Raven came to and immediately wished she hadn’t. She felt as if she’d been run over by a truck; every part of her body ached. Her wrists and ankles were shackled to the chair in which she was sitting and her battered body protested as she strained against the restraints. The small room was bare save for a metal table and another chair; the only illumination came from the harsh white strip lighting overhead. Automatically she began to assess her chances of escape, just as she had been trained to do. Unsurprisingly, all of her gear had been taken from her and the restraints were well designed and strong enough to resist even her most determined efforts to break free. She wasn’t going anywhere.
The door to the cell hissed open and Cypher walked into the room. The black glass mask that he always wore might have concealed his face completely but he made no effort to conceal the smug, triumphant tone in his voice.
‘So, Nero’s pet finally wakes up,’ Cypher said sarcastically. ‘I was under the impression that you were supposed to be the best but it seems that my assassins got the better of you rather easily.’
‘You’ll burn for this, Cypher,’ Raven spat back. ‘You’re finished. When Number One discovers what you’ve done he’ll turn this place into a smouldering crater.’
‘Oh, I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about that for very much longer,’ Cypher replied calmly. ‘Indeed, by the end of today it will be Number One who will fear me.’
‘You won’t be the first to try,’ Raven said with a sneer, ‘and you won’t be the first who gets stepped on like a bug either.’
‘My dear Raven,’ Cypher replied coldly, ‘you underestimate my determination. Number One and Nero are relics of the past. I am the future.’
‘You have no future,’ Raven replied. ‘G.L.O.V.E. will put you down like the mad dog you are.’
‘You are foolish to place so much faith in an organisation that is made up of the cream of the world’s villains. If the ruling council of G.L.O.V.E. is known for anything, it is its pragmatism. After the demonstration of my power that they will all witness today, I very much doubt any of them will be inclined to oppose me.’
Raven had no idea what Cypher was hinting at and, even though she would show this lunatic no sign of it, she was worried. Whatever he was planning, it was clearly designed to be a spectacular display of his strength. People who stopped fearing the wrath of Number One were usually insane or extremely dangerous. Secretly she feared that Cypher might be both.
‘I have to admit I was impressed that you survived the explosion in Tokyo,’ Cypher continued. ‘Normally I would be annoyed, but in this case it gives me the undoubted pleasure of killing you twice in one day. I’ve been waiting to try out my latest invention, and you should make the perfect test subject.’
The door behind Cypher hissed open again and Raven’s eyes widened in surprise as two of Cypher’s assassins entered the room. They were not wearing the black silk robes that they had been swathed in before, and their exposed, black metallic endo-skeletons left little doubt as to their true nature.
‘Machines. I should have known,’ Raven said quietly.
‘Oh, these aren’t just machines,’ Cypher replied, a note of pride in his voice. ‘These are the cutting edge of robotic technology. Titanium skeleton, grade one positronic core, carbon fibre musculature, multi-layered combat programming. They are works of art. They may not be capable of much in the way of independent thought, but that is outweighed by their unquestioning loyalty.’
‘Am I supposed to be impressed?’ Raven said with a cold smile.
‘No, but you should be flattered. They were, after all, designed to beat you in single combat. Their core combat routines have been based on an extensive study of your capabilities. The only difference between you and them is that they don’t tire and they can take an assault rifle round to the head.’
Cypher looked straight at Raven, her angry face a distorted reflection in the smooth black glass.
‘They render you quite … obsolete,’ he said threateningly.
As Cypher leant over her Raven spat in his face, her saliva running down the smooth surface of his mask. Without hesitation Cypher backhanded her hard across the face, but Raven didn’t even flinch, she just stared back at him, defiance in her eyes. Cypher pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the trickling spit from his mask.
‘Take her to the testing area,’ Cypher said angrily, gesturing to the two robots who advanced towards her. ‘I’m going to enjoy watching you die.’
