Fic: The Days We Break (part 10)

[myrimidryad]

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Mini was outside the ops room when Franky emerged, an anxious expression on her face.

“Um.” Still wary after Mini’s treatment of her earlier, Franky frowned. “Sure, what is it?”

“Uh, look, I just wanted to, you know, say sorry about before.” Mini shifted on her feet awkwardly. “I was a bitch.”

“Oh.” Franky stared at her, surprised. “Er, sure. I mean, yeah, no problem. Don’t worry about it.”

“We’re good then?” Mini looked up hopefully. Franky smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Great.” Mini smiled brightly.

“Is everyone in there?” Franky changed the subject, motioning to the T.

“I think so.” Mini nodded.

“Cool. I’ve got an announcement.”

“Ooh, what is it?”

“Naomi’s got a job idea for us. Come on, I’ll tell you with the others.” As they walked into the T, Franky clapped her hands. “Guys! I’ve got news.”

“You two are friends again, right?” Alo pointed between her and Mini and Franky looked up at Mini and smiled.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

“Sweet.” Alo grinned in a strangely dirty way. Franky raised an eyebrow and Rich threw a cushion at Alo’s head.

“Uh, anyway, I was just talking to Naomi, and she’s proposing a job for us.”

“Do we get paid?” Nick asked.

“In publicity,” Franky replied wryly. “No. But this will definitely get the regime’s attention.”

“Why, what is it?” Grace asked curiously.

Franky took a deep breath. “Naomi thinks we should break into the Bristol Regime Building and steal a load of their documents.”

“Oh hell no.” Nick laughed. “You’re joking, right? Security on that building has to be the tightest in Bristol!”

“We graffitied it before,” Franky reminded him.

“That was months ago though.” Grace frowned. “Things have changed since then.”

“My point is,” Franky argued. “That they’re not invincible. They’re probably slacker than we think because they don’t think anyone would be stupid enough to attack the building itself.” That came out wrong, she thought to herself afterwards.

“But we’re insane enough to do it.” Alo grinned at Nick. “Sweet. I’m in.”

“Anyone else?” Franky looked around. “Raise your hands.” She and Alo put their hands up, followed by Mini, Nick, Rich, Matty, Liv and Grace. “Great.” She grinned. “So, anyone got any ideas?” She sat down on the arm of the sofa next to Nick and Katie, and Mini nudged Alo over so she could squeeze on the armchair next to him.

“We could start a riot as a distraction?” Nick suggested immediately.

“We shouldn’t put normal people in danger,” Mini disagreed.

“What if they want to be in danger?” Rich spoke up. “You’ve seen how many people are asking how they can help, on the walls and on twitter while we’re on the Wave. Some people want a proper fight.”

“We should consider everything.” Franky tried to calm them down.

“We need to stake it out,” Liv said. “And attack at night. Really quietly, like we did with the zapper platform.”

“Fucking hell, you really are mental, aren’t you?” Katie muttered.

“We take pride in it.” Alo winked at her.

“We should figure out the alarm system,” Grace said eagerly. “Then find out how to disable it.”

“How?” Mini snorted. “Order one for this place?”

“No, but we could go to other places which have the same system and see if we can disable those.”

“That’s a good idea.” Matty nodded.

Franky smiled at Mini, who smiled back. This was going to go well, she could just tell.

“So they’re your friends?”  Nick asked Katie as they slouched against a wall several streets away from the Regime Building two weeks later.

“Thomas and JJ?” Katie filed her nails. “Yeah, kind of.”

The BDN had been staking the Regime Building out for a fortnight, and Naomi had, as well as giving them a list of the employees who worked there, sent two of her guys, Thomas and JJ, to pose as maintenance workers to get into the Regime Building to take photos of the locations of the CCTV cameras.

“You know them from college?”

“If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.” She looked up coyly and smirked, and Nick grinned.

“Alright, alright.” He honestly didn’t care how much she did or didn’t tell him - the sex was incredible.

Katie’s phone buzzed and she flicked it out smoothly, glancing at it quickly before slipping it back in her pocket. “They’re out.”

“Sweet.” Nick offered his arm and Katie slid hers around it with a smile. “Let’s go find them.”

Thomas and JJ had changed out of their maintenance overalls by the time they found them. They were sitting on a wall with Thomas gabbling away in French and JJ laughing. They stood up when they saw Nick and Katie approaching. JJ stuck his hand out for Nick to shake and smiled widely.

“Jonah Jeremiah Jones. You must be Captain?”

“Uh, yeah.” Nick almost laughed at JJ’s formal approach. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Likewise.” JJ smiled and looked at Katie. “Having a good time?”

“It’s not too bad, actually.” Katie shrugged.

“Obviously.” Thomas shot a smirk at her closeness to Nick, and she gave him a withering look.

“Could you take a message back to Naomi for me?” she asked JJ.

“Of course.”

“Ask her if I can stick around for this raid. I want to see if they can pull it off.”

“Are you sure?” JJ raised his eyebrows. “It sounds very dangerous.”

“I’ll be fine.” Katie smiled unconcernedly. “Ask her, yeah?”

“Yes.” JJ looked a little worried, but nodded anyway. “Yes, I will.”

