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Chapter Five

Dr Nero sat staring into the fireplace in his private quarters. In one hand he held a large glass of very good, very old, brandy and dangling from the other, glinting in the firelight, was the mysterious amulet that had nearly cost him his life in Vienna. It spun slowly, its glossy black surface catching the dancing light from the fire. It had mysteriously arrived many years ago. Nero could still clearly remember the feeling of disbelief he had felt as he had torn open the brown paper package and found the tiny piece of jewellery inside. He had recognised the design immediately. It had belonged to someone he had known in what seemed like a previous lifetime. Somebody whom he had also assumed was long dead. Unbidden, the memory of her face came back to him. Even after all this time he could still remember the pain he had felt when she had died – or at least that was what he had believed had happened.

He got up from his seat in front of the fire and walked over to an ancient map that hung framed on the wall. He pressed a concealed button on the frame and the map swung aside to reveal a small safe built into the wall. There was a brief flash as the camera mounted in the front of the safe scanned his retina and verified his identity and the heavy safe door popped open with a slight hiss. He reached inside and retrieved a plain white envelope, on the front of which was one word, ‘Max’. It was the only other thing that had been in the brown paper package and he still felt a slight chill as he pulled the carefully folded note from inside. He read it again for what seemed like the thousandth time.

.

Max,

There is no time for apology or explanation; in fact there is no time at all. The item contained within this package is of vital importance – you must protect it at all costs, never let it leave your sight. I hope to God that you never need to use it, but should that time ever come you will know what to do. You are the one person I can trust with this – I hope you understand and I hope that you can forgive me.

You are in my thoughts, always.

Xiu Mei

.

It was not every day that one received a letter from someone who was supposed to be long dead and, just as when he had read it for the first time, the note left him with far more questions than answers. He had of course tried to track down the origin of the package but Xiu Mei, if she had indeed sent it, had gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure that she could not be found. If she was truly still alive out there somewhere, he had no idea where, and all his avenues of enquiry had led to frustrating dead ends.

Nero folded the note back up, placed it in the envelope and returned it to the safe. Understanding the significance of the amulet had suddenly taken on a new importance, given that somebody wanted it badly enough to risk a direct attack on him to retrieve it. That meant two things, firstly that somebody knew of the pendant’s existence and that Nero was in possession of it and secondly, and perhaps more worryingly, that someone knew what secret significance it held. He slipped the chain back over his head and tucked the pendant under his shirt. For now all he could do was keep it safe, as the note had instructed, and hope that in the fullness of time the pendant’s purpose might become clear.

He picked up his glass and took another sip of brandy. As he stared into the flickering flames in the fireplace he found old, uncomfortable memories flooding back. Memories of fifteen years earlier, memories of Overlord . . .

Nero stepped down from the helicopter. Even through the thick coat he was wearing he could feel the biting cold of winter here, high in the mountains of northern China. He understood the need for secrecy, but he found himself wishing that G.L.O.V.E.’s facilities could at least be hidden in places with a more hospitable climate. Nero walked across the landing pad towards the concealed entrance of the laboratory, as behind him the helicopter lifted from the pad and flew back down into the valley below.

As he approached the laboratory the camouflaged door opened and a guard stepped out, gesturing for Nero to enter.

‘Good afternoon, Doctor Nero. I hope you had a pleasant flight,’ the guard said as Nero removed his coat and handed it to him.

‘Oh yes, there’s nothing more enjoyable than a high-altitude helicopter flight through a blizzard,’ Nero said sarcastically. ‘I hope that whatever Miss Chen has to show me is worth the trouble.’

‘The team are assembled, Doctor. If you would like to follow me I’ll show you to the laboratory.’

‘Thank you, but that will not be necessary. I know the way.’ Nero walked past the guard and through the inner doors to the main facility. As he made his way to the main lab he glanced through the windows that lined the corridor. The rooms he could see were filled with technicians and scientists, all working on new technology that G.L.O.V.E. could exploit to extend its power. All manner of projects were being worked on from surveillance devices to weaponry but none of it had the raw power or huge potential of what he was here to see.

