A few hours later the two new students who had been retrieved by Raven sat down on one of the sofas in the atrium of accommodation block seven looking exhausted and overwhelmed. They were both now wearing black Alpha stream jumpsuits.
‘Well,’ the boy said with a sigh, ‘I think it’s safe to say that today couldn’t possibly get any weirder.’
‘And that’s just where you’d be wrong,’ the girl said, looking at something over his shoulder, a broad grin spreading across her face. ‘I don’t believe it.’ The boy stood up and turned round as his companion ran past him.
‘What on earth are you doing here?’ Otto said with a grin as the girl hugged him. The girl stepped back and the boy grabbed Otto by both shoulders.
‘Jeez, Otto, we wondered where you’d got to, but I think it’s safe to say that this is just a bit stranger than any of the theories we came up with.’
‘Are you gonna introduce us?’ Shelby asked as she and Laura exchanged confused looks.
‘Of course, sorry,’ Otto replied. ‘Guys, this is Tom and this is Penny and let’s just say that we used to work together.’
‘You mean we used to nick stuff for you,’ Penny said with a grin.
‘I was trying to make it sound more classy,’ Otto replied with a chuckle.
‘You guys knew each other before this place?’ Laura asked, still looking slightly confused.
‘Yeah and I suppose this is exactly the sort of place that I should have expected Otto to end up in when I actually stop and think about it. Penny Richards, pleased to meet you.’ She stuck out her hand.
‘Laura Brand,’ Laura said, shaking her hand, ‘and this is Shelby Trinity.’
‘Hi,’ Shelby said with a little wave.
‘Hi to you too,’ Tom said with a smile. ‘Tom Ransom, a pleasure to meet you both.’
‘So when did you get here?’ Otto asked as they all sat down on the cluster of sofas.
‘This morning,’ Penny replied. ‘Let’s just say that it’s been a pretty strange twenty-four hours.’
‘I can imagine,’ Otto said. ‘I can see you had a bit of a rough day.’ He gestured towards the bruise on Penny’s cheekbone.
‘Yeah, I think that Raven woman must not have been too pleased when I tasered her,’ Penny replied with a lopsided grin.
‘You are tasering Raven!’ Franz said slightly too loudly as he sat down on the sofa. ‘This is not being a clever thing to do.’
‘That’s one way of putting it,’ Nigel said as he sat down next to Franz. ‘Glad to see that you still have all your limbs at least.’
‘I doubt that Raven would have resorted to dismemberment except under circumstances of extreme provocation,’ Wing said with a slight frown.
‘I was jok— Never mind,’ Nigel said, rolling his eyes.
‘And here’s the rest of our motley crew,’ Otto said. ‘Tom, Penny, this is Wing, Franz and Nigel.’
‘A pleasure to meet you,’ Wing said with a slight bow. ‘I believe that Otto has mentioned you to me before. You lived in the same orphanage before he came to H.I.V.E. did you not?’
‘Yeah,’ Tom replied, ‘good old St Sebastian’s.’
‘How is Mrs McReedy these days?’ Otto asked.
‘Fine, though she was rather sad to lose her best revenue stream when you disappeared,’ Penny said.
Mrs McReedy had been the head of Otto’s old orphanage or at least that was what she and Otto let the rest of the world believe. In reality Otto had been essentially running the place at the time he was recruited by H.I.V.E. while making sure that Mrs McReedy was living the affluently comfortable lifestyle to which she had become accustomed. They had an unspoken agreement that she should not enquire too closely about where the money for all her little luxuries had come from.
‘So are you guys still living there?’ Otto asked.
‘No, we decided to make our own way in the world, if you know what I mean,’ Tom replied. ‘We’d had enough of the amount of money that some of the people in the City were getting paid so we started our own wealth redistribution programme.’
‘The papers even gave us our own nickname “The Hoods”,’ Penny said with a grin, ‘as in Robin Hood.’
‘I have heard of this legend. He was a man with an admirable goal,’ Wing said, ‘stealing from the rich to give to the poor.’
