BOOK 2: COMMUNITY / CH. 10: THE BACK EXIT
MONDAY, 4:00 PM
After they'd finished praying for the victims, Karen went to the lobby to talk to Dirk and Eliza, who were assigned as her security detail. It hadn't been the most interesting afternoon for them, once Tim had left. While that had been happening they'd stood out of sight, ready to intervene if necessary, but they'd realised that the Institute's defences were well able to withstand the gang members' attention. They hadn't known about the Institute's exit tunnel, which probably meant that Karen's mother didn't either, so they were keen to join the tour. It would be something interesting to put into their report. It also meant that the facility made a very acceptable safe house, if the Institute were willing to have people living here. It seemed that the security architect had known their business all those years ago.
Kate led the tour to the cleaning supplies cupboard, which was beside the stairs leading to the cellars. She mysteriously lifted a large old tin of floor wax from a shelf. There weren't any wooden floors in the Institute, so John had occasionally wondered why it was there. She set it roughly in the middle of the floor and stood on it. “In case you've wondered what this tin is for, it's because the guy who installed the door handle in here was taller than I am.”
She reached up, above the doorway she'd just entered by, and pulled on the light fitting. It moved, and the shelves behind her rotated into a recess in the wall. In front of her there was a staircase which led down. And John realised that they were the other half of the cellar stairs. That's why the cellar staircase was narrow; it had been built the same width as the stairs to the upper floors, but had been divided in two.
Where the cellar stairs turned left, these stairs had a short landing then kept going, straight and unlit. From the landing there was a heavy door to the right.
“This is the door to the generator room,” Kate said, stopping beside the door. “The room itself is under the flower beds. There used to be a big diesel generator in there, but it's been removed and there's now a small automated fusion plant in there. We do still use some grid power, but the computer and security systems run off this. It keeps the electricity bills down.”
“So why do you use grid power?” Dirk asked.
“Because it raises less suspicion,” Kate said. “Rather than have people wonder how we keep the lights on when there's a power-cut, we let grid power provide all but emergency lighting, and we use our own generator to power the computer, forcefields and everything else which is power-hungry.”
“But why, what's wrong with people wondering how you keep the lights on?” Eliza asked.
“Because to our neighbours we'd much rather stay a slightly strange research organization with high power clients than a scary fortress with a 10 megawatt fusion reactor.”
“Ten megawatts?” Sarah asked. “Why on earth do we need ten megawatts of generating capacity? That's more than the entire block needs, surely.”
“Embarrassing mistake on the part of my predecessor. Do you know what the difference is between the installation costs of a one megawatt and a ten megawatt reactor?”
“I'm guessing that it's not ten times,” John said.
“No. It's about ten percent. So he, not thinking anything about cooling, decided to get the bigger reactor, thought it was future proofing. Of course, even a megawatt would be too big, but that was the smallest reactor they did at the time. We did tell the power company about the little mistake, and told them that if they could work out where to put a cooling tower and some more generators they could use our reactor. They laughed. Too little for them to be interested, much too much for us to use.”
“So do you have ten megawatts of generators in there too?” Sarah asked.
“No only about half a megawatt, actually.”
“So, you've got a spare nine megawatts of heat available and nothing to do with it?” Dirk asked.
“About that, yes. We do sell the heat to the city in winter, to help de-ice the roads round here, and you won't find me moaning about heating bills.”
“So using that road heating pipework we could dump those megawatts occasionally, just not continually unless it's winter?” Sarah asked.
“I suppose so. Why?”
“I was just thinking that if things got bad then our neighbours might like to be inside a fortress. A forcefield only needs relatively little power to sustain it, but with nine megawatts of generators to set one up you could put up quite a big one.”
“Hmm. That's interesting. I'll file that away for when law and order starts collapsing.”
“I was more thinking for when the press hoards descend on us.”
“What, lock them away with a forcefield?” Kate asked.
“Sorry, it's a silly idea,” Sarah admitted.
“Actually, it has potential,” Dirk said. “It would keep drone cameras away too.”
“Sarah, you've studied forcefields,” John asked. “Could you set up a field which didn't keep out the wind, rain, and birds, but did stop drones, missiles and the like?”
