Johnny O'Brien - Day of the Assassins

“And, well, we know that Pendelshape has left his door open.”

Jack hissed at Angus across the table, “No way!”

The prim librarian, still sorting returns, briefly raised her eyes above her reading glasses.

“Angus — I’m not standing guard while you sneak in and rummage through Pendelshape’s cupboard to get back all the stuff he’s confiscated off you…”

Angus looked hurt. “I only care about the iPod… I can’t do without that for a whole week. It’s totally unacceptable.”

Jack shook his head, “It’s wrong and it’s your own fault anyway. Pendelshape can be pretty severe, if he caught us, I don’t know — maybe we could even get expelled.” He considered this for a moment and then added, “Or something really bad.”

Angus had an evil smile on his face. The kind he got when he knew he was about to get Jack to do something he really didn’t want to.

“Come on… think about it.”

“Think about what?” Jack said.

“It’ll be fun.”

Angus grinned inanely. Jack stared back at his friend across the table and shook his head. He looked over at the librarian who was ignoring them. For some reason, he could feel his chest tightening. He felt for his puffer in his pocket.

“You’re a pain, Angus.”

But Angus was already up, away and sneaking out of the library.

Strangely, when they re-entered the classroom, they spotted the lance head still lying on Pendelshape’s desk. Jack had assumed that their teacher would have taken it with him to help in his enquiries, but it was still there. Without really thinking, he grabbed it and put it into his rucksack to keep it safe.

A quick search for Angus’s precious iPod in Pendelshape’s large store cupboard proved fruitless. Angus was disappointed.

“Right — so let’s get out of here,” Jack said. “Probably a good thing we can’t find it.”

But just as they were about to leave, Jack noticed that Pendelshape had left the computer in his store cupboard on. Jack could never resist computers and as he made his way through the store-cupboard door, he touched the keyboard absent-mindedly. The screensaver had not kicked in yet. Without warning, a window popped up on the computer screen. It caught Jack’s eye, because of its unusual design. It was some sort of an email application, but compared to the slick applications he was used to, it looked very basic. Just simple black text on a white background.

“What’s this?” Jack murmured, then his brow furrowed, “What the…?”

Angus turned back to look. They both stared at the screen. It was the title of the email that grabbed them:

Subject: Lance artefact at Cairnfield.

Then they looked at the recipient and sender fields:

To: Neil Pendelshape. From: Benefactor.

“Who is ‘Benefactor’?” Angus said.

“No idea — what’s this…?” They started to scan the strange email; it blinked back at them.

Do not concern yourself with the Cairnfield workshop. Lance is artefact from early experiments into the pre-war period. A rare piece that helps confirm the Schonbrunn raid did occur. Anyway — irrelevant as things have now moved on. I have momentous news! Our own Taurus is complete Yes! A functioning, full-scale system. We can now complete execution of Sim 0107 for real! We will activate Zadok. And very soon we will be in a position to defeat VIGIL. You must do something urgently, before we start. I fear that when they find out, they may take Orion. There is nothing we can do about Lynx now — she has gone over to the other side. But we must protect Orion. You need to enact the plan and then contact me as we discussed. We are about to change the world!

Good luck!

Your loyal friend — the Benefactor

They stared at the extraordinary message on the screen.

“What the…?” Jack started to speak, but stopped mid-sentence, dumbfounded.

“What’s Taurus…? VIGIL? Zadok?” Angus said. “What does it mean?”

Jack shook his head. “I don’t know… but one thing’s for sure…”

“What?”

“Something’s going on… and it’s more interesting than your damned iPod…”

“But I don’t…”

Angus didn’t finish his sentence.

In the doorway stood Dr Pendelshape.

They hadn’t even heard a footstep.

“Find anything interesting, boys?”

We’re stuffed, Jack thought. Then, without a word, Dr Pendelshape did something quite unexpected. He reached for his inside pocket and pulled out a thin piece of plastic — a bit like a large pocket calculator. The sleek gadget was rather out of place with the rest of Pendelshape’s overflowing store cupboard of dusty books and papers. He gently pressed a button on the device and the cupboard door closed automatically.

He nodded towards the computer.

“Best encryption in the world… but it’s no good if you forget to lock the screen.”

Strangely, he did not seem angry. Instead, he peered at the message from ‘the Benefactor’.

“It makes no difference now anyway.” He spoke urgently, “But I will explain all that later. Come, we haven’t got long. I hope you two don’t mind… surprises. Step to the back, please.” He ushered them to the rear of the small store cupboard.

Pendelshape pressed the calculator device in his hand a second time and then, without warning, a slight aperture appeared in the floor. Angus gasped. Jack just stood, gaping. A very narrow, steep spiral staircase led down from the aperture, dimly lit by a blue light, which produced an unearthly shimmer.

“You can’t get out, so I’m afraid you will just have to follow me. But don’t worry — you’re perfectly safe. Please — on you go.”

Jack and Angus didn’t move.

With a little more firmness now, Pendelshape urged them forward. “Please — we have little time. Trust me.”

Reluctantly, they stepped onto the spiral staircase, quickly followed by Pendelshape. It was some sort of escalator and the steps began to descend automatically. As they dropped beneath floor level, the aperture above them mysteriously closed and after a couple of minutes they came to a gentle halt. Ahead of them was a door. Pendelshape pressed the device again and the door opened. There was a short metal-clad corridor illuminated by the same dull blue light. At the end of the corridor was a large round door, like the entrance to a bank vault — it looked very heavy, maybe it was steel. It had five letters etched on it:

‘V I G I L’.

The door opened silently and Jack noticed that it was at least seven centimetres thick. Next, they found themselves in an oval-shaped room. It was similar to his dad’s workshop at Cairnfield — although there weren’t quite as many books and there was no mess — in fact, it was spotless. Towards one side of the library were two large leather sofas between which a glass-topped table was positioned.

Pendelshape waved them forward. “Please take a seat, gentlemen. I think I have some explaining to do.” He looked at his watch and then waved vaguely in the direction of a modern fireplace, which suddenly erupted into a roaring log fire. Jack and Angus jumped.

“Don’t worry — it’s not real…” Pendelshape snorted. “Just adds a bit of atmosphere. Otherwise it can be a bit grim all the way down here.” He clapped his hands. “Now, first things first, would either of you like some tea?” But the two boys were still in shock. “I’m rather partial to Jaffa cakes… we usually keep a few goodies down here, you know, just in case…” Pendelshape moved over to what appeared to be an ante-room to the library. He talked over his shoulder.