled all the way down.” SQAI continued.
“There are two levers, one which says brake and power, is that it?”
“No, according to the manual, it should be to the right of that.”
“In the shape of a pull cord?”
“Yes. Pull it towards you fully.”
The lever stiffly pulled back.
“Done.”
An obnoxious alarm rang out in the cabin.
“Above the panel, next to the window on the right hand side, there is a black and yellow exclamation mark. Press that button.”
Nate eagerly tapped the button, and the alarm muted.
“Now the lever you mentioned previously; that is labelled brake or power, that is the throttle, you need to pull back ever so slightly toward power. Too much power and the wheels will spin on the spot.”
Nate nudged the looser gear-knob throttle back ever so slightly and the loud engine roared, which increased the police officers’ eagerness to get on the train.
The train slowly sped up off the platform.
“We’re moving!” Cassie hopped on her toes, then her face changed and her hopping stopped. “Holy fuck, we are moving. How are you gonna stop?”
“I got this. Don’t panic.” Nate said sternly and wiped the sweat off his forehead
As if on cue, Cassie’s body betrayed her with a sudden wave of arousal, despite the terrible timing.
The officers signalled for the police to go to the next station through the cracked window.
“We need to get there before they turn up.” Nate pulled the throttle a little further back.
They hit a fast cruising speed.
“SQAI, how fast are we going?”
“Twenty-five miles per hour and rising.”
“Perfect. Are they following us?” Nate got out of the driver’s seat and pressed his face up against the window to see if they were being chased down the tracks.
“Whadda hell is that?” Sketch squinting out the driver's window, causing Cassie to turn from Nate.
“Forty miles per hour.” SQAI continued in Nate’s ear.
“Ugh, NATE!” Cassie called, her shocked face peering out the front window.
“Wha —” his sentence broke off when he could see what Cassie was staring at.
Another passenger train was approaching them on the same track. A large building had hid it from view.
“SHIT! SQAI, I need to learn how to stop, quickly?”
Nate burst past Cassie and Sketch and jumped two-footed into the driver’s seat.
“Would you like me to talk at one and half speed?”
“Yes! Tell me how to stop?”
“There is an emergency stop function at the right-hand side. But it is recommended for emergencies only. The other…”
“Oh, duh,” Nate slapped his head, followed by the emergency button.
The train approaching was maybe twenty carriage distance away as Nate’s train stopped harshly and shot them all forward into the front window.
He watched as the train ahead of him screeched and sparks exploded underneath, as if fireworks were used to stop it.
Nate held onto his seat and pushed himself back, hoping to manifest the train doing the same.
“Eh, we gonna crash, man!”
The train approached, revealing the terrified driver. He leaped out of his seat and charged towards the door, attempting to open it.
“He’s right! Run!” Nate jumped out of his seat and they all scrambled to get further along the train.
Sketch swiftly took off, leaving them behind in his dust, brushing past the confused pedestrians on his way to escape.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted the oncoming train.
Nate grabbed Cassie in a bear hug and dived with her in his arms into a chair that faced the opposite direction in which the train was moving and readied himself to take the blow.
He pulled her in close and braced for the impact.
A small shunt hit the train. Enough to knock them both onto the floor. But much less than he was expecting.
They got to their feet and saw the minimal damage the train had taken, and breathed a sigh of relief. There were cries and panicked screams throughout the train.
“Come on, we can’t stay here!” Nate said quickly, tugging the emergency hammer from its plastic enclosure.
Two enormous blows were all that the window needed to shatter into a million pea-sized pieces.
He checked for any more train traffic, then dangled down and dropped from the eight foot top window to the small stones below the tracks.
Cassie nervously followed and dangled, but Nate saved her from dropping to the floor by catching her and slowly placing her down on the ground.
“Come on, follow me!”
They ran across the tracks, leaping with every step over the steel girders towards a ten-foot wall.
“Oi, you, what are you doing down there?” Called a Met police officer who was watching them from a bridge above.
He glanced further up the track to see a collection of transport police storming towards them.
“Stop right there!” He ran across the bridge and down a stairway to cut them off.
“Come on, we have to go now.” Nate ran to a corner of the high wall and propelled his foot off the one wall and launched himself up to grip the heavily-graffitied wall’s edge, pulling himself up.
He perched on it and held down his arm for Cassie.
“Run at me.”
“No, I can’t.”
“Cass — trust me.”
As she locked eyes with him, she could see the genuine sincerity in his gaze.
“Okay.” Slowly, she walked into a run, jumped and latched onto his arm.
Nate's arm trembled as he struggled and strained, feeling the weight of her body pulling him down.
“Stop, I said!” The cockney officer called out, upon reaching the bottom of the steps.
A quick glance at the officer was all the motivation Nate needed to pump his arm and yank her up.
She climbed over and they both ran. While Nate hovered behind her to make sure she was not caught first, Cassie held her arm across her breasts and ran as quickly as she could.
The plump officer was already panting as he got within a bus-length of them.
A block of townhouses came into view ahead of them.
“Cass, when we reach those houses, you need to cut off into a lane or something and hide. I’m going to lure the officer to me. Meet back up at the address.”
“Yeah—okay.” She panted.
Fifty yards was all that was between Cassie and Nate and the houses and, to Nate’s delight, he saw a lane halfway up.
