Stopping World War Three Page 21

  ‘The weaponry research centre is guarded by a computer. It has to be fed a plastic card before the door will open. The door, by the way, is made of solid steel. Once the pass-card is used, it’s useless for at least twenty-four hours. They do that to ensure maximum security so that people can’t walk in and out at random.’

  ‘No sweat!’ he muttered stroking his beard.

  ‘Then we went down a corridor with a sloping floor until we came to a dead end, By the side of the wall was another computer terminal. It operated by means of handprints. The only ones it recognises are those of John Packman and his supervisor.’

  ‘Oh that’s bad news... bad news!’ added the computer genius.

  ‘I though the handprint would floor you,’ I responded.

  ‘No... it’s not the handprint,’ he uttered. ‘That’s easy enough. The bad news is the slopin’ floor and the dead end. I came across something like that once before. As soon as that door opens, the joint will be jumpin’. I’ve a suspicion it has a built-in electronic beam operatin’ from the base of the door into a sensitive eye fitted into the floor beneath it. When the door opens, the beam breaks and the alarm goes off. It’s a fail-safe method designed to beat burglars.’

  ‘Does this mean we can never get into the research room without triggering the alarm?’

  ‘By normal standards that’s right.’ He bent forward slighting, resting his face in his hands as he concentrated on the problem. I stood by idly looking around the room at the miscellany of electronic equipment scattered there. It took him about a minute to come to a conclusion. Then he released a long sigh and allowed his hands to fall to the table. ‘There might be a way, man. I don’t like it but if we could find an electric point in that corridor we may be able to pull it off. I don’t suppose you noticed if one was there.’

  I shook my head sadly. ‘No... I’m afraid I didn’t.’

  ‘Man!’ he shouted in frustration. ‘I’ve never known anyone to look over a place and not see anything! You really are somethin’. Do you know that?’

  ‘The laser gun’s located in the centre of the room.’

  He moved back away from the table and stared at me coldly. ‘Just hold on a minute before you get carried away. That laser gun’s connected to so many alarms that if you breath on it from ten yards away the whole country will know about it. You told me we only had to steal the plans from the computer system... not the gun itself!’

  ‘Yes... yes,’ I confirmed, ignoring his animated actions. ‘It’s only the plans we want. As soon as we take a copy off the printer we can...’

  ‘No... no!’ he interrupted sharply, throwing his hands in the air. ‘There you go again! We’re not taking any copies off printers! Every time you press a switch or a button in there you risk being detected. If we’re going to get those plans, we need a microfilm camera to photograph the designs and details on the computer screen. Let me guess, man... you don’t have a camera of that kind either!’

  ‘I haven’t,’ I admitted shamefully.

  ‘How could Penny team up with a rookie like you?’ he complained bitterly. ‘Okay... it’s no sweat! I’ve got a camera that can take microfilm. Is there anything else you wanna tell me? I don’t care whether you think it’s important or not. I’d rather know now than later. Do they have security guards patrolling the perimeter fence?’

  ‘I don’t think so.’

  ‘You don’t think so! Man... they could have your balls and you’d still be in dreamland! When you’re out on a survey mission you gotta find out all the details... the smaller the better. If you don’t, you’re runnin’ blind.’

  ‘My information is that they rely on an electronic alarm system at night. The only other thing I can think of are the boys in ‘Block B’.’

  He looked at me with a confused expression. ‘The boys in ‘Block B’? He was quite contemptuous. ‘Who the hell are they?’

  The security men who act as the television crew. They sit in front of television screens watching every part of the complex.’

  ‘I know what a television crew does ‘ he snapped irately. ‘Do you have a diagram of the camera locations throughout the building?’

  ‘As it happens I do,’ I replied, causing him to look rather relieved. ‘Penny managed to get it. Here it is!’

  He pored over the diagram for a long time and then released a painful sigh. ‘Okay,’ he said finally. ‘I’ll take this along with us. But first I need a whole range of equipment if we’re going to have any chance of getting those plans.’

