“Right Dan,” I say taking my ear away, "let’s get down to the armoury. We need to get fortified here as quickly as we can.”
“No arguments here, Boss.”
“Keep us posted, Steve.”
“Will do, Andy.”
The only way to get into the second basement and to the armoury is either by using the service lift or stairs, both at the far end of the building. We could get to them on this floor by going through the canteen and kitchen but that would mean seeing all the staff there who would slow us down with questions and suchlike. To avoid this, we go back down the stairs, giving Mike a nod on the way, and heading down the corridor just off reception. At the end of the long corridor are double security doors leading into the service area. Dan swipes his security card to give us access.
Inside is where deliveries are taken in and supplies are stored, mainly stationery but also other things like security gear, tools, cleaning stuff and some of the food for the kitchen. The room is quite big and has a fairly small, high-security roller shutter which actually opens onto the corner of the courtyard. It is not very visible from the outside and blends in with the concrete wall, so isn’t attracting much attention from the Rabids out there by the sounds of it.
Opposite to the roller shutter on the back wall of the building which runs parallel to the canal, is the fire escape. There is a walkway between the building and the canal leading to a fire point area by the canal’s walk bridge.
The service lift is situated on the same wall as the doors we’ve just come through. The room is triangular with various storage cupboards and racking.
Ian is seated at the dispatch desk, looking at his phone. He too gets up as we enter, comes around the front of the desk and then sits sideways on top of the desk.
“You alright down here, Ian?”
“All okay here, Andy not much happening; there is banging against the roller shutter sometimes but nothing major. How’s the situation looking outside, no better I expect?”
I tell Ian what we have just seen outside the window in the courtyard. He doesn’t look surprised and tells us that is more or less what he saw before coming down here. Ian’s reaction to what is unfolding seems slightly different from everyone else’s. I’ve noticed it even in the short time spent with him. He somehow seems unfazed by it all. Oddly so.
Ian lost his wife just over a year ago now, to cancer. They didn’t have any children, so maybe that has given him a different slant on all this shit for him. Whatever it is, he is very calm, just what is needed in this type of situation, so I make a decision.
“There doesn’t seem to be much of a threat of them breaching the doors in here, Ian. I think you would be more useful with us,” I tell him.
“I agree the threat here is low, a waste me being here. The doors will lock behind us on the way out and we can secure them further from outside, just in case.”
“Okay mate, you’re with us then. We need to go to the second basement first, to re-arm; there are some equipment holdalls on the racks over here."
Going over to the holdalls, we all grab two each, and Ian doesn’t ask any questions about going to the second basement, which tells me he too knows all about the armoury. It seems Sir Malcolm’s secret is not so secret after all. This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, as men like us make it our business to know about any possible tactical advantages, especially secret caches of weapons!
The service lift is waiting for us, and the door slides open as soon as Dan presses the button; I’m last in. Reaching into my front jeans pocket, I retrieve the key that came out of the safe in my office desk and insert it into an inconspicuous keyhole positioned under the lift's button panel. Upon turning the key a quarter turn clockwise, the lift doors close and the lift starts to descend, no buttons needing to be pressed.
In no time, we have passed the underground car park level and the lift then comes to a halt one floor below. I turn the key again clockwise another quarter turn, which opens the lift doors and locks them in the open position so the lift cannot move whilst we are down here.
In front of us and straight outside the lift is a small room, the lights for which flicker on as the lift doors open. There is nothing in the room; all the walls are painted plain white and on the right, a heavy wooden security door leads to the stairs…not that you would know the stairs come down to this level because of the blind door on the parking level floor, which has a hidden keyhole needing the same key I just used in the lift.
To the left is another door, the entry to the armoury. The door is stainless steel with a brushed finish; it is 100 millimetres thick and there’s no immediately obvious way to open it, no handle or keyhole.
Dan and Ian follow me into the small room and over to the armoury door. I reach around the right side of the doorframe and push a small hidden button nestled there. A panel in the middle of the door just below head height retracts, then lifts up to reveal a tablet-sized security screen which lights up as the panel disappears.
The screen is black, apart from six white boxes across the top and a numerical keypad below, requiring the caller to enter their passcode. I tap in each number of my passcode followed by enter.
The screen then changes to one big white box
