Chapter 38 – The Polycarbonate Prison Break
London, England. 11:34pm, 8th November 2032.
Flying low over London, Erin looks out of the window, looking for Le Paradox's apartment.
"You're sure you don't want to help?" Erin asks to Alex.
"I'm sitting this out, I want to watch you." Alex replies.
"The view would be better if you came along."
"But you are better, you did without trying what I tried to do for several years."
"We're not having this argument again." Erin definitively asserts. "But if you want to stay here, that's fine."
Erin returns to look out of the window mounted inside the door for Le Paradox's apartment building and spots the pointed oval shape below.
"I'm opening the doors." Erin signals, pulling the latch open and sliding the front side door wide as she stares down at the ground and the buildings below whilst the wind noise buffets the passengers inside.
"Stay safe." Matt chimes in and Erin looks back, not knowing exactly what to think of it.
"Thanks." Erin replies before jumping out and pulling her parachute instantly, aiming for the roof. She moves downwards in a corkscrew spiral shape and lands on top of the door hatch, discarding the parachute in the process. However, the parachute flaps onto the roof proper and gets incinerated instantly in a white hot flash before turning into ashes.
"He's beefed up security." Erin replies in response, to which her view becomes a field of blue and orange, controlled remotely by Matt on his computer. The roof is covered in red, not a laser grid but a full coverage array.
"The entire roof's covered by an infrared array, no weak spots. Anything that touches the roof is burned instantly; I can try to shut it off but it might take a while." Matt replies, but Erin is searching for a way out on her own. Her first idea is to go in the same way she did before, through the door she's standing on top of. A momentary look renders that option void, as the door has been welded shut; so her eyes look up and forward. There is a series of solar panels mounted on a joint that allows it to rotate in order to follow the sun. It leads across to the central heating system on the other side of the building. Erin takes out her cane and jumps down towards the nearest panel, spiralling in the air to get the perfect landing. So soon as she touches the edge, the panel turns sharply towards the other side so Erin quickly shifts her weight to the other side to counteract the tilt. After a nervy few more seconds of balancing, she finds the centre of gravity and stabilises the panel like riding on a skateboard.
"Take it one at a time." Alex urges, watching Erin from the computer screen.
"It's not that hard." Erin replies as calmly as possible, much to the dismay of everyone on board. She reaches forward with her cane to push down on the adjacent panel whilst adjusting her weight on the first one before quickly stepping across and stabilising again; a process she repeats 6 more times in order to reach the other side.
"On the other side, you should be able to attach the vacuum anchor to the side of the central heating unit then repel down the side of the building and enter through a vent leading to the utility floor on the 7th level; there's no apartments in there, so there shouldn't be anyone inside." Matt explains. Erin walks around to the other side and takes out the winch and attaches a clip to herself before crouching down to attach the vacuum pump anchor to the metal siding of the heating system. Once it attaches, she sees a small LED light go to yellow, signalling it's evacuating the chamber before turning to green once it's finished. Erin checks that the winch remains free to move before looking past the invisible infrared grid and to the artificially illuminated abyss below. Taking a deep breath, she crouches down quickly and leaps as far forward as possible to clear the building's edge. Once over the top, he presses down on the brakes for the winch to stop her falling down even further.
"Not much further, the vent is directly below you." Matt radios in. Erin slowly lowers herself down the building, and looking inside as well to ensure that no one spots her; but every floor had blinds or curtains drawn so it didn't matter. Spotting the vent opening as well as the cold air rushing inward, being sucked in by the fan directly after the polished steel vent covering.
"Any closer to finishing that hack?" Erin asks.
"There's… no access to his system remotely, I'm not skilled enough; but, if there's a main server room inside then that's a different story." Matt replies.
"So you can't turn off this fan here is what you're supposed to say." Erin replies as she begins Plan B; detonating the EMP blast with a massive increase in the degree of difficulty.
