Shockwave Read online

  ‘You’re positive that Trent will have run off to his panic room?’ Charlie asked in a low voice.

  ‘I think so,’ Jack said. ‘But we’ll be careful, OK?’

  ‘Aren’t we always?’

  Jack cracked a smile.

  On the other side of the chair were over a hundred glass shelves mounted to the wall, and on each shelf was a different gaming console.

  ‘Is that . . . ?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Charlie said. ‘Looks like it. Every console ever made.’

  She turned back, found the light switch and flicked it on. More spotlights recessed into the ceiling came to life.

  Now Jack could see more clearly, he realised that what at first glance he had thought was some weird, multicoloured wallpaper was in fact wall-to-ceiling shelves that were crammed full of old computer games boxes. Jack guessed that Trent’s hard drive was stuffed with newer ones.

  He looked slowly around the rest of the giant room, checking for any security cameras, but he couldn’t spot any. They were either extremely well hidden or there weren’t any – he couldn’t be sure either way. Apart from all the shelves filled with games and consoles, the only other feature was an archway leading to a corridor.

  Jack signalled to Charlie and they stepped further into the room, their eyes feasting on the impressive games library.

  Charlie carefully slid a cartridge off one of the shelves and examined it, then put it back, shaking her head. ‘Looks like he’s got every game ever invented.’

  Jack nodded. He had to agree – there were many thousands.

  He walked over to the futuristic chair. Mounted to the side of it was a computer, with several lights blinking.

  Jack looked at Charlie. ‘Any sign of trouble, you leg it,’ he said. ‘Right?’

  ‘I’m not leaving you.’

  ‘I’m serious, Charlie.’ Jack glanced at the open front door then back at her. ‘If anything happens, you run. OK?’

  Charlie shrugged. ‘Whatever. Just get on with it, will ya?’

  Jack took a breath and climbed into the chair.

  As soon as he sat down, motors whirred and the chair tipped slowly backwards, the screens moved nearer and turned on, and a narrow table swung in front of him with a trackpad and keyboard fixed to it.

  Jack flexed his fingers and set to work.

  Charlie walked over to him as he brought up the main operating system.

  ‘What’s up with this place?’ a voice said.

  Jack turned to see Slink standing by the door, looking somewhere between astonished and confused. Then realisation swept across his face and he waved a finger at the walls.

  ‘Are those all games?’ he asked.

  Wren joined him with an equally surprised look. ‘This is amazing. I could die quite happy in here.’

  ‘Careful what you wish for,’ Jack said, glancing around the room again and feeling uneasy.

  ‘What’s that?’ Slink said, gesturing to the chair. ‘Some kind of space ship?’

  Wren held up the end of the network cable. ‘You wanted this?’

  Jack nodded. ‘Please.’

  She hurried over and handed Jack the end of the cable.

  ‘Can you two try to find Trent’s panic room?’ Jack asked them.

  ‘No problem,’ Slink said. ‘Why?’

  ‘I don’t want any nasty surprises,’ Jack said. ‘When you find it, stand guard. Charlie and I will come looking for you once we’re done here. Oh, and just stick close together, all right?’

  Slink and Wren both nodded and strode from the room, through the other door and down the hallway.

  Charlie took the end of the network cable from Jack and plugged it into the back of Trent’s computer.

  A few clicks later, Jack had a clean internet connection and was navigating to the Cerberus forum.

  As he’d hoped, Trent had a moderator’s login page, with his username already filled in – TYPHON. The only problem was, the password box was blank.

  Charlie leant against the chair and sighed. ‘Any ideas?’

  Jack stared at the password box. ‘No,’ he muttered. ‘Trent’s using a customised operating system though.’

  ‘Which means what exactly?’

  ‘Which means,’ Jack said, thinking it through, ‘he has all sorts of proxies, firewalls and security programs in place to protect himself from external hackers, but hardly anything local.’

  Charlie frowned. ‘So is the password going to be a problem or not?’

  Jack minimised the Cerberus login screen and scanned through all of Trent’s installed programs. After a minute, he couldn’t help but smile.