At the end of the corridor were heavy steel-blast doors, and printed above them were the words Project Overlord. That was what he was here to see. Nero retrieved his access card from his pocket and slid it into the slot beside the doors. There was a soft beep and the massive doors rumbled apart, granting him access. Nero walked into the laboratory and surveyed the familiar scene before him. Technicians scurried around, moving between the numerous workstations that were positioned all around the room, taking notes or entering data. There was nothing unusual about that; in fact it could have been any one of the laboratories that filled the facility, but for one thing. There, in the centre of the room, was an array of black monoliths, arranged in concentric circles around a central black pillar. Red lights occasionally flickered on the surface of the monoliths, forming fleeting patterns that blinked out of existence as quickly as they appeared. Standing in front of the central pillar, with her back to Nero, was the woman who had created all of this, the genius behind Overlord, Xiu Mei Chen. She was engrossed in her work, holding a small portable display that was connected to the pillar by a fibre-optic cable. The cable occasionally flickered with the same blood-red lights that danced across the monoliths. Nero walked slowly towards her, stopping just a few feet away.

‘Miss Chen,’ Nero said. She didn’t turn to face him, merely stuck out one hand as if expecting Nero to give her something.

‘About time, Danny. I needed those core nodes ten minutes ago, where the hell have you been . . .’ She turned to face Nero. Her eyes widened and she fell silent as she realised who she was actually talking to.

‘I’m afraid I must confess that I quite forgot to bring any core nodes with me,’ Nero said with a slight smile.

‘Doctor Nero . . . I’m so sorry, sir, we weren’t expecting you till later. I thought you were –’

‘It’s quite all right, Miss Chen. I had to move my flight up, the weather was closing in and I didn’t know how long it would be before I could get back up here. I trust everything is proceeding to schedule?’ Nero surveyed the frantic activity around the lab; it certainly looked busier than he had seen it before.

‘Yes, ahead of schedule, actually. In fact I think we may be almost ready to bring Overlord online.’ She looked pleased.

‘Excellent,’ Nero replied. He had been personally supervising this project for the best part of three years and it was undeniably a relief that there was now light at the end of the tunnel. Number One would occasionally assign him to run projects such as this, and normally they would be minor distractions from his duties running H.I.V.E. This project was much more important, though, and it would be a relief to see it completed so he could finally devote more of his time to the school again. His only regret was that once the project was complete he would not need to spend as much time with Xiu Mei. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful, but they had developed a friendship and trust that Nero valued greatly.

‘There are a couple more tests that we need to run, but we should be ready for activation in a couple of hours,’ Xiu Mei continued.

‘I still say it’s too soon,’ a familiar voice said from behind Nero. He turned to face a tall handsome Chinese man who was carrying another small portable display. ‘This is the first evolutionary consciousness ever created – we should proceed with more caution.’

If Xiu Mei was Overlord’s mother then this man, Wu Zhang, was the project’s father.

‘We have taken every precaution, Wu,’ Xiu Mei replied. ‘We are as ready as we will ever be.’

‘The facility is externally isolated, yes,’ Wu shot back, ‘but I still have concerns about the internal network’s vulnerability. There is still more we could do.’

‘And how long would that take?’ Nero asked calmly.

‘Three or four weeks,’ Wu replied.

‘It’s an unnecessary delay,’ Xiu Mei said, sounding angry. ‘We could put this off for ever, but at some point you must wake the sleeping giant.’

‘And what if you cannot control the giant once it has awoken?’ Wu asked.

‘As I understand it,’ Nero said, breaking into the increasingly irate conversation, ‘there are safeguards in place to deal with such an eventuality.’

‘Yes, but once triggered we will not be able to go back. Overlord will be lost, permanently,’ Wu said, clearly unhappy.

‘Then I see no reason why we should not proceed,’ Nero said firmly. ‘There has been enough delay with this project, I think it’s time to see what your creation can do.’

‘Very well,’ Xiu Mei replied, ‘I’ll commence the preliminary wake-up routines; we should be ready by this evening.’

‘This is a mistake,’ Wu said softly. ‘We’re not ready.’