Otto lay flat on his stomach, the conveyor belt carrying him through the dimly illuminated tunnel, its destination unknown. They seemed to be travelling downwards, as the belt was on a very slight incline, but without having a better idea of the layout of the facility Otto had no way of knowing exactly where he was being taken. Suddenly Otto could make out faint sounds of machinery coming from somewhere up ahead. He lifted his head to peer along the length of the belt in front of him and could just make out a more brightly lit opening towards which the belt was travelling. As the belt moved him inexorably towards the light Otto could see that a pair of large yellow robotic claws were lifting the robots from the end of the belt and carrying them out of sight. As Otto neared the end of the belt he rolled off it and slowly snuck forward to see what lay in this new room.
The claws were lifting the robots from the end of the belt with clockwork precision, hoisting them into the air before swivelling away and positioning the inactive assassins in neatly ordered rows within the vast hangar-like space. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of the mechanical killers arranged in perfect lines that stretched off in all directions. Otto’s blood ran cold at the sight. Cypher was not just assembling a security or special operations force. This was an army. Having seen what these things were capable of in small numbers Otto knew that with an army of them Cypher would be almost unstoppable.
Otto hopped down from the opening and on to the hangar floor. The assassins were clearly all deactivated at the moment and he decided that it would be best to find an exit while that was still the case. He had just started to move towards the other side of the room when he suddenly heard voices. Quickly Otto ducked into the long rows of motionless robots, using their massed ranks as cover. Otto could not see who was talking as the voices drew nearer but he could hear their conversation clearly.
‘They’re ready for final loadout,’ the first voice said.
‘I wish they’d given us a bit more notice,’ the second voice complained.
‘Everything is ready, isn’t it?’ the first man asked, a slight note of panic in his voice.
‘Yeah, I think so. We’ll have to skip a couple of the final checks but otherwise we’re good to go.’
‘OK, let’s fire them up, then,’ the first man said, exhaling loudly.
There was a low hum and suddenly the heads of all the robots in the front row snapped upright, each assassin turning as one on the spot and then proceeding to march to the far end of the room, all in perfect step with one another. As they turned Otto could see that the tiny holes in the sides of their faces were now lit up with a blood-red glow. Otto guessed that they must be sensory arrays, but these spider-like eye clusters did nothing to improve their sinister appearance.
As the first row filed out of the hangar the second row snapped to attention and proceeded to follow them to the exit. Otto realised that if they kept moving at this rate he’d run out of hiding places very quickly. He crept backwards, trying to put more rows of the ever-dwindling robot army between him and the voices he had heard previously. Otto looked around desperately for somewhere else to hide but there were no immediately obvious options. There were now only a couple of rows of the neatly ordered assassins still in front of him. He had nowhere to run.
Back in the fabrication cavern the console controlling the alloy delivery system beeped once. The giant crucible full of boiling molten metal tipped as it had done countless times before, but as the glowing yellow torrent poured from the lip of the cauldron it began to move. Otto had not had much time with the console so his reprogramming had been quick and dirty – there had been little time for elegance. The crucible began to move along the length of the production line, molten metal pouring on to the delicate machinery below, destroying it completely in a shower of sparks and flame. At first the automated production system tried to keep functioning but, as pressures started to build and more and more parts of the system reported catastrophic failures, the system began to overload. There were a couple of loud bangs and then something somewhere within the ranks of heavy machinery decided that it had had enough and exploded with enough force to shake the entire cavern …
Otto felt the hangar floor move and heard the muffled sound of a distant explosion.
‘What the hell was that?’ one of the voices at the front of the hangar said.
Suddenly a huge ball of fire bloomed from the opening through which the conveyor belt fed the recently manufactured droids. The shockwave knocked Otto to the ground and toppled a couple of the still-inactive assassins. They fell like statues, ramrod straight, just so much scrap metal until they were activated. There was the sound of another explosion in the distance and another jet of flame shot from the opening leading to the manufacturing cavern.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ one of the voices shouted and Otto could just make out the sound of running footsteps receding into the distance. As he peered around the last row of inactive robots he could see two men in white coats running towards the hangar exit.