‘Yeah, we were just like him,’ Tom said, suddenly looking slightly uncomfortable, ‘except for the giving to the poor bit.’
‘We were quite poor when we started,’ Penny said defensively. ‘And we did give some of it to charity . . . eventually.’
‘And I suppose that’s how you ended up getting our esteemed head teacher’s attention,’ Otto said, trying not to laugh at Wing’s look of slightly confused disapproval.
‘I suppose so,’ Tom said, ‘but, come on, Otto, tell us what exactly happened to you? You announce one day that you’re going on a trip to the seaside and nobody hears anything from you ever again. I thought you’d finally got caught and ended up in some young offenders’ institution somewhere.’
‘Who says he didn’t?’ Laura said, gesturing at the surrounding walls.
‘Let’s just say that I got involved in politics,’ Otto said with a grin. He decided that he didn’t really want to go into too much detail about his part in the very public and very humiliating downfall of the British Prime Minister at that precise moment. Besides which, he’d probably caught Nero’s attention well before the events of that particular day. That was just when Raven, quite literally, turned up on his doorstep.
‘So what about the rest of you?’ Penny asked. ‘How did you all end up here?’
One by one they gave accounts of the various family connections or acts of nascent villainy that had led to them being recruited by H.I.V.E. Shelby was the last to explain her reasons for being at the school.
‘I guess I was a bit like you guys,’ she said with a smile. ‘I was into what did you call it . . . wealth distribution too. I made a bit of a name for myself on the high value heist circuit. Before I came here people used to call me the Wraith.’
‘OMG,’ Penny gasped. ‘You were the Wraith? Love your work! You have to tell me . . . the Guggenheim job in Bilbao, how did you pull that off?’
‘When we’ve got a spare couple of hours I’ll give you all the details,’ Shelby said smiling. ‘Let’s just say that it took me a week to get the smell of sewage out of my hair.’
‘Ewww,’ Laura said, wrinkling her nose.
‘You don’t know the half of it,’ Shelby said, pulling a face. ‘I thought there wouldn’t be enough shampoo in the world.’
They were all still chatting as Carla Trieste, one of the senior year Alpha students, walked up to the group and interrupted.
‘Glad to see that our new Alphas are making friends,’ she said, ‘but I’m supposed to show you two to your new sleeping quarters. Would you come with me please?’
‘Suppose we’d better go and see who our new room-mates are going to be,’ Penny said with a smile. ‘Great to see you again, Otto, and it’s been lovely to meet all of you guys. You know, this place suddenly doesn’t seem quite so bad. Catch you later.’
‘Yeah,’ Tom said with a broad smile. ‘Thanks for the warm welcome. See you all soon I hope.’
‘Yum,’ Shelby said as she watched Tom leave.
‘Aye, he is quite easy on the eye,’ Laura grinned, blushing slightly.
‘Hmmm,’ Wing said, frowning slightly.
‘Awww, don’t get jealous, big guy,’ Shelby said putting her arm around him. ‘You know I only have eyes for you. He’s all yours, Brand.’
‘I didn’t mean that I wanted to . . . you know . . . well . . .’ Laura said uncomfortably, her face going still redder.
‘Yeah,’ Otto said, ‘why don’t we let people settle in for a few days before we start arranging their love lives for them. Come on, Laura, let’s go and finish the debugging on our project.’
‘Awww, young nerds in love,’ Shelby said, as Laura and Otto wandered off. ‘You know, it’s actually kinda cute.’
‘I think it would perhaps be best if you were to refrain from teasing Laura like that,’ Wing said. ‘Not everyone wants you to select a romantic partner for them, you know.’
‘Actually, I wouldn’t be minding,’ Franz said hopefully.