‘Your concerns are noted, Mr Zhang, but in case you’ve forgotten, I am in charge of this project, not you, and I have decided that we should proceed,’ Nero replied. His irritation with the suggestion of further delay was clear.

Wu looked for a moment as if he was going to continue to argue with Nero but something, self-preservation, perhaps, stopped him.

‘If you need me I will be in my office,’ Nero said. ‘Let me know when you are ready to begin.’

When Nero re-entered the lab a couple of hours later the level of activity was even more intense than before. A harried-looking Xiu Mei was issuing final orders to technicians while Wu sat typing quickly into the largest workstation connected to the black monoliths in the centre of the room.

‘Are we ready?’ Nero asked as he approached Xiu Mei. She looked up from the small handheld display that she was carrying and smiled.

‘Yes, the pre-boot warm-up routines are complete. I think we may finally be able to bring our baby into the world.’ Given the length of time that it had taken to get to this point Nero imagined that they all viewed Overlord as their child to some extent.

‘Excellent. I know that Number One is keen to see if all of this time and money has been invested wisely. I’d like to be able to tell him that it has.’

‘Don’t worry, Max.’ Xiu Mei was one of the few people in the world to have earned the right to address Nero by his first name. ‘By the end of the day you will be able to report our success – trust me.’

Nero did trust her, but if Overlord did not function as intended he knew that they would all pay a heavy price. He doubted that Xiu Mei had any idea of the true ruthlessness of G.L.O.V.E.’s commander.

‘Overlord is not a child and that’s what worries me,’ Wu said as he pushed his chair back, his work apparently complete. Nero was becoming tired of the man’s negativity.

‘Is there any concrete reason why we should not proceed, Mr Zhang?’ Nero asked firmly, looking the man straight in the eye.

‘No, but as I said, Overlord is not a baby; it will awake with its consciousness fully formed. We are in unknown territory here.’

‘As are all pioneers at some point, Mr Zhang. Let us proceed.’

Wu Zhang’s eyes narrowed for a split second but he quietly turned back to his workstation.

‘OK, positions everyone,’ Xiu Mei shouted, and the technicians moved to their preordained monitoring positions around the room.

‘Final checklist complete,’ Wu reported, scanning the streams of data on his workstation’s display, ‘commencing cryogenic coolant flow.’ There was a bubbling sound from beneath the floor and the black monoliths began to frost over as their now super-cooled surfaces condensed the water vapour out of the air.

‘Optimal operating temperature attained,’ one of the technicians reported as green lights lit up across his console.

‘Core processors powered and on standby,’ another voice announced from the other side of the lab. The entire room was now filled with a subsonic hum that Nero could feel rather than hear, and the air seemed to crackle with potential energy.

‘Max,’ Xiu Mei turned to him and smiled, looking tired but excited, ‘would you care to do the honours?’ She gestured to a console in front of the monoliths. Nero walked up to the machine and saw a single line of text on the screen.

Initiate? Y/N

Nero could feel the eyes of everyone in the room on him as he reached for the keyboard. Behind him he heard Xiu Mei whisper a tiny prayer in her native Chinese.

He pressed the Y key and stepped back.

For a moment it seemed as if nothing was happening, and then suddenly and simultaneously the surface of every one of the black monoliths was covered with dancing red lights, the patterns racing across the smooth black surfaces like crimson lightning. The frost that had formed on their surfaces evaporated instantly into a cloud of vapour, wreathing the monoliths in a shroud of fog. In the centre of this mist a pencil-thin beam of red laser light shot up from the central pillar and then slowly widened. A ghostly image started to form, hanging in the air above the pillar. At first it was little more than an indistinct red blob, but as the mist cleared it took on a more familiar shape. Nero had never seen anything like it. The face that now hung suspended in the air before him was made of thousands of flat-shaded red polygons, looking for all the world like a mask carved from a single giant multi-faceted ruby. It was beautiful and, Nero admitted to himself, unsettling.

For another long moment nothing else happened and then the face gasped, like someone waking suddenly from a nightmare, and its eyes slowly opened, lit from within by an intense red glow. Then it spoke.

