For Otto and the other students their timetable remained unforgiving over the next couple of months; their new education proceeded at a breakneck pace that showed no sign of letting up any time soon. One moment they would be learning how to crack the latest design of high-security vault, the next they would be studying the logistics of building secret orbital launch facilities. The work was relentless, and there seemed to be little room at H.I.V.E. for those who could not maintain this punishing pace. Otto was finding the work challenging but not impossible, his own strange talents helping him to adapt quickly to this new way of life. The only problems he had were with the Politics and Economics classes, not because they were particularly difficult, but because he found them mind-numbingly dull. Like anyone else he found it hard to excel in subjects that he had little or no interest in. Franz, on the other hand, had displayed a remarkable natural talent for ‘creative’ accountancy – it seemed that he could hide or redistribute money in such a way that even the teachers could not trace what he had done with the fictional funds in their exercises.
Wing too had continued to excel in Tactical Education. Indeed, something of a friendly rivalry had developed between him and Shelby over the course of a few more of the Colonel’s lessons, and their races across the grappler cavern were quickly becoming more and more hair-raising to watch. Shelby had proven to be a quite different person after she had been unmasked so publicly in their first lesson with Ms Leon. Gone was the spoilt brat persona that she had adopted in the first couple of days, replaced instead with a quiet confidence and occasional displays of hilarious but withering sarcasm. Shelby had not forgiven Ms Leon for her announcement of her true identity to the class, and as Otto had watched them verbally sparring over the following weeks he was reminded of two prize fighters circling each other, looking for the opening that would allow one of them to deliver the knockout blow. Otto doubted that Shelby would have been allowed to get away with this if it weren’t for the fact that she performed so brilliantly in the Stealth and Evasion classes. Her professional name had been well earned, since it seemed that she could be as invisible as a ghost when she wanted to be.
Shelby and Laura had also become fast friends, partly due to long late-night conversations in their room and partly due to the fact that Laura had succeeded in persuading Shelby to join their scheme to get off the island. Initially she had been reluctant to join them, insisting that she ‘worked better alone’ but soon she realised, just as Otto had, that escaping would take their combined efforts if it was going to be possible at all.
In fact the only person who seemed to be really struggling to adapt to life at H.I.V.E. was Nigel. For several days it had seemed that each new lesson they attended just made him more miserable, not helped by the fact that all of the teachers seemed to have higher expectations of him than they had of the other students. Otto had lost count of the number of times that he had been picked on by a teacher, singled out to answer a particularly difficult question or had his poor performance compared unfavourably with the past successes of his father. Clearly the Darkdoom name was a burden that he was expected to bear without complaint, but Otto had grave doubts that Nigel was really a suitable candidate for the Alpha stream. The only subject with which he didn’t seem to struggle was Biotechnology, often displaying a depth of knowledge of the subject that had surprised the teachers and even his fellow students. Consequently, the only place where Nigel seemed happy was in the hydroponics lab, where he had quickly become fascinated with the carnivorous plants that H.I.V.E. cultivated for experimental purposes. Otto had accepted an invitation from Nigel to come and feed his charges with him one evening after dinner and he had been struck by the care with which Nigel had fed insects to each of the numerous varieties of plants.
‘I used to tend the gardens with my mother,’ he had explained, ‘this reminds me of home.’
Homesickness was not something that Otto found he suffered from, but in that regard he seemed to be the exception rather than the rule. Laura had been missing her parents particularly badly, refusing to believe that they could possibly have consented to her abduction. She wanted to get home, believing that they would be worried sick by her disappearance and frustrated that she could not reassure them that she was OK. This was just one reason why their ‘extra-curricular’ activities had been proceeding quickly. If they were going to escape, they needed to act fast. The longer they spent on the island, the greater the chance that their efforts would be discovered.
It had not been until the end of their first month at H.I.V.E. that Otto had explained the details of his plan to Wing, Laura and Shelby. The four of them had sat in a quiet corner of the atrium as Otto had explained to them exactly how they were going to escape, his voice low to avoid any chance of being overheard. As Otto had predicted, they had initially greeted his suggestion with open scepticism. Shelby in particular seemed highly dubious that the four of them were capable of doing what Otto was suggesting while still avoiding detection. Otto had been prepared for this and had reassured his three co-conspirators by going through each stage of the plan in detail and providing apparently satisfactory answers to all of their many questions. After a couple of these secretive meetings it seemed that they were all starting to really believe that they could actually pull it off, and Otto turned their attention to solving some of the initial practical problems that had to be overcome before any escape attempt could be mounted.