Joseph Wright stood on the balcony of the lakeside villa, sipping from a tumbler of excellent whisky and listening to the sound of the waves washing against the shore. This particular safe house was one of his favourites, not least because absolutely no one knew of its existence. He knew that Nero would have correctly assumed that the attempt on his life in London had been arranged by him and he was damned if he was going to make it easy for Nero, or worse, Raven, to find him. He had to admit that the assassination attempt had been an act of desperation on his part. Like many of the former members of the ruling council he was determined that Nero was not going to strip him of all the power that he had managed to accrue over the years. He had hoped that if Nero could be taken out of the picture that the new ruling council would have disintegrated. Nero may have believed that a council made up of his own Alpha stream graduates would be fit to replace the departed leaders of G.L.O.V.E. but they all knew that it would only work if Nero was there to guide them. Without his hand on the rudder the ship would soon be drifting aimlessly and the old guard would once again be able to seize control. It was a nice theory at least but Wright knew that Nero would prove more difficult to dislodge with each passing day, while his own power and that of the other former members of the ruling council would only diminish with time.
The mobile phone on the glass table behind him began to ring, startling him from his brooding and Wright looked at the display. It read: CALLER UNKNOWN.
‘Hello,’ Wright said, putting the phone to his ear.
‘Good evening, Mr Wright,’ a digitally distorted voice on the other end replied.
‘Who is this?’ Wright demanded impatiently.
‘My name is Minerva,’ the voice replied, ‘and I represent a group of people who would very much like to discuss the possibility of forming an alliance with you and the other members of your organisation who have been harmed by Maximilian Nero’s clumsy grab for power.’
‘Really,’ Wright said, sounding sceptical, ‘and who exactly might this group of people you represent be?’
‘We are people who share a common interest in the destruction of Nero,’ Minerva replied. ‘I suspect you may have heard of us – we are called the Disciples.’
‘You OK?’ Laura asked, as she looked up from the lines of code displayed on the device’s screen and caught Otto staring off into the distance.
‘Sorry, what?’ Otto said, his eyes focusing on her.
‘I asked if you were OK,’ Laura said. ‘You were miles away.’
‘Yeah, sorry, I’m fine. It was just a bit weird to see Tom and Penny again,’ Otto said with a sigh. ‘It just seems so long ago, you know, life before this place. Sometimes I feel like I’m never going to see the real world again. That I’m never going to leave. Do you know what I mean?’
‘Of course I do,’ Laura said. ‘I’m sure we all feel like that sometimes but there’s going to be a life after H.I.V.E. you know. For all of us.’
‘Assuming we survive till then,’ Otto said with a wry smile.
‘Well, there is that,’ Laura said, ‘although it’s been several months since anyone tried to kill us so that has to be a good sign.’
‘And yet here we are working on a device that will probably end up getting us killed. It’ll either explode or Doctor Nero will catch us with it. Either way we’re dead,’ Otto said cheerily.
‘I’ll have you know that there’s a remarkably low chance of this exploding,’ Laura said with mock indignation. ‘If you’d designed it on the other hand, well, then we might as well be playing hopscotch in a minefield.’
‘Ouch, suppose I asked for that,’ Otto said with a grin.
Laura stared at the lines of code on the display.
‘Otto, can I ask you something?’ Laura said after a few seconds, still staring at the screen.
‘Sure, what’s the matter?’ Otto asked, sensing the change in her tone.
‘Do you remember when we were in Brazil and you were still infected with the Animus fluid?’ Laura said quietly.
‘Bits of it,’ Otto said. ‘It’s not something I particularly like to think about, to be honest.’ The whole experience of being turned against his friends by Animus and then being nearly taken over by Overlord was not something that Otto was keen to relive.
‘I know, I’m sorry, it’s not fair of me to ask. Forget about it,’ Laura said, shaking her head slightly.
‘No, it’s fine, it’s in the past. What was it you wanted to ask?’
‘You were really, really ill and you were starting to slip away and we all . . .’ Laura paused for a moment and then looked him straight in the eye. ‘We all thought you were going to die and just before you lost consciousness you whispered something to me. Do you remember what you said?’
‘I . . . I’m not . . . yes,’ Otto said, looking down at the floor. ‘Yes, I remember.’
‘I know you were delirious and it was probably because of that but . . . I need to know . . . did you mean what you said?’