"Yeah, okay." Matt answers, somewhat dejectedly but trying to conceal it. Erin slips one arm out of the backpack and swings it around to in front of her with her cane, still in its grip, facing outwards. Erin lifts her legs up to create a 'table' for herself to balance the bag on whilst she looks inside for the small device she needs. She takes it out with one hand and stuffs it inside her front pocket before replacing the backpack to where it belongs. Taking out the pinch, she sets the dial down low and presses the button and peaks through the vent shutters to see it slow down to a stop. Once it does, she feels around the edge for the vent to come out of it's place and removes it from the fitting before thrusting it against the fan to dislodge it out of place. It falls over only to catch quickly turn orange, then red, the white before the steel begins to melt right in front of her eyes; which she has to avoid looking at because it's so bright.
"Can you turn it onto the blue and orange setting?" Erin asks to Matt so she can see how far this infrared laser grid extends into the vent.
"Changing now." Matt responds and Erin's world is changed; the task ahead is made blindingly clear. This laser grid is impenetrable; there's no way to manoeuvre around this obstacle; not even enough room right now to fit herself inside.
"Is there any other way into the building?" Erin asks, not wanting the risk of instant incineration on her plate.
"You could always try the front door." Alex jokes.
"He's kept the building locked down tight, there's no other way inside." Matt explains, looking at the schematics to the building.
"Why not just turn the EMP pulse up, knock out the system?" Alex advises.
"Collateral damage maybe?" Erin answers to make it sound obvious.
"It amazes me." Matt says. "that you're hanging off the side of a building held up by a single thread and not getting nervous or scared."
"Why would I be?" Erin replies, holding loosely onto the side of the vent with her hands to look around inside. "unless you've got another idea, I might just have to agree with you on this plan."
"Stop." Alex says, startled that he didn't realise this before. "There's another way in; they showed me these underground tunnels that lead right into the basement of the building. The entrance shouldn't be that far away."
"It sounds better than going in loud." Erin says. "I'll move down to ground level and you direct me."
"Okay." Alex says casually. But he's unprepared for what his sister does next. It's not what he thought she'd do. Erin detaches the anchor from the top of the building, causing her to fall, but she pulls her parachute and aims for the neighboring apartment block with a roof of a much lower level. She does this whilst the winch quickly winds up the unspooled cable in a matter of seconds before she touches down on the roof.
"I think the tunnel started a few hundred metres to the west, it came out of a storage room in a building." Alex explains.
"Do you know which building?" Erin asks.
"I'll know it when I see it." Alex answers. "I don't have a photographic memory of the entire city. It's too big for my brain."
Erin gets herself down to ground level, as navigating rooftop to rooftop in this area is almost impossible with no wires crossing the rooftops and the buildings being of unequal size and shape. At this time, there is hardly anyone out on the streets so she can get by doing this a little easier. Jogging along the street with ease, she looks around to give a view for Alex to watch from whilst in the helicopter.
"Wait, it's on the other side of the street, two buildings from the corner." Alex exclaims to Erin before turning to Matt. "Can you put that on the screen?"
"I can see it, you don't have to." Erin replies as she runs across the street, but Matt places a waypoint right in front of the glass double doors just as Erin reaches them herself, but she walks straight past them, only glancing inside to see if there is anyone inside and spots a receptionist at the front desk.
"There's someone at the front desk, she may be in on it as well." Erin explains.
"Maybe I can create a distraction." Matt replies. "Nothing too extravagant."
He gets into this building's computer system, a success he hasn't been able to find easily, and in a few seconds gets the middle aged cat to stand up and head towards the rear of the building. Erin meanwhile, enters through the front door.
"What did you do?" Erin asks as she heads for the door behind the desk.
"Nothing sinister." Matt replies. "Otherwise, she'll suspect something and call for help."
