Chapter 34 – What's Golden
London Gateway Port, England. 6:49pm, 8th November 2032.
Minutes pass by. Matt slowly comes back to his senses although he still acts as if he is slow motion compared to everyone, they can only tell that from the way he's moving his eyes. The Thames is becomes more than a kilometre wide, the amount of England to land on is running out. The helicopter banks upwards to slow down, Alex looks outside through the side window to see where they are; they're right below the port which shines fully illuminated in the night. Containers are being moved by a multitude of cranes and trucks to service the container ships docked there; most of which are massive New-Panamax container ships . But the helicopter begins to descend towards a smaller ship that is dwarfed by those surrounding it, but Erin notices something; Matt is squeezing her hand, perhaps just to feel secure as they descend. She also sees him looking up at her longingly, like he's finally found some sort of relief. Alex is more concerned with the landing, seeing that they are not landing on dry land but on the bow of a ship.
The helicopter touches down on the fully illuminated helipad. They see the abyss stretching out in front of them in the form of the almost empty container bay that stretches to several metres below sea level. Only the bottom level is full and there are only a few containers stacked above them that doesn't even clear the side walls of the ship. Erin gets ready to help Matt off the helicopter but he resists.
"I think I can walk." Matt replies tiredly, the first words he has spoken to them. Erin gets out of the helicopter as does Alex on the other side, but she watches Matt take some very nervous steps; like he's trying to deliberately focus on not falling over. His knees are shaking, not from the cold but from the anxiety. He holds onto the side of the helicopter as he steps out but his momentum takes him forward too heavily. Erin steps across to help him up as Alex goes around the side to meet them. The helicopter leaves the ship and heads back towards London. A figure climbs the steps up to the helipad to greet them, flanked by two guards.
"Hello." Rasmus says before pulling out a pistol to sedate all three of them. His first shot is aimed directly at Alex, whom he hits right in the chest just as he disappeared. His next shot is aimed sightly to the right at Erin, but his gun flies out of his hands with such force that it flies over the edge and into the river. Next, his head turns violently to one side; it takes him off his feet right at the edge of the helipad. None of his bodyguards seem to do anything but back away in fear. Erin had begun to sprint to her left to cover the team and selflessly take any shots to save Matt from even more torture. She slides across the wet surface, watching the husky make several unnatural movements. She slowly gets up to see what's going on.
"I'm, um, I'm, I didn't know. Forgive me." He quickly begs on his knees into thin air. "Please, please."
There is a pause in his begging as he waits for a response. He is put to the floor, holding his cheek in pain.
"Thank you." He replies in pain. He gets back up on his feet with Erin now standing confused in front of the now visible Alex and Matt who can barely stand.
"Now, please… follow me." Rasmus insists graciously, treating the three now like royalty after his disciplining. "You two, carry him inside."
His guards come and rush to pick Alex up from the ground and off the standing water.
"What was that?" Erin asks.
"Please just come with me, don't make this any harder than it's been so far." He pleads. Erin looks across to Matt who's already leaning forward to follow the humbled husky.
"Here." Erin offers her hand to help him balance. She knows that Matt might misinterpret this act, but it doesn't matter to her; seeing him fall again would be heartbreaking. She holds on, like reassuring a young child learning how to walk, as they move slowly out of the rain. The more steps that Matt takes, the more he regains his own balance and the more normal he looks. By the end of helipad, they reach a set of stairs that lead to the walkways that run along the sides of the ship. Matt even feels comfortable enough to tackle this on his own. Erin is constantly expecting him to slip and fall in the rain; her arms are extended slightly out from her body with her hands hovering around the back and front of Matt. However, much to her surprise, he gets to the bottom without failure.
"I'm fine, I don't need any more help." Matt says to Erin before walking along the arrow straight corridor extending the length of the ship. They can see right across the ships partially empty hold. The walk the length of the ship takes a couple of minutes before they reach the superstructure and stop in an open area which looks barren with only a basic fixed steel table and chairs in the room. The guards are sitting up the sedated Alex in a chair at the head of the table without restraints, for fear of repercussions. Rasmus takes the opposite side of the table with Erin and Matt sitting either side of Alex.
"So, I want to talk…" Rasmus begins.
"What was that before?" Erin asks, taking a scan of the room. "You're afraid of someone."
