Lockdown, page 6
part #4 of Liars Series
‘A message?’
‘No. A sound like a HEARTBEAT. Probably just interference from some medical equipment.’
‘Well, send a message to Viper about it, just in case. And tell Rattler to come back. No point chasing those two kids. The cat’s out of the bag.’
‘Viper’s going to be mad.’
‘He knows these jobs never go exactly to plan. As long as Plowman is dead and the flask gets delivered, Viper will be happy. Where’s Anaconda?’
Their voices faded away. It sounded like they were going back to the theatre. That was bad news. If they were standing guard outside it, Doug wouldn’t be able to get back in and deliver the blood. He would have to distract them somehow.
But all that would come later. He could practically hear his mother’s voice, as they sat on opposite sides of the plastic travel chessboard: ‘Focus on each move. Long term plans rely too much on the other player. You win chess one move at a time.’
Find the blood, Doug told himself. Without it, there’s no point going back.
He slowly opened the closet door. The corridor was empty now. He slipped out and kept running towards the hazardous materials chamber.
The storage room was next to it, as the doctors had said. He slipped through the door, and found himself in a cramped room full of supplies—sheets, bandages, packaged syringes, bottles of disinfectant.
The stainless steel fridge up the back turned out to be full of blood. Dozens of bags of it, so much that Doug felt a bit faint.
He swallowed his nausea and rummaged through the bags, scooping up all the ones marked TYPE O NEGATIVE. The label also said ‘universal donor’. Maybe the doctors still didn’t know Plowman’s blood type.
He could only carry six bags. He hoped it would be enough. With his pockets and his hands full, he slipped out of the storage room. So far, so good.
Doug slowed down as he ran back towards the theatre, listening for voices. But he couldn’t hear anything. If the criminals were guarding the theatre, they weren’t talking.
Doug risked a peek around the corner. There was no-one. Just the fading outlines of his sweaty footprints from earlier. The criminals must have gone somewhere else.
Unable to believe his luck, Doug sprinted up to the theatre doors and knocked urgently. ‘It’s me!’ he hissed. ‘Quick! Let me in!’
He heard someone fiddling with the crutch to unlock the doors. It opened to reveal Bess—
But Doug had been tricked.
A crossbow bolt shot out of the shadows at the far end of the stairwell. It rebounded off a metal ceiling beam and thunked into the floor between the open doors, narrowly missing Doug’s foot. With a sharp splink sound, prongs flipped out of the sides, as if the bolt had sprouted thorns.
‘Get inside!’ Bess yelled.
Doug scrambled into the theatre. He dumped the blood bags on the table next to Plowman while Bess and Hayes attempted to close the doors. But BB the crossbow bolt was in the way. It had been aimed perfectly.
Doug ran back and tried to rip the bolt out of the floor, but the thorns made it impossible to grip. And then suddenly it was too late.
Two hands shot through the gap and grabbed him.
Bess screamed as the two criminals stormed into the surgical theatre. Taipan was holding up a grenade. Mamba pointed her crossbow at the two doctors.
‘Back away from the patient,’ she said.
The two doctors reluctantly raised their gloved hands.
‘We’re just barely keeping him alive right now,’ Lanagan said.
Mamba fired a bolt into the ceiling. The room filled with screams as the doctor scuttled back.
Taipan threw Doug aside. ‘You know, if you’d let us in earlier,’ he said, ‘you could have saved everyone a good deal of trouble.’
Doug climbed to his feet. He looked shaken, but not hurt. He ran over to Bess and leaned in close to her.
‘You OK?’ Bess whispered.
‘Yeah—and so are Jarli and Anya. I heard the bad guys talking. They got away.’
A rush of relief swept through Bess’s body. Jarli was free!
Taipan’s phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket. It was a strange looking thing, bristling with antennae. Bess guessed that this was one of the jammers—but she hadn’t realised that it would be able to make and receive calls.
If she could steal it, they could call the police.
Bess started edging towards Taipan. It was hard to move stealthily on her crutches—but she knew from experience that they also made her semi-invisible. She was often ignored or underestimated. And people with phones in their hands never paid much attention to their surroundings.
