Interface: A Techno Thriller (30 page)

"Afraid of what?"

"The message didn't send. And they know we tried. If you have any other ideas, now would be the time to mention them."

Kate scowled. "I think I'm out. Unless..." Kate started running her hands over her clothes. "What if you're right and we can't trust him. Maybe he bugged me."

"Something that Marron's people didn't detect?"

Lentz tapped an icon on her phone then began running it over Kate's body. As she reached Kate's neck, there was an angry squeal. Lentz narrowed her eyes and ran her fingertips over Kate's coat, stopping with a smile as they brushed a metal pin jammed into a thick collar-seam. "It has to be a passive device, but if I overload it enough I think we can send your message."

NINETY-FOUR

THE CONCEALED DOOR SLID OPEN and Marron, Alex and Tom walked out of Marron's secret room into his office.

Alex frowned down at her phone. "Lentz has been trying her hand at escapology."

"What did she do?" Marron asked.

"She had a go at hot-wiring the lift controls. It didn't work. Then she tried to send a short text message from her phone before the adaptive firewall blocked the frequency. That didn't work either." Alex held up her tablet to show Marron the message.

Marron snorted. "How subtle. Who did she try and send it to?"

"I'm running a trace. Maybe it's someone the journalist knows. Do you want me to get them in here so we can ask them?"

"Send them up to the roof. Have a team waiting to secure them."

"Understood." She looked up from her screen. "Also we have a visitor."

The door handle turned and Neil Bradley strode into the room. He stopped, staring at Tom. "You? What are you doing here?"

Marron walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Allow me to introduce Subject Zero."

"You're kidding? Did you hire him to use him or the other way round?"

"Now's not really the time to talk about the details, Neil. Leskov will be here soon and I see there's been a change. He's flying in?"

Bradley nodded. "ETA five minutes."

"It would have been nice to have more notice. I need to arrange security." He took a slow breath. "We need everything to be perfect. Speaking of which, is everything OK? You seem tense."

"I don't want there to be any mistakes." Bradley paused. "Celia said she was coming here, but she didn't arrive."

"I'm sure she'll turn up," Marron said. "We need to focus on Leskov for now. And I'm starting to question whether we can trust him."

Bradley's eyes narrowed. "Why do you say that?"

"Could he have been behind Chatsworth's death? And Armstrong's?"

"I'm not sure that makes sense. Do you have any proof?"

"No. He's simply a very wealthy, very suspicious man."

"Then we just need to be careful. I'm sure everything will unfold correctly."

Marron nodded. "You know what, Neil, you make a good point. And if we're going to be careful, I think you should be armed."

"What?"

"I'd rather we can all defend ourselves, if necessary." Marron pulled an automatic pistol from a holster inside his jacket. "You know how to handle a gun?"

"I've been to a shooting range a few times. Rifles mostly."

"Good." Marron placed it in his hand. "Just point the dangerous end at anyone you don't trust. This model has special lightweight ammunition so it's virtually recoilless. Now let's not keep our guest of honour waiting. There are a couple of things I need to take care of, so I'll let you escort Tom to the roof."

◇
◇
◇

Marron waited until his office door had closed again then turned to his daughter. "I don't like this."

"Leskov?" Alex asked.
 

"I meant Bradley." He rubbed his fingers over his temples. "Something is wrong. Call up the logs."

Alex's fingers flew over her tablet. "He's mostly been busy in Bern's office. He had three conversations with Leskov. Ran some searches for Celia Bern."

"When?"

"Twenty minutes ago. They came back as negative."

"As they should, for his level of access."

"Wait, this is strange," said Alex. "He went down to Level Minus 5 about ten minutes ago. He was down there for five minutes."

"Did he, indeed? I wonder how he knew where to look. I hadn't credited Neil with the technical chops to hack the system."

Alex shook her head. "That wasn't what happened. It was the reboot. It gave him temporary Administrator Access as he was in Bern's office at the time." She paused. "Why do you think he went down to Level Minus 5? Surely Celia Bern couldn't have been down there... Or did you lock her up?" She quickly started pulling up information on her tablet, but Marron put his hand over hers.

"Don't worry about her," he said. "Celia's not going anywhere."

