Blackout Read Online Free Page A

the kerb and several officers surrounded the building they were on.
    ‘Time to go.’
    They hurried to a door, opened it and went inside.
    One flight of stairs down, Jack held up his hand, stopping the others.
    They listened as, ten or so floors below them, a door banged open and several heavy-booted feet ran up the stairs.
    Slink threw open the door behind them and they ran through.
    In the hallway, Jack, Charlie, Slink and Wren stayed still and listened. They could hear shouting and the boots echoing in the stairwell.
    They sounded like they were only a floor or two below them already.
    Jack looked at the lift – it was in use – the numbers increasing on the display. It seemed as though the entire Metropolitan Police Force was on the hunt.
    Charlie opened her bag and quickly handed them all a pair of thick-rimmed glasses.
    ‘Obi,’ Jack whispered, ‘are you ready?’
    ‘Yep.’
    Everyone kept still, listening to the police running up the stairs.
    They were passing their floor now.
    Jack held up a hand, indicating that everyone should pull back close against the wall, but he needn’t have worried – the police moved on up, not stopping to check individual floors.
    Jack heard the door to the roof open and close again. He looked at the lift – it was almost at their floor. The police officers would have to get off here, because the only way to the roof was via the stairs. ‘OK, Obi, now .’
    Suddenly, all the power to the building went out.
    Jack slipped on his glasses and pressed a button on the arm. A tiny display flickered to life – showing an image of the hallway ahead bathed in green.
    Charlie’s ‘night-glasses’ were an ultraportable night-vision device. Each pair had a tiny camera mounted on them that could see in very low light. Above the camera was a special infrared bulb, and in front of the right lens was a screen.
    Jack turned to the others. They looked weird, almost alien, with their eyes glowing a bright green from under their hoods. ‘Follow me,’ he whispered.
    They had to be quick. The police officers stuck in the lift were dealt with, but the ones on the roof would have torches. It wouldn’t be long until they realised the Outlaws weren’t up there and came to investigate the rest of the building.
    Jack opened the door to the stairwell and they hurried down as quietly and quickly as they could.
    Halfway to the bottom, they heard the door to the roof bang open again.
    ‘Faster,’ Jack urged the others and they increased their pace.
    Instead of stopping on the ground floor, the four of them continued down the stairs to the basement. Slink threw open the door and Charlie and Wren ran through.
    Jack stopped and looked up the stairwell – the cops were hurrying after them, their torch beams bouncing off the walls.
    No time to waste .
    Jack stepped through the door and turned back to look at the electronic lock. ‘OK, Obi, re-engage the power.’
    There was a pause.
    Nothing happened.
    ‘Obi?’ Jack’s night-glasses flickered – they only had a short battery life and probably had less than a minute left before they went dark. ‘ Obi? ’
    ‘It’s not working,’ Obi said. ‘I can’t turn it back on.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘There’s been another power cut. The whole area’s blacked out. I’ve lost six CCTV cameras. I can’t even see the cops any more.’
    Jack turned to Charlie.
    ‘The virus,’ she whispered. ‘It’s getting worse.’
    He nodded.
    The police officers sounded close now – perhaps only a floor or two above them.
    Giving up on the electronic lock, Jack turned and the four of them sprinted along a narrow corridor and through a door at the end.
    They were now standing in a small room. Jack looked at the power box on the wall. It still had the modification Charlie had made to it the day before – an antenna stuck out of the top, partly hidden behind a spray can.
    She hurried over to the box, opened it, disconnected the control wires and manually tried the main