The Red Slayer

Tara comes to school more chuffed than I’ve seen her in weeks. ‘I had such a great night’s sleep,’ she tells me while I go to the canteen for a second coffee. ‘And I could relax without feeling I was being watched.’

‘Didn’t your stepdad notice your door was closed?’ I ask.

She shrugs. ‘He never said anything. Plus, before school, I took the lock off and hid it in my sock drawer so he couldn’t steal it.’

Throughout the day, Tara is my sole focus. I want to hear how her evening was, what she had for breakfast, which girls in the choir lip-synch. Apparently, the Year Nines just hold their mouths open during the high notes. Prizegiving rehearsal distracts me as usual, and we make our way to the gates afterwards as school gets out.

‘Hey,’ she says, ‘What are the odds my stepdad isn’t there again? We could go shopping. I still need to get a plain black dress for the night.’

‘I can’t. Dad’s expecting me home on time today.’

‘Why?’

Before I can think up an excuse, we see the blacked-out silver car sat across the road. Tara’s shoulders hunch with disappointment, her good mood decimated. It doesn’t help that her stepdad repeatedly slams the horn, drawing everyone’s attention. She reluctantly gets in the backseat and I watch the BMW screech away, shaking my head slowly.

Lewis comes to stand next to me. ‘That Tara’s new stepdad?’

‘He’s almost as pleasant as your dad’s ex.’

He frowns. ‘I hope not.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll think of a way to get rid of him…’ I let my voice trail off and begin walking away. It takes all I’ve got to resist adding ‘too’.

***

I find Dad in the living room when I get home, sat in the armchair with the laptop on his knees. On one sofa, Luke and Olga are already sat down with a gap between them for me to fill. I come forward, only to realise someone’s sat on the other sofa besides Elisa and Ariel. A platinum blonde woman smiles at me like a boss asking their employee to take a seat.

‘Director McIntyre,’ I say, dropping my schoolbag.

‘Pleasure to see you again, Miss Davis,’ she says, standing up to shake my hand.

I do so. ‘What are you—That is—’

‘What I’m doing here? Your father wanted me to sit in on the briefing. My superiors won’t listen, but I will.’

‘She’s giving us immunity,’ says Luke. ‘If Michael truly is planning something suspicious, which he is, we won’t get arrested for stealing the proof.’

‘And she’s giving us weapons to do the job,’ adds Olga.

‘That can wait until after the presentation,’ Sophia asserts. She turns to Dad. ‘We can start as soon as Mr. Araki arrives.’

‘He’ll be along soon,’ I say. ‘He texted that he’d be here.’

Dante arrives in the next ten minutes. Like me, he’s surprised to see Sophia, but settles in once we fill him in. The four of us squeeze onto one sofa as Dad gets up, draws the curtains, and turns on the TV, showing a 3D model of the Shard with surrounding buildings rendered in.

‘How long did it take you to make that?’ I ask.

‘A few hours,’ says Dad nonchalantly. ‘Well, I say a few…twelve.’

‘Promise me you’ll have a nap after this.’

‘I’ll see to it,’ says Elisa.

Dad stands next to the TV with the remote in one hand. He hits Play and the front-view of the Shard zooms out to show it from above.

‘Right, we all know the Shard is the largest building in Britain, so it’ll be tricky to break into an office located there. The four of you are going to break in on Saturday night. Everyone here will be playing a part in it, except Ariel. Elisa and I will be in the lab, orchestrating the power cuts that’ll get you in and out. Sophia will drive you to a rendezvous point nearby and be your getaway driver afterwards. Unfortunately, there aren’t any tunnels south of the Thames you can use.’

The simulation pans down to the roof of the Shangri-La Hotel, a building conjoined to the skyscraper. Four dots, individually coloured this time to represent us as red, gold, black and white, are on the roof.

‘You can use grappling guns to get on the roof of that hotel. I will start the first power-cut at 1AM, giving you cover to enter the building. Iorwen, as you’re the fastest, your job will be to loosen a pane of glass for you and the others to climb through.’

The four dots make their way into the building and Dad talks us through the quickest route to the entrance of Michael’s office.

‘Now, if all goes as planned, the power cut should still be in place when you get there. It’s a combination lock, but you will have a laser to cut through it. The power should come back on once you’re inside. One of you will have to disrupt any surveillance cameras and motion sensors. Once the defences are down, find Michael’s computer.’

