The Hidden Web

6. The unravelling is in motion

Richard was slowly sipping the black coffee Dani gave him. Emma and him were sitting in her lounge on her grey sofa, Dani on a wooden dining chair. Emma gave him a nudge, followed by the look. "There's something we need to talk about darling" Richard finally mustered up the confidence to say. Dani put down her tea, she could tell it couldn't be good news. "Nana has got to go..." His voice trailed off, his eyes looked at the floor and then the wall. He could feel his heart ripping inside. He didn't want to look at either of them, he was trying to be strong and hold it together "Has got to go to the clinic" Richard could feel his throat dry up, he took a sip of coffee. Dani looked at her dad, tears in her eyes "When" Was the only word she could muster. "Two Weeks' time" "But she's only 82...how could she of spent her time already" Dani could feel the anger replacing her sadness. "She won't tell me" Dani could feel her father's sadness, she never seen him sad before. The silence was growing longer, uncomfortably so. "I'll go see her next Sunday, if you'd like to join me dad." "Yeah, that'll be nice" The uncomfortableness evaporated as fast as it came, the conversation quickly changed to a more upbeat topic.

That night Richard laid awake in the bed, he hated sleeping in Dani spare room, he had always found it noisy and the curtains were to thin and allowed in the streetlight, but wherever he went to bed that night he wasn't sleeping. Emma on the other hand was fast asleep. He couldn't stand staring at the white ceiling anymore, he gently crept out of bed and sat on the lounge sofa with a glass of water, but he couldn't get the thought of his mum out of his mind. He decided that a walk might clear his head so he grabbed his black coat and put it over his pyjamas, slipped on his black shoes and slowly closed the front door.

Zack taped a code in the silver keypad. The glass doors whirred open. Zack stepped into the building, his footsteps echoed throughout. Marching past a reception desk, which was covered with a massive white sheet, he got some keys out of his coat and put the long gold key in a metal door with an electrical warning sticker on. Turning the key anti clockwise, the lock clicked. He pushed a trip up and closed the cupboard, then headed up the stairs and searched for an extension lead. Once he went through a few desks, he found one long enough to get down to the ground floor. He plugged it in and then opened the window and gently lowered the socket reel to the floor.

Rebecca double clicked to open her email, she had been forwarded an email regarding her department budget for the year. She pulled up last years budget to compare and got out her red pen. After a few hours she made herself a cup of tea. As she was sipping it, a thought popped into her head about the staffing budget. She had another glance of the email, scrolling down a bit further to find the original email. It didn't have anymore information about staffing...but it had a different name assigned to her department - Government Life Debt Unit.

As Richard strolled the street, which was brightly lit with an orange glow, he wished he had put a jumper on as there was an unmistakable chill on this clear night. As he turned the corner, he could see the railway bridge, which was bustling with freight trains. He continued his stroll, suddenly a storm came rolling in from the east, a howling wing followed by a lashing of acid rain. Richard ran for cover, he saw a ghastly grey building, an old bank, it would have to do. As he sat the storm out, his eyes were taken by a black shiny item in the corner, partially covered with old leaves. He couldn't stop his curiosity and picked it up to find it was an old tablet. He tried to turn it on but nothing happened, thought it was clear from the state of the tablet, it had been there for a while. Richards inquisitively was peaked, he decided to take it home and see if he could get it working, so placed it in his coat pocket and waited for the storm to clear.

Zack plugged in the Glorstar V99 in, it made a humming noise but nothing else. He unplugged it and opened up the control panel, a couple of wires were loose. He went to the maintenance shed, grabbing the big black and yellow tool box, then headed back. He grabbed the soldering kit and got to work. He put the panel back on and tried again, this time the humming noise was followed by the control panel lighting up, though the low battery light was blinking, everything else was reading okay, just 18 hours to wait.