Otto stared at her for several long seconds, trying to find the words he wanted.
‘I . . .’
‘Woah,’ Shelby said as the door slid open and she saw Otto and Laura. ‘Sorry . . . erm . . . wrong room. I’ll . . . err . . . come back later.’
‘No, it’s all right,’ Laura said, looking at Otto. ‘I think we’re finished here.’
Otto looked like he was going to say something and then he stood up.
‘Are you sure, because I can go hit the books in the library if you guys still need some time to . . . er . . . debug,’ Shelby said, looking questioningly at Laura.
‘No, it’s OK, the device is ready,’ Laura said, picking it up and handing it to Otto. ‘We’re all going to need a good night’s sleep if we’re seriously going to pull this plan off tomorrow night.’
‘Laura’s right,’ Otto said, slipping the device into his jumpsuit pocket. ‘I should go. See you guys tomorrow.’
‘You all right?’ Shelby asked as the door hissed shut behind Otto.
‘Yeah . . . no . . . oh, I don’t know,’ Laura said, sitting down on the edge of her bed.
‘Want to talk about it?’
‘No, not right now,’ Laura said with a sigh. ‘Not right now.’
‘You should have seen your face,’ Penny said with a grin as the Alphas walked out of their Stealth and Evasion class.
‘How was I supposed to know?’ Tom asked, looking embarrassed. ‘No one told me.’
‘Well, at least now you’ll always be remembered for something,’ Otto said as he put his backpack on his shoulder, ‘Tom Ransom. First H.I.V.E. student to actually stroke Ms Leon.’
‘The look on your face when she asked you what you thought you were doing . . . priceless,’ Laura chuckled.
Ms Leon was H.I.V.E.’s Stealth and Evasion teacher who, as a result of a freak accident involving one of Professor Pike’s experiments, had found her consciousness transferred into the body of a cat. Unfortunately Tom had not realised that when he first encountered her.
‘I’ve never actually heard an Alpha class all gasp at once like that before,’ Shelby said. ‘That’s good going.’
‘It’s going to take me a while to live this one down, isn’t it?’ Tom moaned.
‘It could have been worse,’ Otto said. ‘You could have given Colonel Francisco a neck rub.’
‘Please not to be mentioning the Colonel,’ Franz said with a sigh. ‘Somehow he has been finding out that I was responsible for the toilet destruction incident and we all have a gym session this afternoon. I am already feeling the pain.’
‘Oh great, a workout with an angry Francisco, just what my day needed,’ Nigel said with a sigh. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance he’s going to have developed a passion for yoga, is there?’
‘Not unless someone’s developed some form of combat yoga,’ Otto replied. ‘Actually, you know, that might be quite cool. Fourteen ways to kill a man from the lotus position.’
‘So what’s our next lesson?’ Penny asked as they all walked down the corridor.
‘Holographic training session,’ Laura replied. ‘It’s actually pretty cool. It’s where they train us to do all the stuff that would be too dangerous or impractical to do for real. They’re teaching us how to pilot helicopters at the moment.’
‘Can I politely request that someone else be Otto’s co-pilot this week,’ Wing said with the tiniest hint of a smile. ‘Last week’s lesson was a little too . . . eventful for my tastes.’
‘Hey!’ Otto said. ‘The landings are tough.’
‘Yes,’ Wing replied, ‘but the rotor blades are supposed to be on top when you land, are they not?’
‘Everyone’s a critic,’ Otto replied. ‘OK, so I admit it wasn’t perfect.’
‘I believe that what the instructor actually said was . . . now let me get this right . . . instantly lethal to the crew and anyone standing within one hundred metres of the landing pad,’ Wing said.
‘I’m sure he said something about a fiery ball of exploding death too,’ Laura said.
‘Sounds like fun,’ Tom said with a grin.
‘Oh, you’re going to fit right in around here,’ Nigel sighed.
As Otto and the others arrived at the entrance to the holographic training cavern, the previous group of students were just leaving. Otto frowned slightly as he saw Cole Harrington walking straight towards him.