The hefty officer had dropped back even further, his head swaying as he ran and in his struggle, offered them a gap for Cassie to hide.
“On my count: three, two, one, go!” They split off in different directions, like logs of wood being struck with an axe.
Leaning over as he jogged slower, the officer missed Cassie's turn off.
He forced himself after Nate, and Cassie waited until they were out of sight.
She stood up and walked back in the direction from which she came.
Out of breath herself, she dipped her head down and bumped into someone.
Her eyes widened in alarm, darting around the room with a panicked expression
“Hello, Cass.”
twenty-three
Nate's heart pounded against his chest, a mix of excitement and relief after eluding the officer. A quick climb up onto a derelict building roof and Nate watched him disappear.
Pausing briefly, he admired London's magnificent skyline, a symbol of the city's grandeur. From the top he could see Kensington palace and the gardens.
His first time seeing it in person and it wasn’t quite what he expected or how he wanted to see it.
Not wanting to waste any time, he slid his glasses back on.
“SQAI, pull up footage from Paddington station at about one o’clock today.”
His lens split into fifty small boxes, displaying the cameras from every section of the station.
“Specifically platform eight.”
The fifty small boxes were reduced to seven from every angle of platform eight.
“There, camera seventeen, stood next to the news cabin. Highlight him.”
A white aura lit up around the detective that Nate had seen giving orders.
“I want you to find out who those detectives were and why were they after me?”
“Working. Estimated time until completion is one hour.”
“That’s fine. I’ve got to do something, anyway.”
Stepping lightly across the tin roof, Nate hung off the ledge and slid down that drainpipe that he had climbed.
A short fifteen minute stroll from Knightsbridge, where the derelict building stood, and Nate got to the address of the IP they had found in the data mine and glared at the large five-storey white Georgian townhouse in Belgravia, with its two large white pillar porch and shiny varnished oak door.
Range Rovers, Bentleys and Rolls Royces of varying ages occupy most of the residential permit holder spaces. The brand new Peugeot sticking out like a pimple on a baby’s face. Likely owned by an eco warrior rebelling against the rest of their obnoxious street.
Two men walked towards him dressed in white shirts and cream chinos, black shoes and a lanyard around their necks. Their twangy speech made Nate wonder if they had any relation to the royals. He heard them sniggering about his own attire after they had walked past.
“SQAI, bring up their profile.”
“Working.”
On his lens he saw SQAI enhance the image she had captured of them and zoom in on the lanyard, containing their names, images, and a place of work.
Unrelated to anyone significant. Both lowly employees in a local estate agents. They had more debt than certain small countries.
Their pompous reaction elicited a scoff from Nate, who couldn't help but find their behaviour ridiculous. Given their stature.
Nate hovered around for any sight of Cassie.
“Where the hell is she? She should be here by now.”
“Would you like me to find her?”
“No, give it a minute.”
He sat down on a marble step leading up to another town house facing the one across the street that he needs.
Waiting and staring around him, Nate checked his watch a few times.
When he decided SQAI should begin her search, Cassie walked around the corner at the end of the street.
Nate stood and waved to her, but paused when Sketch plodded along behind her.
She confronted him, hurling verbal abuse and dismissing him like a disobedient dog.
He trudged off and Cassie walked casually over to Nate.
“Darling,” she called out to greet Nate in an imitation of a Mayfair dweller. “How are you, my sweet?”
She leaned in for a kiss on each cheek, then gazed at him from a foot away. Her voice whispered.
“I’m so glad you are okay!”
“I’m fine. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, a little shaken up. I mean, I literally couldn’t stop shaking all the way over here.”
“That’s adrenaline.”
“I don’t know if I’m fit enough for all this running around and climbing malarkey. Get me back to my desk and laptop.”
“You’ll get used to it.”
“No, I won’t. This is the one and only time I’m helping you!” she said matter of fact. “I was shitting myself, thinking the police officer would hear my out-of-breath panting. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when he followed you instead.”
“He wasn’t much fitter, don’t worry.”
“Obviously not. After you were both out of sight, I got up and walked towards the bridge and that’s when I bumped into Sketch.”
“I just saw him with you there. Where did he come from?”
“He said he got off the train after us, but I didn’t see him, did you?”
“No, he didn’t. I would’ve seen him. He ditched us the first chance he got and now he’s come back.”
“I know,” Cassie nodded and continued. “We ended up casually walking along the bridge, hoping we weren’t spotted and trying to act as normal as possible, and we saw the transport police from the station had caught up to the train.”
“And?”
“They had the train surrounded, officers with machine guns.”
“Jesus Christ. That’s some firepower for little old me. Was the detective with them?”
“Yeah, he got off the train and glanced everywhere. Do you know why they are after you?”
“Not a clue,” Nate shrugged. “But I’m working on it. I am just glad you are okay. It was pretty nerve-wracking if you aren’t used to that sort of thing happening.”
“You are?”
“More than I’d like to admit.”
“Well, I’ve never been involved in anything like this.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to drag you into it.”
“Like Bic said, we are like a family. We would go through anything for each other.”
“Not too much like family, I hope.”
“What does that mean?” Cassie smirked.
Nate smiled. “I’ll leave you to work that one out.”
With eyes filled with mischief, she locked her gaze on him.