“Cool. So what did you get then?” She asked.

“Oh!” JJ’s smile reappeared in an instant. “Their system is a Tauron four point five. Very sophisticated, but not indestructible. This is all the footage we got.” He gave Katie a small digital camera she slipped in her pocket without looking at. “And Thomas managed to get us into the main security booth as well, which was fantastic.” He grinned at Thomas, who shrugged.

“Il n’y a pas de quoi.”

“No problem,” JJ translated to Nick and Katie. “I’ve also taken the liberty of annotating the photographs.” He pulled a piece of neatly folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Nick. “They’re numbered,” he added, pleased with himself. “It shouldn’t be too hard to find other places that use this security system and test whatever you come up with on that. If you need any help in that field, just tell Naomi and she’ll put me in contact.” He smiled cheerily.

“Great.” Nick was impressed despite himself. “Thanks for all your help.”

“Our pleasure, right, Thomas?” JJ looked round and Thomas nodded, a small smile on his face.

“If you pull this off,” he told them, “you will be heroes.”

Nick grinned. “Sounds good to me. See you around, guys.”

“Probably not,” JJ said with another happy smile and saluted him. He and Thomas picked up their bags and clambered over the wall and away. Katie steered Nick around and they started walking in the opposite direction.

“They’re not bad,” Nick said, half to himself.

Katie shrugged. “JJ’s a fucking weirdo. Very weird. But he’s been a bit better since…” she trailed off and bit her lip. “Never mind.”

“Can’t talk about it?” Nick said easily, putting his arm around her waist and squeezing when she shook her head. “Hey, I don’t mind. Come on, we could pick up some food round here if we’re lucky.”

“You guys are like fucking locusts.” Katie rolled her eyes good-naturedly, and smiled as Nick pressed a kiss to her lips.

“But sexy locusts,” he reminded her with a wink. “And if we’re locusts, what’re you?”

“I’m a butterfly.” Katie flipped her hair and smirked. “Obviously.”

“Nah,” Nick laughed and shook his head. “Butterflies look pretty, but they’re pretty shit. You’re like a wildcat or something, y’know?”

“Okay, enough with the animal comparisons,” Katie snorted.

“As you wish, my lady.” Nick tipped an imaginary cap and Katie laughed and pushed him playfully. Staying a little longer with the BDN wasn’t so bad, she thought to herself.

“I am literally shitting myself,” Alo whispered in terror in the back of the van.

“Shut up, Farmboy,” Rich hissed.

They were waiting in the dark, crowded together on the floor of the van until the clock struck three in the morning. Everything was ready. They had been there since the late afternoon, and it was now five to three.

“Fuck,” Alo whispered. “Guys, I’m having second thoughts.”

“Shut up, Farmboy!” Rich, Mini and Liv hissed together.

“What if we’re all caught?” Alo ignored them and carried on hysterically. “What if we’re caught and killed and no one finds the bunker and Rags is stuck down there until he starves to death?”

“He could go along the tunnel to the Railway, Farmboy,” Grace reminded him in a low voice. “Get out there.”

“He’s not that smart!” Alo’s eyes were huge in the darkness, and Rich sighed and reached forward to smack the back of his head.

“Shut up, you pillock. We’ll be fine.”

“Nearly time,” Franky whispered.

“I think we should go now before Farmboy loses his nerve,” Mini murmured, and Matty and Nick nodded.

“Man up,” Nick encouraged Alo. “Don’t be a pussy now.”

“Yeah, right.” Alo swallowed and made a visible effort to pull himself together. “I’m calm, I’m ready. Shit, I can’t believe we’re doing this.”

“You alright?” Nick breathed in Katie’s ear. She nodded, pulling a determined look onto her face.

“I’m fine,” she said breezily. “We going or what?” She pulled her mask on - following a request on the DN Wave for masks, wigs and make-up, there had been an abundance of disguise combinations to choose from. Katie was wearing a feathered, white angel mask, Nick and Alo were wearing Zorro-style bands across their eyes, Rich had a dark blue bandanna pulled up over his mouth and nose, Grace, Mini and Franky had beautifully coloured masquerade masks over their eyes and noses, Matty had a Hannibal Lecter mask over the lower half of his face and Liv had a bright red bandanna like Rich. They all had their hoods up.

“Yep.” Franky nodded and Rich popped the door facing the pavement open and slid it across. “Let’s do this.”

They stayed in the shadows as much as they could, but there was no real way to hide themselves from the CCTV cameras in the streets, so Matty let off a few homemade smoke bombs. They had tried it the week before and no police had turned up to investigate, so they had assumed hopefully that smoke was mistaken for mist or something on the cameras.

“Go.” Franky motioned Matty forward once they reached the front doors. There was a machine that rose out of the ground to the right of the doors for employees to swipe their identification cards against. Of course, this late at night, a stolen or fake card would only set off an alarm, so Matty had fashioned some sort of electronic shock device that he said would disable the system entirely. They had tested it on a pet food company on the other side of the city the day before and it had worked perfectly. The only problem after that was unlocking the doors physically. They were locked with keys by security guards, and the only way they had been able to see of them getting in was to break one of the glass panels, which they proceeded to do with an empty can of paint they had brought along for that purpose. It was wrapped in one of Nick’s hoodies to deaden the sound, but they still all winced and looked around anxiously when he slammed it against the glass.