‘Good to see you, Otto,’ Harrington said as he approached. ‘Have you got two minutes? There’s something we need to discuss.’
Wing looked at Otto, raising an eyebrow quizzically.
‘You guys go ahead,’ Otto said. ‘This won’t take long.’
The other Alphas headed into the training area while Otto and Harrington waited for the corridor to clear.
‘So, I was wondering if you’d had enough time to consider my offer from yesterday,’ Harrington said with a cold smile.
‘I don’t know where you heard that I was the person to talk to about this,’ Otto replied, ‘but I don’t have the exam papers and even if I did I wouldn’t share them with you.’
‘And that’s your final decision,’ Harrington said. ‘There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?’
‘No,’ Otto said, looking the other boy straight in the eye.
‘That’s a shame,’ Harrington said, the smile disappearing. ‘You’re going to regret this. Trust me.’
‘That’s the second time you’ve threatened me,’ Otto replied. ‘You should know that I’ve been threatened by far more dangerous people than you. Do you know what none of those people have now?’
‘What?’
‘A pulse,’ Otto said coldly.
‘Is that supposed to frighten me?’ Harrington said with a sneer.
‘I don’t know,’ Otto replied, ‘but I have heard that it’s hard to scare people with low intelligence.’
‘You’re going to regret this,’ Harrington said, his eyes narrowing, ‘believe me. You Alphas are all the same – you think you’re in control but you’re not.’
‘I don’t care who’s in control,’ Otto said calmly before turning and heading into the training cavern. ‘Just as long as it isn’t someone like you.’
The limousine drove between the warehouses, slowing to a halt outside the final set of rolling shutters. The driver sounded the horn once and as the metal shutters rolled upwards he pulled inside, parking in the middle of the loading bay. Moments after the shutters hit the ground the floor beneath the limo began to drop into a concealed shaft below. After a minute or so the hidden lift came to a stop and another set of gates in the wall of the shaft opened up, allowing the car access to the parking area on the other side, which was already half full with equally expensive vehicles. The chauffeur stepped out of the car and opened the rear door for the single passenger within. Joseph Wright stepped out and walked quickly towards the armoured double doors on the far side of the garage. He placed his hand in the recess next to the door and felt a tiny prick in one of his fingertips as a drop of his blood was extracted.
‘DNA scan complete,’ a digitised voice said after a few seconds. ‘Access granted. Good evening, Mr Wright.’
The heavy doors rumbled open and Wright walked inside. The room was already filled with the hushed muttering of several subdued conversations that were taking place between the dozen men and women already present.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Wright said, after looking round the room, ‘please take your seats. Everyone seems to be here and we have much to discuss.’
The various men and women sat round the large conference table that occupied the centre of the room.
‘First I would like to thank you all for coming,’ Wright said. ‘I know that things have been somewhat chaotic over the past few months but I believe that now is the time to put that behind us and focus instead on the future.’
‘Get on with it, Wright,’ Luca Venturi, the former head of G.L.O.V.E.’s Southern European operations said impatiently. ‘I don’t know about anyone else but I have an organisation to try and rebuild and I really don’t have time for this. I’m sure everyone heard about your bungled attempt on Nero’s life. I’m not surprised that you would rather focus on the future when the past is littered with failure.’
‘You talk of rebuilding, Luca. Well, that is exactly why I asked all of you here tonight,’ Wright replied quickly. ‘We’ve all suffered as a result of Maximilian Nero’s decision to disband G.L.O.V.E.’s ruling council. We have all watched as the criminal empires that we each worked for decades to build were undermined by the actions of just one man. We were thrown to the wolves, left to fend for ourselves as the organisation that we built was stolen from us by Nero and his lackeys. Well, starting tonight I propose that we pool our resources and begin the battle to take back what is rightfully ours. Are we really going to stand by while Nero appoints a new council entirely made up of former pupils of that damned school of his? People who have not earned the positions to which they have been appointed. Nero and his council are weak – the time to strike is now.’