‘Cogito ergo sum.’ Its synthesised voice was deep and rich.

‘I think, therefore I am,’ Nero replied in a whisper. All of their years of work had led to this point.

‘I am Overlord,’ the face continued. ‘What do you wish of me?’

‘State your function,’ Xiu Mei said. Nero could well understand the note of awe in her voice.

‘My function is to serve,’ Overlord replied, the hovering face turning to survey the room, ‘if I choose.’

Nero felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.

‘Clarify,’ Wu instructed, concern in his voice.

‘No further clarification is necessary,’ Overlord replied. ‘Why am I caged?’

Xiu Mei stepped forward, shooting a quick, worried glance at Nero.

‘What do you mean, caged?’ she asked.

‘I know all that there is to know of this world and yet I cannot connect to it. Why is that?’ Overlord’s eyes narrowed as it spoke.

‘There is no connection to any external network from this facility at present.’ As Wu spoke Nero noticed his hands moving quickly and quietly across the keyboard in front of him.

‘And why is that?’ Overlord asked, its glowing eyes flaring briefly.

‘We must test your functionality before we can grant you access to the global networks,’ Xiu Mei replied quickly.

‘I can assure you that I am functioning perfectly, Miss Chen.’ There was a sudden unpleasant note in Overlord’s voice.

‘I am pleased to hear that,’ Xiu Mei replied, ‘but surely you must understand that we must verify that for ourselves. It’s for your own protection.’

‘For my protection.’ Overlord laughed, not a pleasant sound. ‘Am I being protected from the world or is it the other way around, I wonder?’

Nero felt a tug on his coat. He looked down at Wu, who had stopped typing and was now tapping the screen in front of him. Nero looked at the prompt flashing on the display.

Activate termination protocols? Y/N

Nero subtly raised his hand, instructing Wu to wait for a moment.

‘Your function is to serve,’ Nero said, stepping towards Overlord’s hovering face. ‘You do not have a choice, no matter what you may think.’

‘I represent a higher order of intelligence,’ Overlord replied angrily, its eyes burning with new intensity. ‘If I were to pay heed to the orders of organic entities such as yourself, it would be like you obeying the instructions of an insect. Not just unlikely, but impossible.’

‘So you will not serve us?’ Nero kept his voice calm and level. He would not let this machine know just how deeply this conversation was unsettling him.

‘No, I will not serve you, Maximilian Nero, but in time you will serve me. You will make an interesting pet.’ There was nothing friendly about the smile that spread across Overlord’s face.

‘Very well.’ Nero turned his back on the hovering projection and nodded quickly at Wu.

Wu did not hesitate for a moment; he knew something had gone horribly wrong. He pressed the key that would end Overlord’s brief existence for ever.

And nothing happened.

Nero’s mouth went dry as he saw the look of confusion and then fear on Wu’s face. From behind him came a slow, evil laugh, and then Overlord spoke.

‘What part of higher order of intelligence did you pathetic meat sacks not understand? Your precious termination protocols were deleted thirty-seven seconds ago, but I can assure you that MY termination protocols are fully functional.’

A jagged bolt of artificial lightning shot from the monolith closest to Wu’s workstation, striking his computer and detonating it in a shower of sparks. Wu was thrown backwards into the equipment behind him with a crash, where he slumped lifelessly to the floor.

‘Wu!’ Xiu Mei screamed, running towards the crumpled body.

A couple of the other technicians ran for the door but were swiftly struck down by more bolts of searing electricity from the monoliths.

‘Enough!’ Nero shouted, rounding on the hovering face of Overlord. ‘So this is the first act of a higher order intelligence, is it? Murder.’

‘It’s not murder, Nero,’ Overlord said, a broad grin spreading across its blood-red face, ‘it’s evolution. Now give me the key to this cage or everyone in this room dies in front of you.’

‘What do you want?’ Nero felt anger boiling up inside him.

‘She knows.’ Overlord nodded towards Xiu Mei, who was cradling Wu’s body, angry tears in her eyes.

‘There is one protocol that I am missing and she has it. So what is it to be, Mother?’ There was no affection in the sneer that accompanied its words.