First he had gone over the list of components that he and Laura would require in order to construct some of the equipment they’d need. Otto thought that he could smuggle some of the more common items out of Practical Technology lessons himself. Professor Pike was not, after all, renowned for keeping a particularly close eye on the students during his lessons. Some of the more exotic components, however, would be rather more difficult for them to lay their hands on. He knew where some of them could be acquired, but the security around them might be tight. He had discussed these items with Shelby and she had, after a couple of days of discreet investigation, assured him that she could get them what they needed without being detected. It was Otto’s turn to be sceptical then – he knew that she was uniquely gifted when it came to acquiring hard-to-reach items, but this would be a real test of her prowess.
It was no small surprise, then, when after only a couple of days Shelby had walked into Otto and Wing’s quarters and carefully laid out on the bed every single item on the list. Otto made a mental note that he would remember in future to have more faith in her abilities. That had been the cue for Otto and Laura to start work on assembling these components into something they could use. Otto was ninety-nine per cent certain, after searching every inch of their rooms, that there was no surveillance of the students in their quarters, and so they had decided to use their bathrooms as makeshift workshops for this purpose. The way he saw it, if they were being watched as they worked on these unapproved science projects then they would doubtless find out soon enough. The fact that they had eventually completed their work without the ever-present guards breaking down their bathroom doors suggested that their activities had thankfully remained undetected.
And so it was, as they approached the end of November, that they were finally ready to put their plan into action. There were still elements of the scheme that worried Otto, places where they might have to rely rather too much on luck for his liking, but they could not afford to sit around worrying. They finally settled on a date for their attempt and, as the fateful day drew nearer, Otto could not help but feel nervous and a little excited. There was no doubt that H.I.V.E. was a unique establishment, and much of what they’d studied he’d found fascinating, but he still felt like a laboratory rat in a maze. Secretly he feared that if he stayed much longer he might start to enjoy his studies rather too much, which would only make it that much harder to leave. There was a nagging voice at the back of his mind that kept asking what exactly it was that he was so keen to get back to. The orphanage may have been his home for years, but he didn’t miss it as much as he thought he would, and it wasn’t as if he could spend the rest of his life there. The louder this voice got the more determined Otto became that he had to leave now before these doubts became impossible to ignore.
‘So, with such a potent combination of natural neuro-toxins it is easy to see why this particular family of plants has so much potential. Full-scale cultivation may even –’
MWAH, MWAAAAH, MWAH!!!!
The school bell echoed around the hydroponics dome, drowning out the final words of Ms Gonzales’s Biotechnology lesson. As everyone started to pack their bags she raised her voice.
‘Remember I want you all to complete an essay on the genetic manipulation of growth characteristics in complex plants for next week’s lesson.’
Otto couldn’t help but smile to himself. If all went to plan tonight he wouldn’t have to worry about that particular piece of homework. Wing caught sight of Otto’s expression and grinned.
‘Perhaps we should post our essays to her,’ he said quietly.
‘We could if we had an address to send them to,’ Otto replied, and, noticing Nigel approaching, quickly placed a finger to his lips, silencing Wing.
‘Hi guys.’ Nigel seemed unusually cheerful. ‘Are you going straight to lunch or have you got a couple of minutes to have a look at something I’ve been working on?’
Otto swung his backpack on to his shoulder. ‘I’m in no hurry to get to lunch. Let’s see what the mysterious Darkdoom has been up to his in lab.’
Nigel smiled happily at Otto. ‘Cool. Do you want to come too, Wing?’
‘Certainly, though I don’t mind telling you that I find those insect-eating plants of yours rather unsettling.’ Wing wasn’t joking. He didn’t like the way that an apparently innocent-looking plant could hide the fact that it was a killer, even if it did only murder bugs.
‘Oh, this is much better than them, trust me,’ Nigel replied, sounding strangely proud. ‘Come on.’ He beckoned for Otto and Wing to follow him up a nearby flight of stairs.