"Plans, I need..." Rasmus continues as if what Erin had said was nothing. Erin stands up out of her chair to try and intimidate him.
"Explain yourself." She says sternly, trying to stare him down. Rasmus looks out into the open, like he's waiting for permission to do so. Nothing comes; each second is extremely tense for him, like at any moment he could be assaulted.
"Okay. Just…wait." Rasmus replies, lacking any sort of confidence he showed before. He's constantly looking to his left at the open area for anything that would indicate that he should not proceed.
"The world's deadliest assassin is in the room, somewhere. I only know that Jeremy paid several million to acquire the services of someone with no known identity, who only communicates through written text or violence. You don't know what fear is like until you have to live with this. " Rasmus begins to explain, almost whispering across the table. "I can't say anything more."
Erin looks through the room with her mask turning to blue and orange to reveal a clear room with no one inside apart from everyone she can directly see. Even on the rest of the ship, she can't spot anyone in the vicinity. The idea comes into her head that the husky is paranoid, hallucinating even. Maybe it's something she can exploit.
"It's just you, I can't see anything." Erin casually says. It causes the husky to panic internally, second guessing his own thoughts.
"Listen to me." Rasmus pleads to gain control of the conversation, but Erin is growing in confidence; knowing that somehow she has the upper hand.
"Okay, go ahead, but the first thing you need to realise is that I'm not going to do anything you want because all the power is at this end of the table. This could be done without us and you know this perfectly well." Erin explains.
"I know that and that is why I need you to pay attention." Rasmus explains gruffly. "I need the location the Cooper vault. At the very least, I want the contents of this ship stored inside it. Time is running out, this ship leaves the port at midnight with the last 2 containers on board and I would like to have a destination in mind when I leave."
"Sounds like you've got a problem that you can't fix." Erin replies.
"Let's talk remuneration." Rasmus immediately counters, hoping to buy them out. "You know what's in these containers, you've seen it yourself; the gold from the Bank of England. Perhaps you'd like £1 billion for yourself, you know, to kick start your career."
"How'd you do it?" Matt asks out of the blue, which makes Rasmus confused. Did he not hear how much money he was offering them?
"You don't care about the money?" Rasmus replies.
"It can't be done in a single night." Matt explains.
"No it can't."
"But, I mean. How? Undetected? That's not possible."
"With enough planning, time, skill and resources; anything can be done." Rasmus replies.
"So, how'd you do it?" Matt asks.
"Using the underground network of sewers and tunnels we carefully drilled into the vault wall." Rasmus explains quickly, trying to impress and overwhelm.
"Without tripping the motion sensors?"
"Set on a loop. We did the same with the security cameras and any other systems, overrided their output with our input."
"How long did it take?"
"2 weeks."
"But you'd need a decoy."
"A tungsten bar with a small amount of platinum wrapped in real gold; weights the same as the real thing."
"Then how did it get carried out?"
"Stacked on palettes then carried by a modified off-road trolley back to an underground carpark using a tunnel."
"Then how did they get through here, through the security?"
"Taken in small quantities to a disused warehouse where containers were prepped and filled to their maximum allowable weight before being driven over here where they were loaded on like usual. The security? Well, everything is automated so that's not a problem."
There is a pause as Matt considers his short explanation. He made it seem so simple. He retreats back to quietness.
"Then why did you need to abduct my friends?" Erin asks.
"To capture your attention, as well as leverage" Rasmus states. "When the gold is delivered to the Cooper vault, they will be free; simple."
Matt's backed down from the situation, waiting for Erin to make her decision. She stands up from her chairs and walks slowly over to Rasmus and his two bodyguards. As she advances over to him, the husky thinks he needs more bodyguards. She stops, standing over him from only a metre away. Erin has one hand behind her back, grasping on the shaft of the cane locked in the grabber. It lets go, allowing her to strike like lightning at the nearest guard; hitting him right at the base of the neck where the shoulder meets. He collapses to the ground instantly. The second guard feels for his weapon but it's been taken from him, the next thing he knows is that he's on the floor to accompany the other guard. Rasmus has cowardly moved around the table to try and get out of range from an opponent he knows he can't beat. However, he is confronted by an opponent who he can.
