The Invisible Assassin (10 page)

Jake and the others peered closer at the screen. Yes, there was a culvert of some sort marked on the plan. Jo moved the plan on the screen.

‘It looks like there’s a manhole from the drain just near the main building.’

‘How far is it from there to Block C?’ asked Lauren.

‘According to the scale on the plan, about a hundred metres,’ said Parsons thoughtfully.

‘We can do that,’ nodded Lauren.

Jake looked at her, shocked.

‘A hundred metres? With armed guards and dogs?’

‘We don’t know there are armed guards and dogs,’ pointed out Lauren.

‘Yes, we do,’ said Jo, studying the screen. ‘I’ve hacked into their guard roster.’

Lauren shrugged. ‘OK, so we run,’ she said. ‘It’s not that far. Usain Bolt can run that distance in under ten seconds.’

‘We are
not
Usain Bolt,’ countered Jake.

‘When are you going in?’ asked Jo.

We’re not, thought Jake. Not without doing a lot of serious checking out this place first.

‘Tonight,’ said Lauren.

Jake stared at her.

‘Tonight?’ he echoed.

‘The sooner the better,’ she said. ‘They might move the book somewhere else.’

‘OK,’ said Jo. ‘I’ll have the alarm systems off and the locks undone at eleven thirty. I reckon I can give you twenty minutes before they need to be switched on again. After that, the fail-safe alarm system might cut in.’

‘Will twenty minutes be enough?’ asked Lauren, concerned.

‘It should be,’ said Parsons. ‘If all goes to plan.’

No, it won’t! Jake wanted to yell out loud. We’ll get caught! We’ll get put in jail for life! The guard dogs will tear us to pieces!

‘Is that all right with you, Jake?’ asked Lauren.

Jake did his best to appear casual.

‘OK by me,’ he said.

‘Right, I think we’d better go and make our arrangements,’ said Parsons. ‘We’ve got some serious planning to do.’ He looked at Jo, concerned. ‘If you have any doubts about doing this, Jo, just let me know. We can always try and come up with something else.’

Yes, please, begged Jake. Say you have doubts, Jo!

Instead, Jo shrugged.

‘No,’ she said. ‘It should be fun.’

Fun, groaned Jake to himself. That’s not the word I’d use to describe it.

‘OK.’ Parsons nodded. ‘We’ll leave you to it.’ He was just about to head for the door of Jo’s room, when he stopped and gave her an apologetic, awkward smile. ‘By the way, I told your mum I’d have a word with you,’ he said.

‘Yeah?’ asked Jo.

‘She thinks you ought to get out more. And I agree with her.’

Jo looked at him with distaste.

‘Out
side
?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Parsons said. ‘It’s healthy out there.’

‘There are muggers, rapists and murderers out there,’ said Jo. ‘How can you call that healthy?’

Chapter 12

Their next stop was a small block of flats in Kentish Town. We’re doing a complete tour of London this evening, reflected Jake. Anyone who’s following us is certainly earning their money. Not that they’d spotted anyone following them, but then these people would be professionals.

‘This is where Carl lives,’ Lauren told Jake as they followed Parsons into the courtyard of the small block and then across to a row of garages.

Parsons had unlocked one of the garages and lifted up the door. Inside was a black Mini, and on hooks and shelves on the walls hung tools and equipment: battery chargers, tyre levers, tool boxes, saws; all tidily arranged and even with labels on the shelves detailing the various items.

‘Wow!’ said Jake, impressed. ‘You’re Mr Handyman. And catalogued!’

‘I take care of things,’ agreed Parsons. ‘Not only does it make running a car cheaper, I like to understand how things work.’ He patted the Mini. ‘This is what we’ll go in tonight.’

Jake looked at the car doubtfully.

‘These things are bigger inside than you think,’ said Parsons, clearly reading Jake’s mind. ‘And we don’t want some huge vehicle that’ll draw attention to us.’

