Twenty-Two

Lights Out

As Oscar sat in the interview room, his hands cuffed and with just one guard standing in the corner of the room to keep him company, he let his mind wander. He was planning in his head how he was going to get out �" get where he needed to go. He spotted the keys to what he assumed were his cuffs on the guard’s belt. He usually ended up doing these kinds of things freestyle but it never hurt to have a rough plan in place. Oscar surveyed the whole floor, a handy perk of the glasswork that was acting as the room’s walls was that he could easily see out. There wasn’t much clear floor space, it was all packed with desks with only the most essential walkways left open. Clearly the cut backs had had an effect. Oscar looked at the guard. His flat hat sat loosely on his bald head. It was easy to tell the man was well built, but most likely not very agile. Oscar decided that if he caught the man off guard he would be able to over-power him. As the hours ticked past Oscar checked his watch, again and again. Until finally there was just a minute left. Oscar stared intently at his watch.

‘What the hell are you waiting for?’ the guard perked up. A stroke of luck.

‘What?’ responded Oscar attempting to get the timing just right.

‘You’ve been looking at your watch every half hour like clockwork. What are you waiting for?’, Oscar made a show of looking over his shoulder, and out the glass behind the guard. He then gestured for the guard to come closer. After a moment’s hesitation he obliged, approaching Oscar’s seat. ‘What?’ he said, frustrated at being made to leave his post.

‘Can you see it?’ Oscar pointed to a small detail on his watch.

‘See what?’ replied the guard,

‘Look closer…’ Oscar insisted. The guard again obliged leaning down to Oscar’s watch to look at the detail.

‘What am I supposed to be seeing?’, then, with perfect timing and a noticeable click the room was plunged into darkness. The guard just had time to utter ‘what the…’ Oscar grabbed hold of the man’s neck and slammed his head against the table as hard as he could, using his body as a lever. The man squealed as his skull made contact with the metal before buckling and falling onto his back next to the table. With one hand still stuck to the table, Oscar leaned over the man and managed to get one hand enough reach to grab the keys on his belt. Fiddling with them he tried each one in succession on his cuffs. Every couple of seconds he looked at the guard. He had not been knocked out but was just extremely dazed and unable to do more than groan and roll a few centimetres from his position. Blood was gushing from a wound in the man’s head. Eventually Oscar found a key that fit and with a satisfying click he freed his hand. Leaning over the guard again, he felt around for a gun. He pulled it out of the man’s holster and put it in his trousers, then taking the man’s key-card to the door he swiped and it opened. Oscar didn’t know how Station had kept the security on with the lights off but either way, he had made it through the first barrier.

 

After exiting the interview room Oscar tried to look through the darkness. Had anyone seen him? It was hard to tell. Without the back-up generators kicking in Oscar had to rely in large part on his instincts to make his way around the floor, avoiding obstacles. He moved mostly using the memory of the floor plan he had set in his mind. He was careful to make as little noise as possible, although it wouldn’t have been an issue as the sound of the other staff in the building rushing around would most likely have drowned out any noise he made. He heard a noise crackle from the edge of a desk,

“We believe the suspect has left the interview room” the radio crackled. This made Oscar’s job slightly harder, but not impossible. Grabbing the radio from the table, he walked to the opposite side of the floor, where he knew the stairs were. As he approached the door it burst open. A large man with a moustache and beard burst through the door and squinted at Oscar, obviously trying to determine who he was.

‘Are you the suspect?’ he asked simply. Oscar held out one hand noticing the man reaching for his gun, while doing the same.

‘What are you talking about?’ Oscar replied calmly. The man continued to squint. Oscar grabbed his gun in his belt, flicked the safety off, brought it in front of him and fired off two shots to the man’s chest. He had no time to react and fell to the floor immediately. Oscar stepped over the man casually and brought the radio to his lips.

‘Shots fired! Suspect seen climbing south staircase to the roof from floor 3’, he put on his best American accent. Entering the stairwell, Oscar peered over the banister. It was hard to see but some emergency lighting partially bathed the stairwell in green light and Oscar could see that it was empty. He began heading down.

 

Lee looked up at the now defunct lights that hung from the ceiling, waiting for the back-up generator to kick in.

‘Don’t worry Eli, it’s just a power cut. The back-up will kick in in a few seconds.’ Eli laughed nervously, shaking his head.

‘Don’t you get it? It’s not a power cut. The back-up isn’t gonna kick in. It’s them’, Lee continued looking at the bulbs, checking his watch.

‘Eli I promise you you’re perfectly safe here’,

‘Please listen to me’ the man begged. Then all three men in the room heard two shots ring out. Distant but unmistakable. Both James and Lee put their hands on their guns and looked to the small window on the interview room door. ‘LISTEN!’, Lee spun to look back at Eli. ‘There is no way to stop these people. If I’ve learnt anything it’s that.’

‘Well then we’ll get you out of here, quickly we need to…’ Eli held up his hand.

‘I’m not important anymore detective’, the detectives looked at the man’s eyes. They began to listen intently. ‘No matter what you do, they will find me. If you take me with you I’ll be slowing you down. There’s only one thing you have to do now.’

‘What is it?’ Lee asked gingerly.

‘Do you have anything sharp? A blade or knife?’ Lee looked at James and back to Eli. He pulled out a small knife he kept in his sock and held it out.

‘Why?’, Eli grabbed the blade and started cutting into his skin on the front of his bicep.

‘No don’t!’ Lee and James started shouting in unison, but almost before they’d began he stopped cutting, and held on his hand a small black object with silver trimming, about 10cm long.

‘On here’ Eli began, puffing a bit from the effort and attempting to stem the bleeding, ‘is all my work. From the last 15 years, all the passwords and access to locked files around the world. Everything you need is on there’ he grabbed Lee’s arm and placed the blood drenched USB stick in it. ‘And I need you to destroy it’. Lee looked at the flash drive for a moment giving Eli time to continue, ‘You can’t step on it, you can’t throw it in an oven, you can’t shoot it. However you end up destroying it though, make sure it’s for good’, Lee considered for a moment more,

‘But everything on here. We can use it, properly, how you meant it to be used. We can help people, we can….’

‘No. We can’t. The world isn’t ready for this. Please promise me you’ll destroy it. The only reason I haven’t already is because I couldn’t let go of it. But now you can let go of it for me.’

Lee tightened his fist around the USB stick and put it in the inside pocket of his jacket. He nodded to Eli. Then the men heard another shot, much closer this time. ‘You have to go now!’ Eli hissed. Lee turned to James,

‘Protect him. I’ll get rid of this. Be careful man’

‘Yeah you too’, the two men shared a worried look before quickly shaking hands. It was odd as they didn’t tend to do goodbyes to each other. ‘I’ll see you soon’ said James as Lee hurried out of the room and closed the door behind him.