“Urm, not personally, but it's probably possible, yes. Things with propellers don't like forcefields: the propeller tips always go too fast and get ripped off. I'm not sure what would happen to things with fast wing beats. It might stop flying insects too.”
“Hmm. Some I could do without, but stopping pollinators wouldn't be appreciated,” Kate agreed. “Anyway, shall we continue? Computer, tunnel lights on.”
The lights came on, and they saw that the stairs went down quite a bit further and turned right. There was a click behind them as the shelves fitted back into place. “The lights going on closes the entrance by the way. The tunnel doesn't go under the generator room, don't worry, it's outside the room's footprint,” Kate said.
“So it goes across the road?” John asked.
“Come along, you'll see,” was all Kate would say.
They walked along the tunnel. Kate had been right, it was dusty. “You probably won't notice it unless we stop, but there's a gentle breeze going along the tunnel from behind us. It's part of the cellar ventilation system. It brings some dust, but it stops the air from getting stale down here.”
They continued down the tunnel and round a few turns. Karen wasn't sure if it was a kilometre or two, but her hands were getting sore from her crutches. Then they found a long flight of steps up. At the top of the stairs, there was a short flat section and then a very normal looking elevator door, except that there was a large red handle beside it. Also there was a display which flickered to life as they approached, showing the view from a camera on the outside, not a normal feature for a lift door.
Kate pressed the elevator call button, and when it arrived she ushered them in and pressed the button for the ground floor. The doors behind them closed and without them going up or down the ones in front of them opened. Stepping into the daylight on the other side, they found themselves beside the staff entrance to one of the oldest shops in the city. The door they'd come from was labelled ‘Staff elevator I, access to all floors (according to authorisation). Permitted staff only.’ There was an I.D. and biometric scanner beside the door instead of a call button.
As though conducting a staff orientation, which of course she was, Kate said, “This lift will take you to the offices you're permitted to access. If you're in a mixed group then the lift will let the lowest level staff off first, but really, it's best to only share it with people going to your floor. You need to use this lift, but other people might be able to use another lift, so don't be afraid to ask them if they really need this one if you find yourselves waiting in a mixed group. Let's go back in now.”
Kate called the lift with her I.D. and fingerprint, and they went in. The outside doors closed, but the computer, not having George, Dirk and Eliza on file as staff did not open the tunnel doors.
“If it's just IHM staff members, the computer will open the other doors automatically, though you can ask for another floor. If there are people who work in other parts of the building, they'll be let off first. If you've got other people with you, for instance Karen with your security detail, you're going to need to tell the computer to let them in. If the computer thinks you're under duress, it'll probably squirt sleep gas at them. If you want it to gas someone in the lift and it hasn't done it yet, there's a key word that I won't use for obvious reasons. Karen, tell the computer who to let in.”
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“Computer, grant entry to visitors George, Dirk and Eliza.”
The inside doors opened. Once they were out of the lift, Kate told them, “The duress code is ‘basement’. If you tell the computer to take you to the basement level, it'll try to gas all the non-staff members in the lift. If you want to just gas a subset of the people, then you can tell the computer to admit those people to the basement. Unless you tell it otherwise, the lift will then take you to the floor where building security are. Hopefully the computer will be able to explain to them why there are unconscious bodies in the lift with you.”
“Sleep gas release in a lift could well hit everyone in it,” Dirk commented.
“Yes. That's why it goes to building security. They can put the bad guys in cells and dose the good guys with antidote.”
“Assuming they've not been corrupted,” Eliza said.
“Fair enough. But if you're conscious, you can tell it to admit you to the facility or go to any floor, or even open the outside door again. After which, building security would get a delivery of a lift full of unconscious baddies.”
“So what happens if we ask someone to leave us the lift and they say they're a director, or board member and won't let you have it alone?” Eliza asked.
“Well, you can take a ride up to their floor with them, and then it'll let them out first and burst their bubble about who's the most important.”
“And if they ask what is happening?” Dirk asked.
“Then if they get abusive tell them that they don't need to give you their name, as the computer has it already, and Karen can tell them that you're using the owner's lounge at the express invitation of the majority shareholder.”
“The Institute is majority shareholder?”
