Free Urban Outlaws by Peter Jay Black Page A

get me this time.’
    Charlie scowled, but then her face softened. ‘Just be careful.’
    ‘Aren’t I always?’
    Charlie shook her head. ‘Not so much.’ She hesitated a moment longer, then pulled up her hood and jogged down the alleyway.
    That was another thing he liked about her – if he needed to keep something to himself, Charlie would leave it alone. Besides, he told her everything, eventually. But, right at that moment, she’d been through enough.
    Jack darted into the building and stood with his back pressed against the door. ‘Slink?’
    ‘Yeah?’
    ‘Have you found it?’
    ‘I think so.’
    •   •   •
    Obi guided Jack to the basement level of the building. The corridors down here reminded Jack of a prison with their unpainted concrete-block walls. He shuddered. The children’s home had been like a prison, and he had no intention of ever going back.
    Jack stopped. The door at the end had the symbol of the sword in the shape of a number one. ‘Proteus,’ he breathed. Something hit the ground behind him and he spun around, fists balled.
    A figure rose from the floor and an air-vent grate swung above their heads.
    ‘Slink,’ Jack said, clutching his chest. ‘Do you think you could warn me next time?’
    Slink grinned. ‘That wouldn’t be any fun.’
    ‘You’ve done well,’ Jack said. ‘Get back to the bunker.’
    Slink looked at the logo on the door. ‘I want to see.’
    ‘Can’t risk both of us getting caught. Give me that,’ Jack unclipped the mobile camera from Slink’s shoulder and fixed it to his own shoulder.
    Slink didn’t move.
    ‘ Slink .’ Jack gestured to the camera. ‘You can catch it on playback.’
    Slink hesitated for a few seconds, then his shoulders slumped. ‘See ya later.’ He jogged up the corridor and vanished around the corner.
    Jack turned back to the door, grabbed the handle and let himself in.
    The space beyond was about seven metres on each side. There were no other doors or windows and the room was bathed in harsh fluorescent light. In the centre of the floor was a mass of stainless steel pipework and glass cylinders, all connected with a criss-cross of tubing and wires. Four two-metre-high coolant tanks sat side by side, and next to them was an isolated battery supply.
    Jack couldn’t help but be impressed at how quickly they’d managed to set up the apparatus.
    ‘Obi,’ he whispered, ‘you getting this?’
    ‘Yeah. Told you it was real.’
    Though Jack had never seen one before, he knew Obi was right, and a cold chill ran down his spine. This was the beginning of a revolution. One of the world’s first working quantum computers.
    His eyes moved slowly around the room until they found a workstation in the corner. He hurried over to it and sat down. In front of him was the main terminal: a keyboard, monitor and mouse. He shook the mouse and the screen sprang to life.
    PROTEUS.
    For a moment, Jack sat in silence, unable to move. It was Obi’s voice in his ear that jerked him back to reality. ‘What did you say?’
    ‘I said you should hook it up.’
    Jack frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
    ‘Look to your left.’
    A thick cable snaked across the floor, connecting Proteus to a server stack, but the server’s network cable wasn’t plugged into anything.
    Jack glanced around and saw the empty port on the wall. He scooped up the network cable and plugged it in.
    ‘I bet the network security is encrypted,’ Obi said. ‘Shouldn’t be a problem for you though.’
    Jack turned back to the monitor, flexed his fingers and set to work.
    Obi was right – the network was encrypted but it only took Jack a few minutes to bypass it. Now Proteus was connected to the internet, they could access it from the bunker whenever they wanted. Jack was just testing it all worked OK when Obi spoke again in his ear. ‘Er, Jack?’
    Jack concentrated. If he overlooked even the smallest error, it would all be for nothing.
    ‘ Jack ,’ Obi shouted.
    Jack almost leapt