‘It’s Viper,’ Taipan said, looking down at the screen. He sounded almost frightened. ‘Probably wondering what’s taking so long.’
‘Tell him we’re nearly done,’ Mamba growled. She stormed over to Plowman, crossbow raised.
‘Don’t!’ Lanagan cried, throwing herself in front of her patient.
Taipan swallowed, and answered the phone. ‘I’m here.’
Bess heard a distorted voice, tinny in the phone speakers. She couldn’t make out the words.
Mamba pushed Lanagan aside, and she sprawled on the floor. Mamba pointed the crossbow at Plowman’s head—
‘Wait!’ Taipan yelled.
Mamba froze. ‘What?’
‘Understood,’ Taipan said into the phone. Then he ended the call and pointed at the two doctors.
‘Change of plan,’ he said. ‘You two are going to save Kellin Plowman’s life. If he dies, so do you.’
PART TWO:
CRISIS
‘The app struggles with compulsive liars, because they don’t care about getting caught out. They’re not nervous, they don’t use evasive language, they’re not even necessarily concentrating. Fortunately, people like that tend to get exposed fairly quickly. You don’t need an app to identify them.’
—From the documentation for Truth, version 4.2
MISSING A DAY
‘Didn’t seem so far,’ Anya puffed, ‘in the ambulance.’
Jarli could only nod. They were heading back through Kelton towards the hospital. The distance had only taken them a few minutes to drive, but it had been mostly downhill. Now they were on foot, shuffling uphill like exhausted marathon runners, and it seemed to be taking forever. At least the rain kept them cool.
Jarli could hardly breathe and he had a thumping headache. He wasn’t sure if it was exertion or stress. A lot could have happened in the hospital since he and Anya fled. Mr Plowman might have died. His friends could be—
Don’t think about it, he told himself.
They had searched for his phone, but weren’t sure whose front garden it had landed in, and everyone on that street seemed to have dense hedges. Anya had tried to call it on her phone, but they heard nothing. When she dialled the local police, no-one picked up. A recorded message told her to leave her contact details.
Since they’d been walking, they’d seen a number of police cars speed past. But Jarli and Anya still had no idea what they would find when they got back to the hospital. A building surrounded by cops? A bunch of rescued hostages? A crater where the building used to be?
This morning, Jarli had gotten up expecting a normal day at school. Now he’d been stunned by a flash grenade, shot at with a crossbow, knocked off a roof, chased in a stolen ambulance—and it wasn’t even 4 p.m. yet. No wonder his head was pounding.
‘I never could get the hang of Thursdays,’ Jarli muttered.
‘It’s Friday,’ Anya said.
‘I was quoting The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,’ Jarli said. Although he was pretty sure Anya was wrong. Yesterday had definitely been Wednesday . . .
Or had it? Olivia’s voice echoed through his head: A van dropped you off in front of the video store. You looked lost. I asked if you were OK. Had he lost a day somehow? Maybe he was in shock.
‘Keep an eye out for Rattler’s car,’ Anya said as they ran. ‘Could still be around.’
‘Maybe.’ But the vehicle had disappeared pretty soon after he sent the text message. Rattler had probably given up when she heard the sirens.
Suddenly Jarli realised he’d only seen three of the four bad guys. Rattler, Mamba and Taipan. The fourth one, Anaconda, was a mystery. If the police needed to know about the criminals and their weapons, he would only be able to describe three of them.
As they rounded a corner, the hospital came into view on top of the hill, the white walls standing out against the dark clouds. Police drones hovered around the building, monitoring the exits from the air. Cop cars were all around, red and blue lights flashing.
Jarli was relieved to see so many police officers here, talking into radios and surveying the hospital through binoculars. The criminals were outnumbered. This wasn’t his problem anymore.
But that didn’t mean the hostages were safe.
‘Wow,’ Anya said.
‘Yeah.’ Jarli bent over, hugging his knees as he caught his breath. ‘I guess we need to find someone to talk to, tell them what we know.’
A few non-police cars were parked nearby, probably belonging to the hospital staff. But one of them, a green Fiat, was occupied.