Otto smiled to himself as another distant explosion shook dust from the ceiling. That was what he called throwing a spanner in the works. Suddenly a much closer and more violent explosion sent a girder tumbling down from high overhead. It smashed down on to the row of assassins just a couple of feet in front of Otto with an enormous crash. As Otto picked himself up and brushed the dust and debris from his uniform he wondered if maybe there was such a thing as a spanner that was just a little too big. He ran for the exit.
Cypher stood on a gantry looking down into the featureless concrete pit below. Raven stood in the centre of the pit twenty metres below him, staring straight back at him.
‘You’re certain,’ Cypher said to the frightened-looking technician who stood just a few feet away.
‘I’m afraid so, sir. Whoever has sabotaged the manufacturing facility did an exceptionally efficient job of it. There’s no chance of containing the fire and if it continues to spread at its current rate it will reach the fuel cells in just a few minutes.’
‘It would appear that G.L.O.V.E. has responded more quickly than I expected,’ Cypher replied thoughtfully, ‘though I am impressed that their saboteurs got in undetected.’
‘We’ve reviewed the security logs,’ the technician reported. ‘There’s no sign of a team entering the facility, but with G.L.O.V.E. commandos that doesn’t mean that they’re not here.’
Cypher nodded. ‘How far along is the load-out of the Kraken?’ he asked, glancing back down at Raven in the pit.
‘Seventy-five per cent of our forces have been loaded,’ the technician replied, looking around nervously as the distant rumble of another explosion sent an unnerving tremor through the gantry.
‘That will be sufficient. Order a full evacuation and prepare the Kraken to disembark. Such a shame,’ Cypher said with a sigh. ‘I had been looking forward to this.’ He gestured at Raven. He picked up the roll of black silk that was leaning against the gantry rail beside him.
‘Raven, my dear,’ Cypher said, looking down into the pit, ‘I’m afraid that I really have to go. It’s unfortunate that I’ll have to miss the show, but I thought that you at least deserved the chance to go out fighting.’
With that Cypher tossed the roll of black silk into the pit below. Raven stepped forward and carefully unrolled the silk. Inside were her twin swords. She quickly scooped up the weapons and looked up at the gantry far overhead.
‘This isn’t over, Cypher,’ Raven yelled defiantly.
‘Oh, I rather think it is,’ Cypher replied and pressed a switch on a control panel mounted on the gantry rail.
There was a low grinding rumble as a three-metre-square area of the pit’s floor dropped away and slid aside. With a sudden hiss white vapour shot up from the hole and a dark shape rose up through the opening. The robot that stood on the raising platform was huge – at least twelve feet tall and seemingly almost as wide. It was covered in the same matt-black armour as the smaller robots, but that was where any similarity ended. If the assassin droids were a stiletto blade sliding unnoticed between the joins of an opponent’s armour, this machine was a sledgehammer, designed to crush its enemies without mercy.
Cypher hit another button up on the gantry and with a low growl the sensory arrays in the behemoth’s face plate lit up with a dull red glow.
‘Kill her,’ Cypher said, ‘slowly.’
‘Command acknowledged,’ the robot replied in a low, growling synthesised voice.
Cypher took one last look down into the pit as the huge machine advanced on Raven and then turned and walked away down the gantry.
‘All crew members, preparation for phase two launch complete. Final embarkation authorised. Please proceed to duty stations,’ the voice blared from the tannoy.
Otto pressed himself into the shadows of a recessed doorway as a group of worried-looking technicians ran past. He stayed well out of sight – clearly Cypher’s personnel were in the final stages of preparation for something, but he doubted that they were distracted enough to ignore the presence of a thirteen-year-old boy. Fortunately most of the facility seemed to be deserted – whatever was going on was obviously important. Otto walked past a short side corridor and stopped. At the end of the corridor was a balcony that opened on to another vast cavern but what had really caught Otto’s attention was the sound he could hear coming from the corridor: it was the sound of the sea, waves crashing against rocks. Otto moved cautiously down the corridor and peered out over the edge of the balcony.
