Vortex

Chapter Fourteen

Air Commodore James Macpherson walked briskly down London's Horseferry Road and abruptly turned the corner into Marsham Street. It was dark now, and he was silently cursing to himself. He should have been on the motorway by this time, driving back up to Macclesfield for twenty-four hours' well-deserved leave. He had been looking forward to seeing his wife for ages, and it was just a shame Annie was away for a couple of days with her cousin. He smiled briefly to himself. Little Annie had grown up so fast — who'd have thought that she was old enough now to take a holiday on her own. At least she was just bird-watching — something nice and sedate, something safe, not like the kind of things some teenagers got up to nowadays.

Anyway, if he could get this meeting over and done with, maybe it wasn't too late to make a move. He looked up ahead of him and saw the modern black and white building of the Home Office looming up ahead. It didn't fill him with much hope for an early getaway — meetings at the Home Office were seldom speedy.

Minutes later he was being ushered to a far corner of the building, where a prim secretary asked him to wait in the comfortable ante-room to the office of the man he was coming to see. His name was Richardson. He had the bearing of a military man, but Macpherson did not know where or with whom he had served; that sort of information was classified. All he knew was that what Richardson didn't know about security matters you could write on the back of a postage stamp, and although he was irritated at the prospect of having to meet him, he was intrigued as well.

It was difficult for Macpherson to sit with his characteristically straight back in the comfortable leather chair he had been given, and he was glad when Richardson's door clicked open and the man himself beckoned him in with a wordless nod.

'Air Commodore,' Richardson greeted him curtly once they were both inside.

'It's nice to see you again,' Macpherson replied blandly.

'Have a seat. There's something I'd like you to take a look at.' Macpherson sat opposite Richardson's large oak desk and was handed two pieces of paper. He studied them closely.

One of them contained a short paragraph of text in a language he didn't understand — Chinese, maybe, he thought to himself. He flicked to the second sheet, which was in English, presumably a translation.

I have to write quickly, because they will find me soon. A weapon codenamed Vortex is being developed in the UK. It has been commissioned by a Russian oligarch and bought for a great price by the government of my country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Strikes are planned against London, Los Angeles, New York and Madrid, and the weapons detection systems of none of these countries will be sufficient to counteract it. All I know is that the weapon is being developed covertly at a UK air force base without the knowledge of the authorities, and that its delivery is imminent. This must not happen. I cannot write more. They are coming for me. It is in your hands now.

The air commodore read it through several times, then looked up enquiringly at Richardson.

'North Korean origin,' the Home Office man said shortly. 'It came through earlier today.'

'Authentic?'

'That's what we're trying to determine. There's been a certain amount of intelligence chatter — satellite intercepts and the like — about the word "vortex", which is why this was brought to my attention so quickly. But a lot of things don't make sense.'

'Such as?'

Richardson stood up. 'You are aware that this discussion falls under the constraints of the Official Secrets Act?'

'Of course.'

'Good. All right then. Only a small percentage of North Koreans have access to the Internet. Those who do are closely monitored. It is unlikely that anyone would be able to get a message like this through to the Ministry of Defence servers unless they were extremely technically adept.'

'You're saying it's a hoax?'

'I'm not saying anything yet. It certainly came from North Korea; but we know for sure that there are certain factions in their government who do not like the recent nuclear step-down that the Koreans are hinting at. This looks to me like a fairly standard piece of misinformation.'

'By some kind of breakaway group that wants to see North Korea as a major nuclear power?'

'Exactly.'

Macpherson looked back at the message. From his limited experience, he certainly couldn't say that it resembled the usual scraps of intelligence that came the way of the security services. Richardson was right: it was too obvious, as though someone were trying to fool them. He put the pieces of paper back down on Richardson's desk. 'I'm sure there's a reason you wanted to see me in particular about this.'

'Indeed,' Richardson replied. 'I want to know your opinion about the suggestion that this so-called weapon is being covertly developed at an RAF base.'

