out into the Control Station. Everyone there declared they knew nothing about what was going on. A shade truculently. I ordered the Custodians in the Exercise Cell deactivated, but they did not respond to the command circuit. Or, the people on duty toldme they did not.
I ran down to the Exercise Cell. The Governor has an override. I can open almost every door inside the Prison. This had gone too far. This prison does not allow torture or violent punishment.
I knew Bentley was following me. She was shouting. Bentley should not shout at me. I could hear cries coming from the cell. It would open to my palm print.
Only it didn’t. The alert signal went off.
We were caught in a power outage.
Bentley glowed with satisfaction. ‘428 comes under attack and a power outage happens. Most convenient. That proves a theory of mine.’
‘Did you – did you authorise this? What’s going on in there?’ I demanded, shouting, full of fury.
Bentley looked dead ahead, voice cold. ‘I had no idea, Governor.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ I said. ‘Open that door.’
Bentley produced a manual key. It would take time. But we still had over six minutes.
Inside the Exercise Cell all was silent. I was expecting to see the battered body of 428. I think that was all I was supposed to have found. I wasn’t supposed to have been watching. The camera footage would have been mysteriously corrupted and all that we would have had to go on was 428’s broken body.
But there was no body. Just four deactivatedCustodians. Four very damaged Custodians.
Had 428 done it again? Had he tricked us and escaped?
The seal to a docking station opened, and 428 staggered out. He was in a mess, but he was alive.
‘So,’ he grinned. ‘Hard luck. I’m still alive. I couldn’t open the door, but I could get into the docking station. Nice place to be while those four knocked seven bells out of each other.’
‘It was … I had no idea … It wasn’t supposed to happen.’
‘Clearly the systems outage affected their programming’ said Bentley, coldly. ‘An accident.’
428 held up a hand, bored by us. He yawned.
A new alarm sounded. The power outage had become an Imminent Systems Failure.
‘Right then, tickety-boo,’ growled 428. ‘Another power outage? Let’s go and have a look, shall we?’
428 stood in the Control Station. He moved swiftly from panel to panel, warily ducking under and around Custodians. By the time we got there, the systems failure was at over a minute.
‘I’m guessing that at about seven minutes things start to go critical and you have to phase out various systems.’
I was impressed he’d got that.
Bentley wasn’t. ‘You worked that out suspiciouslyquickly.’
428 nodded. ‘I did, didn’t I?’ He clearly didn’t care what she thought.
I could sense the tension between the two of them. In an ideal world I’d have him back in solitary by now and Bentley under close supervision pending an investigation. But there wasn’t time.
This time we were totally locked out.
428 stepped back. Clearly he’d completed his survey of the Control Station.
‘Bentley was right for once,’ he said. ‘Nothing’s responding. I’m wondering if there’s a way to delay things – buy a little more time.’
‘Only if we eject Level 7,’ I told him.
‘What is Level 7?’
‘I don’t like to talk about it,’ I admitted. I was aware of Bentley watching me. I knew that whatever I said now would be brought up later. I never could say the right thing in front of her.
‘Clearly you don’t want to talk about it, Governor. But you’re in a lot of trouble.’
‘Level 7 is a self-contained unit of the prison. It is a large storage crate.’
‘I see. And what’s it doing here?’
‘Storage.’
‘Of what?’
I felt uncomfortable. ‘My job … my job is the saferunning of the Prison. Mostly, Level 7 falls outside of my jurisdiction.’
‘But you know what it is?’
‘It’s outside my
I ran down to the Exercise Cell. The Governor has an override. I can open almost every door inside the Prison. This had gone too far. This prison does not allow torture or violent punishment.
I knew Bentley was following me. She was shouting. Bentley should not shout at me. I could hear cries coming from the cell. It would open to my palm print.
Only it didn’t. The alert signal went off.
We were caught in a power outage.
Bentley glowed with satisfaction. ‘428 comes under attack and a power outage happens. Most convenient. That proves a theory of mine.’
‘Did you – did you authorise this? What’s going on in there?’ I demanded, shouting, full of fury.
Bentley looked dead ahead, voice cold. ‘I had no idea, Governor.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ I said. ‘Open that door.’
Bentley produced a manual key. It would take time. But we still had over six minutes.
Inside the Exercise Cell all was silent. I was expecting to see the battered body of 428. I think that was all I was supposed to have found. I wasn’t supposed to have been watching. The camera footage would have been mysteriously corrupted and all that we would have had to go on was 428’s broken body.
But there was no body. Just four deactivatedCustodians. Four very damaged Custodians.
Had 428 done it again? Had he tricked us and escaped?
The seal to a docking station opened, and 428 staggered out. He was in a mess, but he was alive.
‘So,’ he grinned. ‘Hard luck. I’m still alive. I couldn’t open the door, but I could get into the docking station. Nice place to be while those four knocked seven bells out of each other.’
‘It was … I had no idea … It wasn’t supposed to happen.’
‘Clearly the systems outage affected their programming’ said Bentley, coldly. ‘An accident.’
428 held up a hand, bored by us. He yawned.
A new alarm sounded. The power outage had become an Imminent Systems Failure.
‘Right then, tickety-boo,’ growled 428. ‘Another power outage? Let’s go and have a look, shall we?’
428 stood in the Control Station. He moved swiftly from panel to panel, warily ducking under and around Custodians. By the time we got there, the systems failure was at over a minute.
‘I’m guessing that at about seven minutes things start to go critical and you have to phase out various systems.’
I was impressed he’d got that.
Bentley wasn’t. ‘You worked that out suspiciouslyquickly.’
428 nodded. ‘I did, didn’t I?’ He clearly didn’t care what she thought.
I could sense the tension between the two of them. In an ideal world I’d have him back in solitary by now and Bentley under close supervision pending an investigation. But there wasn’t time.
This time we were totally locked out.
428 stepped back. Clearly he’d completed his survey of the Control Station.
‘Bentley was right for once,’ he said. ‘Nothing’s responding. I’m wondering if there’s a way to delay things – buy a little more time.’
‘Only if we eject Level 7,’ I told him.
‘What is Level 7?’
‘I don’t like to talk about it,’ I admitted. I was aware of Bentley watching me. I knew that whatever I said now would be brought up later. I never could say the right thing in front of her.
‘Clearly you don’t want to talk about it, Governor. But you’re in a lot of trouble.’
‘Level 7 is a self-contained unit of the prison. It is a large storage crate.’
‘I see. And what’s it doing here?’
‘Storage.’
‘Of what?’
I felt uncomfortable. ‘My job … my job is the saferunning of the Prison. Mostly, Level 7 falls outside of my jurisdiction.’
‘But you know what it is?’
‘It’s outside my
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