  ‘How are you going to get the equipment over the electrified fence?’ I was thinking of large pieces of electronic ir onmongery.

  ‘Throw it over, of course. It won’t walk on its own! Make yourself a cup of coffee while I get to work. And while we’re on the subject, man, I don’t want you to move a muscle tonight without askin’ my permission first. Not a muscle... get it! That complex is alive with electronics. If you even sneeze you’ll bring the security guards down on your neck like a ton of bricks. You do nothing without my agreement and you go nowhere without me. Do I make myself clear?’

  ‘You’re the boss,’ I told him unconditionally. ‘You run the show. I won’t do anything without your agreement. You have my promise on it.’

  He left the room and went down to the garage to sort out the equipment. Once again I declined to make myself a cup of coffee and I sat back on the small chair closing my eyes. In normal times, Devon was a complete mess but when the chips were down he was a master in his field of operation. It was fifteen minutes before he returned to the room.

  ‘Okay, man,’ he said as he entered. ‘It’s all downstairs packed in four canvas bags... and there’s two trampolines.’ He looked at the main map and pointed to an area on it. ‘This is how I see it. We don’t go to the main gate. Our target is the place where the weapons are stored... the research area. That’s where the computer is... the one we want to break into. We park outside the perimeter fence here. If all goes well, we go over the top and walk about a hundred yards to the place. It makes sense to get in and out as quickly as we can,’ With that, he folded the map, put it in his pocket, and walked out.

  I followed him as he left and help him put the bags and the trampolines in the car. Then we drove off to the weaponry division. I directed Devon accordingly and we soon found ourselves far away from the main gate outside the electrified fence. He got out of the car and walked up and down a deserted road for three hundred yards before returning.

  ‘We’re at the back of the complex. There’s no cameras to identify cars along this road,’ he declared happily. ‘We can park here and no one will know anything about it.’

  We removed the bags and the trampolines from the boot of the car and set them down by the side of the road. Devon took care to place one of the trampolines a short distant away from the electrified fence and motioned me towards it.

  ‘How the hell am I going to clear this fence on this stupid thing!’ I remonstrated irately, feeling an element of fear running through me as I could see myself hanging on the top of the fence like a fried piece of toast. ‘I’ll never do it!’

  ‘Negative thoughts!’ he countered sharply. ‘You’ve gotta get rid of all negative thoughts! This trampoline’s designed for this purpose. It has an angle of forty-five degrees to give you short-distance momentum.

  I tried to stand on the contraption but it was too steep, causing me to fall forward. As I picked myself up, Devon clapped his hands together encouraging me to act more positively.

  ‘Come on, man!’ he called out in a low voice. We ‘aint got time to stand around! It’s all systems go! Get your act together and jump! You come in from behind with a run of about fifteen yards, but make sure your timing’s right. I don’t wanna have to scrape you off. Your feet’s gotta hit the trampoline together and at speed. It’s simple really... a child could do it. A run,
a jump and the whoom... you’re over! Don’t forget to lean your body forward when you jump. Not too far forward... just a little. If you do it right, you’ll shoot over the top like a missile.’

  There was nothing more I could do than to put my trust in his words. If I failed I would end up as a human barbecue with no more worries in this world. I paced back about fifteen yards and started my run. It was too late to stop now... it was all or nothing! My feet hit the trampoline together and I was catapulted over the fence, clearing it by at least a foot. However Devon hadn’t warned me about the landing. I hit the ground hard... very hard! Fortunately, I had the good sense to somersault forward which broke my fall. I could hardly believe that I was inside the complex. As I turned jubilantly towards the computer expert, a trampoline came flying over the fence to land beside me. This was followed by the four canvas bags with our equipment. Within seconds he was standing beside me opening up the bags so that we could proceed as planned. He put his hand into his pocket and drew out a pair of spectacles that looked familiarly like sun glasses. Then he put them on and peered in all directions

  ‘Stay exactly where you are!’ he ordered harshly, swivelling in a semi-circle on his haunches with an electronic detector in his hand. ‘I’m defining the location of the electronic beams scanning this area. If you’re worried about the glasses... don’t! They’re designed to help me see them.’ After a short pause, he stood up and started walking towards the target building. ‘Follow me!’ he commanded, ‘but take it slow in case they operate a revolving beam that sweeps in an arc. We don’t wanna get caught out by that old trick. We’ll take these two bags and leave the other two here. I’ll take this one, you take the other.’