The model fades out and instead a blue memory stick slides into the screen. ‘This,’ says Dad, ‘Will grab the data for you. Turn Michael’s computer on and slip it into a USB port. It will copy every file in that computer onto it automatically. It can carry several terabytes so it should grab everything. The LED on it will glow green when it’s grabbed everything.’

The blue memory stick slides out of view and a red one replaces it. 'This one,’ Dad emphasises, ‘Contains the E.T. virus. Once you have grabbed the data, pop the red one into the port and it’ll upload in ten seconds. Contact me and I’ll start the second power cut, giving you ample time to escape.’

The simulation plays exactly as he explains. The four of us say nothing, waiting for the ‘Any questions’ prompt. Sophia watches us for a full minute before speaking.

‘It won’t be easy,’ she tells us. ‘If you doubt your abilities, I can always put other agents on the case.’

I gasp. What is this “doubt” she speaks of? ‘If you put other agents on the case and get caught, you’ll be looking at a security crisis that’ll cost you your job.’

Olga nods. ‘Iorwen’s right. You can label us vigilantes if anything goes wrong.’

‘I couldn’t back out of I wanted to,’ says Luke. ‘Where Iorwen goes, I go.’

‘Ditto,’ adds Dante.

Sophia’s grin widens before she stands up. ‘Let’s adjourn to the laboratory, shall we?’

Dad would come with, but Elisa insists making him take a nap. Sophia takes the briefing from here. Once we reach the lab, we spot four cube-shaped cases on the nearest workbench. They all share the same metallic grey exterior.

Sophia stands behind the workbench while we go to stand opposite.

‘These our gadgets?’ asks Luke.

‘Each case contains tools for the specific role each of you will carry out, plus weapons that may come in handy if the office isn’t deserted.’

We each share an uneasy look as Sophia unlocks the first case. Fitted into specially cut foam insulation are a pair of wrist bands, each with a grappling hook and a magnet on each side of the cuffs. Along with them is a grappling gun, a rope ascender, a harness, five gas grenades, two sharp wooden stakes, something that looks like a switchblade, and the two memory sticks Dad showed us in the presentation.

Sophia looks up at me. ‘Miss Davis, your job will be to gain access to the Shard and Hughes’ office, then perform the data grab. As your father said, you are the fastest.’

I nod, resisting the urge to salute. Sophia opens the second case, revealing a rope ascender, tiny black 3D stickers, and a pair of bracelets with red lights on top, along with more gas grenades, stakes and a rope ascender. The third case has a camera device one might wear on their clothes while the fourth contains a headset, stopwatch and a small radio, along with the same weapons as the other two cases.

‘The three of you can decide,’ Sophia tells Luke, Olga and Dante, ‘Which one of you will disrupt the cameras and alarms, who will record the contents of the office, and who will stay in contact with Jason and time the power cuts while he operates from the lab.’

‘I’ll disrupt the electrics,’ says Dante. ‘If they’re high up in a room, I can reach them.’

Luke and Olga look at each other, then at the last two open cases. The former shrugs. ‘Flip a coin?’

‘Yeah,’ she replies, pulling a 10p piece out of her blazer pocket. ‘Heads I get the camera. Tails I get the headset.’

She flips it in the air, then slaps it on the back of her left hand. ‘Heads. Camera it is.’

Sophia nods. ‘Then it’s settled. We’ll reconvene here on Saturday night at twenty-three-hundred-hours. Be sure you have a powernap before then.’

***

I step out of the elevator in my Slayer costume once more. Dante, Olga and Luke are already there with Dad, Elisa and Sophia, fitting the contents of their respective cases into holsters and secret pockets in their costumes.

‘Sorry I took so long,’ I say. ‘I put the harness on backwards.’

He fixes the cape onto my shoulders. ‘That’s all right. Better that it works than you dislocate another shoulder.’

I go to my case, attaching the wristbands and placing the weapons and other gadgets into the holders on my corset. The last thing I take from the case is the grappling gun, which I can wear on my back when the time comes.

‘Nervous?’ asks Luke. I spot the earpiece just poking out from his hair.

‘Excited,’ I reply with a confident grin.

Dad hands each of us our masks from their resting place in the desk drawer. As I go to take mine, he pulls me into a hug. ‘Be careful,’ he whispers. ‘Don’t worry about aborting if it seems too dangerous.’

‘I’m not worried,’ I say. ‘For the first time in my life, I’m not even a little anxious.’

He goes to open the blank wall. I pass by Elisa as I go. She places a concerned hand on each of our shoulders before looking at Sophia. ‘If these kids come to any harm, don’t expect me to uphold my non-disclosure agreement.’