"Are you sure..." She trailed off, eyes widening. "Oh."
 

Marron scratched his head. "In the circumstances, it was necessary."

"But Bradley might be a problem now. And you've just given him a gun."

"Actually that was on the basis that he
had
become a problem."

She frowned. "I don't follow."

"When you show people you trust them, it throws them off their guard. And who knows when that might come in handy. Now, we'd better get upstairs. Our money will be arriving in a minute."

NINETY-FIVE

CROFT WAS DRIVEN ACROSS THE RAF airbase. Through the open doors of a huge hanger, he saw a long row of black helicopters, all gleaming in the spotlights. Each aircraft was swarming with support crew. Croft's jeep pulled up outside a smaller hangar.

Reems was inside, talking in hushed tones with a heavily-armed black ops team.

"What's going on?" he asked. "You have an operation under way?"

She looked up. "Above your level of clearance. What did you want?"

"A few moments of your time. They've taken the journalist, Kate Turner."

"You mean CERUS? You have actionable intelligence?"

"I tagged her. Twenty minutes ago the device, an encrypted passive tracker, sent a message."

"I don't recall authorising any tagging. And what do you mean, it 'sent a message'? That's not how passive trackers work."

"There was an enormous signal spike – no way it was a fault: the device has no power source of its own. Somebody worked out how to use its feedback function to send a message." He held out his phone, showing the message:
Prisoner at CERUS Tower. Help
."

"
That's
your evidence? Five unverified words." Reems sucked in her top lip and regarded him carefully. "Come with me." She gave a hand signal to two of the covert team then walked towards the back of the hanger, where a number of portacabins were installed. She opened the door on the smallest one and gestured Croft to precede her. He stepped inside.

Moving faster than he would have given her credit for, she slammed the door shut.

Croft spun, grabbing at the handle, just as she locked it. "You won't get away with this," he shouted.

Reems sighed. "That's the thing, George. I didn't."
 

Then she walked away.

NINETY-SIX

TOM STOOD ON THE ROOF of CERUS Tower, watching night fall. Bradley had refused to engage in conversation and had simply handcuffed Tom to a pipe, before speaking with Holm. Lentz and Kate had been led away, out of sight. Marron arrived, flanked by four guards - he joined Bradley and Holm, casting wary glances over at Tom. Alex stood next to the service lift, her arms folded.

The helicopter was so quiet Tom almost missed its arrival. Like a whisper of a breeze, the sleek black craft emerged from the night and touched gently down on the helipad. The rotors stopped almost immediately and four heavily-armed soldiers jumped out.

"I don't like this," Holm said, shrinking back.

"Just let me do the talking," Marron said.

A man wearing dark glasses and an immaculate pale-grey suit emerged from the aircraft and walked towards them. The four soldiers shadowed his every step.

"Peter Marron, I presume," he said softly. "And Mr Bradley. I trust you have everything ready."

"We do, Mr Leskov," Marron replied. "To be blunt, do you have our payment?"

Leskov gave a hand signal and two large men, each carrying a briefcase, stepped out of the helicopter. They walked up and set the cases on the ground, opened them and stepped back. Alex crouched to inspect the contents. In each Tom saw five black phone-like devices with keypads tightly packed in foam padding.

"Coded bank account keys," Leskov said, "as per my agreement with Mr Bern. One hundred million on each. They're connected to randomly-generated escrow account numbers allowing a one-time transfer to a bank of your choosing."

Alex pulled a scanner from her pocket and passed it over each of the keys then she ran her hands over them. Finally, she nodded.

Marron picked up one of the devices and switched it on. He smiled and nodded at Leskov. "You're a man of your word."

"I've built my reputation on it. Now, where is the subject?"

Bradley walked over and removed Tom's handcuffs, then pushed him forward. "This is Tom Faraday."

Marron put the remote back in the case and gestured to Alex to close them. "These are the latest test results," he said, taking the small laptop Alex was proffering and handing it over.

Leskov passed the laptop to one of the briefcase carriers then turned to stare at Tom, his eyes unblinking. "Is he in good health?"

"Why don't you ask me?" said Tom. "I'm standing right here."

"How are you feeling today,
Mr Faraday
?"

"Like killing half the people on this roof."

