“The one other possibility I thought of,” DM suggested, keeping his voice low and much like KW had, glancing at the camera as he spoke. “Was to fake a serious injury or illness. A heart attack or something that would mean someone had to come down here. Then we could try and overpower the guards or steal a key or something.”
KW nodded along, though they had run through this idea before. It resulted in the same issue that the three of them – or five, if they managed to convince AC and FP to be involved – would struggle to overpower the heavily armed and lethally trained guards that ran the underground bunker.
She understood why DM was an advocate for this sort of plan, having spent his life on the outside orchestrating hacks which seemed to end up in physical altercations more often than not. He lived for the exhilaration of the fight and while he might have first entered the bunker as a well built and strong male specimen, months of being trapped underground with minimal rations and zero sunlight had wilted his frame and left him weak and fragile like the rest of them.
“I don’t think it’ll work,” KW replied eventually, shaking her head at DM and letting him down as easily as she knew how. FM put a hand on his arm in apology, the woman’s eyes meeting KW’s and nodding, letting her know that she agreed. It was sometimes odd to be trapped in the bunker with a married couple, but KW relished the reminder of normalcy that it demonstrated. The two hackers had never spent a day apart since they first met and it showed, communicating almost silently with one another and hence managing to share touching moments even when locked in a prison with three other people and countless others watching their every move.
“Sorry.”
DM nodded and shrank backwards slightly, accepting that his idea had been a little farfetched. “So the chutes,” he said instead, “how do you propose we get down them?”
“We need to widen them somehow,” KW replied rather obviously, saying something both DM and FM had been expecting. The words she spoke next however came as a bit of a surprise, both of them looking at her with raised eyebrows and shocked expressions.
“And I think I know how we can do it. I’ve been tinkering with some of the computer wiring in my spare time,” KW continued, “and I think I can fashion an explosive. If I can find a way to fuse the wires together and something to use as a spark, then I think we might be able to blow our way out of here. I think we might actually be able to escape.”
Chapter 11
Austin and Samuel were half way through a meal of cold canned stew and mushy peas when they both froze, hearing the unmistakable sound of someone putting a key in a door and unlocking it. Their eyes moved to the apartment door and watched as the handle started to turn. They’d been inside for a little under an hour and hadn’t heard anyone else in the building. There was no question about what was happening now, though. Their dinner was about to be interrupted.
Austin knew they couldn’t take any chances and put down the can in his hand, picking up the Glock 19 they had taken from the police officer in the sporting goods store. He had little experience with guns, having never owned one himself and only fired one on a handful of occasions. But despite all of that, he felt like he was the better choice to be responsible for it out of the two of them and so gripped it firmly in his hand, while keeping it hidden behind his back.
Both men remained silent as they heard the door unlock and then start to open inwards, whoever was behind it still hidden from sight. Their relief was palpable when an elderly woman shuffled into the room, holding a walking stick in one hand and entering the apartment slowly, posing no harm to either of them. The old woman didn’t notice them at first, putting her handbag down on a table and turning around to close and lock the door behind her. She then flicked on a light switch and let out a shrill scream as she noticed the two men sitting at her dining room table.
“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Samuel leapt to his feet immediately, holding his hands up in the air to show the woman he meant her no harm. “We’re not going to hurt you, I swear. I’m sorry – we thought this place was abandoned.”
It wasn’t the most lived in apartment either of the men had ever seen, still completely furnished, but with most things coated in a thin layer of dust like they hadn’t been touched in some time. They had both assumed whoever used to live there had left as soon as the Trident news had been announced, leaving their home to the city while they fled and tried to find somewhere safer.
Austin joined Samuel on his feet, quickly hiding the gun in the waistband of his pants. “Please, it’s okay. You don’t need to be scared.”
The woman looked at the two of them. She was clearly still frightened, pressing her back against the locked door.
“My name is Samuel, and this is Austin. We’re both from New York,” Samuel introduced them both quickly, hoping their names and some personal details would put the woman at ease. “And we both used to work at Trident.”
As soon as Samuel uttered his last word, Austin shot him a glare which said he shouldn’t have mentioned that. The woman seemed to quiver even more at the knowledge that they were both from Trident, the name of the former global banking corporation now taboo across