Erin looks behind the desk and notices an aftermarket addition, an under the table button which can be pressed to alert security; possibly Le paradox himself. She continues through into the store room and instantly sees the pile of boxes shoved into the corner. Instantly she knows that this is where the entrance must be because it's concealed too obviously. She begins removing some of the boxes to see through to the back but sees that the wall behind is exactly that; a wall, with no sign of a recent job to cover up the hole Alex said would be here.
"Is this the right room?" Erin asks.
"Yes, definitely."
"Well… look at this."
"Knock on the wall." Matt advises. "If it's hollow you should be able to hear it."
Erin does as he advises and hears the echo from knocking on it once.
"It's hollow."
"How should we get through?" Matt asks. "It's wooden so we can't use that goo on it."
Erin has already picked her way inside, taking the cane out from her backpack. She thrusts it at the wall and pierces a hole at four different points before kicking out in the centre of the square, sending the chunk of wood into the dark tunnel beyond. Erin quickly returns the boxes to their original state before climbing inside the small hole that's just large enough to fit through.
"They're going to notice that hole." Matt advises.
"Yeah, but it will be too late by then." Erin explains. "Sometimes, being stealthy and silent isn't always the best option; it's too slow."
"So you put a hole in the wall."
"What exactly is that going to do to harm us?" Erin asks. "They'll know we came in from here if they discover that hole and when they discover it, they're not going to the police about it. The best they can do is patch it up again and pretend like it never happened."
Matt mutes their microphone to make a private remark to Alex.
"Is Erin always this thorough?"
"Always."
Erin walks up to what looks like the inside of a metal locker. She pushes the door and hears that it's locked from the outside; therefore, she sprays the corrosive goo around the centre, where the handles would be, and opens it up once the lock and chain strangling the metal handles collapses to the ground.
"I'm in the underground again." Erin relays to Matt.
"It shouldn't be that much further down." Alex says.
"Left or right?" Erin asks.
"Left"
Erin dashes along the service tunnel for about 20 seconds before she is instructed to stop outside a vent covering and removes the heavy steel structure out of place so she can fit through before replacing it as it had been before from the other side. She continues to run along the concrete floored tunnel, looking around for any danger that may lurk within.
"Okay, if there's a tunnel on your right, go through there, it should lead straight into the building." Matt instructs. Erin sees such a route and takes it, quickly realising that the height of the tunnel is decreasing to the point where it goes to a point.
"It's a dead end." Erin says.
"I remember that the floor of the carpark rises out of place so they can get inside, so maybe there is a button to raise it." Alex explains.
"Can you change the mask's setting so I can see?" Erin asks.
"Okay." Matt replies.
"It's cranially controlled." Penelope blurts out, still in the pilot's seat but the helicopter itself is on autopilot.
"How would… you built all of this stuff." Matt guesses.
"Think about what triggers everything; you figure that out then there's no voice activation or manual switching that you're doing. Keeps everything silent." Penelope explains.
Erin searches the space and finds a panel set into the concrete side wall, which she briefly looks at before pressing a not very noticeable button she thinks will raise the platform. There is a slight delay, that tiny second made her doubt her decision, but she hears a whirring electric motor hoist the concrete slab up at an angle with the opening appearing in front of her. As soon as there is space, she climbs up through the gap and sums up the situation on where to head next, but all options suddenly go off the table.
"Evening." Jeremy greets, leaning against a concrete pillar next to the left of the raised carpark space. Erin feels disappointed. She couldn't even get inside without the skunk springing his presence on her.
"What do you want?" She asks exasperatingly.
"I want to know what you want." Jeremy replies. "I earn a living off of fulfilling people's needs, wants or demands. You want to break into my building, you must want something."
"I want you." Erin replies in a way to make it sound that she definitely does not mean to hit on him.
"Me? You could have called." Jeremy responds. "You have my number from when I called you earlier tonight. It would have made things simpler."
"You listen here." Erin says, trying to dominate him in order to make him break. "I want my friends back."