They passed through an airtight door and down a long gantry that hung above the steaming tropical environment that was artificially maintained in this part of the dome. Eventually they came to a door which Nigel opened to reveal a small room with glass walls that looked out on the carefully cultivated jungle below. In the centre of the one workbench in the tiny room was a large cube-shaped object covered with a black cloth.
‘Please speak quietly – she’s very sensitive to sound,’ Nigel whispered.
Wing glanced at Otto as Nigel turned to the cloth-covered object, a look of confused curiosity on his face. Otto gave a small shrug in reply. It had been a couple of weeks since Nigel had excitedly announced that Ms Gonzales was letting him use one of the spare rooms in the hydroponics dome to conduct extra research. Otto remembered feeling pleased that Nigel had found something to interest him at H.I.V.E., especially given his dismal performance in their other classes. Now it seemed that they were finally going to get to see what he’d been doing in this tiny little room.
‘Here, come closer,’ Nigel instructed, and Otto and Wing obediently crowded round the mysterious cube.
‘Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to Violet.’ Nigel pulled the cover from the cube with a flourish to reveal a glass tank containing the strangest plant that either of them had ever seen. It looked like a single Venus flytrap at the end of a fifteen-centimetre-long stem, but it had long sharp thorns in its mouth rather than the soft flexible fronds that made up the normal plant’s ‘teeth’. Arranged around the base of the stem were prickly leaves and long tendrils that occasionally waved around in the air, as if seeking prey. Nigel seemed delighted by the amazed looks on Otto and Wing’s faces.
‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ Nigel sighed. ‘It’s taken me ages to sequence the right characteristics from my other plants, but she’s been worth all the work.’ He popped open a plastic box on the workbench and pulled out a long fat earthworm. ‘Watch this.’
Nigel dropped the earthworm on the soil near the base of the plant; Violet’s reaction was swift and violent. The tendrils at the plant’s base snaked out, gripping the worm as the toothed jaw bent down on its flexible stem with startling speed, snatching up the helpless creature, devouring it in seconds. Wing’s expression turned to fascinated revulsion.
‘That is truly one of the most disturbing things I have ever seen,’ he said softly. ‘How did you create this thing?’
‘Oh, just a slightly modified gene here, a bit of judicious cross-pollination there. You know, the usual.’ Nigel looked as if he was going to burst with pride.
‘She’s amazing, Nigel, just amazing,’ Otto said, unable to tear his eyes away from the final moments of the unfortunate worm’s existence.
‘I haven’t shown her to Ms Gonzales yet. I’m worried that they might experiment on her. So you mustn’t tell anyone, OK?’ He fixed them with a serious look – this was clearly very important to him.
‘My lips are sealed, Nigel, don’t worry.’ Otto reminded himself that after this evening he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone else at H.I.V.E. about Violet, even if he wanted to.
‘You can count on my discretion,’ Wing said seriously, ‘as long as you promise never to feed her in front of me again.’
‘Thanks, guys,’ Nigel smiled again, ‘I really appreciate it. You know how badly I’m doing in my other classes. I don’t want to mess up Biotech as well. I just wish I could show her to my mum, she’d be so proud.’
Otto felt a familiar twinge of guilt. On more than one occasion he and Wing had sat discussing late into the night whether or not they should take Nigel with them when they left. Unfortunately they just kept coming to the same conclusion – Nigel was a liability. There was no way that he’d be able to keep up with them when they made their break for it – he would just slow them down in a situation where speed would be everything. It didn’t stop Otto from feeling terrible that they were going to be leaving the small bald boy behind.
‘She’s only two days old. You should see the rate she’s been growing, and she hasn’t stopped yet. In a few weeks’ time you won’t recognise her.’ Nigel looked proudly at the plant, which seemed to have gone quite still. ‘She always rests after a kill,’ he explained. ‘Doesn’t she look cute?’
Otto thought that this was probably his and Wing’s cue to leave.
‘Come on, Wing. Watching Violet eat has made me hungry. We’d better go and get some lunch before it’s all gone.’
Wing nodded. ‘Are you coming, Nigel?’
‘No, I want to run a couple more tests on Violet. I’ll see you guys later. Thanks for coming up and meeting her.’ Nigel replied happily.
‘Any time, Nigel. We’ll have to come up and see her again in a few days,’ Otto replied. He was still feeling guilty about having to lie to Nigel as they left him talking happily to his new friend.