Macpherson thought carefully before answering. He considered the implications of what was being said: that at an RAF base somewhere in Britain, a high-level, top-secret weapon was being developed without the knowledge or authority of those in command; that there was some kind of renegade, covert operation in place. There were plenty of military research projects going on, of that there was no doubt. But they were controlled, overseen and documented. The idea that something of this magnitude could be going on without people like himself being in the know was, well, unthinkable.

He cleared his voice before he spoke. 'If you're asking my professional opinion,' he said clearly, 'I'd have to tell you that I think the idea is preposterous.'

Richardson nodded with satisfaction. 'Thank you, Air Commodore. I appreciate your frankness. I see no reason to suggest to the Home Secretary that we up the state of alert unless we receive any further evidence to corroborate what is being suggested here.'

'You'll let me know before that happens?' the air commodore asked.

'Of course,' Richardson replied. He stood up and offered Macpherson his hand, which was duly shaken. 'Thanks for your time. Family OK?'

'Fine, thank you,' Macpherson replied with a gentle smile.

'That daughter of yours, er…'

'Annie.'

'Of course, she must be, what…'

'Thirteen.'

'She's well?'

'Very well, thank you. Looking forward to joining the RAF herself one day. Now if you'll excuse me…'

'Of course,' Richardson said. 'Thanks again.'

Macpherson turned, walked out of the room, and left the building as quickly as possible. He couldn't wait to get home.

Ben and Annie stared at the old man in horror. His words seemed to echo round the concrete cell.

I escaped.

'I know what you're thinking,' Joseph said, his voice unnaturally calm and level. 'You're thinking, how did we end up locked in a room with a paranoid psychotic who's just escaped from a mental institution?'

Ben bit his lip. 'No offence or anything, Joseph,' he said in a slightly strangled voice, 'but I was sort of thinking that, yes.'

'Of course you were,' the old man replied. 'You're a bright lad. But you don't need to worry, not about me — at least, not at the moment.'

Ben's eyes flicked towards Annie and then back to the old man. 'What do you mean, not at the moment?' he asked.

'Psychotic episodes,' Joseph replied distractedly. 'They come and go. At the moment, my mind is clear.'

One of Ben's eyebrows shot up. 'At the moment? What's that supposed to mean?'

'I hear voices,' he said. 'Not all the time, but more and more of late. Sometimes a shock — much like the one I have just experienced — will force them to recede. But without my medication, I know they will return. They tell me to do things, and sometimes I cannot distinguish between what is real and what is not.'

The old man's startling honesty silenced Ben.

'If I were you, however,' Joseph continued, 'I would not concern yourself unduly with my state of mind. I would ask yourself a different question. Like, why have we just been blindfolded, handcuffed and locked up.'

'Because we were following you,' Annie said hotly.

'Indeed. You followed me into Spadeadam, which was the one thing I advised you not to do. Tell me, young lady, how old are you?'

'Thirteen,' Annie replied bullishly.

'And you, Ben?'

'Thirteen too.'

'I see,' Joseph continued. 'I myself am in my seventies. You'll understand, I hope, that I seem to have lost track of my precise age. I stopped celebrating birthdays a long time ago.'

'What's your point, Joseph?' Ben asked. He was beginning to get a bit tired of the old man's constantly cryptic comments — it was like being stuck in a cell with a teacher who knew the answer but refused to give it to them.

'Two young teenagers and a seventy-something,' Joseph answered. 'Not a huge threat to a troop of RAF soldiers, I'd have thought. Do you think the way we've been treated over the past couple of hours is how ordinary members of the RAF would be likely to treat us.'

'No,' Annie said immediately. 'They're well out of order, and when I tell—'

'Forgive me, my dear,' Joseph interrupted, 'but unless I'm very mistaken, you won't be telling anyone about what's happened. Not, at least, until it's too late.'

'You know what's going on, don't you, Joseph?' Ben asked suspiciously.

'Not really,' the old man replied. 'But I can make a few intelligent guesses.'

'Like what?'

Slowly, like an old deer rising precariously to his feet, Joseph stood up. The cut on his face looked swollen and sore. He wandered towards the metal doors of the cell and started absent-mindedly fiddling with the steel plate on the wall. 'Does it not strike you as odd,' he asked in that infuriatingly measured way, 'that my brother should still be here, in the same place where he was fifty years ago?'