Yes, we do, thought Jake. We want a big enough vehicle that will mean the police will get suspicious when we park near the base and tell us to go away. He’d agreed to go on this stupid mission because he knew how much it meant to Lauren, but he broke out in a cold sweat when he thought of what they would actually be
doing
. Breaking into a high-security research establishment. People got shot for doing that, especially with all the fears about terrorists.

Parsons reached up to a hook and took down a heavy-looking double-handed tool.

‘You’re going to need these. Bolt cutters.’

‘What for?’ asked Jake. ‘Jo said she’d have the locks open.’

‘Yes, but you’re going to have to get into the drain from the culvert to get inside the base. The drain could have a metal grille over it. If it’s made of thick iron bars, you won’t be able to cut through it without attracting attention. Not quickly, anyway. But if it’s just a thick wire grille, those will do.’

Please let the drain have a heavy metal grille over it, prayed Jake. Then we’ll have to pack up and leave.

‘You’ll also need some kind of mask,’ added Parsons as he put the bolt cutters and other tools in the boot of the car. ‘To stop you being identified on the CCTV.’

Jake looked at Parsons suspiciously.

‘Why do I get the impression you’ve done this sort of thing before?’ he asked.

‘Anti-nuclear activities,’ said Parsons. ‘Sabotaging drilling rigs on possible waste sites, that sort of thing. I’ve got a couple of balaclava helmets indoors you can use, if you haven’t got your own.’

No way am I going to put my head inside one of Parsons’s sweaty stinky balaclavas, vowed Jake to himself.

‘That’s all right,’ he said. ‘I’ve got a ski mask at home.’

Lauren looked at him, surprised.

‘Why on earth do you have one of those?’ she asked.

‘If you must know, after we broke up I decided to go and do something I’d never done before to make me feel better,’ admitted Jake. ‘I decided to go skiing.’

‘Where did you go?’

Jake looked uncomfortable.

‘Actually, I never went. I got the ski mask and the gloves, and then realised I couldn’t afford it. But one day I will!’

‘I don’t think we’ve got time to go to Jake’s place and get his ski mask,’ said Parsons. He tapped his watch. ‘It’s late already, and we have to get to Stone by eleven at the latest if you’re going to be waiting by the doors of Block C at eleven thirty.’

‘Then we’ll use your balaclavas,’ announced Lauren.

It was nearly eleven o’clock as they left the ring road around Aylesbury and headed on the road to Stone. Parsons and Lauren were in the front of the Mini, and Jake was crammed in the back. He reflected ruefully that a Mini was large enough inside to sit comfortably, if you were in the front. The back was fine if you were one of the Seven Dwarfs, but for someone tall like Jake, he’d had to fold himself up to get in. It had also just begun to rain.

Great, thought Jake. We’re going to be crawling along a drain, with water pouring through.

The rain got heavier as the lights above the high wire fence of Hadley Park Research Establishment came into view. The place was lit up like a Christmas tree. And it looked huge; the fence and the harsh lights went on for about a quarter of a mile along the road. Parsons turned left, taking a narrow side road that bordered the edge of the base. The fence and lights continued down this road, but there were also trees and small wooded areas on the other side. Parsons continued for a further hundred metres, pulled into a gap between two trees, and drove over the bumpy uneven ground into a small clearing.

‘How did you know this place was here?’ asked Jake.

‘I came to Aylesbury years ago to visit an aunt, and we came out here for a drink in the village pub. Then we came to this spot to pick blackberries.’

‘Lucky for us,’ said Lauren.

Or is it? thought Jake. It was all too much of a coincidence, as far as he was concerned. He was tempted to dig deeper, ask Parsons the name of this supposed aunt, but he thought that might upset Lauren.

‘One last thing,’ said Parsons. ‘Leave any wallets, or anything with any identification of any sort, in the car. If you drop anything while you’re in there, all this is a waste of time; they’ll know who you are anyway and will come and pick you up.’

