Deadlock (29 page)

‘I’ll bet,’ Otto said. He put a hand on Laura’s shoulder. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘OK, under the circumstances,’ she said with a weak smile. ‘All I really want to do is get away from this place and never come back.’

‘Nigel!’ Diabolus Darkdoom strode across the deck and embraced his son. ‘I was afraid I had lost you.’

‘I thought it was probably my turn to come back from the dead,’ Nigel said with a grin. ‘It is a family tradition after all.’

‘Indeed it is,’ Darkdoom said with a smile. ‘I’m told that I have you to thank for Nigel’s safe return, Franz.’

‘Oh, it was being nothing really,’ Franz said.

‘Nonsense,’ Darkdoom said. ‘I see a bright future for you, Mr Argentblum. The Darkdoom family always repays its debts. Come on, you two, let’s head up to the command centre and you can tell me exactly what happened.’

As he led the two boys away, the loading ramp began to whirr shut behind them and the Alphas at the other end of the bay began strapping themselves into the flight seats that lined the walls, ready for take-off.

‘Come on,’ Otto said to Laura, ‘we better get buckled up. Who knows what the range is on that transmitter that Furan’s holding. Could be a bumpy ride.’

‘I’ll be with you in a second,’ Laura said, as she saw Raven heading towards the stairs to the command centre. She caught up with her and tapped her on the shoulder.

‘Yes, Miss Brand,’ Raven said. ‘What can I do for you?’

‘Doctor Nero just told me what you did,’ Laura said. ‘I wanted to thank you for saving my parents and my baby brother.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Raven said with a nod. ‘Family should not be dragged into these things.’

Outside, the Leviathan’s massive turbines powered up, blasting snow and chunks of ice in all directions as it slowly lifted into the air. As it roared away into the dawn sky the transmitter strapped into Furan’s hand reached the limit of its range. Inside the silent abandoned halls of the Glasshouse, hidden nozzles began to spray a fine mist of jet fuel into the air. For a few seconds the cloud of noxious vapour hung in the air, filling every room and corridor and then the security network sent its final command and a sparking red flare dropped from the base of the glass spire at the heart of the facility. A split second later, the Glasshouse was gone, consumed by an explosion that would have been visible for miles around, if there had been a single living soul to see it.

‘Do you know why he wants to see us?’ Laura asked.

‘No idea,’ Otto replied. The fact of the matter was that when you were summoned to Nero’s office you came. They’d been back at H.I.V.E. for barely more than twenty-four hours and, while the reappearance of the captured Alpha students had caused the rumour mill to start operating at full capacity, nothing else had happened that would explain why Nero wanted to see just the two of them. The door to Nero’s office hissed open.

‘Come in,’ Nero called out.

Otto followed Laura into the room and Nero gestured for the pair of them to sit in the chairs opposite him.

‘Good morning, Miss Brand, Mister Malpense,’ Nero said. ‘I hope you have both had enough time to recover from your experiences in the Arctic.’

‘Yes, thank you, Doctor Nero,’ Laura said. ‘It’s good to be back.’

‘I’m interested to hear you say that,’ Dr Nero said, ‘because that’s part of the reason I have asked you here today, Miss Brand. You’re back in your uniform, I see.’ He gestured to the matching black Alpha stream jumpsuits that they were both wearing.

‘Yes,’ Laura replied, ‘it’s a relief to be honest after wearing the Glasshouse uniform for the past few months.’

‘That’s good to hear,’ Nero said, ‘but the reason I called you in here today was to ask you a question. One that I do not ask lightly. Do you wish to continue to wear the uniform?’

‘I’m sorry,’ Laura said, looking confused, ‘I’m not sure I understand.’

‘I mean, Miss Brand, I am prepared to offer you something that I have only offered to a handful of students over the years. If you wish, given what you and your family have been through at the hands of Anastasia Furan, I will allow you to leave H.I.V.E. without consequence and return home. That offer would, of course, be entirely dependent on you understanding that if you, or your family, ever breathed a word about the school to anyone there would be
consequences
.’

‘I . . . I’m not sure,’ Laura said. ‘I mean, I don’t know, I’d have to think about it.’

‘Of course,’ Nero said. ‘You must understand two things though. Firstly, if you leave you will never be able to come back. Equally, if you decide to stay, then just like the rest of your fellow students you will be expected to complete your education before returning to the outside world. This is very much a one-time only offer.’

Laura said nothing, and just nodded.

‘Secondly, and this goes for both of you, if you ever do anything to betray this school ever again, whether intentionally or not, I will have you both thrown to the sharks, no matter what I may or may not owe you. The only thing that has saved you both from that fate already is that I believe you honestly had no idea what the consequences would be when you stole the location of the Hunt and passed it on to a third party. That and the fact that it was only through your combined actions that we were able to rescue the surviving Alpha stream students are all that stayed my hand. Do I make myself
perfectly
clear?’

‘Yes, sir,’ they replied in unison.

