‘What the hell?’ Security Chief Lewis spat as one by one the monitors displaying security feeds from all over the school flickered and went black.
‘There’s an unknown routine running on the security net,’ a technician reported from a nearby workstation. ‘The grid’s going offline.’
The door to the situation room slid open and Dr Nero hurried into the room and headed straight for the nearest free terminal. He typed a string of commands into the terminal before slamming his fist down hard on the keyboard.
‘Damn you, Maria,’ Nero hissed. It was too late. She had locked him out of the system using her command access, and was now the only person who could reinitialise the system.
‘Student dormitories are locking down,’ another security technician announced, a look of confusion on his face.
‘Defence grid is offline too,’ another voice reported. ‘All external batteries are going into sleep modes.’
‘H.I.V.E.mind just dropped into standby mode. He’s not accepting remote commands.’
Nero watched in impotent fury as his school was rendered defenceless around him.
‘All external access points are opening,’ the Chief said, slight panic in his voice. ‘Do we still have exterior camera feeds?’
‘Yes, sir, scanning the perimeter now,’ a reply came from the other side of the room. ‘Nothing visible at the moment, looks all clear … hold on … something off the southern coastline.’
‘Put it on-screen,’ Lewis barked.
There on the screen a tiny boat was roaring away from the island. As the camera zoomed in Nero could see the unmistakeable figure of the Contessa at the controls. Sat behind her were two smaller figures, both wearing the black jumpsuits of the Alpha stream.
‘Where’s she going?’ Lewis said, sounding puzzled. ‘That’s only a patrol boat, she doesn’t have enough fuel to reach land.’
As if answer to the Chief’s query there was a strange shimmer on the surface of the ocean and then a huge, black warship materialised seemingly out of thin air.
Nero suddenly realised just how badly he had been outmanoeuvred. Cypher was here and H.I.V.E. was defenceless.
Nigel and Franz wandered slowly through the virtually deserted atrium of their accommodation block. There were a few other students sitting on the sofas and chairs dotted around the cavern but the vast majority of H.I.V.E.’s pupils were either still asleep or had only just woken up. Franz had woken early, complaining that he was hungry, as he always did when the previous evening’s meal had been salad. For his part Nigel had learnt long ago that it was entirely pointless to try and sleep through Franz’s morning routine and after two minutes of Franz singing in the shower he had grudgingly got out of bed too.
‘It is still nearly an hour till breakfast,’ Franz observed, ‘but it may be wise to take our places in the queue already, ja?’
‘There’s not going to be a queue yet,’ Nigel said slightly grumpily. ‘We’ll be fine if we’re five minutes early. Let’s go to the library instead. There are a couple of new organic chemistry papers that I need to catch up on.’
‘Oh, Nigel, with you it is always the library. You need to have more fun,’ Franz said matter of factly.
‘The library is fun,’ Nigel said insistently, wishing that Franz shared his passion for books. ‘Perhaps if you spent a bit more time there you’d understand.’
The huge blast doors that sealed the accommodation block at night had opened a few minutes earlier, signalling that students were free to wander the halls of the school again before their classes, as usual. Nigel and Franz walked through them and into the corridor beyond. At almost exactly the same moment alarm klaxons began to wail everywhere.
‘I didn’t do anything!’ Franz yelped as the alarms screamed.
There was a low grinding noise and the blast doors began to lower, re-sealing the accommodation block.
‘Come on,’ Nigel said. ‘That’s a high-level alert. It’s probably just a drill, but we still have to go back inside.’
‘No way!’ Franz yelped, backing away from the closing doors. ‘I am remembering what happened the last time all of the alarms are going off and we are locked in there.’
Nigel remembered too. On that day they had ended up trapped inside their room while the rampaging plant creature that he himself had inadvertently created tried to smash its way in. Franz was right – it had not been a pleasant experience.
‘Well, that’s unlikely to happen again, isn’t it?’ Nigel said slightly apologetically.
‘You have not been experimenting again, have you?’ Franz said suspiciously, his eyes narrowing as he looked carefully at Nigel.
‘No, I most certainly have not,’ Nigel said indignantly, feeling his cheeks burning. The blast door was nearly halfway closed now; they had to get back inside.
‘Well, I am staying out here,’ Franz said indignantly.
Nigel was surprised by Franz’s determination but he knew the only way to get him back into the accommodation area now would be to physically drag him and the laws of physics might have something to say about that, given the two boys’ relative masses.
‘OK, but let’s find somewhere quiet to sit out the alert,’ Nigel said nervously, looking up the corridor and half expecting to see an angry security patrol marching towards them.