‘Understandable,’ says Sophia, standing on the cusp of the bright lab and the dark tunnel, ‘But I have more confidence in them than you do.’

Elisa scowls as Luke, Dante, Olga and I follow Sophia into the tunnel. I imagine she remains scowling until the wall closes behind us. I slip on my mask and turn on night-vision, noticing the others do the same. Sophia merely applies a pair of glasses, striding forward without need for a map.

I go to walk alongside her and clear my throat. ‘Do you know these tunnels well?’

‘Yes,’ she replies. ‘When I was a field agent, I used them to sneak up on mobsters and extremists before they could launch an attack. I came to know these tunnels better than the streets of London.’

‘Where will we emerge?’

‘Not far. There’s a vehicle waiting for us in an underground car park at Ladbroke Grove. With any luck, you’ll use it when you become fully fledged agents.’

Sophia guides us to another wall that rolls away to reveal the car park. The only vehicle is a sleek, black van. The four of us climb into the back. We can’t see what’s outside as Sophia drives us through the city, but that also means people can’t see inside and spot the four masked teenagers.

Sophia joins us in the back and sets out a map in the space between us and puts a red X on a multi-storey car park. ‘This is where we are. Davis, you’re to fire a line from here to the roof of Guy’s Hospital. From there, go along the rooftops until the Shard is directly across the road from you. Fire another line from there. Knighton, Hakim, Araki, you follow Davis. That’s what the ascenders are for. But only Davis must go up the second line before the power cut. The rest of you must follow once it’s started while she gains access to the building.’

We nod and climb out of the van and across the deserted roof. I walk to the edge, with the grappling gun, loading it with a hook. A sight on the gun scans for a stable surface on the building opposite. Once the other end is secure, I slip my ascender onto the line and start travelling upwards across the gap. Thankfully it’s not windy tonight.

Once I reach the next rooftop and the others start making their way up, I breathe deep to bring my adrenaline down. If it spikes too soon, the energy I’ve been conserving all day will vanish. With my friends joining me, we wave to Sophia, a white speck in this darkness, and advance.

The climb from the hospital to the hotel will be a steeper climb than the first one, though I try to widen the angle by hooking it as far back as possible. ‘When you come back down this line,’ I tell them, ‘Bend your knees so you can roll when you land. We may be on top of a hospital, but I don’t want any broken legs.’

‘Sir, yes sir,’ jokes Luke, saluting. I roll my eyes and begin ascending up the line to the roof of the hotel.

I immediately pick which window I’m going to open when I get there. Fifth from the west, second from the bottom. I crouch into a runner’s lunge, waiting to surge forward. Deep breaths…I can do this…Wait for it…

It happens the second Big Ben starts chiming across the Thames. The night is clear enough to hear it. In a split second, the Shard, that glowing beacon on the South Bank, goes dark, save for the red signal lights on the very top.

I flick on the night vision and charge, thrusting my left fist forward. Doing so activates the magnet, which shoots forward onto the metal space between the many glass panes. The cable retracts and I go with it, using momentum to go running up the side of the building to my chosen window. Firing the magnet on my right wrist to the other side, I’m practically standing upright while I take the switch-blade device from my corset. Instead of a blade, a red laser pops out, cutting through the metal like butter. The only metal I leave is warm enough to move when I push the pane up and slip inside. Attaching the third and final grapple wire to a steel column, I look back to see how my friends are doing. Dante, then Olga, and finally Luke, make it to the roof and climb up the cable.

‘Hopefully, that’s the hard part done,’ sighs Olga. She turns on the infrared vision, looking about. ‘I don’t think anyone’s on this floor.’

‘Most of the residents will be asleep,’ says Dante. ‘They probably don’t know there’s a power cut.’

‘Can’t stop now,’ I say. ‘How long before the power comes on?’

Luke takes the stopwatch out of his pocket. ‘Four minutes. Let’s get moving.’

I don’t intend to wait a second. With my own infrared vision on, knowing no one’s there, I run freely through the corridors. Though I look back at every corner to make sure the others are right behind me, I can’t help laughing at how easy this is. I skid to a halt in front of the frosted glass door and run the laser down the lock until the door swings open freely. I step fearlessly over the threshold, into the dark room beyond. Luke jams the door closed afterwards with the legs of a nearby stool.

‘Just in case,’ he mutters, then checks his timer. ‘Power’s coming back on. Turn your night-vision off.’

We do, not a moment too soon. The lights here are bright white LEDs lining the ceiling and focused on the centre of the room. It doesn’t help that the walls are white too. Even without night-vision the shock disorients me for a second. The sight of cameras in each corner shakes me out of it and I snap my fingers.