‘Good,’ Nero said, as the door to his office opened again and Raven walked in. ‘I leave you to make your decision. I expect an answer within twenty-four hours. Natalya, would you escort Miss Brand to the communication centre – there is one more thing I would like her to see before she makes her decision.’

Laura stood up and followed Raven out of the room. Otto felt his heart sink as he saw the look on her face. He feared that he already knew what her decision would be. He got up to leave.

‘I need to speak to you about something else, Otto. Please remain seated.’

The door to his office closed and Nero got up from his chair, walking over to the fireplace that was carved into the rock wall, above which hung a portrait of a woman that Otto did not recognise, but who he had always been curious about.

‘I listened to the recordings of your initial report,’ Nero said, turning to face him. ‘There were elements of it that were extremely disturbing, to say the least. You mentioned that the boy called Zero hinted that there were more clones like him somewhere.’

‘I can’t be certain,’ Otto said, ‘but he kept referring to “we” and “us”. At first I thought he was talking about me and him, but I think there was more to it than that. Can I ask you a question?’

‘Of course,’ Nero replied.

‘Did you ever find the facility where I was born?’

‘No, unfortunately, I’m afraid that was a secret that died with Overlord,’ Nero replied. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘Because Furan mentioned that they were recreating his work,’ Otto said, ‘and to do that they would, I’m sure, need access to the original lab. Professor Pike once told me that there was no way that the device inside my head could be manufactured with current technology. He said that it was a computer that would have to be grown, not built, and that we were decades away from even being able to attempt it.’

‘So you think the Disciples are using the technology that Overlord developed?’ Nero said, frowning.

‘Yes, but that’s not what really frightens me,’ Otto said. ‘What frightens me is that I don’t think they have the faintest idea what they’re creating. I think they’re tinkering with Overlord’s technology without fully understanding it. Zero was, physically speaking at least, the same age as me, which implies that they’re accelerating the growth of these clones. That’s why they’re not absolutely perfect copies of me, why Zero’s eye colour was wrong, for example. Those aren’t the defects we need to worry about though. The defects we need to worry about are up here.’ Otto tapped the side of his head. ‘I was brought up like a normal child. I’ve always wondered why Overlord would do that. Why didn’t he just keep me in a cage somewhere until he needed me? Perhaps he knew something that the Disciples don’t – that something goes wrong if people like me, with my abilities, don’t mature naturally.’

‘You’re suggesting that they would turn out like this Zero character?’

‘Exactly,’ Otto said. ‘I was barely able to survive an encounter with one of them. Normal people would be powerless to oppose them. If there are more of them out there, they could be the most dangerous foes we’ve ever faced. We have to find that lab, wherever it is, and shut it down. We have to shut it down
now
.’

Laura followed Raven through H.I.V.E.’s communication centre, which was filled with technicians working on screens and talking into headsets. There was a large screen at the far end with a flattened map of the Earth displayed on it covered in red dots. Arcs were traced over these dots, plotting the trajectories of satellites as they orbited the planet. At any other time Laura would have been itching to get her hands on some of the technology in the room, but at that precise moment her mind was still reeling, trying to fully comprehend the offer that Nero had just made to her.

‘In there,’ Raven said, gesturing to a small darkened room with a single seat in it. ‘I’ll be right here. You have ten minutes.’

Laura sat down in the seat with a confused frown as Raven closed the door behind her. A few seconds later a large high-definition screen flared into life just a couple of metres in front of her with the G.L.O.V.E. globe and fist logo in the centre of it. Beneath the logo was the single word: Connecting . . .

She waited for a moment and then the screen flickered before resolving into the image of her parents, Mary and Andrew Brand. Laura gasped as she she saw them and the baby that her mother was cradling.

‘Laura, darling,’ her mother said, bursting into tears and reaching out to touch the screen. Laura touched her mother’s hand and she too began to cry.

‘Laura, honey, are you OK?’ her father said, fighting to control his emotions like a good Scotsman and putting an arm around his wife. ‘They told us that something bad had happened to you. Are you safe now?’

‘Yes,’ Laura said, regaining her composure with a sniff. ‘I’m fine, don’t worry. Are you all OK?’

‘Aye,’ her mother said, ‘though we wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for that woman called Raven. She saved us from those awful men who kidnapped us, and took us somewhere safe. I’m not supposed to say where we are.’

‘It’s OK, Mum,’ Laura said. ‘Don’t worry. You can trust her – the people who are protecting you are the same people who are training me.’

‘Is this the school that the Raven lady told us about?’ her father asked. ‘I probably shouldn’t have said that – she told us it was a secret and everything.’

‘It is, but I don’t think she’ll mind you telling me,’ Laura replied with a smile. She looked at the baby who was staring at the screen with obvious fascination. ‘Hello, little brother.’ She fought to hold back the tears again as he smiled back at her.

‘This is Dougie,’ her mum said, picking up his tiny hand and waving it at her. ‘Your dad thinks he looks like him, of course, but I think he looks just like you. I can’t believe how much you’ve grown. When you left you were still my little girl, but now you . . . you’re a young woman.’

Her mother started to cry again and Laura struggled to hold back her own tears.