The diminutive Matt stands in his way, Rasmus decides to rush straight past him, thinking he won't, or can't, do anything. However, he's on the floor before he balance himself despite Matt pushing back towards the table in fear that he might get hit. Erin rushes around and pins Rasmus to the ground again.
"Set my friends free or I'm going to throw you off the edge." Erin warns viciously, her patience razor thin.
"Really?" Rasmus asks in surprise, unaffected by his position of weakness. Erin blows up. She drags the husky across the floor and out onto the walkway next to the container bay. Matt follows nervously behind, worried about interacting at all in this fiery situation. Rasmus does not fight; he knows she won't kill him. She rests him next to the edge; he could slide underneath the safety barrier and fall in from this position.
"Let them go." She demands.
"No." Rasmus replies casually, looking up into her eyes. Immediately, Erin pushes him slightly over the edge, his head hanging out from the walkway.
"Let them go." She demands again.
"Or what? You're going push me…" Rasmus taunts. But she pushes him further with her foot, a potion of his torso hangs.
"Last time." Erin warns. "Let… them… go."
"If I'm dead then you'll never get them back." Rasmus explains calmly. "Regardless of how much you want me dead, you need me alive. But you're not that stupid, this was all just to scare me; isn't it? I have bad news for you, that isn't working."
"Erin." Alex shouts, running towards her from the cabin having just woken up.
"Don't mind me." Rasmus insists.
"You're awake." Erin says to Alex. Matt shuffles to the back to stay out of the situation.
"What are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" Erin answers. "I'm trying to free everyone."
"And not succeeding I may add." Rasmus chimes in. Erin stamps on his foot to shut him up.
"Any ideas?" Erin whispers. Alex takes a short time to think of an answer, partially transfixed by the awkward and relaxed look on the husky's face; like he's enjoying leaning out over a 15 metre drop.
"I've got an idea, just trust me on this." Matt whispers. He moves in to talk to the husky.
"Now what do you have to offer?" Rasmus taunts.
"Nothing, we're leaving, you're worth nothing to us." Matt replies before walking towards the bow of the ship.
"The exit's in the other direction." Rasmus replies as Alex and Erin catch up to the rat. Matt does not reply.
"What are you doing?" Alex asks.
"Leaving; we don't need him to get Tyson and your friends back Erin." Matt replies.
"I suppose you've got a better plan." Erin guesses.
"Don't you realise?" Matt says. "He revealed his whole plot to us. What we're going to do is rescue your friends and take the gold for ourselves."
"And how are we going to do that exactly?" Erin asks.
"I think we can use the crane on the ship to take the containers out onto the dock or maybe onto a barge so we can transport them away to somewhere." Matt schemes. "We've got to leave."
Matt starts to pick up the pace towards the front of the ship, wanting to leave before anything bad can happen. The three reach the wind and rain, Matt runs across to the left of the ship and looks over the edge to see the thick rope holding the ship at the dock.
"No, Matt you're not jumping onto there." Erin immediately warns.
"We have to go down a level." Matt realises.
"Stop." Erin says to Matt, she waits for him to turn around. "There's a parachute fixed into the bag."
She takes off the backpack without the cane and passes it to Matt.
"Pull this top strap to deploy, take it simple." Erin advises.
"But, how will you get down?" Matt asks.
"Just go." Erin says as she runs over to the edge of the ship, directly above the docking rope.
"Come on, let's go." Alex says standing right on the edge of the ship.
"Here goes." Matt says before leaping off the edge, putting his full trust into Erin's word that there is indeed a parachute inside the bag. At the same time, Alex jumps off the edge. They both instantly pull the strap that releases their black parachutes almost instantly thanks to a chemical reaction similar to an airbag creating a lot of air pressure underneath the canopy to open it fully and gain maximum air resistance. Alex briefly looks back at the ship to see what Erin's doing. All he sees is her in mid air, looking down at the rope. Erin latches onto the rope with her cane and slides down the soaked rope almost all the way to the dock before climbing up and tightrope walking off onto the quayside. She runs over to where Alex and Matt are about to land to her left. Matt has more difficulty in stopping once he has got to the ground, the dark parachute comes and envelops him. Alex, who managed to stuff away his parachute, comes to his aid before Erin arrives.
"Now we have to get out of here." Alex says as Erin rushes over to their position.
