‘Sod off, Justin,’ she said, sheltering behind Helix as she pulled on a cream blouse.
Dressed in a silk robe, he stepped over to the wardrobe. ‘Did you find something to wear?’
‘Who ordered the window?’ Helix said.
Wheeler leaned around the wardrobe door, a striped shirt in his hand. ‘It ordered itself. Smart technology. Following your act of vandalism a replacement would have been ordered. It’ll only take about ten minutes to fit.’ He examined the shirt, shook his head and replaced it. ‘Perhaps not. Now let me—’
‘You’re not dressing to impress, Wheeler. You’re dead to the people in the capital. All you need to do is blend in with all the other sheep.’
Helix ducked his head. The drones were close, the small rotors audible over the heavy rain. Sofi slipped on a pair of black ballet flats, completing her outfit.
The drone’s lasers located and began cutting away the old frame and the shattered fragments of glass as they hovered around the aperture. The new window was eased into place, sealed and secured, shutting out the sound of the rain. Helix peered through it, watching as they collected the debris, loaded it into a sack and buzzed away into the rain-laden clouds. ‘OK. Change your clothes,’ he said.
Sofi’s scowled. ‘I’ve only just got dressed.’
‘It doesn’t matter. And you, Wheeler.’ He crossed to the wardrobe and pulled out a pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, pale blue shirt and black jacket. He laid them on the bed next to Sofi. ‘You can keep the smalls.’
She gave a derisory flick of her eyebrows. ‘Thanks.’
‘Is that really necessary, Major?’
‘Yes. Those things have cameras. Ormandy knows where we are. If they’ve been hijacked, anyone looking in now knows what we’re wearing. That will make us easier to track once we’re in the city. Changing might buy us a bit of time, but not much.’
‘A little paranoid, aren’t we?’ Wheeler huffed.
‘I’m not the one who keeps dirt on politicians written on paper.’
‘Touché, Major.’
‘Listen, Wheeler. This is not blokey banter between us. I’m only helping you to help us,’ Helix said, jabbing Wheeler in the chest with his prosthetic finger. ‘I’m not your buddy. I’m bad fucking news. I own you. Look at me.’ He gritted his teeth. ‘Now, shut your trap and get dressed.’
Helix opened the flap on his jacket sleeve. Responding to the tapped commands, the smart-fabric of his jacket and trousers rustled as it morphed into a three-quarter length hooded brown leather jacket over jeans with black leather boots. He pulled his Ray-Bans from his inside pocket and perched them on top of his head.
The new window framed the leaden sky that had all the appearance of the dusk that wasn’t due to fall for several more hours. The antique clock on the mantlepiece chimed the hour, it was 14:00. Gabrielle would be concluding the day’s lessons within the hour. The kids would go off to their evening chores. The adults would go about theirs. Then they would all come together in the dining hall, noisy, tired, happy and hungry. She would be amongst them, a spark in her eyes, her skin aglow.
Sofi whispered into his dream. ‘I’ve got transport organised. ETA seven minutes.’
He opened his eyes and she was there, looking up at him. He swallowed. ‘What have we got?’
‘Untagged AV from the maintenance pool at Filton.’
‘If it’s untagged, how does it know where it’s going?’
‘I’m driving. Software me, not Gabrielle me.’
‘I’d assumed that. OK. Let’s go.’ He should have realised. Ethan had conjured vehicles seemingly out of thin air on many occasions without anyone noticing. Why should she have been any different? ‘Once we’re in town, try to avoid any eye contact,’ he said, turning from the window. ‘Don’t interact with anything or anyone. Ormandy will have surveillance hooked up to everything that uses biometrics or facial recognition. She’s given orders not to approach but it doesn’t mean she’s not watching.’
‘But how will we get onto the hyperlink?’ Wheeler said, taking a grey fedora from the top shelf of his wardrobe. ‘If we can’t scan in.’
Helix pulled on his gloves. ‘I’ll scan us through,’ he said, touching each of the tips of the fingers on his right hand against his thumb. ‘Borrowed identities.’
Wheeler raised his eyebrows. ‘And retina scans?’
‘Who do you want to be?’ Helix mimicked Wheeler’s wink. He had as many retina options as fingerprints. ‘Listen, Wheeler. This isn’t exactly my first rodeo.’ He zipped up his coat. ‘And I don’t have time for your questions. Just do as I tell you and try not to lose your head.’
Wheeler rubbed at his neck and turned up the collar of his coat.
Helix took two spare clips of smart ammo for his P226s and four multi-mode grenades. He left Sofi with the Glock concealed in her coat pocket. They needed to blend in. The bergen wouldn’t help with that. It had to stay. If he needed anything else, there was a grab bag stashed in a luggage locker at each of the hyperlink terminals in London.
The AV Sofi had borrowed was comfortable, designed for human transportation. Maintenance and security outside city limits was handled by bots or drones and they weren’t concerned with creature comforts.
A pack of feral dogs, attracted by the remains of the two unknowns, scattered as the AV swung into the car park. A murder of crows or ravens gathered along the ramparts waiting for their chance, rendered more sinister by the brooding clouds that massed overhead. The door of the AV slid open as the three passengers jogged down the path, hands on hats and hoods, shoulders hunched against the weather. The showroom-new odour of warm plastic greeted them as they slid inside. Wheeler and Sofi took the back seat, Helix the pull-down opposite. He toggled the window switch, rendering the glass transparent. He wasn’t concerned about being seen from ground level but if Ormandy had deployed anything overhead he wanted to see it.
Eight minutes later, buffeted by the wind, the AV