“Fucking hell.” Rich looked up through the dissipating smoke to the camera. “Teddy, let off another smoke bomb.”

“Alright.” Matty pulled a roll of newspaper from his bag and lit the end, chucking it to the ground under the camera. Rich wasn’t sure what he had soaked them in to make them produce so much smoke, but it certainly worked.

Nick whammed the paint can against the glass again, causing spider web cracks to spread outwards. “One more time.” He whispered, whacking it forward again. The glass bent inwards but didn’t break. But on the next hit it did, caving inwards and falling to the ground. “We’re in!” Nick hissed gleefully.

“Get in quick then!” Mini pushed him through the gap, following closely behind. They pulled the sheet of glass out of sight of the cameras outside and ran quickly through the reception and up the first flight of stairs, Matty chucking smoke bombs ahead of them.

“Timothy Iverness?” Mini asked Grace, who had the list of the high-ranking officials.

Grace ran a finger down the list and nodded. “It’s a private office, so yes.”

“Where’s Garter’s office?” Nick hissed.

“Top floor, they said,” Grace whispered.

“Let’s split up now.” Franky looked around. “Katie, Captain, Teddy, you find the security booth and disable the cameras. Psychonaut, Paperdoll, Farmboy, go to the top floor and work down. We’ll do this floor.”

“Kay.” Nick nodded and ran off with Katie and Matty. Rich, Grace and Alo ran after them.

Franky nodded to Liv, who kicked the door to Timothy Iverness’ office in with ease. They moved in quickly, Liv and Mini going straight to the filing cabinet and Franky going to the desk. The draws on the filing cabinet were locked, but they were flimsy and bent easily to let Liv and Mini in. Mini opened one of the duffle bags they had brought and Liv pulled out armfuls of files and slotted them in as carefully as she could. Franky went through the desk, looking for anything interesting. There were a number of unmarked files in one of the draws, letters in another, an empty bag of biscuits in a third.

“Done,” Liv whispered. Franky slid the files and letters from the desk on top of the files already in the duffle bag, and they moved quickly onto the next office. They all moved as quickly as they could, swiftly filling the duffel bags and leaving them once they were full to grab on their way out. The air stank of smoke from Matty’s bombs, and as Nick, Katie and Matty broke into the security booth, he let off another inside.

“Fucking hell,” Nick coughed. “How many of those did you make?”

“Quite a lot,” Matty admitted, looking through his bag. “They’re not that big.”

“Come on.” Katie pulled Nick over to the monitors. “We should take all the footage they have of us.” It was at this point that a hand grabbed her ankle, and she shrieked, kicking it away. “What the fuck?!”

They stared in horror as a young man crawled out from a makeshift bed under the desk and looked up at them with a matching expression. “Please tell me you’re not breaking in,” he said. “Please. Tell me this is a dream, and I’m not about to get fired and interrogated by the RES.”

“Um.” Nick looked at Matty and the man groaned.

“Fucking hell. Christ, fucking anarchists, I swear to fucking god.”

“We’re not anarchists,” Katie said, affronted. “We’re the BDN.”

“Oh, God, that’s even worse!” the man moaned.

“Shut up.” Matty shook his head. “Tell us how to remove the footage of tonight, we’ll knock you out and you can say you tried to fight us off or something.”

“What, I just watched you on the screens till you came and attacked me?” The man stood up and raised his eyebrows. “Come off it.”

“Fine, we’ll break a camera outside, you say you came to investigate and we knocked you out then.”

The man considered it. “Yeah, alright,” he said grudgingly. “Fucking BDN, I can’t believe it.”

“Whatever.” Nick rolled his eyes and pointed at the screens. “Come on, take the DVDs out.”

“Yeah, yeah, alright.” The man yawned and obeyed.

“That’s everything?” Matty took the DVDs and fixed the man with a stern look.

“Yeah.” The man nodded miserably. “Just go, yeah?”

“Come with us.” Matty jerked his head at the door. “Come on. We’ve got to knock you out.”

“You guys done?” Rich asked Franky as they met on the stairs.

“We’ve cleared them out.” She nodded. “You?”

“All done.” Grace’s voice was strained; she was carrying three heavy duffel bags like Rich and Alo, who was carrying a fourth on his back as well. “Can we go?”

“Now seems like a good time.” Franky nodded. “Quit while we’re ahead.” She led them downstairs to the lobby, where they were met with the sight of Matty checking an unconscious man’s pulse. “What the hell?”

“Security guard in the booth,” Nick explained. “It’s okay, he was asleep.”

“I thought JJ and Thomas said everyone left at night?” Mini hissed, horrified.

Nick shrugged. “Doesn’t matter anyway - he didn’t see anything until we got there, and he gave us all the DVDs because if he lets on that he was sleeping on the job while we broke in, he’ll be fucked.”

Mini didn’t look pleased, but Franky shook her head. “Whatever, let’s just get out while we can, yeah? Come on. Teddy, more bombs.”

“Yes, boss.” Matty jogged ahead of them and lit the tips of two smoke bombs, throwing them neatly out ahead of him through the broken panel of the door. “Hurry!”