Otto, Wing, Shelby and Laura sat at a table in one of the more secluded corners of the dining hall, talking quietly amongst themselves as they ate.
‘Everything’s set, then. We go tonight,’ Otto whispered, looking around carefully to ensure that there weren’t any potential eavesdroppers within hearing range.
‘Ready as we’ll ever be,’ Laura replied. ‘I still wish there was some way that we could test the primary device before we go, but we’ll just have to pray that me and Otto got our sums right.’
‘Try not to overfill me with confidence, won’t you?’ Shelby replied sarcastically, looking uncharacteristically nervous.
‘We know it will work, the theory’s sound,’ Otto reassured her. ‘The parts you got were perfect, there’s no reason it shouldn’t go smoothly.’ He tried to sound more confident than he felt. He too wished there was a way they could conduct more tests, but the very nature of the device meant that it was going to be a one-shot deal.
‘If we stick to the plan, we will be successful,’ Wing said calmly. He seemed to be immune to the nervousness that the others were feeling. ‘We must simply hope that we do not encounter any unforeseen circumstances.’
Wing was right. Otto knew that there were risks they couldn’t completely eliminate, but he too was more worried about the wildcard factors that could completely derail the plan than anything else.
‘Just keep your eyes open over the next few hours for anything that might cause any problems. Once we start this we can’t stop – it’s all or nothing.’ Otto knew that the tiniest detail might be important.
‘Do or die, huh?’ Shelby replied.
Otto smiled grimly. ‘Yes, if not the precise words I would have chosen.’
Otto and Wing left Shelby and Laura in the dining hall. It was best that they kept apart from each other now; they all knew what they had to do. Wing appeared distracted as they walked towards the accommodation block. He was unusually quiet.
‘Something on your mind?’ Otto asked.
‘There is one thing I am not sure about. If the plan is successful and we make it back to civilisation, do we tell people about H.I.V.E.?’ Wing asked. It was a question that Otto had already given considerable thought to.
‘No, we don’t,’ Otto replied firmly.
‘Why not? What about the other students here?’ Wing didn’t seem happy with Otto’s opinion.
‘For the same reason that once you’ve sneaked past a wasp’s nest in a tree you don’t return and start hitting it with a stick,’ Otto replied.
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’ Wing stopped walking and turned to face Otto. ‘Surely it is our duty to try to free the others. We can’t just walk away.’
‘That’s exactly what we’re going to do. If we expose the school, they’re going to know exactly who was responsible, and I guarantee you that they will not rest until all four of us are dealt with . . . permanently.’ Otto doubted that Wing had given this as much thought as he had.
‘So we should be silenced by fear?’
Otto tried to keep his voice calm. Wing could be infuriating to argue with about things like this – he seemed to see everything in black and white. ‘No, we should disappear. H.I.V.E. can’t kill what it can’t find. Besides which, what do you think would happen to the other students if H.I.V.E. was exposed? Do you really think that Nero’s going to thank them for their time and wave them on their way? No, they’ll cover it up, and if that means covering up the students too, that’s exactly what they’ll do . . . with concrete, probably.’
Wing looked carefully at Otto, as if trying to see what he was thinking.
‘I suppose you’re right,’ Wing sighed. ‘It still seems unfair to just abandon the others to their fate like that, though.’
‘A worse fate would await them if we spilled the beans about this place.’ Otto stopped suddenly, spotting someone approaching down the corridor. ‘Oh no . . .’ Wing turned round to see Block and Tackle standing just ten metres away; Block was holding a length of steel pipe.
‘Oh dear, looks like we found a couple of maggots who lost their way, Mr Tackle,’ Block said, tapping the pipe into his palm.
‘We should show them where to go, Mr Block,’ Tackle replied, grinning. Otto suddenly noticed how very deserted the corridor seemed as the two thugs advanced towards them.
‘Get behind me,’ Wing instructed Otto. ‘When they attack, run.’
‘No way, Wing. I’m not leaving you alone with those two.’ Otto sounded braver than he felt. He doubted very much that he had any chance of disabling either of the two hulking henchmen in the same way that he had done in the dining hall on their first day. A nerve pinch might be an effective way of dealing with someone once, but its success depended very much on the element of surprise, which was something he no longer had. Unfortunately the steel pipe that Block was wielding suggested that this time Block and Tackle were playing for keeps.