Annie and Ben looked at each other and shrugged. 'I suppose,' Annie replied.

'So we must ask ourselves why that is.' Joseph continued to scratch at the metal plate with his fingernail. 'I think we can safely say that it is not on account of his love of rare birds, can we not?'

The three of them stood in silence for a moment. His brow furrowed, Ben tried to work out what Joseph's mind was edging towards. 'You said you and your brother were physicists,' he ventured after a while.

'Good,' murmured Joseph, once more giving Ben the feeling he was some kind of apprentice to this strange old man.

Ben turned to Annie. 'Electronic warfare. Isn't that what you said they got up to at this place?'

Annie nodded mutely.

'Well that's it, isn't it? He stayed at Spadeadam because it gave him the opportunity to be around the field of study that interested him so much.'

Joseph continued to pick at the metal plate. 'I think you're right, Ben. But there's more to it than that.'

'Like what?'

The old man turned round sharply, and then waved his arms around him. 'All this,' he said.

'A cell?' Annie asked.

'Not just the cell. The entire underground bunker. You see, Lucian was here fifty years ago. He knew about these bunkers when they were built for their' — his lip curled into an expression of distaste — 'scientific research projects. I feel confident that the existence of the place where we are now is not common knowledge, and the opportunity to be able to continue his research in secret would be extremely attractive to my brother.'

As Joseph spoke, Ben found himself barely believing what the old man was suggesting. But then he remembered something — something he had read on the Internet back at the youth hostel. Hadn't he learned that excavations for a secret underground missile silo had been found at Spadeadam only a few years ago? There had been no plans or documents on record — officially the silo didn't even exist.

'Are you trying to tell me,' he asked slowly, 'that your brother has renegade RAF soldiers under his control, and that he's keeping us prisoner in an underground bunker which nobody knows exists while he continues his scientific research?'

'And he thinks we know what he's up to?' Annie added. 'This Vortex thing, whatever it is, he thinks we know what it is and that we're here to stop him?'

'But what is Vortex?' Ben asked in frustration.

'I don't know,' Joseph replied quietly. 'But I think we ought to find out, don't you?'

He looked piercingly at Ben, then Annie, then back to Ben again. As he did so, Ben struggled hard to decide what was the right thing to do. This man had just told him he heard voices that didn't exist. Should he believe him? Should he be talked into some fool's errand, to try and outwit these men who, if Joseph was right, were ruthless and dangerous? He stared hard at the old man, trying to find the madness in his eyes that had been so evident when they had been bombarded on the practice range.

Joseph stared back. His eyes seemed bright. Vivid. Determined. But they did not seem mad. Not at that moment, at least.

Ben took a deep breath. 'What are we going to do?' he asked.

A look of relief fell over Joseph's face. 'Thank you, Ben,' he said quietly. Then he turned to Annie. 'Are we all agreed that we need to try and get out of here?'

'Of course,' Annie replied. 'But how?'

Joseph turned back towards the metal plate on the wall. 'Do either of you have a key, or a coin — something to give us a bit of leverage?'

Ben grinned. 'I've got something even better than that,' he said with a certain amount of satisfaction. He reached down into his sock and pulled out his penknife. 'They took everything else, but they didn't take this. The pliers are a bit broken,' he apologized, 'but there's a good blade on it.'

Joseph took the penknife and unfolded the largest blade. He nodded with satisfaction, then turned back to the metal plate and forced the knife into the groove surrounding it. For a minute or two he worked away at the plate, while Ben and Annie stood there, holding their breath and listening to the scraping sound of the knife worrying against the metal echo around the cell. Just as Ben thought that the old man was not going to be successful, he saw him lever the plate away from the wall, to reveal a mass of wires behind.

'I thought so,' he muttered to himself as Ben and Annie drew closer.

'What is it?' Annie whispered.

'The wiring for the electric door,' Joseph stated. He peered at the tangle of colour-coded wires.