‘I hate to break it to you, Jospeh,’ Felicia Diaz, one-time commander of G.L.O.V.E.’s operations in South America, said with a sigh, ‘but even if we were all to work together, we would still not have the resources to take on Nero. He still controls G.L.O.V.E. and you know as well as I do that the loyalties of the organisation’s members are commanded by one thing . . . strength. Once upon a time people may have respected our strength but now they know what the true balance of power is. The new ruling council that Nero has assembled may be inexperienced but as long as Nero sits at the head of the table the people who report in to the council members will follow their instructions. No one wants to meet the same fate that befell Carlos, waking up one morning to find a walking, talking death sentence standing at the end of your bed.’ There was a murmur of agreement round the table as the former members of the council recalled the grim fate that had met Carlos Chavez, Diaz’s predecessor, when he had betrayed Nero.
‘I think it’s safe to assume we would all rather avoid an encounter with Nero’s pet assassin but I did not gather us here this evening for nothing. I believe that there may be a way to shift the balance of power. I have been approached by an organisation that would like to assist us in regaining control of G.L.O.V.E., an organisation that has both the resources we require and the willingness to use them.’
Wright reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small disc-shaped device, placing it in the centre of the table. A moment later the disc lit up with a bright white light and a holographic image of a digitally distorted face appeared hovering in the air half a metre above it.
‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,’ the hovering face said, its voice also electronically disguised. ‘My name is Minerva and I represent an organisation that some of you will already be familiar with. We are called the Disciples and we would like to offer you our assistance in overthrowing Maximilian Nero and restoring control of G.L.O.V.E. to its rightful masters. You.’
‘Are you insane, Wright?’ Luca Venturi asked, clear astonishment in his voice. ‘These people were the servants of Overlord. I may disagree with what Nero has done but these lunatics were intent on handing the world over to an insane, genocidal artificial intelligence. What on earth makes you think that we can trust them?’
‘Overlord is dead,’ Minerva said calmly, ‘and with his destruction came a change in the priorities of our organisation. There were many of us that did not agree with what Overlord had planned and saw him as merely a means to an end. We saw beyond the destruction that Overlord would have wrought and sensed the opportunity to change things permanently. Nero wishes the forces of global villainy to remain hidden in the shadows, frightened to show our true power for fear of inviting the retribution of the world’s governments. Why? What does that achieve? When will we finally be allowed to show the world what we are truly capable of and take the reigns of global power for ourselves? We are tired of hiding. The time has come to step out of the shadows and seize the power that is rightfully yours. However, to achieve that power we must work together. You need our resources and we need allies but, more than that, we need leadership. That is why we are turning to you. Our assets, both human and financial, are considerable, but we lack the networks and contacts that you have built up in your many years of service to G.L.O.V.E. There is a unique opportunity now for us to pool our resources and create a new organisation that will not suffer from the frightened paralysis that Nero favours. G.L.O.V.E. was designed to stop you from achieving your true potential and that is why it must be swept away and replaced with an organisation that is not paralysed by fear but will instead rule through fear.’
‘Fine words,’ Felicia Diaz said, staring at the holographic projection, ‘but why should we trust you when you will not even show us your true face?’
‘What difference would that make?’ Minerva replied. ‘Surely the only thing that would really prove to you that you can trust us is if we give you a meaningful demonstration of what we are willing to do for you.’
‘Such as?’ Diaz asked.
‘Such as the destruction of Nero,’ Minerva said calmly.
‘Many have tried to kill Maximilian,’ Luca Venturi snorted. ‘Obviously, all have failed. What makes you think you will be any more successful?’
‘I didn’t say we would kill him,’ Minerva replied. ‘I said we would destroy him. If we were to assassinate him, one of his acolytes would simply step forward and take his place. Certainly G.L.O.V.E. would be weakened but not to the degree that we need. So, instead, we must make sure that he is crippled so completely that it will paralyse G.L.O.V.E. permanently. That is when we will strike and replace them once and for all. By the time we are finished Nero will not be dead – he will just wish he was.’