‘Very well, leave the one with the pipe to me. Hold the other one off for as long as possible. If I go down, promise me you’ll run,’ Wing replied, not taking his eyes off their two assailants for a second.
‘If you go down, I’m sure it will be after me.’ Otto swallowed hard, suddenly frightened. Fear was something he didn’t feel often, and he hated it – it made him feel weak and confused.
Wing took a single step towards the two brutes, stopping them short. He had adopted a fighting stance, and doubt briefly flickered across the two henchmen’s faces.
Wing spoke, his voice calm and clear. ‘There are twenty-three ways of combatting an assailant armed with a blunt object from this position. Four of them will kill you, twelve of them will permanently disable you and the remaining seven will cause injuries that, while being extremely painful, you will at least recover from. In all of them I take that pipe from you and use it on you. The choice is yours.’
Suddenly the looks of smug confidence vanished from Block and Tackle’s faces. Block looked nervously at his companion, his voice uncertain.
‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ He turned away from Wing, as if to retreat back up the corridor. Then, with a murderous roar, he spun back towards Wing, swinging the pipe in a vicious arc straight at his head.
Wing moved blindingly fast, his hand snapping up and catching the pipe with a loud slapping noise, catching Block off balance. He stepped in towards the hulking boy and twisted the pipe neatly from his hand, spinning it in his own hand and planting a swift blow to his attacker’s stomach. Block doubled up, clutching his belly, all of the wind knocked from him. Seeing this, Tackle let out a roar and swung a clenched fist the size of a melon straight at Wing’s face. Wing deflected the blow upwards, throwing Tackle off balance, and planted a vicious jab with his other hand right into Tackle’s armpit, causing the larger boy to bellow in pain. The two assailants backed off a couple of yards as Wing threw the pipe away over his shoulder and returned calmly to the same stance he had adopted bare seconds before. Tackle’s arm hung limp at his side, apparently disabled by Wing’s punch, and Block stood gasping, still trying to catch his breath.
‘Think . . . you’re pretty . . . tough, do ya?’ Block managed to gasp out between strained breaths, glaring malevolently at Wing.
‘No, but I think you are clumsy and slow,’ Wing replied, his voice calm. It was an observation more than a taunt.
‘You’ll be clumsy too when I’ve broken all your fingers,’ Tackle growled, circling round to Wing’s left. Block moved in the opposite direction, apparently attempting to surround Wing. Otto quietly picked the pipe up from the floor nearby where Wing had discarded it. Suddenly, both the henchman students charged Wing at once. Wing sprang into the air, his foot catching the stampeding Block neatly under the chin, snapping the thug’s head back and sending him collapsing backwards on to the floor. Tackle made a grab for Wing as his companion collapsed, but Wing ducked and planted a jab identical to the first – this time, though, into Tackle’s other armpit. Again the larger boy howled in pain, backing away rapidly. Wing advanced on Tackle, who seemed to still be struggling to get his arms to respond to basic commands.
‘Stop this, I do not want to hurt you more seriously,’ Wing said calmly as he walked towards the retreating Tackle.
‘Yeah? Well, I do want to hurt you more seriously,’ Tackle replied and reached into his overalls, pulling out a vicious-looking knife.
‘Wing! Catch!’ Otto shouted and threw the pipe to his friend. It spun end over end through the air and Wing turned at the last moment to catch it . . . with his forehead. He grunted and fell to the floor, out cold. Otto’s eyes widened in horror. What had he done?
The momentary look of surprise on Tackle’s face was replaced with an evil grin. He looked down at the unconscious form of Wing.
‘I’ll be back for you in a second, karate kid,’ he looked up at Otto, ‘but you’re first, Whitey.’
Otto looked desperately around the hallway for something to defend himself with as Tackle approached. Block too had risen to his feet and picked up the pipe that lay next to Wing, joining Tackle as they advanced down the corridor towards Otto.
‘Gonna leave you a greasy spot on the floor, Maggot,’ Block growled as he approached. Otto had nowhere to run.
Well, I’m going to go out fighting, Otto thought to himself, adopting the same fighting stance that Wing had used a few seconds earlier. He hoped desperately that Tackle and Block might not realise that he didn’t have the first clue how to defend himself in the same way Wing had.
Suddenly Block and Tackle’s eyes widened in terror. Block dropped the pipe to the floor with a clatter and backed away, hand raised defensively before him.