  ‘Bingo,’ Jack said. ‘Trent has a program called Sitar.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Charlie asked.

  ‘A password hacker.’

  Charlie laughed. ‘Seriously?’ she said. ‘You’re going to use his own program against him?’

  ‘Yep.’ Jack brought up the Cerberus forum moderator page again and set the password hacker going.

  He sat back. ‘This might take a while.’

  ‘How long?’ Charlie asked, glancing around.

  Jack watched the letters and numbers scrolling down the screen. ‘Not sure.’ He turned to her. ‘Wanna go check out the rest of this place?’

  ‘Nah, not really.’ She looked exhausted.

  Jack forced a smile. ‘Come on. Let’s see if Slink and Wren have found where Trent’s hiding.’

  Jack slipped off the chair and walked from the room with Charlie.

  Halfway down the hall, Jack stopped.

  Charlie turned back. ‘What’s wrong?’

  Jack looked left and right slowly. He had a strange feeling he was being watched.

  ‘Jack?’ Charlie whispered, stepping back to him. ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s too easy,’ Jack breathed.

  Charlie blinked. ‘What do you mean?’

  Jack moved close to her and leant into her ear. ‘This is the guy that runs Cerberus, right?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘The most secure website in the world,’ Jack continued. ‘And we just waltz right in here and start hacking his computer.’

  Charlie stared at him. ‘Oh no.’

  Jack straightened up. ‘If he let us in –’

  ‘He’s not gonna let us out,’ Charlie finished.

  ‘Let’s find the others.’ Jack hurried down the hallway. ‘Quickly.’

  The next door stood open and they peered around the corner.

  A large dining table stood in the centre of the room with twelve high-backed chairs.

  On the opposite wall was a marble fireplace with a portrait of a man in a suit above it. Jack assumed the man was Trent – he had blond, side-parted hair, an oval face and dark brown eyes.

  Jack backed away and moved to the door at the end of the hallway. Beyond was a kitchen, modern and clean.

  Jack turned to his left, looked up a flight of stairs and glanced at Charlie. ‘Wait here.’

  ‘Not a chance,’ she said.

  ‘Please, Charlie,’ Jack said. ‘Keep an eye on Trent’s computer and let me know the moment the password is cracked. Let’s get what we need and get out of here as quickly as possible.’

  Charlie hesitated, then said, ‘Fine. But you be careful, OK?’

  Jack nodded, took a deep breath and crept up the stairs.

  On the landing, he was greeted with white walls, a few modern paintings and several more doors.

  The first one stood open, so Jack stepped inside.

  ‘Slink?’ he hissed. ‘Wren? Where are you?’

  No one answered.

  The room was lined with bookshelves and cabinets filled with DVDs and Blu-rays. Another entertainment library for Trent’s personal amusement. He obviously spent a lot of time at home.

  A shout made Jack jump and he spun around.

  ‘Wren?’ He ran across the landing, threw open another door and went inside.

  It was a bedroom with a four-poster bed and thick curtains c
overing the windows.

  Jack’s eyes darted around the room, but he couldn’t see Slink or Wren anywhere.

  There was a loud bang, and a few moments later Charlie came running up the stairs.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Jack asked her.

  ‘You remember that shutter you made come down over the doors at the Millbarn building?’ Charlie said, breathless. ‘Well, Trent has them too – over all the windows and doors. We’re trapped in here.’

  Jack groaned.

  ‘That’s not all,’ Charlie continued. ‘The password hacker stopped and the computer turned itself off.’

  ‘What?’ Jack said, aghast.

  That meant that Trent had seen what they were doing and shut it down remotely.

  ‘Jack,’ Wren shouted. ‘Charlie?’

  They sprinted down the hallway and stopped outside another door.

  Jack put a finger to his lips, slowly turned the handle and peered inside.

  This room was filled with old-fashioned arcade-game machines. All of them were on, and lights and screens flashed for attention.

  Wren was kneeling on the floor in front of a kung-fu arcade-game unit. She leant over a hole in the floor with a look of panic on her face.

  Jack and Charlie rushed over to her.

  ‘What happened?’ Charlie said, squatting down next to Wren and putting an arm around her shoulders.

