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Chapter Four

‘Sir!’ the monitor operative shouted from his surveillance station. ‘There’s something odd here. I got a movement reading in the dock area for a split second but now there’s nothing.’

‘Show me,’ Chief Lewis said, walking over to the array of monitors. He quickly scanned the displays and spotted what his operative had seen. ‘Looks like a sensor glitch. Have H.I.V.E.mind run a diagnostic, just to be on the safe side.’

‘Should I inform the Phalanx, sir? They said they wanted to know about anything, no matter how small.’

‘Very well,’ the Chief said impatiently. He didn’t like having the Phalanx on his turf and they were already starting to rub him up the wrong way. He knew that he had to play ball with them, but he didn’t have to like it.

The Contessa allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction as she inspected her new office. She looked at the mementos of Nero’s career that lined the walls and the smile faded from her face.

‘All of these will have to go,’ she muttered to herself. She did not need to be constantly reminded of the office’s previous occupant. She also knew full well that she was almost certainly going to have trouble with some members of staff. Some of them were loyal to Nero to a fault and there was no reason to believe they would ever transfer that allegiance to her. A couple of them would probably like to see her dead, but that was what the Phalanx were for. As long as they protected her there would be no one who would dare lift a finger against her, and even without them she was far from defenceless. Those who were not happy with her appointment were just going to have to put up with it, or suffer the consequences.

There was a soft chime from the entry system and she glanced at the monitor on her desk before pressing a button to grant admission.

‘Good evening, Phalanx One. I hope that your new quarters are satisfactory,’ she said with a smile. None of the Phalanx operatives used their names; each was just given a number, as was traditional with G.L.O.V.E. security teams.

‘Yes, everything is satisfactory, Contessa. I have completed my preliminary inspection and we’re fully hooked into the school’s security systems,’ he replied briskly with a slight eastern European accent.

‘Good. I take it that everyone has been . . . cooperative,’ she said, raising an eyebrow.

‘Yes, though there seems to be a certain amount of unhappiness at your appointment, especially among the senior staff. No worse than was expected, though.’

‘Indeed,’ the Contessa said, ‘but with you and your men watching my back I’m sure I have nothing to worry about.’

‘Of course,’ Phalanx One replied. ‘We are ready to perform the extraction at any time.’

‘No time like the present,’ the Contessa said with a cold smile. ‘Let’s just make sure that everyone is soundly asleep first.’

‘Very well. The transit team is ready to go on your order . . .’ Phalanx One paused for a moment, pressing a finger to his ear. ‘I am sorry, Contessa, if you will excuse me I must go. There has been a minor glitch in the security grid and I need to dispatch a team to check it.’

‘Nothing to worry about, I hope,’ the Contessa said, her brow furrowing slightly.

‘No, ma’am,’ he replied. ‘It’s almost certainly nothing, but I do not like to leave anything to chance.’

‘Very well. I shall inform you when you are clear to proceed with the extraction. Let me know as soon as it is complete.’

Phalanx One gave a small military nod of acceptance and then turned and walked briskly from the room, speaking quickly and quietly into his wrist microphone.

The Contessa sat down at the desk.

‘H.I.V.E.mind,’ she said clearly and the monitor in front of her was suddenly filled with the AI’s hovering wireframe head.

‘Good evening, Contessa. How may I be of assistance?’ H.I.V.E.mind asked in his usual calm, flat tone.

‘I take it that all of my new operational security clearances have been uploaded to your system,’ she said quickly.

‘Yes, Contessa, you have been granted Omega Black clearance as per the ruling council’s instructions,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied.

‘Good. Are all of the accommodation blocks secure?’

‘All students are accounted for and confined to their personal quarters,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied.

‘Then I believe it is time we made sure that they all get a good night’s rest. Enact the Sleepwalker Protocol.’

H.I.V.E.mind did not respond and for a moment she could have sworn that she saw him frown.

‘I said enact the Sleepwalker Protocol . . . NOW!’ the Contessa barked angrily.

‘As you wish,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied.

‘I am not sure I understand,’ Wing said, frowning slightly. ‘You intend to persuade H.I.V.E.mind to open the door for us.’

‘Not just this door,’ Otto said with a smile, ‘all the doors.’

