Urban Outlaws Read Online Free PDF Page B

Jack didn’t agree, he couldn’t help but admire Obi for sticking by something he believed in. Even if it was barmy – up there with UFOs and leprechauns. Or better yet, leprechauns flying UFOs, which Obi probably believed in too.
    Obi was convinced the US government had captured an alien spacecraft at Roswell, back in the nineteen-forties, and they had been reverse-engineering it ever since. He watched countless documentaries on the subject, and belonged to a few online forums. Jack was surprised by how many people like Obi there were in the world.
    So, they’d all had this argument with Obi a million times and it always went the same way: Obi would start out insisting something was real. Everyone would tell him it wasn’t. He’d get upset. Charlie would comfort him . . . It was beyond predictable.
    It suddenly occurred to Jack that Obi might start arguments just to get some attention from Charlie. It wouldn’t surprise him.
    Time to say what he usually did at this moment. No point denying Obi the few minutes of Charlie’s time. ‘Proteus is a myth, mate.’
    ‘It isn’t ,’ Obi said with conviction.
    Nothing new there.
    Slink threw his hands up in a dramatic gesture and walked away. ‘You’re crazy.’
    ‘I’m not crazy.’
    Slink spun back, folded his arms, and gave Obi a look as if to say, Oh, really?
    ‘Obi, sweetie,’ Charlie said in a soft tone.
    Here it comes , Jack thought.
    ‘Proteus is –’ She took a breath. ‘It isn’t real.’
    ‘What’s Proteus?’
    All eyes moved to Wren. She was chewing on strawberry liquorice and looking at them in complete bewilderment.
    ‘It’s a quantum computer,’ Obi said, as if this would make things clear for her.
    Wren screwed her face up. ‘What’s that?’
    Jack said in a monotone voice, ‘A computer that uses quantum physics and the power of atoms to run calculations. Therefore, far outperforming any current technology.’
    This was greeted by a blank expression and silence.
    Charlie whispered in Jack’s ear, ‘You read that on Wikipedia, Einstein?’
    ‘Very funny.’
    Charlie looked at Wren. ‘What Captain Physics and his overeating sidekick are trying to say is it’s a very powerful computer that hasn’t been invented yet.’
    Obi frowned. ‘It has been invented. It’s –’
    Jack held up a hand, interrupting him. ‘Proteus is a rumour spread among naive script kiddies.’
    Wren blinked. ‘Script kiddies?’
    Jack gave a dismissive wave. ‘Doesn’t matter.’ He turned back to Obi. ‘Please just get to the point, so we can go back to what we were doing,’ he said, even though Jack had no idea what he was going to do with the rest of the evening.
    ‘Fine.’ Obi spun a trackerball mounted to his chair and the main monitor in front of him sprang to life. It showed a black-and-white CCTV image of the alleyway Jack and Charlie were in earlier. ‘I was going through the footage trying to work out why they changed the lock, and I found this.’
    A white van backed into the alleyway and three men jumped out. One unlocked the building’s roller door while the other two removed a crate from the back of the van. The men struggled to carry it into the building and vanished from view.
    Jack looked at the others. Like him, so far they seemed unimpressed.
    Obi sped the recording forward fifteen minutes and the men came back out of the building, still carrying the crate, though it was clearly a lot lighter and empty now.
    The men locked up, slid the crate into the back of the van and drove off.
    Obi turned to the group with a triumphant smile. ‘See?’
    Everyone was frowning.
    ‘See what exactly?’ Charlie said.
    Obi huffed as if they were all blind. He sped the recording back to the moment the men were carrying the crate to the van and paused the image. ‘ There .’
    They leant in.
    ‘What are we looking for?’ Jack said.
    ‘Come on, guys.’ Obi zoomed in on the image to the side of the crate. There was a logo burnt into the wood. It