  Wren pointed a shaking finger into the hole.

  With trepidation, Jack knelt and looked inside.

  Below, a smooth-sided shaft dropped several metres and ended in a metal box.

  Slink peered up at them with a sheepish expression.

  ‘Yeah, all right,’ he coughed. ‘No need to say it.’

  Jack’s eyes scanned the trapdoor and that was when he noticed the electronic lock. Trent must have activated it remotely when Slink was standing directly over it, which meant – Jack glanced around the room again – there were definitely cameras in here somewhere, and probably more trapdoors too.

  He straightened up. ‘Charlie, please rip the curtains down from the bedroom and bring them here. We’ll use them to haul Slink back up.’

  Suddenly, Wren gasped as the trapdoor sprang closed, sealing Slink inside. Trent must have been listening to their conversation with hidden microphones.

  ‘On second thoughts,’ Jack said, ‘no one move.’

  He scanned the room for a third time. If Trent had fitted a trapdoor in here, that meant he was protecting something.

  Jack closed his eyes a moment, remembering all the other rooms and the layout of the house. He imagined walking into the front room downstairs, then the dining room and kitchen. He recalled the size and the position of each, and then he worked his way up the stairs and through the movie library, the bedroom, and finally this home games arcade.

  Jack opened his eyes again.

  ‘The layout of the house,’ he whispered, ‘means that . . .’

  He leant forward, careful not to step on the trapdoor, grabbed each side of the kung-fu cabinet and shoved. It swung out of the way on a pivot, revealing a spiral staircase leading down.

  ‘No, Jack,’ Charlie hissed. ‘Don’t do it.’

  ‘I have to,’ Jack said. ‘You two stay here.’

  With his heart hammering in his chest, Jack crept down the stairs.

  When he reached the bottom, he was confronted with a narrow passageway with a steel door at the far end.

  To the right of the door was an electronic lock, and above it was the first security camera he’d seen so far. Jack stepped in front of it and waved.

  ‘I know you’re in there.’ He looked around to make sure there were no more booby traps, then faced the camera again. ‘Hector’s had London evacuated so he’s free to steal anything he likes.’ Jack coughed. ‘You have to let us log into your administrator account on Cerberus so we can find him. That’s why we’re here. Not for you. Just Hector. You have to help us.’

  A low voice came from a hidden speaker: ‘I saw you on the news. You’re killers.’

  ‘No, we’re not,’ Jack said. ‘We’re trying to stop all this.’

  ‘You’re infected,’ Trent snarled.

  Jack sighed. ‘Yeah, we are. And we’re also trying to get to Hector and find the antidote.’

  ‘There isn’t a cure.’

  ‘There is,’ Jack insisted. ‘And that’s why we’re here. You have to believe me. We’re trying to stop Hector and we need to get into the Cerberus logs.’

  There was a short pause, then Trent said, ‘I won’t let that happen. You will die here. You’re not going to run free and infect anyone else.’

  Jack stared up at the camera, thought about what Trent had just said and decided to try the truth.

  ‘No one else is going to die,’ Jack said. ‘We’re the only ones with the virus and it isn’t infectious.’

  This was met with silence.

  Jack pressed on. ‘Hector has tricked everyone. He’s used us. The virus was only infectious for a short time after I was exposed to it. Even our friends that we saw soon after haven’t got it.’

  Still Trent didn’t respond.

  ‘Have you spoken to Hector?’ Jack asked.

  ‘Who?’

  Jack was taken aback by this response. ‘Hector,’ he said. ‘You know, the guy that’s caused all this.’

  There was another pause, then Trent said, ‘I don’t know anyone called Hector.’

  ‘He’s a member of the Cerberus forum. Quentin Del Sarto?’

  ‘There are thousands of members of Cerberus,’ Trent snapped. ‘I can’t be expected to remember them all.’

  Jack stared back up at the camera. ‘You say you know who I am, yeah?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘But you only know the propaganda,’ Jack said, still thinking it through carefully. ‘The lies that Hector gave to the government and the news channels.’

  There was no response to this.