‘I know that you are familiar with this system,’ Wing said, trying to keep the doubt from his voice, ‘but surely even you will not be able to convince it to simply let us walk out of here.’

‘I can be very persuasive when I need to be.’

‘That much is certain,’ Wing said, raising an eyebrow, ‘but this sounds impossible.’

‘Hey, impossible’s our speciality,’ Otto said with a broad grin. He tapped at the keyboard of the small workstation on his desk. There was still no response. It appeared that no one was going to be allowed to access the network that evening, but he doubted that anyone else would be trying to access it in quite the same way that he would. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, subconsciously reaching for the invisible connective threads of data that would lead him deeper into the network.

‘Otto!’ Wing said urgently, breaking his concentration.

‘What?’ Otto said irritably, he couldn’t do this if he was going to be distracted. He looked up at Wing, who was staring up towards the ceiling. A thin white vapour was pouring out of the air conditioning vents on the ceiling. Wing suddenly staggered and slumped down on to his bed. He tried to say something but then his eyes rolled up in their sockets and he slumped backwards unconscious.

Otto held his breath, closing his eyes and willing himself back into the digital void, but it was no good. There was only an increasing burning urgency in his chest as his body used up his final reserves of uncontaminated air. He tried desperately to reach out one last time and contact the network but he couldn’t do it. He exhaled explosively, unable to control his desperate lungs from drawing in a deep breath of the sinister white cloud that hung all about him. There was a blackness at the periphery of his vision and then he too succumbed, slumping forward on to the desk with a thud.

‘Show me the camera feeds from the dock,’ Phalanx One barked at the monitor tech. The man looked across at Chief Lewis, who gave a tiny almost imperceptible nod. The Chief felt a slight sense of pride; the Phalanx may be throwing their weight around but his men still looked to him for orders.

The technician quickly pulled up the footage from the cameras in the dock that tallied with the time of the phantom reading from the motion sensors. He and the Chief had already reviewed the footage. He knew there was nothing there but he also knew that Phalanx One would want to see that with his own eyes. The Phalanx operatives were thorough.

‘There!’ Phalanx One said, jabbing his finger at the monitor. ‘Go back three seconds and playback in extreme slow motion.’

The technician did as instructed, even though he had no idea what it was the man had seen.

‘Chief, look at this,’ Phalanx One said, beckoning Lewis over. ‘There . . .’

The Chief squinted at the screen and suddenly saw what the other man had spotted. Just for the most fleeting of instants the air at the top of one of the metal staircases leading up from the dock shimmered like a heat haze, and then it was gone. The Chief frowned. He had no idea what it was but he would never have spotted it. Perhaps, he grudgingly admitted to himself, the Phalanx really did deserve their reputation. Phalanx One turned away from the bank of monitors and barked an order into his wrist mic.

‘This is Phalanx One to all Phalanx units. We have an intruder in the school, identification unknown. Target is thermoptically camouflaged. Apprehend or terminate immediately.’

‘I’ll alert my patrols,’ the Chief said quickly.

‘Thank you, Chief, but that will not be necessary,’ Phalanx One said calmly. ‘Leave this to us.’

The Contessa strode down the corridor towards the security control room, Phalanx One beside her.

‘I want this intruder found now!’ she spat angrily.

‘My men are fully deployed. Whoever they are, we’ll find them,’ Phalanx One said with quiet confidence.

‘We shall see,’ the Contessa replied sharply. ‘But just in case your confidence is misplaced I want to proceed with the extraction immediately.’

‘Very well,’ Phalanx One replied. ‘I will instruct the team to proceed.’

‘Good,’ the Contessa replied, ‘because I’m sure I don’t have to remind you of the consequences for all of us if Number One was to learn that this operation had failed.’

Phalanx One nodded and spoke quickly into his communicator.

‘Phalanx One to extraction team, you are go to proceed with the operation. Repeat: you are go for extraction. Have the Shroud crew complete pre-flight checks now. I don’t want the package sitting on the landing pad while they finish their prep, understood?’

He received positive responses from his team and gave a quick nod to the Contessa.

‘It’s done.’

The Phalanx team pushed the four gurneys quickly down the corridor. Otto, Wing, Shelby and Laura lay unconscious, strapped to the wheeled beds.