‘Jarli,’ Anya said. ‘Isn’t that your friend? The reporter?’
Jarli looked. Yes—Dana Reynolds was behind the wheel, peering at the hospital through binoculars. No other reporters or media were visible—when Viper was involved, Reynolds always somehow managed to be first on the scene.
‘She’s not really my friend,’ Jarli said. She had helped him once or twice, but only when it gave her a scoop. If she saw him and Anya, she would insist on interviewing them both. ‘We need to talk to the cops.’
‘Do you see the police officer we sent the text message to? Constable Blanco?’
‘Uh, she’s suspended,’ Jarli said. ‘So she’s probably not here.’
Anya blinked. ‘Wait—we sent that message to a suspended officer?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Suspended for what?’
Jarli shuffled his feet awkwardly. ‘Suspected connections to Viper.’
Anya grabbed his collar. He had never seen her look so angry. ‘So, after four criminals with snake-themed codenames took over the hospital,’ she began, ‘you decided it would be a good idea to—’
‘Hey! Firstly, we were kind of in a hurry and she was the only cop saved in my contacts. Secondly, it’s obvious that she did the right thing with the information—every cop in Kelton is here. Thirdly, without her help, we wouldn’t have escaped from Viper the first time he showed up in Kelton. So she can be trusted.’
Anya released him. ‘OK. I am sorry.’
Jarli exhaled. ‘It’s cool.’
‘But if she is not here, who do we talk to?’
‘Dunno.’
They walked up the hill towards the commotion.
A burly police officer with a goatee saw them and approached. ‘Sorry kids,’ he said. ‘This building is locked down. If you need medical attention you’ll have to go to the regional hospital.’
‘No,’ Jarli said. ‘We’re the ones who called you guys.’
‘We were inside when the criminals arrived,’ Anya added. ‘We have information about them.’
The officer checked his phone. Plowman hadn’t wanted to tell the police that they knew Truth Premium was compromised, but Jarli had warned them anyway. He was annoyed to see that some officers still used it.
‘Alrighty, then.’ The officer pocketed his phone. ‘Follow me.’
He led them further up the hill where a woman was talking on the phone and peering at a map she had spread across the boot of her car. The raindrops appeared to be shredding it. Jarli recognised the woman and his heart sank. It was Detective Zee Arno. They had met several times. She had once arrested him for attempted murder.
‘I don’t understand,’ she said into the phone. ‘What kind of device is it coming from?’
There was a pause.
‘Firstly, how is the signal beating the jammers? Secondly, how would anyone use a pacemaker to transmit data? Thirdly, why would they even try?’
‘Maybe they’re tracking their heart rate,’ Jarli said. ‘Like a fitness thing.’
The burly officer cleared his throat. ‘Excuse me, Detective Arno. These two kids have information about the assailants.’
The detective looked Jarli and Anya up and down. ‘OK,’ she said into the phone. ‘Prep the gas and call me back when you have some answers.’ She hung up. ‘Jarli Durras. I’m surprised to see you.’
It took a few minutes for Jarli and Anya to tell their story. Detective Arno listened intently without interrupting.
‘So,’ she said, when they finished. ‘When you left there was one criminal guarding the front entrance, another guarding the back and two more keeping the hostages in place. Weapons include a sword, a crossbow, some flash grenades and other explosives. Is that all correct?’
‘Yes,’ Anya said. ‘But we did not see Anaconda. So we do not know what weapons he or she has.’
‘Understood. Thanks, kids—we’ll take it from here. I’ll get one of my officers to give you a ride home. Rodney!’
The burly officer lumbered back up the hill towards them.
‘Wait,’ Jarli said. ‘What was that you were saying about a pacemaker?’
The detective hesitated. ‘It’s complicated. We thought the criminals were using frequency jammers to block radio signals by broadcasting static on every channel. But our cyber-crime analysts say it’s not just static—it’s encrypted information.’
‘What kind of information?’ Anya asked.
Jarli knew what the detective was going to say.
‘It’s impossible to tell,’ she replied. ‘All we know is that the criminals are communicating with someone outside the hospital.’