“I can’t believe we’re getting away with this,” Alo whispered to Rich as they ran out.

“Don’t speak too soon,” Rich warned darkly. “They could be right around the corner.”

“This is too easy,” Liv agreed, worried, a split second before the street exploded with light and sirens blared into life behind them.

“Shit!” Nick screamed.

“Teddy!” Franky yelled, and Matty lit more smoke bombs, throwing them behind him. “Back to the van!” she shouted over the noise, and screamed as gunshots fired behind them. “RUN!”

Out of the lit-up smoke ahead of them loomed the dark figures of  RES officers, five tall genderless people with the black masks covering their whole faces, making their every feature a mystery. They could be anyone, that was the terrifying thing about them. Until they spoke, even their sex was unknown.

“Halt!” one of them bellowed.

“Get them!” Franky shrieked, swinging her bag full of heavy files around before the officer had time to draw his gun and hitting him hard in the side, making him stagger heavily and almost fall.

“Duck!” Matty shouted, and Franky did just as he threw something small and sharp at the officer reaching out to grab her. It sank into their arm, and the scream of shock was vaguely female when it came.

“Go, go, go!” Rich yelled, barrelling into the one on the end to make room for Grace and Liv to slip past. He turned and brought both of the bags he was holding in his hands around in a tight circle, hitting the officer in the head with all their weight. He spun again and did the same to the next officer in line, who had their gun out. As they fell, they shot at him, and Rich felt something whizz past his head as the bang deafened him.

“Get their guns!” someone, maybe Katie or Mini shouted, and he ducked and slammed his head forward into the helmet as hard as he could, stamping on the hand holding the gun when they fell.

Seconds, he had seconds. He dropped a bag, grabbed the gun and shoved it in his pocket, praying that the safety was on as he grabbed the duffel handles again and gave the officer he had first knocked over a kick to the face to keep them down as he turned and ran with the others. More shots rang out behind him, and he crouched as he dashed around the corner to safety, sirens screaming all around them.

“Shit,” he gasped, catching up with Franky. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yes.” She sounded out of breath, unsurprisingly. “Come on, we have to hurry!”

They made it to the van and clambered in, just closing the door as a police car rounded the corner and pealed down the street, flashing lights blazing through the windows and making everyone inside duck down even further.

“Should we get out now, or wait till morning?” Alo asked Franky urgently.

“I don’t know,” she gasped, clutching her side. “Check the…radio, the police radio.”

“Right.” Alo nodded and crawled to the front of the van, grabbing the radio from below the passenger seat. He slipped back and twiddled the dials, tuning in through the static. “Nothing,” he whispered after several seconds of white noise. “I can’t get anything.”

“Maybe,” Liv sat up a little. “This is too big for the cops. Maybe they’ve put out a silence order or something.”

“We should hide,” Franky decided suddenly, frowning. “In case they start looking through the windows. Start hiding these, and then squeeze under the bed.”

“We’ll never all fit under there!” Mini said, aghast.

“We’ll have to.” Franky snapped. “If we drive away now, they’ll know it’s us and they’ll chase. They could probably block off roads before we get to them, we’d be totally fucked. And if we do escape, then we’ll never be able to use the van again. We hide. Move, come on!” She flapped her hands, and they shifted into motion, hiding the duffel bags under blankets on top of the bed and crawling underneath it afterwards.

“The biggest should go on top.” Matty told Franky in a quiet voice. “Pink Lady’s right, we’re not all going to fit under there.”

“Okay.” Franky ran a hand through her hair, stressed. “Okay, Paperdoll, Teddy Sextramp, Katie, Shameless, squeeze under if you haven’t already.”

Matty nodded and waited for Katie to crawl into the dark space after Grace and Liv, who were lying on their backs at the back. “Room for one or two more,” he whispered.

“I’m going down there, and so is Captain,” Franky decided. “Quickly! You three lie on top, and cover yourselves up,” she ordered Rich, Alo and Mini. “Be careful.”

Alo nodded and grabbed Mini’s shoulders gently, steering her to the end of the bed. “Lie flat,” he whispered. She nodded, her face pale. “Rich, cover me,” he said, lying next to her.

Rich nodded, bending down to check that the others were hidden properly. “Stay still,” he breathed, getting the duvet and lying carefully next to Alo. “Pull it.” He ordered, passing Alo the side. His best friend understood and pulled it over himself and Rich at the same time, passing the end to Mini to do the same. It barely covered them, and Rich pulled the gun carefully out of his pocket. He’d played enough video games to know a little about real guns, and he checked the safety was on first. That done, he turned on his side, his back to Alo, and cocked it as quietly as he could.

“Psychonaut?” Alo hadn’t missed it. “Is that a gun?”

“Shh,” Rich breathed. “Just keep quiet, you twat.” If anyone tried to get in, he decided with equal parts cold determination and terror, he would shoot them and cover Alo while he drove them out of there. He would shoot them. He would shoot them dead.

Franky only deemed it safe to text Naomi to send someone over to pretend to pick up the van when they could hear normal people going to work around them, walking past and chatting to each other, drowned out by the roar of cars down the road. Nevertheless, it didn’t stop them from jumping when the driver’s door opened and a girl with dark curly hair slid in and closed the door casually as if she’d done it a hundred times before.