'Can you rewire it?' Ben asked tensely.

'Patience, Ben,' Joseph instructed, and continued to examine the wiring.

Ben and Annie waited in silence, a sudden nervousness having descended upon the room.

Finally Joseph spoke. 'I think it should be straightforward to open the doors,' he said confidently.

Ben licked his lips, which had become suddenly dry. 'OK,' he said, feeling as if he was improvising on the spot. 'Will you be able to close them again?'

'Yes,' Joseph replied. 'I think so.'

'Good. There might be a guard out there. He won't be expecting the doors to open, so when they do we'll have the element of surprise. Joseph, you'll be busy with the wiring, so it's going to be up to me and Annie to charge him. We'll need to get him back into the cell and close the doors before he can raise the alarm.'

'We're not going to have much time,' Annie said. 'Remember, these guys are armed.'

'I know,' Ben said solemnly. 'We have to move quickly.' He looked at Annie and Joseph in turn. 'Are you ready?' he asked.

Annie nodded.

'Joseph?'

'Wait,' he said. 'When I close the doors, I'll still be inside here. I'll do my best to jump out in time, but if I don't manage it, you two will have to go it alone.'

A chill crept over Ben's skin. 'If there's a guard outside, you can't risk being stuck in here with him. If nothing else, he'll force you to open the doors again.'

Joseph shook his head. 'He can force me all he likes. If I rip the wiring out, the mechanism will be destroyed anyway. They'll have to yank the doors open from outside to get to us.' He gave a sardonic smile. 'And besides,' he said, 'I'm quite used to being locked up in cells. I'll almost be glad of the company.'

Ben breathed out heavily and shut his eyes. 'All right,' he said finally. 'But try and get out, OK.'

'Of course,' Joseph replied calmly.

'After three, then. One, two, three — go!'

As Ben spoke the word, Joseph pulled out two wires and touched them together. There was a spark at his fingertips, and the metal doors hissed slowly open. As Ben had predicted, they revealed a guard in RAF fatigues. He had clearly had his back to the door, but had reacted to the noise and turned round. Ben registered two things: the surprise on his face, and the fact that this was one of the same soldiers who had picked them up. 'Now!' he shouted to Annie, and the two of them lunged forward, pushing him heavily against the far wall. The soldier grunted as Annie placed a well-aimed blow in his stomach; winded, he bent double and Ben pulled his firearm from the holster by his side. He pressed the barrel of the gun against the soldier's back and pushed him forward. 'Get in the cell,' he instructed.

Still gasping for air, the soldier did as he was told, stumbling heavily through the open doors.

'Sit down in the corner and put your hands on your head,' Ben said, then he watched with satisfaction as the soldier followed his instructions to the letter. He looked over at Joseph. 'OK,' he said. 'Shut the doors.'

Joseph nodded, and as Ben stepped backwards out into the corridor he flicked two more wires together. The doors started to shut. 'Get out, Joseph!' Annie urged as the old man hurled himself towards them. There was an awful grinding as the heavy doors closed against the old man's body, but at the last moment he managed to slip through, Annie pulling at him with all her might. The doors closed firmly shut, leaving the soldier locked up inside.

'Will he be able to open the doors using the wires?' Ben asked tersely.

'Not probable,' he said. 'But just to be sure—' He looked meaningfully at the gun Ben held in his hand, and then at the keypad to the left of the doors. Ben understood what he meant. He flicked the small safety catch on the handgun, then aimed it at the keypad.

Bang!

The keypad exploded as the bullet hit it. The sound of the gun, however, seemed to reverberate along the corridor with a deafening echo. The trio looked at each other nervously. 'We'd better hope nobody heard that,' Annie muttered.

Ben nodded, not wanting to think of what would happen if their captors ran in this direction to find out what had happened. He looked down the corridor to his right. 'I think we came this way,' he said. 'Are we all agreed?'

Joseph and Annie nodded.

'Come on, then,' he instructed and, grasping his gun tightly, Ben led the way.