‘An excellent idea,’ Franz said with a broad smile. ‘I suggest the dining hall!’
‘That’s what this was all about,’ Nigel said incredulously as the blast door sealed shut with a solid-sounding thud. ‘You just didn’t want to miss breakfast.’
‘No, that was not it at all –’ Franz began weakly.
‘I don’t believe you sometimes,’ Nigel said angrily. ‘I’m going to the library and if we meet any security patrols on the way you can explain what we’re doing outside the accommodation area.’ He marched away down the corridor.
‘But the dining area has much greater structural integrity,’ Franz continued as he followed Nigel. ‘It really would be the safer option in the event of an emergency …’
Laura’s mouth fell open as the huge black ship materialised just a couple of hundred metres in front of them. She looked across at Shelby, who shared her look of amazement, her mouth moving slightly as if she was trying to say something despite the command for silence that the Contessa had given them both just a few minutes earlier.
The stolen patrol boat slowed as they neared the side of the mysterious ship and a boarding platform lowered from the level of the deck to just above the surface of the water. The Contessa brought the boat alongside the platform and turned to the two girls. The pistol was in her hand again.
‘Get out,’ she said coldly. ‘Try anything stupid and I’ll feed you to the sharks myself.’
Shelby and Laura climbed out of the patrol boat and on to the platform, the Contessa close behind them, and immediately the platform rose again towards the bigger ship’s deck.
As they rose to the level of the upper deck the two girls found a welcoming party waiting for them. A tall man, dressed in an immaculate suit and a smooth oval mask of highly polished black glass, stood flanked on either side by slim, humanoid robots, their matt-black metallic bodies covered in plates of armour.
‘Contessa,’ the man said. ‘How nice to see you again. I trust everything has gone according to plan?’
‘Yes, Cypher,’ the Contessa replied. ‘The island is yours for the taking.’
Shelby made a sound that could only be described as a snarl and ran towards Cypher. The robots to either side of him reacted instantly, intercepting Shelby and restraining her in their vice-like grip.
‘Murderer!’ Shelby gasped as she struggled in vain to break free of the guards.
Laura stepped forward as if to help her friend but instead was forced to her knees as another guard clamped its mechanical hand down hard on her shoulder.
‘And two unexpected guests – how lovely,’ Cypher said coldly, stepping towards Shelby.
‘Yes, may I introduce Shelby Trinity and Laura Brand. They have made rather a nuisance of themselves so I thought I’d bring them along as extra insurance,’ the Contessa explained.
Cypher took Shelby’s chin in his hand. The look on her face suggested that he should be very glad that she wasn’t able to get her hands on him.
‘I’m afraid, Miss Trinity, that H.I.V.E. is going to be permanently closed very shortly, but I’m sure that we can find a use for someone with spirit in my organisation in the future,’ he said with infuriating smugness. ‘In the meantime I think it would be best if we provided these ladies with some very secure accommodation. Take them to the brig. Put them in separate cells.’
‘They’ll have to share a cell,’ one of the guards replied. ‘The other cell is currently occupied.’
‘Very well,’ Cypher said quickly, ‘they may have the small pleasure of each other’s company. Take them away.’
The guards obeyed immediately, tightening their already uncomfortable grip on the two girls and marching them away towards a hatch that led below.
‘Keep an eye on those two,’ the Contessa told Cypher. ‘They’re more dangerous than they might appear.’
‘Aren’t we all, Contessa?’ Cypher replied, turning back towards her. ‘You have done very well today, Maria. I could not have asked for more. I only wish I could have seen Nero’s face when he realised that you were working for me. You have my sincere thanks.’
‘You can save your gratitude, Cypher,’ the Contessa replied. ‘You know that I expect to be well rewarded for my troubles.’
‘Oh, don’t worry, Maria. By the end of the day I will be in a position to give you anything you want. This is the dawning of a new era.’
The Contessa said nothing. There was a disturbing edge of fanaticism to Cypher’s tone all of a sudden. She told herself not to worry – after all she had worked with much more unbalanced people than Cypher in her time, and if push came to shove she’d just have to take what she was owed.
A man in a naval uniform walked up to them, saluting efficiently as Cypher turned to face him.
‘Yes, Captain, what is it?’
‘Your chopper is on the pad and all launchers are reporting ready, sir. Just give the word.’
Cypher looked at the island sitting less than a mile away.
‘The word is given, Captain. The word is most definitely given.’
The Shroud had picked up Cypher’s ship on radar as soon as it dropped its thermoptic camouflage so Raven and Otto knew they were too late even before they could see the black battleship holding position just off the coast of the island. They had had no contact with H.I.V.E. since they had first left the ruins of Cypher’s base, Raven had barely had time to warn H.I.V.E. about the ship that was on its way before the transmission had dissolved into static and now they all feared the worst.