Leskov looked at Marron with mild amusement. "He sounds well enough." He gestured to the man on his right. "What about the data?"

The man was scrolling through a report on the laptop, nodding to himself. "We have the full diagnostics and an analysis run less than half an hour ago. It supports their claims."
 

"We're ready to run a demonstration for you," Holm said.

Leskov coughed and glanced at each of his men in turn, giving them a nod. "That's excellent, but it won't be necessary. Load Faraday onto the helicopter."

"Do what?" Tom spun to Marron. "What's going on?"

Marron raised an eyebrow. "That wasn't the deal, Mr Leskov."

"The
deal
was done with Mr Bern. And you are not he." Leskov nodded to his soldiers, who raised their weapons.

Immediately Marron's five guards lifted their own rifles. Alex picked up the two briefcases and moved out of the line of fire.

"What about you being a man of your word?" Marron asked through gritted teeth.

Leskov shrugged. "At the moment I'm not sure if you've kept yours. I don't trust you enough to rely on a computer file or a demonstration you could have rigged."

"So we'll have to shoot it out?" Marron shook his head. "Four guns versus five doesn't seem particularly conclusive in your favour."

Leskov smiled and nodded to the helicopter. A compartment at the front slid aside and a cylindrical canon emerged, its multiple barrels spinning with an ominous timbre. "The mini-gun will deliver six thousand .50 calibre rounds per minute, with pinpoint accuracy at a range of up to eight hundred metres. You are standing much closer."

Marron cleared his throat and turned to his men. "Lower your weapons."

"Always wise," Leskov said, "to know when you are out-gunned."

"In which case," Marron said, "might I make an alternative proposal?"

"Make it quickly."

Marron nodded to Alex. She walked over to the service elevator and placed her palm over an access panel. The doors slid open. Inside were Lentz and Kate, glowering. They were tied to a metal railing, a guard standing with a gun pointed at them.

Tom hissed. "Leave them out of this."

"Do you know who this is?" Marron asked, pointing at Lentz and looking at Leskov. "Dr Dominique Lentz, the original brain behind Tantalus."

Leskov frowned, glancing at Bradley. "The file I read said she was dead."

"Those reports," Marron replied, "were mistaken. You should take her instead. I guarantee she can get the interface working for you."

Leskov's eyes narrowed. "If that is true, why do you offer her?"

"Lentz and I aren't destined to work together again. Not with our history."

"If you don't trust her then
I
trust her even less." He turned towards his helicopter. "Get the money," he barked at his men.

Marron scratched his nose. "With the greatest respect, do you think I'm going to just let you fly off with everything?"

Leskov turned back toward Marron. "And how will you stop me?"

"You land on my building and assume I have no defensive measures?"

"Whatever measures you had were targeted at my arrival by ground. I have you off balance, Mr Marron." Leskov smiled.

"If you fly off, my people will shoot you down."

"You have no weaponry capable of locking onto my helicopter."

Marron frowned. "Willing to stake your life on that, are you?"

Leskov raised an eyebrow. "I do my research." He paused. "Still, perhaps you are right. I should not underestimate you. Perhaps I will take back just one of my cases." He snapped his fingers. The two men who had brought the money looked at Alex, who was holding the other two cases, her expression threatening. She turned to Marron, who gave a reluctant nod, and she handed one of the cases over. It was quickly returned to the helicopter by one of the men, who then hurried back with a new case, which he laid on the roof.

"What is that?" Marron asked.

"Open it," Leskov said.

Marron reached forward and flipped open the catches. Inside was a flat black device with a multitude of wires.

Leskov's smile broadened. "You won't shoot me down because if you do, that will trigger this bomb."

NINETY-SEVEN

TOM LOOKED AT THE DULL black device: its only external features were a keypad and LED display.
 

Marron's face was like iron. "You could just tie us up."

"I could," Leskov replied, "but maybe you do have automated systems that I didn't learn of, or other team members watching remotely. If you attempt any action against my helicopter, or against the bomb, or if anyone leaves the roof, I will detonate. The Tower will be fine." He hesitated. "Well, perhaps not the top two floors or anyone on them. It's set for twenty minutes. Once we get safely away, I'll send the code to switch it off. Now, Mr Bradley, I suggest you get onboard."