"Done." Jeremy answers instantly, without a second thought. He stands up from the concrete pillar, supporting his own weight. "I have no use for them anymore, they filled their purpose; I got your attention."
"That's not all!" Erin shouts. "You sent them down into the Bank of England's vault, doing all of your dirty work for you."
"I did no such thing." Jeremy refuses sharply before calming down. "I'll take you upstairs myself to show you that they're healthy."
Jeremy begins to walk towards the elevator, hoping that Erin will follow. By the time he reaches the door and presses the button, he sees that the female raccoon has not moved an inch.
"You don't want your friends back?" Jeremy asks, looking back at her.
"Worry about him later, just get them out." Alex advises through the mask, like having his voice in her head. With seemingly no better option, Erin strolls over to the elevator, which Jeremy is holding open for her. The skunk wants to make some conversation, but if he chooses the wrong topic, he'll certainly lose out in this space where there is nowhere to run; so he decides not to speak at all. They reach the top and get to the huge safe like door that guards his penthouse. The guards are absent from their posts because Jeremy called them off as he came down.
"Can you enter the code from that side?" Jeremy asks. Erin walks over to the right side of the door and waits for the code to be given to her.
"3,7,4,6." Jeremy replies, it shocks Erin deeply that he would use that as the code to his personal apartment.
"2,5,3,9." Erin answers back as the door opens.
"You catch on quickly." Le Paradox remarks before walking through first into his apartment.
"Jeremy, I need to talk…" Krasic quickly begins to explain but he spots Erin behind him, and wonders whether this is the right place to talk, or even be considering she's much more dangerous than Alex.
"I have a guest Ivan, hold it for 5 minutes." Jeremy politely replies as Ivan backs away from Erin.
"2 billion euros have gone missing from the investment funds." Krasic explains anyway, he feels the gravity of the situation will take over once he has let it out.
"5 minutes Ivan, watch TV or something." Jeremy says as he walks on towards his centre of operations; that unassuming white door to the left at the foot of the stairs. He opens it, and inside it based in artificial light coming from many screens, covering almost every wall on one side of the room. But it's directly opposite the door that Erin sees the most, the rectangular polycarbonate box housing the 5 people that she had been nearing desperation in trying to release them.
"Erin's here, like I said; you're all welcome to go." Jeremy remarks as he bends down to unlock a padlock on the door. Prima facie, Le Paradox seems unconcerned about the possible consequences of letting them go, that he doesn't expect a 6 on 1 fight. Erin feels awkward, standing outside so passively, unlike how she would have preferred to do this. One by one, they all slowly get up and walk across to the hallway where Erin is; it becomes rather cramped very quickly, especially with Tyson in the vicinity.
"Next time, don't hesitate to call me first." Le Paradox reminds Erin as he shuts the clear plastic front. "saves us both time."
"Ask him where Rasmus is." Matt radios to Erin, making sure she doesn't get overwhelmed or forgets the plan. Erin casually takes out her mobile phone and calls Le Paradox like he said, even though they are only metres away and in direct face to face contact. Jeremy knows what kind of joke she's playing at, but it's still annoying; what makes it worse is that he gave her the perfect foundation to make it. Reluctantly, he picks out his vibrating phone and answers.
"Yes?"
"Where's Rasmus?"
"Denmark." Le Paradox answers. "Closing some deal he's been working on; getting some informants inside the government, don't know why."
"That's funny, he was in London 2 hours ago." Erin replies.
"The flight takes roughly that long." Jeremy replies.
"Do you know anything about a container ship that self destructed an hour ago?" Erin asks condescendingly.
"No."
"That's bull and you know it." Erin replies.
"Erin." Le Paradox says. "Remember, don't ever accuse me of lying."
"Let me refresh your memory then. The container ship carrying all of the stolen gold is at the bottom of the sea." Erin responds. "Your plan is ruined. Once all the law enforcement agencies find the contents of the containers, they're going to come looking for you.