“Everyone here?” she asked, checking her immaculate mascara in the rear view mirror.

“Yes,” Alo said from under the duvet.

“Okay. Keys in the glove compartment?”

“Yeah.”

She leaned over and took them out, starting the engine with no problems.

“The gear stick sticks a bit,” Alo warned her quietly.

“Cheers.” She gave no indication that she was conversing with them, but shifted into gear and pulled out relatively smoothly. They drove in silence to an abandoned, slightly overgrown parking lot around the back of some houses about to be demolished. As she braked, Rich, Alo and Mini got up and Alo went forward to look out of the windscreen. Naomi and Emily were waiting in the shadow of the garden wall that closed off the end of the car park.

“Sweet.” He grinned, clapping the girl who had driven them there on the shoulder. “Cheers…?”

“Michelle.” She looked up at him and smiled in a not entirely friendly way. “And which one are you?”

“Farmboy,” he answered.

She nodded slowly and unbuckled her seatbelt. “See you around,” she said, opening the door and slipping out.

“Mmm.” Alo watched her walk away with appreciation until Mini slapped him round the back of his head. “Ow!”

“Stop perving,” she told him, rolling her eyes before going to open the door of the cabinet under the bed. “You guys alright?”

“Let us out!” Nick begged. “Need air!”

Franky crawled out first, followed by the others. Rich opened the door of the van and jumped out as Naomi and Emily walked over. Michelle stayed by the wall. “Cheers,” he said. “For picking us up.”

“What did you get?” Naomi asked eagerly. “Nothing’s been said on the radio or the TV, but everyone knows the Regime Building was broken into last night - the door was kicked in.”

Franky grinned as she jumped out. “Everything. We got everything. Everything they had files of, anyway.”

“Brilliant.” Emily beamed, and sighed with relief when she saw Katie. “How did it go?”

Katie shrugged casually but smiled. “They’re pretty good, actually.”

“Well say goodbye,” Naomi told her. “We’re taking you back now. If that’s okay?” she added to Franky, who looked at Katie and nodded slowly.

“Well I think we trust each other enough now.”

“But I don’t have my clothes!” Katie said, shocked.

Naomi shrugged apologetically. “We might not get another chance to meet in person for months, we should take you back now.”

“Like I’m a fucking pass-the-parcel,” Katie snapped, reaching back with her hand for Nick, who took it gently.

Naomi saw and raised her eyebrows. “You knew this was only temporary.”

“Yeah, but I expected a little warning,” Katie said nastily.

“Hey,” Emily said, frowning.

“Can we keep the hard copies?” Franky asked Naomi, changing the subject. “We’ll photograph the pages and send them to you, but we want to go through them as well.”

“How much is there?” Naomi asked.

Franky looked over her shoulder at Mini, who was standing in the doorway of the van. She shrugged. “About twenty duffels.”

“Wow.” Naomi looked surprised. “Okay, yeah, you keep them, for now at least, but send us photos of each page.”

“We will.” Franky smiled and looked over at Katie, who kissed Nick and went to stand at Emily’s side. “Thanks for the help.”

“You too.” Naomi smiled and grabbed Emily’s hand. The three girls turned and walked back to Michelle at the wall, and together walked out of the car park.

“Sweet.” Alo clapped his hands together. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Jesus Christ.” Matty surveyed the piles of files they had stacked up in the conference room. “This is going to take a while.”

“Better get started then,” Franky said, sighing. “They’re not labelled or organised or anything, are they?”

“We should do that,” Mini said, looking around. “Write down, like, an index on the outside of each one, you know? Saying what’s inside them and what they’re about.”

“Good plan.” Franky nodded and smiled. “Let’s get pens and get to work. If we get it mostly done, we can talk about it on the Wave tomorrow.”

The files were tedious, difficult to understand, and numerous. But through the piles of data and apparent nonsense, they began to dig up some interesting things.

“Look at all these names,” Liv said, running a finger down a list. “There’re hundreds.”

“Same here.” Alo frowned. “Here, can I see?” Liv shrugged and passed it over and Alo scanned the different pages. “Yeah, look, some of these are the same.”

“I have buildings,” Franky spoke up, looking back and forth between several pages. “But they’re just names and lists of equipment. No locations.”

“I’ve got locations.” Nick looked up. “Have you got places called Greenvale Institute? Colby Hill? St Johnson’s?”

“Trident Halls.” Franky nodded. “Savon Park, Lee’s Institute, Park Institute…loads of institutes.”

“Wait, what was the last one?” Liv asked.

Franky looked down at her lists. “Park Institute.”

“I’ve got a bunch of people here - B. Halls, T. Vickers, a load more - who’ve been moved to a Park Institute.”

“Does it say why?” Grace asked. Liv shook her head.

“Just has their names and where they’ve been moved to, or where they are. Like…T. Vickers was at Yale Institute, but then he was moved to Red Brick Abbey, and then to Park Institute.”

“These are all the people who disappeared,” Rich said, shaking his head and putting a file down. “Hey, Teddy, didn’t you say you had -”

“Yeah.” Matty nodded and pulled a couple of files from beside him. “I’ve got lists of people from certain towns.”