‘We’re at full stealth,’ the pilot reported. ‘They have no idea we’re here, and judging by the number of active radar scans that thing’s putting out we’d better stay that way if we don’t want to end up on the wrong end of a SAM.’
‘Can we get close enough to get on board without being detected?’ Raven said with a frown. ‘We have to stop Cypher before he has a chance to launch an attack.’
‘It may be too late for that,’ Otto said, looking up from a screen displaying a zoomed-in image of Cypher’s ship. Multiple launch tubes could be seen rising from the deck and swivelling into firing positions, all pointing straight at H.I.V.E. Moments later the first salvo was launched. A barrage of missiles streaked away from the launchers, impacting on the side of the island’s central volcanic peak only seconds later. Curiously, there were no explosions, just small clouds of dust where each missile had landed. Otto manipulated the surveillance camera mounted in the nose of the Shroud to focus on one of the impact sites. As the dust cleared the long white body of the missile could be clearly seen, lying still intact amongst the rocks.
Suddenly a panel on the missile was blown off and a familiar black shape climbed from the shell. It was one of Cypher’s robotic assassins. Otto quickly focused on another one of the impact sites, where exactly the same thing was happening, the missile disgorging its lethal passenger. At the same time another wave of missiles was launched from the ship, impacting all over the nearest face of the island. The first wave of robots was already scaling the sides of the volcano like ants, heading upwards at frightening speed towards the crater entrance.
‘Forget the ship,’ Raven said, a grim look on her face. ‘We’ve got to get inside H.I.V.E. now.’
The Chief looked at the guard to his left, the worry tinged with fear on his face summing up the feelings of the other guards positioned around the crater. As soon as Cypher’s ship had appeared Nero had given the order for all security teams to protect H.I.V.E.’s points of entry. The Contessa had sealed all of the conventional weapons lockers so they had little more than the Sleepers that units on patrol had been carrying to defend themselves. The Chief just hoped it would be enough. There were only a couple of external cameras that were functional so they had little idea what Cypher was going to throw at them, but he was determined that nothing was going to make it past him and his men.
The Chief looked up at the bright circle of daylight overhead formed by the crater’s edge. For a fleeting moment he thought that he could detect movement but it may just have been a trick of the light. He reached for the tiny pair of binoculars that were attached to his equipment harness and quickly focused on the rocks far overhead. There were definitely several people up there, gathering at the lip of the crater. They were dressed all in black and they moved with a surprising speed and agility. He thought back to Raven’s report on the attack on the Tokyo safe house and quickly realised that these must be more of the same ninjas that had attacked her there. Well, they were ready for them this time and the assassins would find that H.I.V.E. itself was a considerably harder target than some local safe house. The assassins were going to have to rappel down to the landing pad from the top of the volcano and that would make them sitting ducks for him and his men.
Suddenly, one of the black figures far overhead seemed to simply leap into the void, tumbling down towards the Chief and his men. He must have slipped and fallen, the Chief thought to himself as he watched the man drop. At least that was one less of them to worry about. The Chief looked away as the assassin hit the hard steel of the landing deck; he’d seen many disturbing things in his lifetime but a drop from that height was never a pretty sight. Then he heard a couple of gasps and half-yelled comments from his men as the assassin who had hit the ground simply stood up from the crouch in which he had landed and slowly surveyed the room. It was impossible. The Chief had known some well-trained operatives over the years, but no one could survive a fall from that height, no one. He looked more closely at the armoured assassin and it quickly became clear that they were not dealing with any normal assault here. The assassin was a machine, its design way in advance of anything else he had seen.
‘Open fire!’ the Chief yelled, and was immediately drowned out by the loud zapping reports of multiple Sleepers being fired all around him. To say that the Sleeper pulses were ineffective would have been something of an understatement – the assassin didn’t even falter, just slowly surveyed its surroundings, the glowing red sensory array on the front of its insectile face taking in every detail.
The Chief knew a scout when he saw one and also knew that this robot was probably just reporting back to the others above on the positions and strength of the defenders.
‘What do we do, Chief?’ the man to his left yelled desperately above the sounds of Sleepers firing. ‘That thing’s not even slowing down; the Sleepers aren’t working.’
The Chief suddenly understood why the Contessa had only sealed the conventional weapons lockers when she had overridden the security system. Cypher’s forces clearly had nothing to fear from Sleepers.
‘What I wouldn’t give for a good old-fashioned grenade right now,’ the Chief muttered to himself.
