Part 23 (1/2)

There's a plan hanging on the wall, showing a grid system of wide and narrow pa.s.sageways.

Every storeroom is numbered, and they're arranged in blocks. A list of staff codes for the stores is neatly pinned up alongside.

Joona sits down at the computer. The pa.s.sageways between the storerooms are monitored by security cameras. Twenty-five small squares cover the screen. All the cameras are filming windowless darkness. It's night, and the lights have all been switched off.

'See if you can find a list of customers,' Adam says.

Joona minimises the security cameras, tries to open various programs but can't get anywhere. Everything apart from the cameras requires a pa.s.sword.

He quickly returns to the cameras and enlarges the first square and stares at the grey-black stillness, like a black square of linen. Then the next one. The camera is filming nothing but darkness. Adam shuffles nervously behind him. He looks at the plan on the wall.

Everything is quiet, sunk in darkness.

The third camera is pointed towards an emergency exit. A green sign above the door casts an algae-like glow across the flecked cement floor and corrugated metal walls.

There's some rubbish outside one of the storerooms, and the underwater lighting from the emergency exit illuminates an abandoned barrow.

Joona glances at the plan on the wall and locates the emergency exit, and works out where the camera is mounted. Everything is still quiet. A numbing feeling of exhaustion washes over him like a wave, forcing him to close his eyes for a couple of seconds.

The darkness on the computer screen is monotonous. Some of the cameras register light from coded locks, but nothing else.

'Dark,' Adam says.

'Yes,' Joona says, enlarging the fourteenth square.

He's just about to close it when there's a flicker in the bottom corner.

'Hang on,' he says.

Adam leans forward and looks at the dark image. There's nothing in sight, everything is still, but then the little light in the corner flashes again.

'What was that?' Adam whispers, leaning closer to the screen.

The little light flashes again. It's faint, and only manages to light up a small area of floor, revealing the pattern of the cement.

Joona clicks to enlarge the next camera image, then the next, and waits a while, but they show nothing but blackness. He looks at the overview, with all twenty-five cameras at the same time. Number fourteen flickers again, but the others remain lifeless.

'The source of the light ought to be here, or here,' Joona says, pointing at the plan. 'But it's not covered by one single camera, which makes no sense.'

'Where are we?' Adam asks, looking at the plan on the wall.

'Camera fourteen must be at the far end of corridor C,' Joona says.

He enlarges the images one by one. All black, still, but suddenly he stops.

'Did you see something?' Adam asks.

They both stare at the static black image.

'That's what I mean,' Joona replies. 'Where's the green light? This is the camera pointing at the emergency exit.'

'Try that one,' Adam says, pointing. 'That ought to pick up the light from the lock leading to the next section.'

Joona quickly enlarges the image. Also completely black. The door and lock can't be seen at all.

That can only be because there's something wrong with the camera. There seem to be an awful lot of faulty cameras down there.

'There's a huge area missing, loads of cameras,' he says, looking at Adam.

'Where?'

'The whole of this upper area, along corridors C, D and E ... that's maybe fifty storerooms,' Joona says, looking back at the image from camera fourteen again.

The faint light flickers across the uneven floor, and remains on for a moment. He can just make out the bottom of the metal doors before the light goes off, then comes on again.

'That light's an emergency signal,' Joona says, getting up from the chair.

Security camera number fourteen is registering fragments of an emergency signal. Further along the corridor, where the cameras aren't working, someone is flas.h.i.+ng a light. It's the international emergency signal using Morse code. SOS: three quick flashes followed by three longer ones, then three short ones again.

43.

The automatic garage door whirrs shut behind them. The pain in his hip from walking down the slope makes Joona break out in a sweat. His heavy pistol is swinging against his ribs, and the sound of his stick echoes in the narrow tunnel leading down to the storage area.

'We ought to call for backup,' Adam says, drawing his Sig Sauer.

He pulls out the magazine, checks that it's full, pushes it back in and feeds the first bullet into the chamber.

'There's no time, but I can go in on my own,' Joona says.

'I was thinking of telling you to wait outside, you're not a police officer any more, and I can't take responsibility for you,' Adam explains.

They emerge into an underground garage, with metal doors leading to the storage area. Large ventilation pipes run across the ceiling.

'I can usually manage,' Joona says, stopping in front of the door.

He pulls out his large-calibre pistol. It's a Colt Combat, with new sights and an improved trigger coil. He's filed one side of the rosewood grip so that the gun sits snugly in his left hand.

Adam walks over to the keypad to the coded lock, and pulls out the list of staff codes. The little screen casts a blue light over his hand and up across the white concrete wall.

'Stay behind me,' he whispers, and opens the door.

They go inside, closing the steel door carefully behind them, and start to head along a dark side-pa.s.sage. The monotonous grey metal walls and series of storeroom doors stretch off into the darkness.

They're approaching the first wider pa.s.sageway which, according to the plan, runs the entire length of the bas.e.m.e.nt.

They move across the cement floor almost silently. The only sound is from Adam's breathing, and the faint tapping of Joona's stick.