Suddenly, his speakers came to life, startling him. This time the voice belonged to a woman. ‘Please, let us go,’ he heard her sob. ‘I haven’t done anything to you.’
Jude spoke tentatively. ‘Hello? Who is this?’
‘Who … who are you?’ she replied, with equal uncertainty.
‘Jude … Jude Harrison,’ he replied, ‘Something’s happening to my car.’
‘My name is Claire Arden and I’m inside a Skepter AR5, registration number FGY778. I was on my way to work when my car started driving in a different direction and a voice told me I was going to die. My phone won’t work – can you send someone to help me?’
‘I wish I could but I’m in the same boat as you,’ Jude replied. ‘I’m locked in my car and I can’t get out.’
‘I don’t understand?’ she replied. ‘Ben told me he’d taken out the full service and emergency plan. Aren’t you an operator?’
‘No, I’m sorry,’ said Jude. ‘I’ve tried everything I can think of but I can’t get my car to stop either.’
‘Why … why is this happening?’ she stammered. ‘What do they want from me? Do they want money? I haven’t got much but I can try and find some?’
‘Did someone tell you that your car had been hacked?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’
‘And did they ask you for money?’
‘No. All they said was that in two and a half hours, I was going to die.’
Her voice broke and Jude heard her crying again. ‘They said the same to me,’ he replied.
‘Who’s going to help us?’
‘I have no idea. I think we just have to wait until they tell us—’
‘Sam, what’s going on?’ A second distressed voice, a female one, came from nowhere and filled Jude’s car.
‘I don’t know, but please try and stay calm,’ came a third, this time male.
‘Hello!’ yelled both Claire and Jude together.
How many more of us are there?Jude thought. ‘Can you hear us?’ he asked.
‘Yes, who’s that?’ the man replied.
‘We are trapped in our cars and can’t get out, can you help us? Do you have access to a phone signal or Wi-Fi?’
‘No, my wife and I … someone has us locked inside …’
But before the male voice could continue, the dashboard in Jude’s vehicle turned on and he saw himself on the television monitor. He was being filmed face-on, from a camera embedded in his dashboard. Then smaller screens appeared with strangers’ faces inside. Jude counted five in total.
His heart was beating twenty to the dozen as he listened to the terror-stricken confusion of the others as they begged to be told what was happening to them.
Then, as quickly as they had arrived, they were muted, leaving him in an ominous silence again.
Chapter 11
Jack Larsson raised his right hand into the air and lowered his index finger to signal to one of his two assistants.
‘Case number three hundred and twenty-two,’ he began, and footage from a moving vehicle appeared on the jurors’ tablets. A street was also projected as a three-dimensional moving hologram, coming from wall-attached lasers that were directed towards a table in the centre of the room. Moving vehicles could be seen from every angle.
On her tablet, Libby assumed that from the positioning and close proximity to the road, footage had been takenfrom high-definition cameras integrated into the front grille of the vehicle. The corner of the screen displayed various statistics, including its speed, the weather conditions, road gradient and geographical coordinates.