There was another sudden thunderous clanging sound as half a dozen more of the assassins landed on the steel decking. The moment they landed they unleashed a blizzard of whirring shuriken, the deadly throwing stars finding their targets unerringly, sending several of the Chief’s men toppling to the ground. The Chief felt a cold dread descending over him. They were hopelessly outgunned, but they couldn’t let these things take the crater; if they did there would be no stopping them.
A sudden wind seemed to rise from nowhere and the Chief quickly glanced out past the rock behind which he had taken cover to see what was happening. The assassins still stood in a tight circle in the centre of the landing pad, launching the occasional shuriken at any of the H.I.V.E. guards who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in an exposed position. One of the assassins head’s snapped round and focused on the Chief, its arm rising to launch a throwing star at him.
It never got the chance.
Suddenly the group of robots seemed to crumple as if a huge weight was crushing them to the ground. In just a split second they were reduced to a sparking pile of crushed and mangled components, the occasional twitching servo the only indication of any life. There was a shimmer in the air and the huge black shape of a Shroud materialised directly on top of the ruined attackers. The hatch at the back of the aircraft blew off with a loud bang, flying across the cavern, and Raven stepped out.
‘Chief, pull your men back now. You don’t have a chance against these things,’ Raven yelled as Otto Malpense and the Shroud’s pilot leapt down from the aircraft behind her.
‘Nero said we had to hold the crater at all costs,’ the Chief said quickly as Raven approached.
‘Nero hasn’t gone toe-to-toe with one of these things,’ Raven replied impatiently. ‘If you stay here you die, simple as that.’
The Chief knew better than to argue with Raven’s tactical appraisal of a situation. Besides he may not have wanted to admit it, but he knew she was right. He looked up and saw more tiny black figures massing on the edge of the crater above. They were out of options.
‘Fall back!’ the Chief yelled, ordering his men back through the enormous blast doors that were the only way into or out of the crater. They did not need to be told twice – the sight of these invulnerable assassins cutting down their team mates with such apparent ease had been enough to persuade most of them of the wisdom of a tactical withdrawal.
‘Can we seal the doors?’ Raven asked as they dashed towards the exit.
‘There’s enough charge in the back-up batteries to close them, but once they’re closed they’re staying closed. There won’t be enough juice to open them again, thanks to the Contessa,’ the Chief replied.
‘What do you mean, thanks to the Contessa?’ Raven asked quickly.
‘I think you need to speak to Nero,’ the Chief replied as they passed through the doorway and the huge steel doors slowly rumbled shut.
The assassin robot shoved Laura hard in the back, propelling her forward into the dingy cell. Shelby was right behind her, falling to the deck as she too was pushed inside, the heavy door swinging shut with a worryingly solid clunk. They watched through the bars as the two mechanical henchmen walked silently away, leaving them alone.
‘Well, this isn’t good,’ Laura said with a sigh, surveying the cramped, featureless cell.
‘Laura Brand, the world’s greatest master of understatement, ladies and gentlemen,’ Shelby replied sarcastically, sitting down on one of the cell’s two tiny beds.
‘I can’t believe the Contessa’s involved with this,’ Laura said gloomily as she sat down on the bed opposite Shelby.
‘Well, she is,’ Shelby replied, staring at the cell door.
‘Aye,’ Laura replied sadly. ‘She fooled everybody: us, Nero, and by the looks of it Francisco too.’
‘Yeah, it looks like the Colonel didn’t have much say in the whole “helping the Contessa” thing,’ Shelby said, sounding slightly distracted.
‘She must have been using him for months,’ Laura said, ‘to implant commands so deeply that he carries them out without question. We’ve both felt what it’s like to have the Contessa hijack your brainstem, but it fades quickly after she’s gone. She must have spent a long time preparing him for this.’
‘I don’t understand what that old witch does but I’ll tell you one thing, it’s going to take a whole lot more than a few words to stop me from punching her lights out the next time I see her,’ Shelby replied, picking at the toe of her shoe.
‘What are you doing?’ Laura asked, watching in bemusement as Shelby tugged at a loose flap of rubber on the toe of her shoe.
‘We’re getting out of here,’ Shelby said quietly.
‘That would be nice,’ said Laura, ‘but something tells me we’re going to need more than the old one of us falling ill trick to get us out of here.’
‘Oh, come on,’ Shelby replied with a smile, ‘that’s a classic. Never fails.’
‘I take it you have a plan, then?’ Laura replied curiously.
‘Better than that,’ Shelby said with a grin, peeling the sole off her right shoe. ‘I have a key.’
