The wall surrounding Godhand’s manor dwarfed the students, but it was no match for their resources. John Smith sat crossed legged at its base with his laptop pressed as close to the brick as possible while Phoenie and the others watched. His fingers tapped out a staccato tune as he worked the array of scanners and sensors packed into the computer’s dark shell.

“Theseus, I’ll need visual confirmation of the patrol routes,” he said, “Use some projector tape to disguise yourself,”

“Roger that,” replied Theseus. He took out a grappling hook from the equipment rucksack and accepted several rolls of projector tape from John. “Never thought I’d be using this stuff for a break in,” he remarked.

John pushed his glasses up and grinned mischievously. “You’d be amazed what you can do with household items,”

Theseus scaled the wall and steadied himself on Doyle’s shoulders while he set up the holographic projector. Thanks to the image projected from the tape, anyone looking in his direction from the other side of the wall would see a hologram of the grey sky, rather than a quiffed teenager in a leather jacket spying on them. Once he’d set up the hologram, Theseus hoisted himself up further.

“Two of ‘em guarding the back door,” he called down, “Two groups of two patrolling the gardens. It’s a bloody maze of crap, just like the satellite pictures showed,”

“Affirmative, everything fits with what I’ve got here,” said John. He glanced up from his laptop and looked at the assembled group. “I’ve uploaded the patrol routes to the network. They’ll be displayed on the map function on your cells, which will be updated with information from the motion detector,” he said, “Although there’s always a chance the guards might divert from their routes, so don’t be one-hundred-percent reliant on your cell,”

“Anything else we should know?” asked Doyle.

“Don’t get caught,” said John, “Theseus is installing a holographic projector down the other side of the wall, so they shouldn’t see us climbing in, but after that you’re on your own. I’d give you projector tape, but you’d need a laptop to use it. I’m sure you guys can find your own methods,”

Theseus pulled himself back over the wall. “Everything’s set up over here. Just need you to adjust the angle and turn the bloody things on,”

John fiddled around on his laptop. “How’s that?” he asked.

Theseus looked behind him. “There’s a tunnel of bricks,” he said, “So it must be working,”

There were few things that confused Phoenie more than the technological miracles of the cynical duo. John’s idea to use projector tape – common in the city for displaying pictures but a rarity outside its neon walls – was another ingenious ideas that most would shoot down, but Phoenie was more than willing to support.

One by one, the group were hoisted up and wall and lowered into the garden beyond down the triangular ‘tunnel of bricks’ Theseus had mentioned. It looked surreal to them, like someone had painted two sheets of cardboard with a brick pattern, but to the guards it would just look like part of the wall. Theseus was the last to drop, landing on his feet with the grace of a wild cat.

“This is where we part ways,” said John, “Theseus, Andromeda and myself will head in first and make our in through one of the windows. We’ll cover ourselves with the holograms again, so pay attention to the window we use, or you’ll get yourselves caught!”

Chapter 17
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