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt me, oh God!’ Block squealed pathetically. He turned and fled back up the corridor.
‘We were only messing around, we weren’t really gonna hurt anyone,’ Tackle squeaked, dropping the knife and racing down the corridor in pursuit of his friend. Otto was astonished. Had he really presented that fierce a challenge?
What Otto had not seen as the two henchmen approached him was the black-clad figure that unfolded itself from the shadows in the roof of the corridor and dropped soundlessly to the floor behind him. With one hand it pulled one of the katanas it wore strapped to its back just slightly out of the sheath, the blade glinting in the lights of the corridor. The other hand it raised towards Block and Tackle, wagging its finger ‘no’. Their reaction to seeing Raven, the most feared assassin in the school, apparently personally protecting Otto, was entirely predictable. Otto, on the other hand, had absolutely no idea she had even been there as she vanished back into the shadows as quickly and silently as she had appeared.
Otto ran over to where Wing was lying, relieved to see as he got closer that he was coming round, shaking his head as he pushed himself up into a sitting position.
‘Are you OK?’ Otto asked urgently.
‘I’ll live.’ Wing looked up the corridor just in time to see the fleeing figures of Block and Tackle round a bend in the corridor and disappear from view. He clasped a hand to his forehead, wincing.
‘I’m so sorry, Wing. Are you sure you’re OK?’ Otto felt terrible about hurting him.
‘It’s OK, Otto. You were trying to help.’ Wing smiled at him. ‘Besides, I’ve survived much worse, believe me. What did you do to those two?’ Wing jerked his thumb towards the corridor that Block and Tackle had fled along.
Otto helped Wing to his feet and gave him a puzzled smile. ‘You know what? I haven’t the faintest idea.’
Otto felt suitably guilty as he accompanied Wing to the infirmary to have the bump on his head checked. Wing repeatedly insisted that he was fine and that he didn’t need to be looked over by the doctor but Otto insisted. The doctor greeted their explanation that Wing had tripped over and hit his head on a desk with predictable cynicism, but thankfully didn’t press them for more details of how the injury had been sustained and assured Wing that he would be fine barring a slight headache.
After leaving the infirmary they headed back to the accommodation block, where they found Shelby and Laura talking on one of the sofas in the atrium.
‘Where have you two been? We were starting to get worried,’ Laura asked.
Otto explained about their impromptu rendezvous with Block and Tackle, and the girls’ initial sympathy for the injured Wing was soon replaced by taunting Otto about the ‘help’ he had offered during the fight.
‘So, let me get this straight,’ Shelby said, grinning, ‘Wing has basically subdued both of them and then you make your first contribution to the battle by knocking him unconscious.’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ Otto mumbled, feeling about three inches tall.
‘Otto’s assistance was welcome, if somewhat misdirected,’ Wing replied with a wry smile on his face.
‘I’ll have to remember that for the future. When in a life or death battle, be sure to club unconscious everyone on your side as early on in the fight as possible,’ Laura laughed.
‘Yeah, especially if they’re all that stands between you and the beating of a lifetime.’ Shelby was enjoying Otto’s discomfort a great deal apparently.
‘I still do not understand why they fled,’ Wing replied, looking thoughtful.
‘Otto must have really frightened them,’ Laura said. She managed to keep a straight face for at least two seconds before she and Shelby burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter.
This is going to be a long evening, Otto thought to himself. He had to admit it was odd, though. He still wasn’t sure himself what it was that he’d done to make them run away. He knew though that seeking the pair of them out and asking them what it was that had scared them so much would not be a particularly good idea right now.
‘Whatever it was that caused them to flee I am glad that they did. The whole situation might have been resolved somewhat more unpleasantly if they had not. I do not believe they wanted to leave us with just a few bruises – they had murder in their eyes.’ Wing seemed suddenly serious. Otto knew what he meant – the most frightening thing about the fight had been the look on Block and Tackle’s faces as they had advanced towards him after Wing had gone down. He had felt with a dread certainty that they were going to seriously hurt, perhaps even kill him. He would not underestimate their capacity for violence in future.
When she and Laura had finally stopped laughing Shelby looked over at Wing with concern, her voice low as she spoke.
‘So are you going to be OK for tonight?’ She asked.
