Mr Hook's Big Black Box

Dwayne Carlisle: The Breaker

Ten minutes later I was lying on my back in a tiny cubbyhole filled with electronics.There was other stuff here, vents and backup generators and all kinds, but it was only this panel that interested me now. In particular, a row of seven high voltage circuit breakers, one of which was labelled 'Elev. drive' in machine-stamped block capitals.

I had my mobile phone next to my ear. Marco was going to call as soon as they had the elevator loaded, and let me know when they powered it on. I estimated about twenty seconds for each floor, so I planned to wait twelve between hearing that the door was closed, and pulling the breaker. In a way, it was Cassie who'd given me the idea, though I couldn't say that to the others. She'd mentioned a key to the box, by which I assumed she meant the crowbar. If I'd understood that when she said it, I might have brought one with me and not had to spend so long finding one.

But now, the circuit breaker was the key as well. The ones up here were a modular system, so it was possible to entirely remove a breaker module. The literature for the system said that this was in case a device had to be disabled for safety reasons, to guard against someone else resetting it. It was a pretty weird idea if you ask me, but it had its uses. In particular because the elevator was controlled a larger breaker module than most of the others, to handle the greater load, and none of the others could easily be fitted into its place. The other breaker boxes in different parts of the building were based on different and incompatible standards, so none of those could be used either. Once I pulled the breaker, it would be impossible to move that elevator without it, and getting a replacement from the manufacturer would likely take any other society at least a week.

It also meant that when the fuss had died down with these other groups trying to get at the Box, I could come up before my friends. The doors weren't on the same breaker as the rest of the system, they would still have power, but would be locked as long as the car was between floors. The panels outside the door were closed with a simple torx screw, so there would be nothing to stop me loosening two screws and moving a jumper to open the doors on the corridor side, then using a lever like the crowbar – assuming that I happened to have left one in the Plant Room for convenience – to open the doors on the elevator car itself. I could drop down into the elevator, get Cassie's video, and depending on how far it was from the nearest floor, maybe I could use the wider bands of wood on the crate as steps to get back up to the exit. Nobody would ever know, unless they were an electrical engineer and happened to know that the main breaker only controlled the lift motors at the top of the shaft.

It was a perfect plan, but I was a pessimist by nature. So while I waited for that call from Marco and Ferrari, I was going over every part, trying to spot the points where all our effort could come to nothing, or the best laid plans turn into the biggest train wreck. All I could think of was that some person on official business might find that I'd tampered with the elevator; being charged with burglary wouldn't look too good on my record. But the odds of that had to be so slim, I couldn't even think what kind of coincidence would lead to someone checking up here before we were back to move the Box on tomorrow morning. I kept on trying to see problems, but I couldn't think of any.

Somehow, it never crossed my mind that the people coming to open the Box might be a Russian paramilitary organisation who would kill without hesitation if it furthered their objectives. I think I could be forgiven for not thinking of the other stuff that happened, but that one was at least in the realm of possibility, and I kicked myself later for not anticipating it.

My phone chimed, another birdcall. I reached up and tapped on answer. It was Marco, of course.

"Marco, you ready?"

"Yeah, got it in the elevator. Ferrari said she had an idea, she's going to try distracting them and make sure they don't see what we've got cooking. So I'm here with the Box."