“Is Bristol there?” Franky asked. Matty shook his head.

“Not yet. It’s done by county, and I think it works downwards,” Matty told her, flicking through the papers in a file in his hands. “Are we in Somerset?”

“I don’t think Bristol’s in a county.” Mini frowned.

“We’ve got to be in a county,” Rich argued. “We’re under county jurisdiction before city aren’t we?”

“Never mind, I’ve got it.” Matty shuffled the papers. “Uh…people who’ve gone missing from Bristol…they’re shit at organising, there’s no order to these names at all.”

“Go on, maybe we’ll recognise some,” Alo said.

“Uh…Rebecca Sproston, Keenan Pilks, Richard Holmes, Nadia something I can’t pronounce, Andy Anderson, tough name, Elizabeth Stonem, Martin Wicks, Zainab Loo-something, Kenneth Williams, Peter Kerridge, Lucy Kerridge - think they’re twins or something?”

“I don’t recognise any of them,” Grace said, and the others shook their heads.

“Me neither,” Nick agreed. “Look for names we actually know.”

“Okay…” Matty scanned the list. “Uh…hey, Percival Hampton, I know him!”

“I don’t, who is he?” Nick asked quizzically.

“Yeah above me in primary school,” Matty told him. “He was a bit weird, not all there in the head, you know?”

“Like a schizo?” Mini asked.

“No.” Matty frowned, not liking the term. “Probably just unhappy. I think he was taken out to be home schooled or something because he attacked someone or had a fit or something.”

“Definitely a freak then.” Mini snorted. “Maybe all these people have, like, mental problems or something.”

“Don’t be mean, Mini.” Grace frowned. “Oops, I mean Pink Lady. Wow,” she realised. “I haven’t slipped up for ages now.”

“It’s good that we’re so used to each other’s names,” Franky said firmly. “It means -”

“Holy shit,” Rich interrupted her, his gaze fixed on the papers inside a file he had just opened. “Farmboy, you are never going to believe this.”

“What?” Alo scrambled over to read over Rich’s shoulder. “What? What is it?”

“The land reclaims,” Rich said quietly, reading whatever was in front of him. “This is what they were for. You mentioned Greenvale Institute, yeah?” he asked Nick, who nodded.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“It’s new, like a load of those other places. Newly built. Greenvale’s been built on where Creevey Farm used to be. I’ve got a map.” He looked up at Alo, whose jaw dropped.

“What?”

“And look here.” Rich pointed to something. “Greenvale Institute, correctional facility for psychological patients. I’ve got a list of employees too, I think.”

“Those bastards!” Alo was outraged. “They built a fucking mental asylum on my fucking farm!”

“They can do whatever they want,” Rich reminded him dryly. “Bastards or not.”

“My farm!” Alo repeated, furious.

“They’re taking psychologically damaged people?” Liv frowned and shook her head. “Why?”

“Maybe they’re not damaged at all,” Matty thought out loud. “They could be hostages to make sure their families and friends don’t do certain things or obey the law. They could be normal people. Prisons can’t hold everyone, and in prisons there are still laws about some things.”

“Like what?” Nick looked at him. Matty shrugged.

“Like you have to leave them alone, mostly.” He looked at the file in Rich’s hands. “But if they’re ‘psychologically damaged’ you can drug them up to the eyeballs to keep them quiet, can’t you? And then…”

“Then what?” Mini asked in a small voice.

Matty shook his head, seemingly torn between speaking and keeping quiet.

“Experiments,” Franky realised. “How do you think they got the zapper platforms perfected so people don’t get heart attacks as soon as they’re shocked? They must have tested it on people at some point, and who would believe someone who’s mentally fucked up?”

“If anyone even got a chance to ask them,” Matty said darkly. “Who says these places have visiting hours? The patients are probably kept locked up for their own safety.” He sneered and shook his head.

Grace looked at the file and felt slightly sick. How many people had been snatched and locked away from the world on the shadowy orders of the people whose files they had stolen? “We need to tell people,” she said, her voice quiet but full of conviction. “We need to read these names out and let people know that their friends are alive, in case they don’t know. People should know. They should be told.”

“Good evening Bristol and whoever else is tuning in. This is the DN Wave, and I am Pink Lady, at your service. Our twitter feed tonight is lyingcats345, and we hope to hear from you on the subject of our most recent attack on the regime. That’s right, you heard it here first. The BDN is claiming responsibility for the break in at the Bristol Regime Building a couple of days ago, where we smashed in a bit of the door and stole a lot of the regime’s private files. There was a bit of an incident afterwards where the RES tried to catch us, but we got away, and as far as we know, no one was seriously hurt on either side. Talk to us, listeners, we are ready to answer your questions. Once again, we’d like to warn you to set up fake email addresses and twitter accounts for the show if you want to chat, better safe than sorry. Here’s our first song, requested by a listener from last week - it’s a bit weird, not my taste, but Mannequin and Paperdoll like it, so whatever. This is A Bar In Amsterdam by Katzenjammer. I think they’re Norwegian or something. Enjoy!”