Inside the sole of Shelby’s shoe was a full set of tiny tools and lockpicks. Laura knew she really shouldn’t be surprised; after all Shelby had been the Wraith – the world’s most notorious and successful jewel thief before being forcibly inducted into H.I.V.E.
‘Don’t tell me that you walk round all day with that lot in your shoe,’ Laura said with a chuckle.
‘Don’t leave home without it,’ Shelby replied with a broad grin.
Shelby walked up to the bars at the front of the cell and quickly glanced down the corridor leading to the cells. Seeing no one there she turned her attention to the lock and after a few seconds let out a long sigh.
‘What’s wrong?’ Laura asked anxiously.
‘This is a Johnson and Fort, floating barrel, nine pin, spring-leaf security lock,’ Shelby said quietly. ‘Almost impossible to bypass.’
‘Great,’ Laura said as Shelby turned back to the lock. ‘So now what are we going to do? There’s no other way out of here and I for one don’t just want to sit here and wait for Cypher’s scheme to play out, whatever he’s –’
There was a tiny click and the cell door swung open.
‘I only said almost impossible,’ Shelby grinned.
‘OK,’ Laura said in amazement, ‘the next time they serve chocolate ice cream at dinner, you can have mine too.’
‘You say that now, Brand, but it’ll be a different story when the time comes,’ Shelby said, slipping her hidden tools into her pocket.
‘Oh, don’t worry, this time you’ve really earned it,’ Laura said, grinning.
Shelby stepped silently into the corridor. There were no signs of any guards – Cypher obviously thought the brig was a lot more secure than it actually was.
‘Coast is clear,’ Shelby whispered. ‘Let’s go.’
The two girls crept down the corridor. They were just passing the other cell door when Laura suddenly stopped.
‘There’s somebody in there,’ Laura whispered. Lying cuffed to the bed in the cell was a figure wearing simple black pyjamas with a hood over its head.
‘So?’ Shelby replied. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed we’re trying to escape here.’
‘Think about it,’ Laura said quietly. ‘If Cypher’s locked them up in here we should help them – the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that.’
‘Right, but what if they’re locked up for a good reason?’ Shelby replied. ‘The last thing we need is another murderous psychopath running around on the loose.’
‘It can’t hurt to talk to them,’ Laura said quickly. ‘Look, they’re cuffed to the bed. Worst comes to worst we just leave them there.’
‘OK, OK, but if that’s Hannibal Lecter in there I’m holding you responsible,’ Shelby said with a sigh. She pulled her tools back out of her pocket and quickly bypassed the lock on the cell, the door swinging open with a creak.
Laura walked up to the figure shackled to the bed and hesitated for a moment. Shelby might be right, this could be just someone that Cypher considered dangerous. Then she took a deep breath and scolded herself for being so timid. It couldn’t hurt to see what they looked like at any rate. She reached down and pulled the black hood off the prisoner’s head.
Laura gasped, the hood falling from her limp fingers.
‘Oh my God,’ Shelby hissed. ‘Wing!’
Lying there on the bed was their friend who they had both so recently grieved for. Laura looked as if she had, quite literally, seen a ghost. Shelby reached down and placed her hand on Wing’s chest, feeling it rise and fall, with tears in her eyes.
‘He’s alive,’ Shelby whispered.
‘Wing!’ Laura said urgently. ‘Wake up!’
Wing did not stir even when she shook his shoulder. This was no natural sleep; he’d been sedated.
‘So what do we do now?’ Shelby said, disbelief still evident in her voice. ‘It’s not like we can carry him out of here.’ She quickly set to work on the cuffs holding him to the bed; they were child’s play to her and she had released them within seconds.
‘Wing!’ Laura shouted, shaking him again, suddenly not caring if anyone could hear them.
‘Here, let me try,’ Shelby said, gently pushing Laura to one side.
‘Sorry about this,’ she said softly to Wing and slapped him hard across the face.
Wing stirred for the briefest of moments, mumbling something, and then settled back into his previous state of unconsciousness.
‘Come on, big guy,’ Shelby said quietly. ‘Don’t make me do that again.’
Wing showed no further signs of waking and Shelby raised her hand, swinging it down to slap his face again. Wing’s hand moved in a blur, snapping into the air like a striking snake and catching Shelby’s wrist a split second before she made contact with his cheek. Laura gasped, and Shelby almost jumped out of her skin.
‘If I am dreaming, why does my face hurt so much?’ Wing said croakily.
Shelby gave a tiny sob and hugged Wing hard. The grief that had still been so fresh and raw fell away, replaced with a joy deeper than she had ever felt before. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks as she clung on to him, fearing that he might vanish in a puff of smoke if she ever let him go.