"Head for the containers." Erin instructs. They have to cross several lanes of automated traffic in order to reach the stacks of containers waiting to be loaded or unloaded. The automated flat bed vehicles that look like a flat top with large wheels carry containers from the massive gantry cranes above.
"Go." Erin instructs. They run off towards the containers, on the lookout for any vehicles moving along the very wide road. Like a massive game of Frogger, they weave a path through the machines and make it to the other side. Erin leads them in between two groups of containers so they can pass through undetected to the rear of the container port; only needing to manoeuvre past the legs of the container gantries.
"Any ideas on how to get out?" Alex asks. Everyone briefly goes into thought.
"Wait." Erin exclaims. "We get inside one of these containers and hide whilst it get's trucked out of here. When it stops at a traffic light or something, we get out and leave."
"That won't work, every container is x rayed before it leaves." Matt corrects. "If I had my computer I could…"
"I offered it to you before, in the lift." Alex reminds Matt.
"What lift?" Matt asks.
"The one in the police HQ, do you remember?"
"I don't want to remember." Matt snaps at Alex.
"I'm sorry." Alex immediately apologise. He reaches for his bag to give the laptop back to Matt.
"Just pass my computer, please." Matt insists, wanting to move on as quickly as possible. He opens it up to find it as it was before save for one plain text document on the desktop that he ignores for now. He goes and looks up the port that they are currently in on the Internet to look for a way out.
"We have to go across the port to the logistics park, the trucks there won't have to be subject to the same security as in the actual port. It's in the same direction." Matt explains. "Can you put it back inside, I don't want my computer getting wet."
After Matt's computer is safe from the falling rain. They walk to the end of the container stacks, where they see manned trucks waiting for their cargo in the bays, as well as trucks moving along the road that leads to the exit, but only after passing through all the security checks. Trucks are passing through regularly, and the area itself is bathed in a deep orange glow from powerful lamps mounted on tall poles.
"We're not going to get through that without being seen." Matt points out.
"We could use the EMP and takes out the lights and the nearby trucks and get past." Alex says.
"You have an EMP?" Matt asks in confusion. "And most ports have their own police force so they'd be on the scene quickly, if not already."
"The only ways I can see this happening is that you can use your invisibility to get across unseen," Matt explains before turning to Erin. "while you climb to the top of the light pole and parachute across the traffic. But the problem is I can't do either."
Erin looks to the top of the light pole that towers right in front of them and an idea sparks into her mind. She takes off her backpack and pulls out the winch.
"Hold this end." Erin instructs, giving Matt the spooled cable end. "I'll anchor this end to the top, then all you have to do is hold down this button and it'll carry you up to the top. Alex, he'll need the parachute again."
"Here." Alex offers once again to Matt. "I'll wait until you're safely the top before I go."
"In case I fall?" Matt adds. "I like the confidence you show in me."
"Glad to hear it." Alex replies. Erin moves up to the pole and starts the vertical climb. However, a large warning message comes up on her vision.
'Stop'
She looks down at Alex to if there's any problem but they're more worried as to why she's stopped.
'there is a safer way.'
Erin looks around for anyone watching them from a vantage point, having hacked into the mask somehow. The message goes away and it's replaced by a video of them in the underground jumping up onto the cables along the side to hide from the train. It focuses in on them just as Alex blinks away from sight, then after a few seconds Erin begins to fade away after a few seconds.
'Alex's invisibility is transferable.'
Erin looks back down at Alex to see if he's seeing what she's seeing before jumping down from the pole to communicate the news.
"I've got a better idea, hold hands." Erin instructs.
"Why?"
"Just do it."
They do as she asks, even if it's a bit awkward for them.
"I figured out why Charlotte couldn't see us in the tunnel, or rather, the mask figured it out." Erin replies. "Apparently, the shadow power is transferrable by holding onto someone."
"Who's Charlotte and what's the shadow power?" Matt immediately asks, feeling like he's been left out of the loop.
"Turn invisible." Erin commands, holding Alex's mirror which she has just pickpocketed from him. Alex winders how she got the mirror off him without noticing, but he's used to this happening, as is Erin. He switches straight to concentrating on disappearing with Erin holding out the mirror in front of her to show the results to Alex. They both begin to fade away at the same time, more slowly than if Alex did it by himself.