“Hi guys! Paperdoll here! Thanks so much for all your lovely messages telling us to stay safe, and all the congratulations for breaking into the Regime Building - it wasn’t easy! Now, in some of the files we stole, there were a lot of names, and what we think is that they’re the names of people who have been taken, vanished by the regime. So if you know someone who’s just disappeared without a trace, even if you think maybe they’ve gone out of the country, tweet their names and we’ll check if they’re on these lists for you. If we have their name, it means the regime has them. Here’s Captain to answer a few of your questions. Paperdoll out.”

“Heya, Captain speaking. So a load of you have asked whether we have any weapons. Answer is, not really, other than our incredible good looks and witty charm. We’ve managed to steal a couple of guns, but we’re not what you’d call professionals, so we’re a bit wary about using them. We’re not going to tell you how many of us there are. We don’t intend to assassinate anyone. We are not…well okay, we might be insane, but it hasn’t ever been proven, so it doesn’t count. For the billionth time, you can’t join us, it’s too dangerous, and not just for you. How would we know you weren’t a spy? Yeah, think about it. You can help us more by donating, you know the places. Look for our mark, that being a marking the spot kinda deal, and leave whatever you can. We’re mostly okay for food at the moment, but batteries of all kinds would be nice, and we would really appreciate some loo roll, yeah, guys? Just think of what your average house needs to keep functioning. We need to wash our clothes and dishes too, y’know. Also, yes, Psychonaut and Paperdoll are going out, no it isn’t cute, it’s revolting. Oh, hang on, Shameless wants to say something…Captain out.”

“Hey, just stealing the mic for a second to say thank you to whoever left us all those tampons and shit. You know who you are, and seriously. Thank you. That’s all I wanted to say.”

“Great, that was disturbing, thanks, Shameless.”

“Bugger off, Captain, you don’t understand what it’s like.”

“Thank fuck. Right, back to the questions. Yes, we are also pissed at the regime, that’s why we’re fighting. You can fight by helping us. We get that you’re angry too though, don’t get me wrong. Uh…right, in answer to the people who’ve been posting names, these are the names we’ve got on our lists. If I don’t read out the name you’ve sent us, the regime either doesn’t have them, or has them hidden very well. Right. Siobhan Greeves, Olive Wolfe, Henry Porter, Mohammad Nader, Clyde Fitz, Liam Doughty, Teresa Jenkins-Peake and Uriah Dekeyrel. Not sure if I pronounced that last one right. We’re really sorry, guys. Okay, um, so one of you has said that…uh, one of those people’s favourite song was Better Days by The Goo Goo Dolls, so I’m gonna play that now. Dedicated to the missing and the people left behind. Captain out.”

“This is Psychonaut, and you’re listening to the last few minutes of the DN Wave. Our current twitter account is flyingmonkeys8000 since the last one was shut down a few minutes ago, and in response to your tweets, we’ve decided that yes, we also want a riot. Me especially. More of a protest, actually, we don’t want to go around smashing up shit unless it would hurt the regime. So yeah, let’s see if we’re on the same page. If you’re sick of all this bullshit, if you’re sick of being told what to do, where to go, how to live your life from the second you get up to the second you fall asleep, and if you want to show those fuckers that they can’t do whatever the fuck they want and just get away with it, then come to Queen’s Square tomorrow at noon, and we’ll move from there to the Regime Building. If a red flare goes off, scatter. Bring the pain, Bristol. Bring weapons and mask yourselves up. Let’s show those bastards they can’t control everything in this world! Let’s turn up and make a big fucking scene and show the regime that we have power too, and let’s make it so they never forget it! And I’m not really a huge fan of Three Days Grace, but this song is pretty much ideal for this situation, so this is their song Riot. Psychonaut out.”

“This is fucking awesome!” Nick bellowed above the noise as the crowd shuffled forward slowly through the town centre. Rich caught his eye and laughed, shoving his fist, index and pinkie fingers extended, into the air.

The atmosphere was less friendly than the land reclaim protest had been, but that was a good thing, Grace decided, smiling up at Rich. She felt like she would be protected if things went wrong this time. They all knew what to expect now. Every person there was wearing a mask of some sort, and most had their hoods up. Mini and Liv were wearing neon wigs, pink and orange respectively. Franky had a trilby, and Grace had let her hair down, allowing the frizz to hide her, helped by the glittery cat mask tied over her eyes and nose.

There was a sudden cheer, and Grace whooped as someone in the crowd ahead of them lifted up a stereo blasting Standing In The Way Of Control, definitely a blacklisted song. Liv grabbed her arm and pulled her into a tiny circle with Franky, Mini and three other masked girls Grace didn’t recognise. “Standing in the way of control!” They sang gleefully along with the music. “OHHH! Live your life, survive the only way that you know! Ohhhh!”

The whole crowd was singing, and Grace felt like her face would split from laughing so hard. It was incredible, the sheer energy in all of them combined. Surely nothing could stand in their way? There had to be over five hundred, and more were joining them as they marched on to the Regime Building.