They walked briskly but quietly, desperately trying to remember the way back to the room in which Lucian had interrogated them. Each time they came to a corner, they flattened themselves against the wall while Ben peered round, gun at the ready, to check it was safe. Now and then, they would pass a door. When that happened, Ben would press his ear against it to see if there was any sound of voices; when he was sure it was silent, he would open the door, gun firmly at the ready, and check out what was inside.

Most of the rooms were empty. Others, however, clearly acted as store cupboards. There were shelves full of electronic equipment that meant nothing to Ben, as well as scientific implements, wires, batteries and even, in one room, boxes of plastic explosive. But there was no sign of any people. After several minutes of searching, it became clear that the dimly lit, maze-like concrete corridors of this underground warren were practically deserted; it also became clear that they were lost.

'How on earth are we supposed to find our way out of here?' Annie burst out suddenly.

Ben turned to see tears in her eyes. He gave Joseph a long look. 'I don't know,' he said quietly. 'I guess we just have to keep trying—'

He cut himself short. From somewhere — he wasn't sure where — he heard the sound of footsteps. The trio threw each other anxious glances, then pressed themselves hard against the wall. The footsteps grew louder, and they seemed to be coming along a corridor that ran at right angles to the one in which they stood. Ben gestured at the other two to run back out of sight, and the three of them scuttled down the corridor as quietly as they could, turning a corner just in time — Ben peered back to see two men continuing on their way. Although he was watching from a distance, he was sure that one of them was Flight Lieutenant Johnson.

As soon as they were out of sight, the trio followed. When they got to the end of the corridor, Ben peered round again in time to see them knock on a door, wait, and then walk inside.

'What should we do?' Annie whispered hoarsely.

'That was Johnson,' Ben replied. He turned to Joseph. 'I think we need to hear what they're saying, don't you?'

Joseph nodded and, feeling his blood beating through his veins, Ben led them towards the door.

It was dark at that end of the corridor, but Ben was glad of the darkness as they took up positions outside the partially open door and strained their ears to hear what was going on inside. A voice was speaking: Ben instantly recognized it as being Lucian's.

'There was really no need for you to come,' he said tersely. 'Everything is under control, and your presence here is a risk.'

A man with a thick Russian accent answered. 'My employer believes it is a risk worth taking,' he said darkly. 'If you are not satisfied with my presence, I suggest you consult with him.'

'No,' Lucian replied after a moment's thought. 'That won't be necessary.'

'Good,' the Russian replied emphatically.

A brief silence.

'I must say,' Lucian observed, 'that I'm surprised the North Koreans have bought it. I'd have thought the Iranians would have been drooling at the mouth.'

'You need not concern yourself with that,' the Russian replied insultingly. 'You and your men have been well paid to develop the project. My advice to you would be to concentrate on getting out of the country as soon as you can after Vortex is delivered.'

'Ah,' Lucian replied lightly, 'I'm glad you mentioned that. You have our fake passports?'

'They are all prepared. I will deliver them to you when the time is right, along with your money. In the meantime, you will explain to me how this device works.'

There was a brief pause, and then Ben heard a low chuckle coming from Lucian. 'I see,' he said softly. 'Your beloved employer trusts you so much, he hasn't even told you what Vortex does.'

The Russian did not respond.

'Don't worry,' Lucian replied. 'Vortex is my baby. All proud parents like to show off their children, don't they?'

Ben strained his ears even more. He did not want to miss a single bit of the explanation that followed.

Lucian cleared his throat, as though he was about to address a public meeting. 'Any electronic device that works wirelessly — mobile phones, radio, wireless Internet connections — uses electromagnetic signals. Vortex is designed to interfere with these signals. The user simply decides which portion of the electromagnetic spectrum is to be scrambled, and the area over which the effect is to take place, up to a maximum radius of fifteen miles.'

'It sounds very simple,' the Russian replied.

'So do most things, to the unscientific mind, my friend. In reality, of course, I have been working on this for more than five years. It is the only weapon of its kind in the world.'

As Lucian spoke, Ben became aware of Joseph. His face was red, and he had started muttering under his breath. 'Idiots!' he spat. 'Don't they realize what they could do? Idiots!'