"Now let go." Erin commands. Matt steps away and reappears again.
"It's sort of like electricity, our bodies a good at conducting electricity maybe this works in a similar way." Matt notes.
"You two can hold hands whilst crossing the street." Erin explains.
"Good one." Alex replies.
"I'll climb the pole and parachute over. We'll cross the rail tracks and meet at the fence to cut our way through." Erin instructs. "I'd like to get out of the rain so let's get moving."
"Why don't you hold on as well?" Matt asks.
"From what I've seen, it doesn't last for very long and I think that time would shorten if all three of us were connected." Erin deduces.
Erin begins climbing the wet pole for the second time. As she gets higher and higher, she continually looks out for anyone that's watching them because she's certain that the mask doesn't have the artificial intelligence to solve that problem; and that video had to have come from somewhere. She reaches the top, perching herself on the very tip with a ninja spire jump. She takes another look for anyone watching them before leaping off the edge and deploying her parachute. She glides easily over the road but he landing puts her right in the middle of the many rail tracks with cargo trains moving to and from the port. After clearing the containers on the nearest train, she chooses to discard the parachute and land in the middle. Erin lands and immediately runs across to wait for the train in front of her to pass. The train lumbers over the rails with it's heavy cargo, it seems to take an age to pass.
"Where are you?" Erin asks through the communications in the mask.
"We've just crossed the road, we're going through the first train now." Alex replies, just as a small map appears to show Alex's real time location compared to her's. She turns around to see them passing in between two carriages. They catch up to her with the last few carriages passing by. Once it's gone, all three of them run across to the razor tipped chain link fence. Erin flings off her backpack and quickly replaces the red cylinder with the light grey one and sprays the paste in and arch shape that they can crawl through. Erin waits 5 seconds before pulling on the section of fence, only to find it's electrified.
"You okay?" Alex asks sympathetically to Erin. Obviously an electric shock is not pleasing, but she continues through the residual pain to try and thrusts her cane at the fence to dislodge the fence but she receives another shock; carbon fibre is a very good electrical conductor. However, there is a hole they can crawl through, which Alex does obligingly. Matt follows in closely behind Alex with Erin bringing up the rear after recovering; she has become a lot more determined to get out of here in a shorter amount of time.
"Keep moving." Erin says, tenaciously pushing on further towards the massive warehouses built next to the port. They run up to the side wall of a warehouse where there is also an off street carpark. Erin sees the opportunity available to her.
"Change of plan." Erin says, stopping at one of the cars.
"We're stealing a car now?" Alex asks.
"Do you have a problem with that?"
Alex hesitates, he wonders about who owns this car and what they might feel to see if it's stolen. Do they deserve this?
"Actually, I do." Alex says, drawing a line. He does not want to lower himself down to this level. Master thieves don't boost ordinary cars from ordinary citizens.
"It's not the time for this." Erin pleads, waiting to get on with it instead of bickering; especially with Alex. "We can't be perfect."
"But this is far from it."
Erin takes off a cover on the door handle on the driver's side to find the backup mechanical lock in the case the electronic key fails. She then picks open the lock and opens the door for them to get inside.
"Just get inside." Erin exclaims exasperatingly. Matt is more willing to enter than Alex but he reluctantly has to go along with it, he has no choice. Erin pulls off the cover from underneath the steering column to hotwire the vehicle. It only takes a few seconds for her to start the car before turning around to reverse out of the parking space and into the small roads inside the logistics park.
"What's the plan, where should we go?" Erin asks as they accelerate.
"We have to back to Tim's house." Matt answers.
"Why?"
"I hid your dad's cane there. We should get it back before anyone takes it." Matt explains. "Then you should probably store it somewhere much safer than where I put it."
"You're sure the police didn't search the place?"
"I'm sure, all they did was go after me."
"Here's what we're doing." Erin commands, getting a firm hold of what their future plans are. "I'm going to drive to towards London. We're going to abandon the car on the outskirts and take public transport into Central London, where we secure the cane and find a safehouse or hideout we can use to plan how we're going to rescue everyone, prevent the theft of hundreds of tonnes of gold and to stop Jeremy le Paradox from constantly annoying us."
"Sounds good to me." Alex replies.