‘Extraction team to Shroud, we’re inbound to the launch bay, ETA two minutes,’ the leader reported briskly.

Suddenly the overhead lights blinked out, plunging the corridor into darkness. There was a clattering rattle as at least one of the gurneys was pushed into the back of another, followed by a whispered curse.

‘This is Phalanx extraction team,’ the leader whispered into his communicator. ‘We’ve lost lights in the launch pad approach corridor. I need emergency lighting.’

In the blackness ahead of the team there was a sudden soft hum and two mysterious lines of crackling violet light appeared in mid-air.

‘Emergency lighting – now!’ the leader of the squad barked into the communicator.

The lines of light began to move rhythmically, getting closer and closer to the extraction team in the pitch-black corridor. There was no sound other than the slightly panicked breathing of the Phalanx operatives.

The corridor was suddenly bathed in blood-red light as the emergency illumination kicked in. The extraction team leader just had time to gasp before a lithe figure clad from head to toe in jet-black armour was on him. The dual katanas that the attacker wielded moved in a blur, the purple light that came from the energy field that enveloped the cutting edge of each blade leaving trails in the air. The Phalanx leader raised his forearm to protect his neck from one blade, bracing himself for the blade to cut deep into the flesh of his arm. The sword struck but there was no cut, instead it felt like his arm had been hit with a baseball bat. The second blade swung into his stomach, knocking the wind from him but again leaving no laceration. He doubled over and his assailant knocked him out cold with a swift knee to the chin.

‘We’re under attack!’ the man behind the second gurney yelled into his communicator moments before one of the blades struck him in the side of the head. He slumped to the floor unconscious.

The final two Phalanx operatives went for their shoulder holsters almost simultaneously. The black-clad figure thumbed a tiny control on the hilt of each sword and the energy fields surrounding the blades flared for an instant. The dual swords swept through the air as the two men raised their weapons, fingers tightening on the triggers. There was no gunfire, instead the neatly severed barrels of both guns clattered to the floor. The two men froze, their attacker between them, arms outstretched with the blades that had destroyed their weapons a moment before hovering millimetres from their throats. Both of them dropped what was left of their pistols to the floor and slowly raised their hands. The armoured figure pressed the controls on the hilts of both swords again and spun in a blur, delivering blunt stunning blows to both men’s skulls and they crumpled like puppets with their strings cut.

The intruder moved quickly to the first gurney, checked Otto’s pulse and took a small injector gun from their belt and pressed it to his neck. There was a quick, sharp hiss and moments later Otto let out a soft groan. He opened his eyes and let out an involuntary yelp at the jet-black insectile armoured mask that was looking down at him. The figure pressed a concealed switch on the side of the mask and there was a brief hiss of escaping gas.

‘Good, you’re alive,’ Raven said as she pulled the mask from her face.

‘You took the words right out of my mouth,’ Otto said with a grin, his voice croaky.

‘You should never believe what you read in G.L.O.V.E.’s obituaries – surely you know that by now,’ Raven said with a slight smile.

‘A villain never stays dead for long,’ Otto replied chuckling.

‘Not the good ones anyway,’ Raven replied. She quickly undid the straps holding Otto to the bed and helped him to his feet. ‘Come on, we have to get moving. I took these guys by surprise but their back-up will be here any minute and I’d rather not go up against a full Phalanx squad right now.’ With that she turned and set off down the corridor.

‘Wait!’ Otto said sharply. ‘What about the others?’

‘No time,’ Raven replied. ‘I’m here for you and only you, Mr Malpense. Let’s go.’

‘No way,’ Otto said firmly. ‘Either we all go or none of us do. The only way you’ll get me out of here without the others is if you’re carrying my unconscious body.’

Raven stopped and studied Otto for a moment.

‘Nine stone,’ Otto said with a sigh, rolling his eyes.

‘Too heavy,’ Raven replied matter of factly. ‘I’ll wake them, you undo their straps – and make it quick. We’re already behind schedule.’

‘What’s going on?’ the Contessa spat at Chief Lewis as she stormed into the security control centre.

‘We’re not sure,’ the Chief replied. ‘We’ve lost contact with the extraction team. It looks like someone deliberately cut power to the corridor they were in – someone who knew their way around H.I.V.E.’s systems, I might add.’