  We approached the building slowly until he motioned me to stop with a wave of his hand. ‘Lucky we didn’t come in by the main gate. I detect about fifty beams over there.’ He stiffened as we moved forward a little distance. ‘Careful!’ he warned. ‘There are three steps in front leading to the pavement in the foreground of the building. The first is clear. The second is clear. The third has a beam across it. When you get to the second step, jump as high as you can to the pavement. Whatever you do, do not use the third step! I repeat... you must not use the third step! Is that clear?’

  I followed his instructions carefully and he moved ahead of me to place a plastic card into the slot of the computer terminal.

  ‘How can you be sure that’ll work?’ I whispered.

  ‘If you go to a hotel, the manager has a master key which can be used to open an door in the hotel. Let’s say this card’s a master key for computers. It has characteristics which asks what’s required from the computer and then establishes the information for itself. I think of it as an aunt saying to her young nephew: ‘I’ll give you a kiss if you give me a smile.’ He smiles and she kisses him. Easy!’

  At that moment, the steel door swung open and I was about to move forward when he placed a hand firmly on my shoulder. ‘No!’ he cautioned. ‘Not until I tell you!’ He waved the electronic device forwards and backwards in front of him before pointing to an imaginary line across the door about twelve inches high. ‘There’s a beam about a foot high from the floor. It stretches right across the doorway. You’ll have to step over it. Be very careful!’

  We entered the building and made our way cautiously down the sloping hallway. We had reached the halfway point when Devon warned me to duck below another beam located at waist-high level. As we approached the terminal required an authorised handprint, Devon removed the spectacles and delved into the bag he had been carrying.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ I asked in a hushed voice.

  ‘Whoever used this terminal last had to leave an imprint of his hand on the glass. Fingerprints. Thumbprints. Palmprints. The lot! My task is to take a copy of the handprint that’s already on the glass. Then it can be transferred to a plastic glove and re-used to open the door.’

  ‘Very clever!’ I commended.

  The big problem is that the door has probably a built-in sensor device at its base which continues into the floor below... like having a nail inside your shoe with the sharp end sticking out of the sole so that when you tread on a wooden floor it drives into it. As soon as I lay the handprint on the machine, the door will open cutting off the beam to the sensor device so that it sets off the alarm. I have to prevent that from happening.’

  ‘What do you intend to do?’ I asked. Intrigued to learn the solution.

  ‘Hold on!’ he muttered, stiffening like a cat with its back arched. ‘There’s a camera right above us facing the door. When it opens, even if the alarm doesn’t go off, the boys in ‘Block B’ will be able to see us. In your bag there are hoods designed to fit over the camera lens. Let me have the one marked ‘Hall’!’

  I fished into the bag under the guidance of his torch and found it. ‘My goodness!’ I whispered. ‘You think of everything, don’t you?’

  ‘Get down on all fours!’ he ordered I did so and he stepped on my back to reach the camera lens. Within a few seconds he had fitted the device to cover it. ‘It’s a special kind of lens cap,’ he explained, noticing the inquisitive look on my face. ‘Inside the cap is a photograph with its own reflected light of a corridor. The boys in ‘Block B’ are looking at that fixed picture on their screen. They can’t see us any more. Now... what we need to find is an electric socket!’ He flashed the torch up and down the walls to locate one opposite the handprint machine. ‘Super!’ he whispered. ‘I’m going to create a triangle rather than a direct beam,’ he went on, although I had no idea what he was talking about. He took a piece of glass, the shape of an ice-hockey puck, from his bag and placed it on one side of the corridor. ‘If I can attract the beam at the base of the door as well as the sensor in the floor below it into this glass puck, the beam will shoot from the door into this glass puck and bounce back to the sensor. In that way, the beam will remain unbroken when the door opens. The contact will be triangular rather than direct. The result should be that the alarm does not go off!’