  Jack took a deep breath. ‘Look, there’s a guy called Hector who tricked us. It’s true – we are infected with a virus – but it’s because of him. We’re just trying to find Hector, get the antidote, cure ourselves and prove he’s lying. That’s all. Why else do you think we’d be here?’

  Trent still didn’t respond.

  ‘Please,’ Jack said. ‘If you don’t believe me, look at our Cerberus account – it’ll show you some of the missions we’ve done and prove we’re not the bad guys here.’ Jack leant against the wall as a wave of dizziness washed over him and he wiped sweat from his brow. ‘Just look, I’m begging you. Will you at least do that?’

  He waited a full thirty seconds, but Trent didn’t respond.

  It’s no use, Jack thought. We’re trapped.

  He looked up at the camera one last time, then sighed, turned away and ascended the spiral staircase.

  As he stepped back into the room, Charlie and Wren were waiting for him, looking expectant.

  Jack shook his head. ‘Sorry.’

  He was about to leave the room to look for something to break open the trapdoor with, when Wren gasped.

  Jack looked down in shock to see the trapdoor open and Slink emerge, lifted by the floor rising from below.

  Slink stepped from the hole and dusted himself off. ‘Thanks, Jack.’

  Jack stared at him. ‘I didn’t do anything.’ He hesitated a moment, glanced around the room, then strode to the door before Trent changed his mind. ‘Come on, guys.’

  They hurried down the stairs and into the main front room.

  ‘What happened?’ Charlie said, looking between Jack and the computer that was now turned back on.

  An administrator page for the Cerberus forum was open and a cursor navigated through several files. A page appeared.

  Jack leant in towards the screen. ‘It’s the server’s connection logs.’ He watched as Trent scrolled down the page and highlighted Hector’s IP address. ‘Yes,’ he said, unable to contain his excitement.

  Charlie pulled the phone Noble had given them f
rom her pocket and handed it to Jack.

  He quickly brought up the internet and traced the IP address.

  A map of London appeared and the image zoomed in on the IP’s location.

  ‘That can’t be right,’ Charlie said, looking over his shoulder at the display.

  ‘It has to be,’ Jack muttered. He held the phone up so Slink and Wren could see.

  ‘Wait,’ Wren said. ‘You’re saying that’s where Hector’s hiding?’

  ‘Makes sense to me,’ Slink said, leaning against the chair’s frame. ‘Kinda obvious now, really, isn’t it? Come to think of it, we should have checked there first.’

  Jack chuckled and nodded. Slink was right – because, now they knew, it was obvious that Hector and his father would choose such a place as their hideout.

  Where was the finest accommodation in the whole of London? And where was the best security? Not to mention the fact that even if the army knew where the Del Sartos were, there was absolutely no way they’d bomb the place.

  Yep, Jack thought. It’s obvious.

  ‘OK,’ he said, standing. ‘Now we know, let’s get out of here.’

  As they walked across the room, the steel shutter lifted from the door and Charlie, Slink and Wren left the house.

  Jack turned back a moment and glanced around. ‘Thank you,’ he said sincerely.

  Now they had real hope of getting to Hector and the antidote.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Jack, Charlie, Slink and Wren walked down the road, away from Trent Myer’s house.

  Obi joined them. ‘Did you find out Hector’s location?’ he asked in a hoarse voice.

  ‘Yep,’ Slink replied. ‘Buckingham Palace.’

  Obi snorted. ‘No, really, where is he?’

  ‘That’s where he really is,’ Jack said. He looked at Charlie as they rounded a corner and continued walking. ‘So, let me think this through a minute. We need blueprints of Buckingham Palace, which we don’t have, and we need gadgets to break in, which we don’t have either.’

  Charlie pulled her jacket collar up and shivered. ‘Yeah, that’s about the size of it.’

  ‘OK,’ Jack said. ‘I can’t do anything about the plans, but I have an idea where we can find a ton of supplies for you to build some awesome gadgets.’ He forced a grin at her.

  Charlie’s eyebrows lifted. ‘Oh yeah? Where’s that then? We’re not gonna break into an electrical shop, are we?’