Gradually, however, the crowd slowed to a stop, and as the stereo began to blast out Highway To Hell, mutterings flooded backwards from the front line that the police had formed a barricade. And just as quickly, angry momentum from the back built up and broke through, sending an almost palpable wave of fury through the crowd to the front line, who brought out the weapons they had been told to bring along, and attacked. “Nobody’s gonna mess me around…” Bon Scott’s voice rose above the shouts and yells of the people. “Hey, Satan, paid my dues…”

“Should we let off the flare?” Nick asked Franky as quietly as he could, having to almost shout in her ear. She shook her head.

“Not yet.”

There was clearly a fight going up at the front of the mass of protesters, and there was a loud cry of anger as the stereo was torn from its owner’s hands and smashed on the pavement. “Get them!” some people cried, and the masked horde descended on the policemen, only to be beaten back savagely with batons and riot shields. The fight was almost equal, many people having brought their own batons, baseball and cricket bats mixed in with planks of wood and metal pipes and broken bricks in socks, swinging in lethal circles through the air. But the police still had shields, and it wouldn’t be long before the RES stepped in, and they had guns.

The air was close, full of screams of pain and anger and the thudding of improvised weapons against reinforced plastic, and the retaliating blows the policemen dealt out. Something smashed, a brick or something shattering a window, and Grace felt herself being pulled by the wrist into a duck. Rich’s hand, she realised with relief. He pulled her closer and wrapped a protective arm around her shoulders. He wasn’t losing her again, she knew.

“The flare!” she yelled up at him, and he nodded, curving round to let his shoulder catch the backswing of someone’s cricket bat before reaching out and grabbing Franky’s arm.

“Flare!” he bellowed, and she stumbled as someone staggered into her, catching Rich’s eye and nodding as Mini caught her, her pink wig askew on her head. Franky ducked through a line of people to Liv’s side. Liv had the flare.

Grace gasped as a policeman broke through the line of furious protesters right next to them. Rich yanked her away as the policeman swung his baton at her head and caught it, apparently calm. He held it firmly with both hands, refusing to let go, giving Matty the chance to deliver a swift punch to the man’s jaw. There was a sudden bang, and everyone jumped as a red light exploded from the crowd nearby and rocketed into the sky.

“Run!” Dozens of people screamed. “Scatter!”

“Come on!” Rich grabbed Grace’s hand and they weaved through the people as fast as they could. It was easier than she had expected, she thought distantly through the buzz of fear and adrenaline. Everyone was fleeing as fast as they could in all directions, paths opening up ahead of them as the crowd spread out and dissipated down side roads and into shops and down alleys. And this time they managed to all stay together, which was a relief.

They didn’t slow down until Alo doubled over and insisted that he couldn’t go any further. “I…can’t…breathe!” He panted, clutching his side.

“Are there any cameras?” Liv asked, looking around. They were near Brandon Hill, on Charlotte Street.

“There won’t be up there.” Franky pointed up at the hill. “Come on.”

“Oh come on!” Alo gasped, groaning when they started moving off without him. “Guys!”

“Come on, Farmboy.” Nick jogged back and tugged on his arm. “Hurry up.”

“Fuck you, man.” Alo staggered after him. “I’m not a runner.”

“No shit.” Nick grinned at him. “You should get in shape, you know. I could help you out if you want.”

“Maybe.” Alo groaned and Nick got behind him to push him up the slope.

“You can do it, man! I believe in you.”

“Cheers, mate.” Alo let his head flop back and closed his eyes. “Don’t steer me into a tree, yeah?”

Once they had reached the relative safety of the top of the hill with its single bench, they all collapsed on or at the foot of it, taking in the view of the city spread out before them. Safe in the knowledge that there were no CCTV cameras hidden in the trees, they pulled down their hoods and removed their masks and wigs.

“Well that was shit.” Mini snorted breathlessly. “We were only there for about half an hour. What a joke.”

“When the cops and the RES turn up, what else were we going to do?” Matty shrugged, panting slightly.

“You know,” Alo said after a while, mostly recovered. “I remember this story about some girl who topped herself up here.”

“With a load of pills?” Liv asked, and Alo nodded.

“Yeah, that was the one.”

“Nah,” Liv shook her head. “She didn’t die, my sister told me. She OD’d and went crazy instead.”

“Wonder if she’s in one of those institutions.” Alo scrubbed his hands through his hair. “I hope she isn’t.”

“Why?” Grace asked.

“Well, if they have to properly nick people off the streets to put them in these places, I bet they can’t be too nice.” Alo explained, and stretched. “Fuck, I’m tired. Reckon that went well though?”

“The protest, you mean?” Mini looked at him, and he nodded.

“More of a riot towards the end.” Nick said wryly.

“It was good.” Rich said firmly. “Even if we didn’t make that much of a difference, even if we didn’t even make it to the Regime Building, it’s good that we showed them that there are more of us than they think, and we’re angry. We sent a message.”

“That’s good.” Franky nodded appraisingly. “You should say that on the Wave next week.”

“Maybe.” Rich shrugged awkwardly.

“It looks nice from up here.” Matty said suddenly from his seat on the ground next to the bench. He stretched out his legs and regarded the city through narrowed eyes. “Like nothing’s wrong with it.”

“We wish.” Franky said quietly, and they all fell silent, watching the clouds scudding across the sky above the sprawl of Bristol below.

Part 11

Diagrams of the bunker and tunnels are here.