What happens when nothing does what it's supposed to do; if all you have left to rely on is your own wits ?
"Okaaay," said Aneisha slowly, looking at the others. They were frowning at her. "Frank, how many stairs are there ?" asked Aneisha.
"Lord knows ! I'm trying not to think about it," said Frank. "I'm not sure that Tom's going to go home," he complained. This made them all grin, and they closed the call and set off for the storage cupboard.
Zoe, Aneisha and Dan staggered out of the stair well, pulling on their MI High uniforms and doing up the buttons and zips. Frank turned to greet them. "Well done team. Have a sit down and get your breath back. Tom's been working all afternoon to find out what's going on with our equipment," he explained.
Tom turned in his chair and looked surprised to see the rest falling into chairs. Dan was sitting on the floor with his back to a pillar. "How many stairs are there ?" he asked suspiciously.
"You really don't want to know," panted Dan.
Looking worried, Tom turned back to his computer. "Well, as far as I can tell, the lift has got the gremlins. The mechanism seems to be fine, but the control system has gone completely haywire. The communications system is not working properly. It isn't filtering out local noise and feedback as it should be. All of the computers are affected as well," he complained. As he spoke, his laptop made a loud whirring noise and the screen froze. "No ! Don't do this to me !" shouted Tom, slapping the side of his laptop.
"Careful Tom !" warned Frank. "You'll wreck the disk heads !"
"Oh no ! That was the last working machine," groaned Tom. "What are we going to do now ?"
"What's causing it all then ?" asked Dan.
"It has to be some kind of viral attack," explained Frank. Tom nodded in agreement.
"I think it's attacked anything that's been connected to the MI9 network during the last 24 hours," said Tom.
"So anything that hasn't been on the network in that time, won't be affected," suggested Dan.
"Well yes, but everything is connected all the time," explained Tom holding his head in his hands.
"Mine isn't," said Dan. "I haven't been on my laptop since Wednesday evening," he said. "Maybe there are some computers in cupboards which haven't been used for a while," he suggested.
"Yes. That's not a bad idea Dan, but we won't be able to communicate with anything. All the databases are accessible via the MI9 network and we won't be able to use it without infecting our kit again," explained Tom. "The equipment is not much use without the data."
"What's happening to the rest of MI9 ?" asked Aneisha. "Is it just us ?"
"No, according to Stella, the whole of MI9's network has been infected," explained Frank. "We're cut off and pretty helpless, until they've managed to close everything down and disinfect it. That could take a week, according to technical." There was a pause as everyone took this in.
"So, we're completely helpless for a whole week," said Zoe.
"No. We don't need a computer for everything," said Dan.
"Dan, we use them for everything," said Tom. "Communications, intelligence, cross-referencing, tracking, image recognition, everything. All the modern equipment communicates via the network with everything else. It's all interconnected and it's all infected. Nothing is working properly. We can work, but we'll be working blind."
"Have we got any missions Frank ?" asked Zoe.
"No, not at the moment, but whoever has done this is probably not going to waste much time getting busy. They must have done this for a reason," said Frank. "I'm not even sure we are going to be able to detect any criminal activity. You might as well go home. I will phone you if there's anything you can do. That goes for you too Tom. Get some rest. I'll go to MI9 HQ to see if there is anything we can use to clear up this mess."
Tom looked crestfallen. "How many stairs are there ?" he asked the others.
"Twice as many as there were on the way down I'm guessing," said Aneisha, getting up and groaning.
Half way up the stairs Tom sat down heavily on one of the steps, rubbing his sore knee and said, "I think I'll just spend the night here."
The others laughed and sat down with him. "So, all the modern equipment won't work ?" asked Dan.
"No, nothing," said Tom.
"What about the old stuff ?" asked Dan.
"What old stuff ?" asked Tom.
"Well, you know I've got this collection don't you ?" said Dan. "You know. Antique spy stuff. I've got loads of old things. Maybe you could use some of that," he suggested.
Tom looked at Dan with a faint sense of hope. "You know. That's not a bad idea. Can I have a look at it ?" he asked.
"Yeah. Course. Come round to mine and you can go through it all," said Dan. "It might be worth a try." Tom grinned. Dan helped him to his feet and they dragged him the rest of the way up the stairs.
Once they reached the school level, Zoe headed off for her foster home, walking with Aneisha. Tom went home and had his tea before heading round to Dan's house. Dan showed him up to his room where his laptop was. "I haven't switched it on or anything today. I didn't want to risk infecting it with anything, so I thought I'd leave it to you," he promised Tom. "How come your computer is infected then ?" he asked.
"I keep mine connected to the MI9 network all the time so I'll receive updates as they happen," explained Tom. "Also I have some online gaming buddies who tend to email me at weird hours. I'm permanently connected," he explained. Dan frowned.
"Do you need to be permanently connected ?" he asked. "You want to leave a bit of space for real life don't you ?"
"It is real life !" complained Tom. "Where's this collection then ?" he asked. Sighing, Dan lead him up a small set of stairs into the loft room of his parent's house. Piled up at one end of the loft room was a mass of old equipment. Some of it was in boxes, but most was simply piled up together.
"I knew you kept all this old junk, but I didn't realise how much you had !" said Tom, amazed.
"Hey, less of the old junk please," complained Dan. "It might be useful, remember !"
Tom just smiled and started sorting through some of the old gear while muttering to himself, "Hm, satellite location beacon. That might be handy. Old spy-pod, still got its circuitry. Spy camera ! Wow, what's this brown stuff ?" he asked suddenly.
"I think it's film or something," explained Dan, prodding the camera. "I think you're not supposed to open it up to the light though," he warned.
"Oops ! Sorry," said Tom. "This stuff isn't bad. I reckon I can do something with it. Maybe build a basic tracker of some sort, or maybe a scanner."
"That would be good enough for me Tom," said Dan, smiling at his friend. "See, the old stuff sometimes comes in handy doesn't it ?"