The cavern had obviously been a large sea-cave originally but now it had been converted to work as a docking facility. A huge concrete jetty had been constructed along one wall and electro-magnetic crane rigs mounted on the ceiling were lifting containers from the jetty and lowering them into the belly of the bizarre ship that was docked there. The ship was the size of a modern missile cruiser but its sleek, flowing, almost organic lines suggested that it was significantly more advanced than any normal naval warship. Its black metallic skin seemed to soak up the illumination from the huge floodlights overhead, just like the skin of the Shroud had done, and Otto realised that there was a good chance that they were both coated with the same material. Until recently Cypher had had access to all of the technical resources that any senior member of G.L.O.V.E. did and Otto supposed that the material coating this ship and H.I.V.E.’s stealth transports may well be exactly the same. Arranged around the rear third of the ship’s deck were half a dozen turrets, each mounted with a very serious-looking launcher tube. Technicians were swarming all over the ship’s deck, checking systems and stowing equipment, apparently making final preparations for the ship to get underway.
Otto’s attention was drawn by movement on the super-structure of the ship as several figures walked out on to a platform that overlooked the deck. He felt a sudden hot flash of anger as he recognised the figure at the head of the group, Cypher. Suddenly Otto flashed back to the events of the rooftop in Tokyo, the pain that Cypher had caused him and the debt that he owed Wing.
He had to get on board that ship.
Raven dived to her left. The massive robot was unbelievably fast for its size but fortunately not quite as agile as its more normal-sized counterpart. A fist the size of a wrecking ball smashed into the concrete wall of the pit, leaving a small crater where Raven’s head had been just moments before. Raven counterattacked, swinging her blades at one of the exposed bunches of muscle cables on the back of the behemoth’s leg. Her katanas had been made and maintained by some of the finest weaponsmiths in the world but they glanced off the cables like a butter knife off a brick. She moved quickly away from the robot as it swivelled to face her, trying desperately to stay out of its reach. Raven knew that she could not win this fight; the machine she was fighting had as much armour plating as a tank and it would take more than agility and fancy swordplay to bring it down.
Suddenly there was another explosion from somewhere much nearer by, and the floor rocked as debris fell from overhead, catching Raven slightly off-balance. The giant robot seized on the opportunity, moving with impossible speed towards her, one of its huge fists swinging at her. Raven’s years of training were all that saved her. She twisted away from the blow, rolling with it and avoiding as much of the direct impact as she could. The strike still sent her flying across the pit, sliding to a halt against the far wall. She shook her head, trying desperately to clear the flashing lights that suddenly filled her field of vision. She could not afford to let the thing land another blow like that.
The second explosion that suddenly rocked the room was the closest yet; it sounded to Raven like an ammunition store exploding. The whole room shook, and large chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, one glancing off the robot’s heavily armoured head with a dull clang. The robot fell to one knee, the lights of the sensory array on its face dimming and flickering for just a second before it slowly got to its feet. It moved relentlessly back across the pit towards Raven, who knew that if the fight continued like this that she would be defeated by exhaustion. She could only keep dancing around avoiding the thing for so long before it got lucky, and judging by the fact that she still felt slightly stunned from the glancing blow it had landed moments earlier, it would only take one good punch from it and she wouldn’t be getting up again.
Raven heard a metallic creak from overhead and saw a shower of dust fall from one of the large steel pins that fixed the observation gantry overhead to the ceiling. She moved carefully around the edge of the pit, trying always to keep her opponent centred in the room, waiting for her chance.