‘Where’s Phalanx One?’ the Contessa said impatiently.

‘He took a team down to the area where we lost contact with the extraction team. He left a couple of minutes ago,’ Lewis replied, suddenly glad that the operation had not been his responsibility.

‘Got them!’ one of the nearby surveillance technicians yelled.

‘On the main screen,’ the Chief ordered. He could not help but smile as he looked at the footage from the landing pad access corridor. There were the four pupils who had been scheduled for extraction and there was no mistaking the figure that ran ahead of them down the corridor.

‘Raven,’ the Contessa hissed in a voice that turned the Chief’s blood cold. ‘Lock the school down, seal every exit. Whatever happens she is not getting off this island. I’m going to make her wish she’d stayed dead.’

Raven poked her head around the corner and, seeing that the way to the hangar-bay door was clear, she beckoned for the others to follow.

‘That’s it,’ Shelby said as they ran along behind Raven. ‘From now on no one’s dead until I read the autopsy report.’

‘Such a report could be faked,’ Wing observed.

‘Hey, only people who haven’t come back from the grave get to have an opinion,’ Shelby said quickly. ‘So that counts you out, zombie boy.’

‘Strictly speaking I am not a zombie since I did not actually die,’ Wing said. As usual it was impossible to tell if he was joking or not.

‘Cut it out, you two,’ Laura said. While Shelby may have been hiding her nerves with wisecracks – and it was debatable whether or not Wing ever actually got nervous – Laura seemed obviously unsettled by the events of the past few minutes. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked Otto.

‘Your guess is as good as mine,’ Otto said with an apologetic smile.

‘It can’t just be a coincidence that we were drugged and about to be carted off to God knows where and then suddenly Raven miraculously returns from the dead to save us.’

‘I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough,’ Otto said, trying to sound reassuring. He decided that it was probably not a good idea to tell her that if it had been up to Raven she’d still be lying strapped to a bed being transported to whatever undoubtedly disagreeable fate had been awaiting them.

‘H.I.V.E.mind,’ Raven said to the control panel mounted on the wall next to the huge blast doors that sealed the crater landing pad off from the rest of the school. Moments later H.I.V.E.mind’s hovering face appeared on the display set into the panel.

‘How may I be of assistance?’ H.I.V.E.mind said calmly.

‘Emergency access code Raven epsilon four nine two,’ Raven said quickly, ‘open the crater access doors.’

‘I am sorry to say that as of twenty-three seconds ago all of your clearances have been revoked,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied. ‘It would require an executive command from the school principal to restore your clearance.’

‘I somehow doubt that the Contessa is going to feel like restoring my access privileges,’ Raven said quickly. She turned to Otto and Laura. ‘Can either of you hack that panel?’

‘You mean you don’t know how to get through this door?’ Laura said, sounding stressed. ‘Oh, this is a great escape plan.’

‘We got delayed,’ Raven said, shooting a recriminating glance at Otto. ‘They weren’t supposed to have had time to remove my access codes.’

Suddenly they could all hear the sound of running feet from worryingly nearby.

‘No time for a hack,’ Otto said quickly. ‘Let me try something.’

Raven stood to one side and Otto leant in close to the panel.

‘H.I.V.E.mind,’ he whispered, ‘you owe me one, remember.’

He stepped back from the panel and watched as H.I.V.E.mind tipped his head slightly to one side, a habitual response that Otto knew meant he was diverting a large proportion of his processing capacity towards solving a problem. After a couple of seconds he brought his head upright again and gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod and the blast doors slowly began to rise into the ceiling with a low rumble.

‘What did you do?’ Laura asked, clearly surprised.

‘Let’s just say I had a back door,’ Otto said, grinning. ‘Come on, get moving.’

As the others ran past him into the crater bay Otto turned again to the control panel.

‘Thank you,’ he said, smiling at H.I.V.E.mind.

‘You are welcome,’ the AI replied.

Otto turned to follow his friends.

‘Mr Malpense.’

‘Yes,’ Otto replied, looking back to the panel.

‘Good luck.’ H.I.V.E.mind smiled.

‘Thanks,’ Otto said and ran after the others.

‘I fear you shall need it,’ H.I.V.E.mind said to himself, and the display went dark.