“Yes. The tunnel is original, the shop's owner was one of the founders of the Institute. He was also stinking rich and paranoid about assassination attempts. He had it dug so that he wouldn't have to step outside to visit the Institute, then decided that he would leave the Institute most of his shares in his will, with the stipulations that we may not sell them, allow them to be diluted, or allow any relocation of the store. And don't the other shareholders hate us for that! We generally abstain at shareholder meetings, but have to veto the things our founder didn't like. Of course, since we want to keep the tunnel functioning, the will is a good excuse for us to vote that way.”
“Surely it's known about?”
“Oh, I'm sure there are rumours, but since our computer runs the security for the shop, it isn't really hard to make sure that no one knows anything for sure.”
“But it's known that there was a tunnel?”
“Unconfirmed rumour, even less confirmed than the owner's lounge, which we use to interview prospective board members, but that too is only accessible by this lift.”
“So who cleans the owner's lounge?” Sarah asked.
“Most junior staff member of the Institute, according to long standing tradition. Don't worry, Karen. It's fairly small, and not that ornate. It is all real wood though. Since we're here, why don't I show you?”
“Is it secure?” Dirk asked.
“It's on the top floor of this building. Windows are double layer semi-mirrored security glass, each layer should be bullet proof, but probably not proof against high calibre weapons. Access only by this lift, or a door to the roof. The roof has a helicopter pad. Doors to that are original — described as bomb proof by a security assessment about ten years ago.”
“That'll do,” Eliza answered.
“Shall we go up?” Kate asked.
“Yes, let me see my cleaning task, please,” Karen answered and pressed the call button.
“Before we go anywhere,” Eliza asked, “what does the red handle do?”
“Emergency exit. It's for getting out when there's been a total power failure. It locks the lift for a minute just in case, and unlocks both inner and outer doors. There's some kind of ladder type arrangement to let you get across the lift shaft.”
“Someone has tried to think of everything, I see,” Dirk said approvingly. “What happens to mere mortals like senior managers in case of a fire in the shop?”
“Oh, there's another exit to the roof.”
“OK. So, in the event of a power cut we could get down from the lounge going that way?” Karen asked as they entered the lift.
“This lift is considered vital equipment, it's powered by our generator,” Kate answered. “Ahh. That's nice.”
“Kate, is there any reason that I don't know any of this stuff? Did I fail to read it in my briefing document or something?” John asked.
“Urm, no John, sorry. It's never been in the manual. I should have told you, but I kept forgetting. I don't actually remember if I told anyone after Ivan, and he couldn't really pay attention once I'd mentioned the generator. He really really wanted to find a use for it. I suspect that involved large sparks though.”
“Wow. Hasn't there been any changes on the board or anything since then?” John asked.
“Well, they come round every five years or so. Teresa was technically the most junior staff member at the time of the last interview, so I brought her up by the lift. She didn't need to know about the tunnel.”
“Oh.”
“I really should write it all down sometime,” Kate sighed as they arrived.
“How about you just get the computer to prepare a draft based on what you've just been telling us?” Sarah asked.
“Can it do that?”
“It'll probably need some human editing, but it should be able to make a reasonable first draft.”
“That had never occurred to me. Show me how sometime, OK?”
“Of course. You do it like this: Computer, low priority task: generate document from Kate's statements about tunnel, lift and owner's lounge since we entered the tunnel. Document style: history of Institute. Classify document as for permanent staff only, status: first draft. Deliver to Kate for editing.”
“Query: include additional references and dates where appropriate?”
“Confirmed.”
“That's it?” Kate asked.
“Apart from your editing,” Sarah confirmed.
They entered the lounge. It wasn't exactly opulent, but its décor spoke of quality, tradition, and great wealth. There was some dust, but not as much as Karen had expected.
“I can see why you might want to interview people here,” Dirk said.
“Nice place,” Sarah said. “Old money at home and comfortable. I wonder you don't use it more often.”
“Yes, I can imagine it as being a good place for meetings where you wanted to impress people,” Karen said.
“Well, the security isn't as strong as at the Institute, and we don't really want to advertise the fact that the Institute is linked to this place too much.”