‘Got it,’ says Dante, aiming the bracelets at each camera, sending distortion waves that makes them droop down in several sparks. Once he’s finished, he scans the walls, the corners, the ceilings and shrugs. ‘Odd. No sensors.’ He takes a small jar of talcum powder from his pocket and blows it down a dark corridor opposite the entrance. ‘Nothing.’

‘Check for cameras, anyway,’ I say.

‘Be careful,’ says Olga, switching on the camera pinned to the front of her costume.

‘Would you look at this,’ Luke remarks at four workbenches. They each have one thing in common: blood, either in test tubes or petri dishes, paired with microscopes, labelled by type, Bunsen burners or bags of blood platelets.

‘Are you getting all this?’ I ask Olga.

She nods, moving around each bench so the camera can record each detail. ‘What on earth is this guy doing?’

‘I found his office!’ Dante calls down the corridor.

This short hallway is very different from the first room. Its décor changes drastically from the laboratory. Instead of white, the walls, ceiling and floors are made up of navy tiles with silver specks. I don’t realise I’m stood between two glass walls until I look around. To the left, one room after another of morgue-like slabs and gurneys with ominous leather restraints. I swallow a lump in my throat and look to the right. Computers lined up against the wall to study those opposite, as well as several giant refrigerators.

I gather my strength and move to the very end of the corridor, where Dante points to the only room with walls of blacked-out glass. Michael’s name hangs over the door on a gold-plated plaque. I get the laser ready to cut through it the lock, but Dante stops me. ‘That might set off an alarm.’

‘Good point.’

He places one of the 3D stickers onto the panel. It short-circuits instantly, disabling the lock. Instead of navy, Michael’s office is a glistening black. His computer desk has the keyboard set into it with the screen taking up most of the opposite wall. The only other features are the giant servers against the left wall.

‘No filing cabinets,’ says Dante.

‘No paper trail,’ I reply. ‘Just as well. We can only carry so much.’

I turn the computer on, finding USB slots on the side of the desk. I insert the blue memory stick at once. A tiny red LED starts glowing, gradually turning orange, then yellow. I keep a clenched hand over it, trying to ignore my thumping heart.

Olga and Luke come to the office doorway. I turn to them. ‘Prepare to leave. I’ve almost got the data.’ The lemon yellow of the LED, pigment by pigment, starts going lime. I can’t tell if my adrenaline is so high time’s going extra slow, or it’s deliberately tormenting me.

At last, the light glows green. Just as I tuck the memory stick into my corset, we hear a sound to make our blood run cold. The frosted glass door rattles, but doesn’t open thanks to Luke’s cautious thinking.

‘Oh no,’ Olga whimpers under her breath.

‘What do we do?’

‘Hide in the other office,’ I hiss. ‘I still need to upload the virus. Get that second power cut going and we can slip by. Use the gas grenades for cover once it’s dark.’

The door rattles again, followed by swearing from the other side.

They nod and go to duck behind the refrigerators as a fist punches through the glass door and frees it. I pull the red memory stick out of the computer, turn it off and jump behind the nearest server.

A gruff voice rings through the hall. ‘What the—Someone’s broken in.’

'Someone’s what?’

I didn’t know my blood could run colder. Don’t let Michael be here now. His footsteps, and those of three henchmen patter down the corridor toward the office. I draw in a breath and pray my singer’s lungs can hold it.

‘They’ve been in my office!’ my uncle exclaims, rushing to the desk. The henchmen don’t follow. They must not be allowed in, even in an emergency. I can only see the back of his head, but I’d know that muddy brown hair anywhere, especially that Ted Bundy style.

Michael sets his phone on the desk as he switches the computer on. The company logo flashes across the screen and for a moment, I worry if I took the memory stick out of the USB port too soon. Then, instead of a lockscreen, a pixelated E.T. and a cringeworthy electronic version of the movie’s theme takes up the screen.

‘What is this?’ says Michael.

He hits a key, only to get that green field and the foetus standing in the middle. I clamp my hand over my mouth to refrain from laughing.

‘What the hell is going on!’ Michael bellows, beating his fists on the desk like a sexually frustrated gorilla. I slowly release my held breath, seeing this pathetic man throw a tantrum. I was afraid of this?

He turns around to face his henchmen, but either a red hair is out of place or he sees my reflection, but his tirade halts the second his grey eyes meet mine.

At that moment, we’re plunged into darkness.

© Alice of Sherwood, May 2020