  He removed a small machine from his bag and plugged it into the electric socket on the wall. After putting on the spectacles again, he began to dig into the floor carefully with a metal tool to expose the sensor located in the floor. Ten minutes passed by, after using another tool, before he heaved a sigh of relief and pressed a switch on the machine. Then he removed the spectacles, handing them to me so that I could witness the electronic triangle he had created. A beam fired into the glass puck was directed back into the sensor and returned to the alarm unit at the bottom of the door ensuring that the beam would remain unbroken.

  ‘That should do the trick,’ he said with some degree of satisfaction. He delved back into his bag to produce a machine which looked like a toaster with one side missing. He placed it on the glass screen of the security machine. After sixty seconds, he removed it and placed a plastic glove on the surface of the screen, rubbing his hands over it several times. Then he pushed his fingers into the glove until it fitted his hand perfectly and placed his palm on the glass. The triangle beam remained constant as the door opened.

  ‘Don’t go anywhere near that triangle!’ warned Devon, ‘and give me back those goggles!’ He put them on and looked around the research room. ‘Great!’ he exclaimed joyfully. ‘No beams across our path to the computer but dozens around the laser gun. We’ve got to kill two cameras. One’s near the computer in the clear region. That’s easy enough but I’ll have to duck and dive to get to the other one. Stay where you are while I do it!’

  He took too camera hoods from my bag and advanced swiftly to the wall behind the computer. Then he jumped on a chair and placed the hood neatly over the lens. For the other camera, he crept slowly along the wall, ducking under, or steeping over, scanner beams which obstructed his path. When he had completed the task, he made his way back to the computer terminal with great care, beckoning me inside and indicating that I should bring my bag
with me.

  ‘Don’t speak unless you have to,’ he whispered softly. ‘There may be audio alarms or the boys in ‘Block B’ may have audio access. You can never tell.’

  He sat calmly at the computer terminal as though he was in his tiny room in Leyton and switched it on, arriving at a point where it stated ‘Access Denied’. He reached into the bag and brought out another device which he connected to a socket on the computer.

  ‘What does that do?’ I asked almost under my breath.

  ‘When a peterman... a safe cracker... wants to open a safe, he uses a mechanism similar to this. It runs through the codes like lightning, finds the right numbers and opens the safe for him. It’s the same with this little wizard. The only reason it exists is to find a way through the computer maze when access is denied. The screen flashed at that moment to display the word ‘Passwords’.

  ‘I forgot to tell you,’ I said biting my tongue with shame. ‘There are two passwords... each one with five letters.’

  ‘Now he tells me!’ he muttered bitterly. ‘Get with it, man!’

  He glared at me for the late information and delved into the bag to bring out yet another application. He plugged it into another socket before setting it into motion. Suddenly two passwords appeared on the screen... JPACK and RNOON.

  ‘Wow,’ I sounded in awe. ‘You’re a genius!’

  ‘I already know that, man,’ he responded immodestly. ‘Do these words ring any bells?’

  ‘JPACK stands for John Packman... the Director of the weaponry division. I don’t know the other one.’

  ‘Then I reckon we’re on the right track,’ he returned, becoming absorbed in his task. He began to tap the keys at an incredibly fast rate. As an executive in the commercial computer division of Dandy Advanced Electronics I had seen many good computer programmers at work but I had never seen anyone capable of using the keys at such speed. ‘How old is this laser weapon?’ he asked without taking his eyes off the screen. 327