The professional action man, thought Jake grimly as he took out his wallet and other bits of paper from his pockets and dumped them on the back seat. He had to admit, the fact that Parsons seemed to be experienced in this sort of covert activity made Jake feel even more jealous of him.

They got out of the car and Parsons pointed through the bushes that shielded them from the road and the base.

‘According to the plan Jo pulled up, the culvert should be just along there. I’ll wait for you here.’

‘What will you do if someone finds you?’ asked Lauren.

‘Hopefully this rain will keep people indoors,’ replied Parsons. ‘But if I am confronted by anyone, I will reluctantly admit that I am having an affair with a local married woman, and I’m meeting her here.’

‘I can’t see them believing that,’ snorted Jake.

‘Why not?’ asked Parsons. ‘I bet you it happens a lot around here, illicit meetings in wooded places like this, off the beaten track.’

Lauren checked her watch.

‘We need to hurry,’ she said. ‘It’s ten past eleven. We’ve only got twenty minutes before Jo opens the locks.’

If
she opens the locks, thought Jake. He felt sick. This whole escapade was a foolish nightmare. There were so many things that could go wrong: they wouldn’t be able to get into the drain. If they did, they’d get stuck and drown because of this rain. Even if they did manage to get inside, they’d be caught by security guards or dogs. At the thought of a vicious-toothed slavering Alsatian attacking him, Jake felt himself go weak. And, even if they made it to this Block C, what were the chances that Parsons’s odd cousin would have actually been able to hack into the security system and disable the locks? It was just some weird fantasy on her behalf, pretending to be some cyber-terrorist. Jo was playing games. But this was real. If they were caught – and the chances were they would be caught – then jail was an absolute certainty. Providing they weren’t shot dead first. No, this was a
bad
idea. A
very
bad idea.

‘Ready, Jake?’ asked Lauren.

And she gave him a smile. It was the smile that did it. Jake nodded.

‘Ready,’ he said.

Chapter 13

Jake and Lauren left the cover of the small copse and hurried across the narrow road towards the high wire fence. A ditch ran between the road and the fence.

‘D’you reckon this’ll take us to the culvert?’ asked Lauren.

‘Only one way to find out,’ said Jake.

He pulled the balaclava over his head, and then slid down into the ditch. Lauren followed him. The ditch was full of brambles, and Jake was glad they were completely encased in clothes, with thick gloves and the balaclava helmets, or the brambles would have torn their skin to ribbons. The heavy rain was starting to fill the ditch now, though, making the weeds and mud in it slippery underfoot. They moved off. All the while Jake’s senses were on alert for the sound of an alarm from the base, or a shout that showed they’d been spotted.

Aware of the time limit on them, they moved swiftly along the ditch. Finally Jake spotted the concrete of the culvert, partly overgrown by weeds and nettles. They followed the culvert until they came to the drain outlet.

‘It’s good!’ whispered Lauren, relief in her voice.

Jake saw what she meant: there was just a grille made of wire, partly hidden behind nettles. Obviously no one bothered to check the drain was cleared.

Lauren hurried to the wire grille, took hold of it, and pulled at it. It moved slightly, but held.

‘Bolt cutters?’ whispered Lauren.

Jake passed her the cutters. She set to work, cutting through the wires of the grille.

Jake sneaked a look at his watch. 11.17. They had thirteen minutes. He tried to recall the plan of the drain on Jo’s computer screen, and how it related to the base, and particularly Block C. Block C was near the third manhole from the drain entrance; he was fairly sure of that.

Lauren cut through the last of the wires and heaved on the grille, bending it down. The entrance to the drain was open!

She turned to him and gave him a thumbs-up. He couldn’t see her face beneath the balaclava, but he guessed she was smiling. So far so good.

Lauren slid into the drain. Once inside, she produced a small torch and shone it along it. As Jake joined her inside the drain entrance he looked past her and saw that the drain ahead was clear. A trickle of water ran down in their direction, but not enough to stop them. He checked his watch again. 11.22. Eight minutes.