I walked slowly from out of the room, my head still spinning from what I had seen. The end of an ever-darkened passageway, the door had always been locked, but not this day. Nobody within the department had ever questioned what was down there; store room, old records, or perhaps a long-disused stairwell, those had been the assumptions. Not this. Not ever this... I still could not conceive of the meaning of it all, but I knew that I had to get out, get out before whoever had broken down the door came back...or even worse, before someone else realised that the door was open and the secret was out and came looking for those who might have stumbled upon it. Looking for me... I started to run
* * *
Across the city, a sleek grey limousine was pulling up outside a colourfully-painted townhouse, just one of several equally-expensive vehicles doing so at this time every weekday. It was early evening, and the various chauffeurs, nannies, au pairs, and other staff were here to pick up the children from the exclusive private nursery. In somewhat less salubrious surroundings, with somewhat less ostentatious vehicles, it was a scene played out across many ofthe large cities of the country at this time of day. But this institution was different - just how different it itself did not even begin to suspect.
The woman climbed out of he back of the limousine as the front door opened, and the staff began to escort the children towards the correct vehicles. A black-haired nursery nurse was holding the hand of a blond little girl, coming towards them now, a beaming smile upon her face, happy to see her nanny.
"Aurelia", the woman took the child from the nursery nurse and smiled down at her, before dutifully nodding at the latter.
Then it happened. There was a momentary disturbance to the air, then suddenly the thundering sound of rotors, and a sleek black helicopter seemed to leap from behind the buildings opposite. Half a dozen figures leapt down towards the ground, swinging automatic weapons round as they landed, sweeping the roadway with bullets. Staff and children collapsed in bloody heaps upon the steps, their screams drowned by the cacophonous roar of the hovering helicopter. A brave soul in a Bentley tried to ram the machine, but a rocket fired from one of the figures on the ground stopped his vehicle in its tracks.
The woman had swept up the little girl and thrown her upon the back seat, but rounds from the automatic weapons had felled her, and the child now lay quivering, screaming as bullets impacted against the bullet-proof glass around her, cratering in crazy flower-like shapes. The driver was trying to do three things at once, gunning the engine, reaching for a handheld radio, and trying to get the door closed,
"Close the door !" he yelled.
The child just trembled amidst the noise and chaos. And they were now closing in on them. He put his foot down and swerved into the roadway. A rocket blossomed out and hit him. He swung over, trying to turn with the bulk of the helicopter blocking his way, weapons fire unabating.
"Alpha One to all units, IMPERATIVE assistance required"
Two of the figures were moving round to the open doorway now. If they got there, all would be lost...everything. He rammed the car backwards, onto the pavement, over the broken body of the nursery nurse and into the brickwork of the nursery itself. The door still hung open, and one of the men was running for it. The child was now sitting up, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her.
"Q-Excelsior !" the driver screamed in desperation
The little girl blinked, then reached out and pulled the door shut. A hail of bullets impacted against it. The driver completed his turn, and roared off down the road, more rockets crashing into his rear, the vehicle impervious to their effects.
As he screamed around the corner, he could see the helicopter rising behind him, then disappearing. It was over. He glanced over at the child. She was staring at emptiness, catatonic. He was going to get into an awful lot of trouble for this...
* * *
I exited the government offices, into the streets and made to cross towards the Seven Keys inn, then it struck me that all was not usual. Something was definitely wrong out here. There were sirens everywhere, coming from all directions, and overhead giant twin-rotored helicopters were flying. Another sound was coming from somewhere, explosions ? Echoing off the walls, their direction uncertain. People on the pavements were looking around in uncertainty, whilst others were spilling out of buildings.
I did cross then, speaking to regulars I knew by sight as they stared around them as if looking for something.
"What's happening ?" I asked
"Have you seen a black helicopter ?" one asked
"A black...?" I began
He moved away, to get a better look. I frowned, but everyone seemed intent upon the sky. But with what I knew I did not want to linger here, not in the open directly in front of where I worked. I headed inside and to the bar. There were tables of abandoned drinks, hardly anyone inside now, the giant news screen showing a scene from some God-forsaken city of a gunbattle on the streets.
"Pint of bitter, please"
The barman looked at me oddly, and pulled the pump,
"Old news to you is it ?" he nodded at the television screen
"I'm not in the Foreign Office" I said
"Foreign ?", he placed the pint before me, "Don't tell me you don't know ?"
I handed over a five pound note, and looked again at the screen, then at the details. A black helicopter ! And those were British registration plates upon the cars. I had been so busy focusing on what I had learnt back inside the offices, I had not been processing data properly. The explosions had been gunfire ! And the sirens !
"What the Hell happened ?", I asked, taking my change
"Some mad bastards shot up a load of kindergarten kids"
"What ?!" a chill went right through me
"That fucking helicopter's out there somewhere", he pointed to the door.
Now I knew what everybody had been so worked up about