The next explosion shook the entire room, and Raven lost her footing, falling to her knees. The assassin robot could not capitalise on her loss of balance, though, as it too struggled to stay upright. There was a screech of tearing metal from overhead as the steel structure of the observation gantry final gave up its grip on the rock ceiling and one end dropped downwards into the pit. Raven dived to avoid the shower of debris but her opponent was not so lucky. The end of the gantry swung downwards and slammed into the robot, smashing it to the ground, where it lay still, pinned under the end of the heavy metal walkway. Raven let out a long slow breath and looked upwards. The other end of the gantry was still in place twenty metres overhead; its supports had not quite given out yet. She slid her swords into her belt and ran towards the dangling gantry, hopping over the still form of the giant robot assassin and scaling the remains of the walkway as fast as she could.
She was about halfway up when she felt the whole gantry move again. Glancing downwards she saw that her opponent was starting to move, slowly at first, forcing itself on to all fours, lifting the end of the gantry as it rose. Raven climbed faster; the top of the improvised ladder she was scaling was only a few metres away now. Below her the robot finally struggled to its feet, the end of the gantry sliding off its back and slamming into the floor with a deafening clang. Raven just managed to hang on as the gantry shifted. One of the two remaining pins that was holding the upper end of the walkway in place gave way with a deafening crack and the whole gantry pivoted, leaving Raven dangling precariously over the long drop to the pit below.
The giant robot looked up and saw its prey dangling tantalisingly out of reach. It stooped down and picked up the lower end of the gantry with both hands and shook the entire walkway. Raven clung on for dear life as the machine tried to shake her loose, but it was like trying to hang on to a rodeo bull. The gantry’s last remaining support gave an ominous crunch and Raven made one last desperate lunge, swinging towards the lip of the doorway carved into the rock wall. The fingers of one hand found the edge of the opening and she latched on to the solid rock as the abused gantry finally gave up its fight with gravity and toppled downwards into the pit with an enormous crash.
Raven pulled herself up into the doorway and looked back down into the pit. Far below the robot was still moving, struggling to free itself from the pile of twisted metal that was all that remained of the viewing gantry. She could not help but be impressed as it slowly rose to its feet, pushing the debris aside, and looked up at her. It would take a tank to stop one of these things, she thought to herself, and she realised with a slight shudder that it was unlikely that Cypher would have abandoned the machine if it was the only one he’d built …
There was the rumble of another explosion nearby and Raven knew that she had to get moving. She turned and ran silently down the corridor beyond the doorway. Far below, in the pit, the giant mechanical assassin strode through the scattered debris towards the wall, and looked up at the doorway overhead. It slammed its hand into the wall with a crunch, crushing the rock until it had a solid hold, and slowly but surely it began to climb.
Otto snuck closer to the dock, taking cover behind one of the piles of crates that littered the loading area. The gangway leading up to the deck of Cypher’s ship was thirty metres away but it might as well have been thirty miles due to the two robotic assassins that guarded the ramp. There was no way that he was getting on board past them – he would have to find another way. He looked around desperately; he was running out of time and ideas.
Suddenly the two guards turned as one and hurried up the ramp to the ship as the gangway started to retract, sliding back into the ship’s superstructure. A klaxon began to sound and the huge steel sea doors at the far end of the cavern slowly slid aside with a low rumble. Otto could just make out the first dim light of dawn outside as the steel cables that had tied the ship to the dock released from their mounts and reeled in. As the ship began to move Otto realised that he had to act now. He stood up and prepared himself to run across the dock, but before he could move he felt a hand close over his mouth.
‘Don’t be stupid, there’s no way on board now,’ Raven whispered, her mouth just centimetres from his ear. She removed her hand from his mouth and Otto turned to face her.
‘I thought you were dead,’ Otto said, relief mixed with disbelief.
‘You know, I’m getting really tired of hearing that today,’ Raven replied with a thin smile.
‘Cypher’s on that ship,’ Otto said quickly. ‘We have to get on board.’
‘I know, but unless you’ve acquired the power of flight while I was away that’s not going to be possible,’ Raven answered. Otto knew that she was right. There was no way to scale the smooth hull of the ship even if they did manage to get near to it. He suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of frustration.
‘I’m not letting him get away,’ Otto said angrily. ‘We have a score to settle.’
