Chapter 9 – Breaking and entering

Once it got dark, the trio got ready and set off. They put black clothes on to make sure that they were well camouflaged in the darkness of the night, so that nobody would catch them. The last thing they wanted now was to be in jail, and breaking into the police station is the easiest way for that to happen.
- “Which part of the police station exactly do we need to reach?” Christina asked.
- “I assume the data vault in the basement section.” Pete replied.
- “That’s most likely gonna be locked.” She predicted.
- “No worries. I brought with myself a few lockpicks.” Pete said.
- “Make sure to watch out for the guards.” Vince reminded them, “They were all over the place earlier.”
The three of them crept through the empty streets until they reached the police station. They went around it until they reached a back door. That way there’d be less security and also closer to the data vault whilst inside the station. Pete got out one of the lockpicks and shoved it into the lock. He then began picking it.
- “You guys keep your eyes peeled.” Pete suggested.
- “Don’t worry. I’m the eyes on the back of your head.” Vince reassured him.
Pete kept on picking the lock and finally succeeded. He was skilled at that as he did it many times before.
Vince gave it a one last look around to make sure nobody was watching and then proceeded inside after Pete and Christina.
- “Do you know the way?” he asked them.
- “Yes.” Pete answered.
Three of them moved through the dark corridors. There were no cameras in the back corridors so they didn’t have to be wary of them. The data vault was not too far away, but it’s likely to be well guarded.
They went through several corridors and finally reached one of the ends of this corridor with a metal door. It had a retinal scanner by it as well as a keypad for a code.
- “I’m sorry I don’t know the code.” Christina said.
- “You’re excused.” Vincent joked.
- “This will take some time, so be patient.” Pete said.
He undid the keypad first and began fiddling with the wires. One wrong move and an alarm could ring, but Pete was relatively familiar with electronic stuff.
- “What do you think we will find?” Christina asked Vince meanwhile.
- “Well I think it’s most likely to be some lab accident. Someone’s device probably backfired. That’s the risk of being a scientist.” Vince explained.
- “Yeah, it’s definitely a risky job.”
- “I once nearly lost my life because one of the devices I was working on backfired.”
- “Really? I’m so sorry to hear that. I am glad you made it though.”
- “Yeah. I spent nearly a month in a coma and then 7 more months I had to stay in the hospital to properly heal. Nevertheless, I returned to my work. I never abandoned it after what happened to me.”
- “Well you are someone who pursues his goals. That is why I trust you. Because I know you won’t bail out on us and our situation.”
At this moment Pete sorted out the keypad.
- “One down, one to go.” He said.
- “Good job, Pete. Keep it up.” Christina said, then turned back to Vince and continued “hey I feel bad for something.”
- “For what?”
- “Well I lied to you earlier. I said I was 28. I’m actually 30... and a half”
- “It’s OK. I understand.”
- “I must say, at this age I’ve already lost much hope in life. But you know, your arrival here gave me hope.”
- “I am glad it did…”
- “You probably don’t know what I mean though. It’s a wonderful feeling. Suddenly I know that my life will be OK and that we’ll get through this.”
Here Vince gave her a hug. Christina felt all warm inside. Vince was truly a great guy. He was different to most people that she knew, even before the accident that turned people into liars. She thought of maybe two of them could have a future together, but it was still too early to plan things like that. Right now they had a different problem to worry about.
Pete finally sorted out the retinal scanner too and now the huge metal door unlocked, so Pete pulled on its handle and it opened.
- “Great job, Pete.” Vince congratulated him.
- “There’s only one problem though. I won’t be able to put everything back to normal when we’re done, so the cops will know that somebody broke in over the night.” Pete explained.
- “That shouldn’t be a problem I hope.” Vince said, “just hope that nobody saw us break in and that there are no security cameras around here that we’re not aware of.”
All three of them went into the data vault. It had lots of shelves full of files. There was also a computer in the centre of the room. All of the files in the vault were also recorded on the computer, so that they’d be easier to find.
- “Be careful!” Pete suddenly stopped them, “There is a camera in here.”
Vince and Christina stopped by the entrance. Pete walked over to the camera that hung on the ceiling. It most likely would have seen them. But it didn’t matter since their clothing covered their faces and nobody would recognize them. Pete just turned the camera away, so that it couldn’t record what they were doing.
- “You can come in now.” He told them.
Vince then approached the data vault computer and switched it on. The files in the database were arranged in different formats. He then refreshed the arrangement to make sure that it would sort everything out by date.
- “Christina, what’s the exact date of the accident?” he asked.
- “I am not entirely sure, but the morning when I noticed the changes was 3rd of January.”
- “So the accident is likely to have happened the day before that then.” Vince assumed.
He went into the folder with files of that date. It took him quite a while to find his way round there and he needed to check a few days after that, because it’s likely to have been filed after that date. Finally he found a file by the title ‘Freak accident ruins the life in America’.
- “This could be it.” He said.
He went into the file and all three of them began reading various listed reports of what government found.
It turned out that the accident happened in Redwell labs when some kind of non-fully-built mind controlling machine went out of control and sent a horrible radioactive wave outwards, covering a huge area, before it blew up, severely damaging the building. After that the Redwell labs went out of business. The building got abandoned, and nobody visited it for a while.
- “Reminds me of what happened to me when I got transported here.” Vince said, “I hope my lab building didn’t blow up like that. I hope all my friends are OK.”
- “I am sure it can’t be just as bad. With your bright mind things can’t go too bad.” Christina said to him.
- “Thanks. I hope you’re right.”
On this note they shut down the computer and exited the data vault. Pete shut the metal door and all three of them quickly got through the corridors and exited through the back entrance. They made sure no-one was looking and crept through the dark parts of the street until they got close to home, where they relaxed a little bit.
- “Well that was fun.” Pete said.
- “I disagree.” Christina said.
- “I was being sarcastic.” He said back.
- “So, we’ll need to find Redwell labs tomorrow.” Vince transferred the subject onto a more serious note.
- “Yes. But we’ll need to check the online maps for where it is.” Christina said, “because I don’t think I know where they are.”
- “That’s fine.” Vince agreed.
At this moment they reached home, looked through online maps for Redwell labs, had a cup of tea and finally a good night’s rest.