‘I’ll be fine,’ he grinned again, ‘though I strongly recommend not turning your back on Otto at any point.’
A very long evening indeed, thought Otto.
Nigel was worried. Violet was growing much more quickly than he had anticipated and she was becoming rather hard to handle. The last time he’d fed her she’d bitten his finger and drawn blood. It wasn’t so much the minor injury that bothered him, but the way she had been driven frantic by the tiny taste she’d received of the dark crimson liquid. It was at that point he’d decided the pipe that would feed her regular doses of a growth-inhibiting agent, which he’d smuggled out of Ms Gonzales’s lab, needed to be placed near her roots. That should at least ensure that she would not grow any more for now. He’d have to address what he was going to do about her violent tendencies tomorrow, though he wasn’t entirely sure how one controlled aggression in plants. He might, he realised, have to ask Ms Gonzales for help after all.
He held a cockroach out to Violet, clasped in the jaws of a long pair of forceps. The plant didn’t seem at all interested in the bug she was being offered. Instead, the long tendrils curled up the forceps towards his hand in a most unsettling way. He pulled the forceps from the tendrils, trying carefully not to snap any of them. Their grip was surprisingly strong. The cockroach lay near Violet’s base, ignored and untouched. If she was off her food as well, Nigel feared that there might be something seriously wrong with her. He sat staring into the tank, an anxious expression on his face.
‘What am I going to do with you?’ he sighed, placing his hand on the glass.
Otto sat on his bed reading a biography of Diabolus Darkdoom that he had borrowed from the school library. Nigel’s father had led an eventful life, each scheme that he planned more daring and audacious than the last. Otto had just reached the section that dealt with Darkdoom’s plan to steal the Eiffel Tower when Wing walked out of the bathroom wearing just his boxer shorts and a vest. It was not the first time that Otto had seen the array of scars that seemed to cover Wing’s body, but he had still not plucked up the courage to ask Wing how he had ended up so marked. He supposed that Wing would tell him himself when he felt the time was right. He also noted that Wing was still wearing the small amulet on a chain around his neck that, as far as Otto knew, he never took off. The amulet was in the shape of a white comma with a tiny black circle in the centre of its head. Otto had resisted the urge to ask about this object too, but now, as they prepared to leave the school, he realised that he may not get the opportunity again. Wing looked up and noticed the curious expression on Otto’s face.
‘Is there something you want to know, Otto?’ he asked, sitting down on his own bed.
‘Yes . . . I don’t mean to pry, so feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you like, but I was wondering what that was.’ Otto pointed at the symbol resting on Wing’s chest.
‘This?’ Wing took hold of the amulet.
‘Yes, but I’m just being nosy, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ Otto replied, hoping that Wing would tell him anyway.
Wing looked suddenly sad, staring at the symbol resting in his palm.
‘It belonged to my mother,’ he began, his voice quiet. ‘She gave it to me just before she died. This is yang, it is one half of the symbol that represents yin and yang. It also represents everything that my mother believed in, that there are two opposing forces which are always active in the universe. Yin exists in yang and yang exists in yin. They symbolise the changing combination of positive and negative, light and dark, good and evil which keeps the world spinning and creates chi – the life-giving force. When she gave it to me she told me that the dark spot at the centre of yang’s whiteness should remind me that the seed of evil always lies within the heart of goodness, and that conversely yin shows that even the blackest, most evil soul has within it the potential for good.’ He fell silent, staring at the amulet in his hand.
‘I’m sorry, Wing, I didn’t mean to dredge up bad memories for you. I didn’t realise it belonged to your mum.’ Otto felt awful. In the space of a couple of hours he’d managed to inflict physical and now emotional pain on his best friend.
‘You do not need to apologise. My memories of my mother are happy ones. I miss her, of course, but somehow I feel that she still watches over me.’ Wing smiled at Otto.
‘What about the other half of the amulet?’ Otto asked. ‘Has your father got it?’
‘No, the other half was lost. I should like very much to find it one day, it would resolve many unanswered questions.’ Otto noticed a sudden cold, hard look in Wing’s eyes and decided it would be best to not press the matter any further.
‘Well, once you’re dressed we need to do a final equipment check,’ Otto said. ‘We need to get out of here before our yangs turn into yins.’ He was relieved to see Wing smile at this and tuck the amulet back inside his vest.