Raven looked Otto straight in the eye.
‘I know how you feel, Otto, I really do, but this isn’t the way.’
Otto slammed his fist into the metal container in frustration. They’d come so close and now Cypher was slipping through their fingers again. The huge ship continued to move away from the dock, gathering speed as it passed through the sea doors and into the grey light of dawn. Once the stern of the ship passed through the gates they rumbled closed again, sealing the docks.
‘Getting out of here is the first priority,’ Raven said, scanning the docks for any sign of an escape route. Suddenly the biggest explosion yet shook the entire cavern. Huge chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, smashing into the docks and hitting the water like cannonballs. Otto and Raven struggled to maintain their balance as the whole cavern rocked.
‘Cypher must have activated the self-destruct sequence,’ Raven said quickly.
‘Erm … actually … that was me,’ Otto said, his cheeks burning. Sabotaging the robot production line had seemed like a good idea at the time but he realised now that it might have had rather more severe consequences than he had intended.
‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Raven said with a sigh, ‘I leave you alone for a couple of hours …’
Suddenly there was an enormous crash from behind them and they both turned to see the giant robot assassin from the pit tearing through a pair of large steel doors that led out on to the dock. It tore the heavy gauge steel like it was tissue paper, forcing its way through.
‘What the hell is that?’ Otto said with a gasp.
‘Trouble,’ Raven replied, pulling her swords from her belt. ‘Get to cover.’
Raven stepped out from their hiding place, raising her swords in a defensive stance.
‘Hey, ugly!’ she shouted, and the robot’s head swivelled to lock on to her position. The red lights of its sensory array seemed to flare for a moment and it advanced towards her.
Otto backed further into the shadows. He wasn’t foolish enough to think that he could offer Raven any meaningful assistance in this situation and so he looked around for anything that might help them in the fight. He looked up at the equipment suspended from the cavern’s ceiling and smiled. He suddenly knew what he had to do.
Raven braced herself as the monstrous machine approached. Its black metallic skin was scored and dented from the shower of debris in the pit but it didn’t seem to have slowed down in the slightest. Raven backed up as the robot advanced. She knew that she had to keep her distance from the thing – there may be more room to move on the docks, but she couldn’t keep up this game of cat and mouse for ever. Raven stopped as she felt the rock wall at her back. The robot was still advancing and she realised with a cold chill that she was out of ideas. Suddenly she caught sight of something big moving behind the assassin and her eyes widened.
Raven dived to one side as the enormous shipping container mounted on the electro-magnetic loading rig slammed into the robot from behind like a freight train, crushing it against the rock wall with an enormous crash. Fifty metres away, at the crane controls, Otto gave a little yell of victory. Raven picked herself up from the floor and dusted herself off. She inspected the shattered remains of the robot, crushed between the massive container and the unforgiving rock wall. There was no way it was getting up from that.
Otto ran over to the scene of destruction, a broad grin on his face, and surveyed the sparking, twitching remains of the huge robot.
‘Nice work,’ Raven said as another explosion shook the cavern, ‘but we still don’t have a way out of here.’
Otto’s smile faded as he realised she was right. They were still trapped as Cypher’s base disintegrated around them. Suddenly there was a horribly familiar bleeping sound from the twisted remains of the robot. Otto and Raven’s heads both snapped round and immediately saw the large silver canister that was protruding from the wreckage, a flashing light at one end.
Raven moved faster than Otto had ever seen anyone move before. She snatched the foot-long canister from the wreckage, yanking it free from the tangled metal, still beeping. She hurled the canister in a looping arc towards the sea doors and threw herself on top of Otto, knocking him to the ground. The explosion tore the heavy sea doors apart, the shockwave making Otto’s ears ring like church bells.
As the smoke cloud from the blast cleared Otto sat up and surveyed the wreckage. One of the sea doors was gone completely and the other was just twisted scrap metal. They had their exit.
‘Feel like a swim?’ Raven said with a grin as she offered Otto her hand and pulled him to his feet.