Viper, Jarli thought.
‘There’s more,’ the detective said. ‘A second signal is coming from inside, getting around the jammer somehow. It’s a heartbeat, with some metadata we can’t decipher.’
‘Someone is transmitting a heartbeat?’ Jarli said. ‘Why?’
‘We don’t know for sure. But it’s possible that it’s a dead man’s switch.’
‘A what?’
‘Like an insurance policy. A device outside the hospital could be monitoring the signal. If the heartbeat stops, it triggers something.’ She glanced at her watch. ‘You kids better get out of here.’
‘Wait,’ Jarli said. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘Don’t worry,’ the detective told him. ‘It’s under control.’
‘What does that mean? Are you going in?’
‘No.’ She turned back to the map. ‘It’s too risky now that the criminals have control of a bioweapon.’
Jarli and Anya looked at each other.
‘What bioweapon?’ Anya asked.
‘I’ve been informed that the hospital is storing samples which could cause mass casualties if they went airborne.’
Jarli remembered Dr Lanagan’s lecture on botulism H—the deadliest substance in the world.
‘We can’t enter the building,’ Detective Arno continued, ‘or the terrorists might decide to release one or all of those samples. Thousands—potentially millions—of lives are at stake here.’
Jarli hadn’t really been thinking of the criminals as ‘terrorists’. ‘I think they’re only after Mr Plowman,’ he said. ‘I didn’t hear them say anything about the dangerous substances room.’
‘I can’t take that chance,’ Arno said, without looking up. ‘We’ll have to gas the building, catch them by surprise. Then we’ll go in.’
Jarli recoiled. ‘But . . . won’t gassing the building also gas all the hostages?’
‘It’s a non-lethal gas. Should just knock them out.’
‘“Should”?’
The detective said nothing.
‘Mr Plowman is both wounded and anesthetised,’ Anya said. ‘And many of the hostages are teenagers who are smaller than the criminals. If you use enough gas to knock out healthy adults, won’t that—’
‘You’re just gonna have to trust us.’ Arno signalled Rodney, who grabbed Jarli and Anya by the shoulders.
‘Come on, kids,’ he said. ‘Time to go.’
He frogmarched them back down the hill towards the cordon and opened the door of a police car.
‘Where do you live?’ he asked. ‘I’ll drive you home.’
Jarli caught Anya’s eye. He didn’t want to go home, and it looked like she didn’t, either. But the app would make it hard to convince Rodney they were leaving.
‘Our friend’s mother owns a taxi company,’ Anya said. True. ‘She’s always happy to come pick us up.’ Also true.
Rodney looked surprised. ‘I don’t mind driving you.’
‘Yes, but aren’t you needed here?’ Jarli suggested.
Rodney nodded slowly. ‘OK. Well, let me know if your friend’s mum can’t come.’
‘Thanks.’
He trudged back up the hill towards Detective Arno.
‘Nice work,’ Jarli whispered. ‘Now what do we do?’
‘We can’t let them pump that gas into the building,’ Anya said. ‘The Russian government tried something similar during a hostage crisis in Moscow. The gas was more deadly than the criminals.’
‘But they won’t listen to us. We’re kids.’
On the road, a blue hatchback turned off towards the hospital driveway. But the driveway was blocked by a parked police car, so the hatchback stopped at the bottom of the hill. The driver got out, carrying a bunch of roses.
It was Maria Eaton, the school nurse. Jarli was relieved to see her. Eaton was a no-nonsense ex-army medic who had helped him and his friends get out of a few tricky spots. Maybe she could talk the police out of doing anything crazy.
Eaton looked up at the police vehicles surrounding the hospital. Her eyes widened.
Jarli ran down the hill towards her, and Anya followed. ‘Miss Eaton! What are you doing here?’
‘Visiting a friend.’ Eaton waved the flowers.
Anya’s phone beeped. LIE
Eaton cleared her throat. ‘OK, not just a friend. What’s going on?’
‘Four armed criminals entered the building and took everyone hostage,’ Anya said. ‘We were here on the science excursion, but we managed to escape.’