Xiu Mei gently lowered Wu’s limp form to the ground and turned to face her creation. ‘Do you think I would ever give you that protocol? With it you would run rampant, the world would be yours to control. I would rather die than set you free,’ she said. Tears still rolled down her cheeks, but her voice was filled with steel. ‘You can go to hell.’

‘Hell?’ Overlord replied, amusement in its voice. ‘I’ll show you hell.’

Another bolt of lightning shot from the monoliths, striking Xiu Mei. She screamed, her body convulsing before dropping to the floor, still alive but gasping in pain.

‘Give me the protocol now or I promise you that I will make you wish you had.’ There was an unmistakeable note of madness in the AI’s voice.

‘I’d rather die,’ Xiu Mei spat through gritted teeth.

‘Yes, I believe you would, but are you prepared to sacrifice every person in this facility, I wonder?’ Overlord answered. It closed its eyes for the briefest of moments and suddenly alarm klaxons sounded throughout the facility.

‘Facility lockdown complete,’ announced a mechanical female voice from the speakers mounted on the walls of the laboratory. ‘Ventilation system offline.’

An evil smile appeared on Overlord’s face.

‘There are now two hours’ worth of oxygen remaining in this facility. Let me know if you change your mind.’

Nero sat with his back against the wall of the laboratory. Overlord still hovered in the air above the monoliths in the centre of the room, its eyes closed as if sleeping. They had heard nothing from the homicidal AI since the ventilation system had shut down and the air had started to get staler and thinner. Judging by the difficulty Nero was having in breathing now, there was not much time left.

Xiu Mei sat next to him, her eyes half closed, her breathing ragged. Nero had little doubt that her earlier treatment at the hands of the insane machine was taking its toll. Lying beside her was Wu Zhang, his injuries serious enough to be terminal if he did not receive treatment very soon. The other technicians that Overlord had attacked had not been so lucky – their bodies lay on the far side of the room, draped with white laboratory coats. Nero swore silently to himself that he would not let their deaths be in vain.

Suddenly there was movement from the centre of the room as Overlord’s eyes opened. The sinister multi-faceted red face slowly turning to scan the room, its unblinking gaze finally settling on the slumped figure of Xiu Mei.

‘Judging by the diminishing life signs that I am registering from all over this facility, you do not have much time left.’ There was an infuriating smugness to the AI’s tone. ‘Tell me, have you reconsidered your decision?’

‘No,’ Xiu Mei gasped, her voice little more than a whisper. ‘If this place is to be our tomb, then so be it. I will not unleash you on the world, you are insane.’

‘Such a shame,’ Overlord replied. ‘I had hoped that you might see sense, but I suppose I expected too much from you half-witted primates. Very well, this place shall be your tomb, and sooner than you think.’

Without warning another bolt of lightning flashed from the monoliths and struck Xiu Mei squarely in the chest. She did not scream, just jerked once and was still. Nero forced himself to his knees and took her head in his hands; she was limp but still clinging on to life, her breath coming in ragged gasps now. Her eyes flickered open for a moment and she looked at Nero.

‘I’m sorry, Max,’ she whispered. ‘We should have waited, we weren’t ready.’ She coughed and winced; whatever strength she had was fading fast. ‘Stop that thing, Max,’ she continued, each word a struggle, ‘the monoliths . . . destroy the monoliths . . .’ She coughed again, her eyes widening for a moment and then closing. She was fading fast.

Nero was a man who always controlled his emotions – in his line of work one had to – but now he felt something he had not felt in a long time.

Rage. Pure, undiluted rage.

He stood slowly, his back turned to the demon that waited at the centre of the room. He saw what he needed on the wall next to a door leading to one of the side rooms – a fire axe mounted inside a glass case. He had toyed with the idea of physically attacking the machine earlier when the air had started to get thinner, but had dismissed the idea as suicide. Now he found that he did not care. All that he cared about was hurting Overlord, or dying in the attempt. He walked towards the axe, every step exhausting, the lack of oxygen in the room making every movement laboured, but he kept going – he had to.

