The Torc
(Book 1 – The Emerging)
By
Tanya Allan
The Torc (Book 1 – The Emerging) - Copyright2015 Tanya Allan
The author asserts her moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
All Rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the copyright holder, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
Any adaptation of the whole or part of the material for broadcast by radio, TV, or for stage plays or film, is the right of the author unless negotiated through legal contract. Any commercial use by anyone other than the author is strictly prohibited.
This work is fictitious, and any similarities to any persons, alive or dead, are purely coincidental. Mention is made of persons in public life only for the purposes of realism and for that reason alone. Certain licence is taken in respect of medical procedures, terms and conditions, and the author does not claim to be the fount of all knowledge.
The author accepts the right of the individual to hold his/her (or whatever) own political, religious and social views, and there is no intention to deliberately offend anyone.
The Author
With enormous experience of life, the author brings to life some of the nastier sides of the human condition, with many of the better attributes. Having started writing as a teenager, but never publishing anything until the half century loomed, Tanya successfully brought together elements of the real world, her dreams, fantasies and failed aspirations to breathe life into three-dimensional characters and situations that warrant further attention. Known for producing happy endings (for the most part), but also keen to see true justice is seen to be done, which unfortunately doesn’t happen as often as it should in real life.
Now concentrating on writing, the author enjoys foreign travel, family, faith and furry friends.
My thanks to my editor Tom Peashey
Author: I Am Woman: The Dani Affair,Escape From Iran and Madam President
Books by Tanya Allan
Her AMAZON.COM PAGE: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004VTB5OQ
A Chance would be a Fine Thing (Knox Journals Book 1)
A Fairy's Tale
A Girl can but Dream
Amber Alert
A Tale of Two T’s*
A Wedding and Two Wars (Knox Journal Book 2)
Beginning's End
Behind The Enemy
Dead End (Candy Cane 2)
Dragons & Stuff!
Emma*
Every Little Girl's Dream #
Extra Special Agent
Flight or Fight
Fortune's Soldier
Gruesome Tuesday*
In Plain Sight*
In The Shadows
It Couldn't Happen, Could it?
Killing Me Slowly*
Marine I: Agent of Time*
Modern Masquerade
Monique*#
Queen of Hearts*
Ring the Change
Shit Happens - so do Miracles*
Skin*
Tango Golf: Cop with A Difference
The Candy Cane Club
The Hard Way*
The Other Side of Dreams
There's No Such Thing as a Super Hero
The Summer Job & Other Stories
The Torc (Book 1 – The Emerging)
To Fight For a Dream*
Twisted Dreams*
TWOC - A Comedy of Errors
Weird Wednesday*
When Fortune Smiles
When I Count to Three #
Whispers in the Mind*
Whispers in the Soul*
*Paperbacks can be found here: http://www.feedaread.com/profiles/368/ # = Published on KOBO.COM
Prologue
England – Autumn 2009
Sidney Rawlings, known as 'Sid the Snake' to his few friends and most of the officers at the local police station, breathed out and wiped the sweat from his brow.
A small man, no taller than five-two and weighing less than a hundred and twelve pounds (eight stone); he made good use of his small stature in squeezing through very small spaces. He'd burgled his first house when just twelve years old and had never looked back. Except, of course, for the five occasions when he'd looked back from the dock at his weeping mother, as he'd been taken down for increasingly long stretches of imprisonment at Her Majesty's pleasure.
This time was different, or so he told himself. It would have to be, as he was almost forty years old and wasn't as supple as he once had been. Also, he really didn't want to be sent away for Her Majesty's pleasure ever again. The dear old Queen could get her pleasure from some other distraction; racehorses, perhaps?
This time he couldn't get caught, as there was no way anyone could possibly know it was him. He stayed on the roof and watched as the police and security officers completed a fruitless search of the building and surrounding area. As the last police car withdrew, he eased his aching joints and prepared to climb down and make good his escape.
If a burglary was successful as a direct correlation to the amount of research and preparation, then this job was as good as done, for Sidney had excelled himself this time!
The building was ultra modern, with all the latest high-tech security systems in place, as well as a small army of security personnel. There were four separate buildings operating from this collection of premises on a brand new industrial estate on the outskirts of Slough, in Berkshire. All were potential targets for a good burglar. However, only one was his specific target on this Saturday night, Garratt Electronics.
Old man Howard Garratt had retired some twelve years ago as computers were just beginning to explode across the technological market. Giles Garrett, his nephew (Howard had never married, so had no son or daughter to whom he could pass on the company) had stepped behind his uncle’s desk and, unusually, taken the company into the twenty-first century in spectacular fashion.
Giles had been a computer geek as a child, and hadn't changed now he was in his forties. He had been writing programs as a seven year old, so was now the UK equivalent to a certain Mr Gates over in the colonies.
His speciality had proved to be a memory system that revolutionised data storage. It was only just beginning to impact the domestic and small business market, but already most large businesses and organisations had bought into his product.
The GG/Plus System was exceptionally compact and was capable of storing almost unlimited data, backing up and retrieving data within nano-seconds and, most importantly, was about as secure as one could ever get. Cloud, Dropbox and other internet based systems were okay, but if you wanted 100% secure, you couldn’t get better than GG/Plus.
This building was the major UK site of the company, in which all the hardware was developed, manufactured and stored for eventual distribution.
Much of the hardware was small enough to hold in the palm of one hand, so Sid's backpack would hold several million pounds worth of very sellable technology.
All windows and doors were sealed and watched by electronic sensor systems and human eyes through a secure CCTV system. There was no way into or out of the building that wasn't covered by some form of security. All, that is, except one.
The A/C system was almost as high-tech as the products being manufactured, but it had one flaw, and Sid intended to take advantage of the flaw. That flaw was the air intake duct.
Because of the size of the building, the fact that an even temperature was essential for the products being developed and manufactured and that it had to be easily maintained and accessed by humans, there was one duct that was almost big enough for a child or trained monkey to slither through.... or Sid the Snake.