“Kate, I suggest you bring Pete here, and listen to what he says as PR guy,”
Sarah said. “The links between the shop and the Institute are there for anyone to find out, and I expect that if someone put a query on the net it would tell them all about that tunnel.”
“Really?” Kate asked, shocked.
Dirk asked, “Is there a terminal here? It would be good to know.”
Kate touched a hidden button on one of the desks, and a terminal appeared.
“Query away, please, Sarah.”
“OK. First query: tunnel IHM. Oooh look, there we are. 'The costs of paranoia... One mile tunnel to be dug across city to new Institute.'”
“Anything more recent?”
“Oh yes. A few years later. ‘Eccentric pours more millions down private drainpipe.’ Oh, he ended up buying houses all along the route, so that he had the land rights. And the next one: ‘Riches to rags: How to spend the family fortune.’ Few years later, ‘Eccentric digger sells stock to avoid bankruptcy.’ ‘Dig he do it? Curiosity surrounds dig project.’ A summary: he gave a chunk of his money to start the Institute, he bought a lot of property, eventually got permission to build the tunnel. Five years later they know he caused a slump in the property market by selling long bargain rate leases on all the houses he'd bought, but he kept the land. He got sued by some neighbours for damage to their property value, spent more money fighting and then settling those, and had to sell a large chunk of the shop to pay that off, and then he retired from public life and died of a heart attack some time later. His car used to visit the Institute but some people claimed it wasn't him that was going in and out, so no one knew if he succeeded in digging his tunnel or not.”
“What happened to the land?” Kate asked.
“It was left to the Institute, along with the shares in the shop, it says here,” Sarah reported.
“Interesting,” Kate said. “I wasn't ever told that. I wonder when those leases are up for renewal.”
“Hmm, that'd be a rather important question for Teresa to look into,” John said.
“Oh, look, here's a map showing the houses he bought.”
“Fascinating. It looks like there were going to be two tunnels.”
“Unless he decided to keep people guessing,” Dirk suggested.
“Well it's not hard to find out if there's a concrete tunnel secretly hiding under your garden, surely?” Kate asked.
“We were what, six or eight metres below ground? That's a pretty deep hole to dig from curiosity, Kate,” John said. “And I bet there's a clause in the lease conditions that says you agree not to dig a well or other hole more than so many metres down,” Dirk agreed.
“Anything more recent?”
“Twenty years ago. ‘UN embargo on reporting about Institute foils tunnel hunt. School archaeology project halted by lawyers.’ A school child wanted to find out if the tunnel rumour was real, but the Institute lawyers ‘told the court that while disclosing the existence or non-existence of the tunnel would be interesting to local historians, it would also breach the UN resolution prohibiting discussion of the clients or of access to the Institution.’ Looks like the judge agreed. Isn't that a bit heavy handed?”
“I remember it now. He'd heard about the rumours and wanted to do a project on the tunnels. Wrote and asked if he could see them. But when a school report is complete then the school can put it on the net, and it becomes journalism. Can't allow that. He knows the truth now of course.”
“He does? How?” Sarah asked.
“Doesn't it mention his name? It was Ivan. After the court case we told him that while he couldn't write about the tunnels, he could write about the research we were doing, as long as he didn't name names or anything like that. He came, saw the labs, and was hooked.”
“Speaking of the labs,” Karen said “I've just spent my first day of being a research assistant well away from them. I hope tomorrow is a little more normal.”
“You mean you don't want to spend a few happy hours cleaning this room?” Kate asked. “It doesn't actually need much, does it? Don't worry, Karen, we're not planning to use it very soon. Shall we go back to the Institute?”
“Yes, let's,” John said, “but you bring Pete here one day soon, Kate, OK?”
“Who's in charge round here?” Kate responded. John wasn't sure if the bite in it was pretence or not.
“God is, of course,” Sarah answered, with a grin. “But seriously, if this place is available, then for some things it beats the Institute’s conference room or hiring somewhere, doesn't it? Would we need to get agreement from the other shareholders to use it?”
“To that last, not really, we've got the majority vote, after all, and we have let other shareholders use it before. Of course it would be polite to ask if they had any objections. I'm just not sure we should get people thinking about the tunnel again. But all right, I'll bring Pete up to have a look.”