'Be quiet, Joseph,' Ben whispered, but it was no good. The old man continued to curse and splutter.

'They're going to hear him, Ben,' Annie urged.

'I know,' Ben replied. 'Come on, let's get back round the corner.' Each of them grabbed one of Joseph's arms and pulled him back down the corridor and out of sight.

Joseph was still cursing. 'Those fools,' he raged. 'Don't they understand the implications? It all makes sense now. Lucian must have been working here helping the military with their electronic warfare tactics. But all the while, he's been secretly developing the technology for his own kind of war.'

'Er, Joseph,' Ben ventured. 'To be honest, it sounded to me like they're planning to switch off everyone's mobile phones. I've got to tell you that it really doesn't sound all that bad to me.'

Joseph took a deep breath, turned and stared directly at Ben. His face was alarming: sharp and serious, and it made Ben regret his brief moment of sarcasm.

'It may not sound that bad to you, young man, but let me be quite clear: disabling the electromagnetic spectrum over that kind of range would be disastrous. It won't just be teenagers chatting on their telephones who will be affected.'

'Why?' Ben asked. 'What would happen?'

'You would probably know better than me, young man. Fifty years ago this technology was in its infancy; now it's commonplace, but I have only been able to read about it in scientific journals, and watch its effects on the television. You may not be able to see the electromagnetic spectrum, Ben, but you use it every day when you switch on the TV or listen to the radio. But that's not what an electromagnetic scrambler would target.'

'What, then?'

Joseph's face hardened. 'Think of sick people,' he said. 'Sick children. Patients who need X-rays and radiotherapy. Children with cancer. Activate Vortex, and all the technology which allows them to be treated would be rendered instantly useless. No TV to disseminate important news. No traffic lights on the streets. No Internet. One of these devices in every city would lead to an epidemic of suffering like we have not known for hundreds of years.'

Ben and Annie stared at him in shock.

'That's not all,' Joseph continued. 'The moment you switch such a device on, aircraft would not be able to communicate with air traffic control, or each other; their navigation systems would be rendered useless; they would crash and burn. Hundreds of people could die. Maybe thousands. The emergency services would be completely ineffectual, unable to help anybody in the wake of such a disaster because they would not be able to communicate with each other. Whole cities could be plunged into chaos. It would be an unspeakable disaster; it would be a…' He seemed to struggle to find the words.

'It would be a Code Red situation,' Ben murmured to himself.

'As if that were not bad enough,' Joseph continued relentlessly, clearly not having heard what Ben had said, 'imagine the effect it could have on our defence systems. Position several of these devices correctly, and all our satellite warning systems would be instantly disabled: we would have no idea that we were under attack, and we would be in no position to order a counter attack. If somebody were to scramble the electromagnetic field correctly as a prelude to a nuclear attack, they could obliterate their enemy without any fear that their missiles could be destroyed. Believe you me, Ben Tracey, if that device works and falls into the wrong hands, it could spell disaster for millions of people across the world.'

A heavy silence fell as the impact of Joseph's words sank in.

Ben turned to Annie. 'I came away for a quiet weekend of bird-watching,' he said almost accusingly. 'Instead, I find myself in the middle of another—' He looked down at the floor in disgust. 'I'm getting sick of this,' he muttered.

'Listen to me, you two,' Joseph was saying sharply. 'What my brother is doing cannot be allowed to happen.'

'But what can we do to stop it, Joseph?' Annie asked in desperation. 'You said it yourself — two teenagers and a seventy-something. What can we do?'

The question hung in the air as they stood there in that gloomy concrete corridor.

It was Joseph who spoke first. 'I have to do something,' he stated, almost matter-of-factly. 'Lucian is my brother, and I must take responsibility for his actions.'

And with that, before either of them could do anything about it, he strode round the corner and back down the corridor. Annie gasped and Ben watched, stunned, as he approached the partially open door. Joseph turned back to them, gave them a sad little smile of comradeship and then pushed the door wide open.

'This is not what science is for, Lucian,' he said in a clear, ringing voice. 'This is not what science is for, and it has to stop. Now.'