"These are all lies! Fabrications! Get out! Get out now!" Le Paradox shouts directly without using the phone. He stomps towards the door to shut it but slams it as hard as he can.
"We should leave." Karen advises to Erin as Le Paradox's audible shouting rages on inside. The 6 of them head towards the front door with the mongoose watching a holographic depiction of the world's financial markets; nothing any of them has the interest in looking at. Nevertheless, maybe he's a bit more level-headed than Le Paradox at this moment.
"Do you know where Rasmus is?" Erin asks, standing behind the couch that Ivan is sitting on. Once he hears her behind him, he sits up slightly, more alert than before.
"No… finding him is like… needle in a haystack. But there's no needle." Ivan explains.
"And where would that needle be?"
"Le Paradox gives him free reign to do whatever he wants as long as it is profitable, in many different senses of the word." Ivan explains. "Now, unless you can recover the 2 billion I've just lost, then maybe you should leave."
Krasic cups his hands and rests his chin inside with his elbows leaning against his knees, staring into the projections of the financial markets operating on the other side of the world; mainly the price of gold, hoping that it will go down just a bit so they can buy as much of it as possible on the big day in 2 days time; that's even if they can do it at all.
"You're still here, come on, leave." Krasic reminds them, then he remembers what he said a mere few seconds ago. "It was just a figure of speech, I didn't expect you to seriously consider it."
"You spied on me for months and yet you don't know everything." Erin comments.
"Just leave." Krasic pleads. "Leave."
Erin briefly pauses.
"Well, good luck with Jeremy… I kinda worked him up for you."
She heads toward the exit with everyone in tow, leaving the mongoose helpless on the couch, and exits the apartment.
"What's with that, you seem different." Toby exclaims as they wait for the elevator.
"No offense, but what we did before is nothing compared to this." Erin says.
"We can tell." Sam remarks as he eyes off all of this new technology that Erin has acquired.
"I mean it, we're talking billions; tonnes of gold with much greater security and danger than anything you've seen." Erin explains as the elevator doors open. "This is the offensive part,"
They fit inside the elevator with Erin pressing the button to go down to the ground floor.
"If you don't want to come along, go home once we walk out of the elevator. Don't stay because we're friends, but stay if you're seriously prepared to do this. Know that I probably won't be able to bail you out if we get into trouble; because when the GDP of a small nation is involved, there's certain to be trouble."
The doors open on the ground floor and they walk past the few security guards stationed outside for the night shift.
"That's a nice speech and all." Matt remarks. "But I've think I know where Rasmus is."
"Not in Denmark I assume?" Erin replies.
"Who are you talking to?" Karen asks but Erin points to her ear to signal an earpiece. She doesn't have the time to explain the intricacies of the mask across her eyes.
"I can't believe I didn't see this before… you know Le Paradox's private jet, it's en route to Washington, like I found it before. But I checked a little deeper, that jet's been making the same journey from London to Washington and back for the past few weeks, only stopping for fuel."
"He's been transporting something, he's been here so he didn't need to be on board for it; wait…. It's the gold." Erin exclaims, stopping in the path. "That gold's not at the bottom of the sea, the ship was just a trick to lead us away."
"He's done it a little bit at a time, ferrying it to the U.S." Matt notes. "But why?"
"That's not important yet." Erin responds. "How far is the plane into its flight?"
"About 1 hour and 20 minutes."
"When's the next flight there?"
"The next one will be in the morning because of the noise curfew around Heathrow." Matt explains.
"That's way too late." Erin replies. "We need something faster."
"I can get you all there, but we need to leave now." Penelope says back to Matt. "We can't beat him there, but it's your best option."
"Penelope's got an idea." Matt relays.
"Where do we have to go?" Erin asks. The destination comes up in her vision, showing a remote airfield on the outskirts of London. "We'll be there as fast as we can."