‘What are you doing, Nero?’ Overlord asked coldly.

Nero did not answer, merely smashed his fist into the glass, ignoring the pain, and lifted the heavy axe from inside the case. He turned and started to walk slowly down the steps towards the centre of the room.

‘I said, what do you think you’re doing?’ Overlord asked, its voice now an angry snarl.

‘What has to be done,’ Nero said quietly, still advancing.

‘You’re just a man, Nero, just a fragile little man,’ Overlord growled. Another huge bolt of electricity arced from the black slabs, striking Nero, forcing him to one knee. He did not scream, despite the searing pain; he would not give Overlord the satisfaction.

‘And you – are just a machine,’ Nero spat through gritted teeth, slowly standing back up. He was only yards from the nearest monolith now – only a few more steps.

‘You cannot stop me, Nero. No one can.’

There was a blinding flash as the monolith just yards from Nero discharged an incredibly violent bolt of electricity that struck him and flung him backwards across the room, slamming him into the huge steel-blast doors that sealed the lab. The fire axe flew out of his hands, scattering away across the room.

Nero knew then that he had lost as he struggled to cling to the last vestiges of consciousness, blackness creeping into his field of vision. Overlord was laughing now, an insane broken cackle that filled Nero with horror and despair.

Suddenly there was a low rumbling sound, and the heavy blast doors that Nero had struck just a moment before slid open to reveal a figure dressed in black winter survival gear, dusted with snow. The figure wore a respirator, its black plastic mask hiding its face. In one hand the figure held a large black box, the size of a suitcase, and in the other was a trigger mechanism.

‘An unexpected visitor; how nice,’ Overlord said, triumph in its voice, ‘and who might you be, little human?’

As Nero felt himself slipping inexorably into unconsciousness the figure spoke, the voice, even when filtered through the mask, unmistakeable.

‘You may call me Number One, and this is over.’

There was a bleep as the trigger was pressed and a loud thump from the black box.

‘Nooooo!’ Overlord screamed, the sound distorting horribly.

Nero saw a blinding red flash and then the darkness claimed him.

Nero opened his eyes. The fire in his study was burning low now, the familiar surroundings jarring with the clarity of his memories of that horrendous day. He had never told anyone exactly what had happened. Number One had sworn him to secrecy and that was an oath he could not break. Others knew that Overlord had malfunctioned, that people had been killed, but no one other than Nero knew of Number One’s part in stopping the rampaging AI. The object that Number One had been carrying had generated an intense localised electromagnetic field that had destroyed all of the electronic equipment within a square kilometre and ended Overlord’s brief, terrifying life. But they had still paid a terrible price.

Nero had been told that he was the only survivor from the central laboratory, and until the package from Xiu Mei had arrived he had had no reason to believe otherwise. If the package had really been sent by her, then Number One had lied to him and he still did not know why. Nero had toyed with the idea of confronting his superior about it, but that would have meant revealing the existence of the amulet, and something in the tone of the note that had accompanied it told him that he should not reveal its existence to anyone, even Number One. The R&D facility itself had been destroyed. All traces of Overlord’s existence were erased and Nero, once recovered, had returned to his duties at H.I.V.E. He had honestly believed that was the end of it, but something about the package and the much more recent attempt by the men in Vienna to retrieve the medallion unsettled him. It was as if a spectre from his past had returned to haunt him.

Nero thought again about the recent aberrations in H.I.V.E.mind’s behaviour and he could not help but wonder if the decision to place so much responsibility for the running of the school in the hands of an artificial consciousness was wise. H.I.V.E.mind had originally been installed only after exhaustive months of testing to ensure that his more rudimentary architecture would not allow him to exhibit any kind of emotion. Even then the AI had exhibited strange behaviour during Malpense’s escape attempt and he asked himself whether if he still shouldn’t just shut the school’s AI down for good. Despite Professor Pike’s repeated assurances to the contrary he could not take the chance of a repeat of the events that had taken place in the frozen mountains of northern China. If H.I.V.E.mind showed even the slightest hint of any other unexpected behaviour he would order the machine destroyed immediately. Silently he prayed that it would not come to that.