‘Trust me,’ Raven replied, ‘no one will ever know we were there.’
‘Observe!’ Professor Pike yelled over the high-pitched whine from the generator. ‘The beam is quite capable of cutting through a foot of stainless steel and yet the refractive coating on this backplate renders it completely harmless. This allows friendly units to be protected against the effects of the weapon without requiring heavy armour plating.’
The bright green beam from the massive projector at the far end of the Science and Technology department laboratory lit the entire room with an eerie glow. The Alpha students who were watching the demonstration stood with their backs pressed against the opposite wall, as far away from the device as humanly possible. They had learnt from bitter, often painful, experience that it was never wise to stand too close to one of Professor Pike’s experimental devices. Waiting for eyebrows to grow back was an inconvenience but waiting for limbs to grow back was another matter altogether.
‘Once in orbit, the weapon can be used for precise strikes on specific targets,’ the Professor continued, ‘minimising the need for messy collateral damage. Mr Argentblum, would you be so kind as to dim the lights please so that I can demonstrate the importance of a precise refraction index.’
Franz nervously slid along the wall towards the light switch by the laboratory door. He flicked the switch and the room darkened, the powerful beam of laser light now providing the only illumination. Franz started to slide back along the wall towards the other Alpha students. Suddenly he felt his foot catch on something and he stumbled over one of the trailing cables that lay across the laboratory floor. The cable went tight and pulled one of the instruments monitoring the beam over, sending it falling sideways and knocking the edge of the frame that held the refractive shielding plate in position. For what seemed like a very long time the stand wobbled back and forth before it tipped slowly backwards with a crash.
‘Take cover!’ Professor Pike screamed, diving behind one of the nearby workbenches as the other Alpha students scattered, trying to shield themselves behind the most solid objects they could find. The beam punched straight through the laboratory wall in a cloud of vapour and alarm klaxons started wailing all over the school. Professor Pike scrambled across the floor towards the bundle of thick power cables that led to the super-laser, pulling them from the back of the machine and extinguishing the bright green beam.
‘Oops,’ Franz said as the emergency lighting kicked in and the rest of the Alphas slowly emerged from their hiding places. At the back of the room there was a perfectly circular, twenty-centimetre hole in the wall surrounded by scorch marks. ‘I am thinking that this is not being good.’
Otto walked cautiously up to the smouldering hole, glancing nervously over his shoulder at the beam emitter that was making a gentle clicking sound as it cooled down.
‘Woah,’ he said as he peered into the hole. Clearly visible were a series of further holes beyond that got smaller and smaller with perspective. Dimly visible at the far end was what could only be a small circle of bright daylight.
‘Erm, I don’t know how to tell you this, Franz,’ Otto said, turning towards his friend with a broad grin on his face, ‘but it looks like you just made a hole in the school.’
‘Oh dear,’ Professor Pike said, coming up beside Otto and also peering into the hole. ‘I do hope that we haven’t damaged anything important.’
‘Or anyone important,’ Shelby added as she and the rest of the Alphas gathered round.
‘It is not being my fault,’ Franz moaned. ‘I am tripping over the cable.’
A couple of minutes later, the door at the far end of the lab hissed open and Chief Dekker came running into the room, flanked by two guards in their familiar orange jumpsuits. Otto and the others winced as they saw her. It was well known already that she had no particular love for H.I.V.E.’s Alpha stream and she seemed to have a special dislike for their year in particular.
‘What happened?’ she demanded as she strode across the room towards the Professor. Her thin, tight lips and sharp cheekbones gave the impression that she was someone who’d heard of this thing called smiling but had decided that it was not for her.
‘There was a slight . . . erm . . . malfunction,’ the Professor replied with a fleeting glance in Franz’s direction. ‘Has anyone been injured?’
‘It doesn’t look like it,’ Dekker replied tersely, ‘but I think it’s safe to say that Colonel Francisco won’t be using that particular toilet cubicle again.’ Franz visibly paled at the thought of the Colonel finding out that he had been in any way responsible for whatever indignity he had just suffered. He had a sudden horribly clear vision of many laps of the school gym somewhere in his not too distant future.
‘Please apologise to the Colonel for me,’ the Professor said quickly, seeing the expression on Franz’s face. ‘I take full responsibility. I must not have secured the shielding properly.’
‘You’re sure there was no student involvement?’ Dekker asked, glaring at Otto and the others.
‘Quite sure,’ the Professor replied. ‘Now if there’s nothing else I can help you with, we should start clearing this mess up.’
Dekker stared at Otto for a couple more seconds and then turned and marched out of the room.
‘Oh, she’s definitely got the hots for you,’ Shelby whispered to Otto as the door hissed shut behind the new Security Chief.
‘Yeah, great, just what I need,’ Otto sighed.
‘OK, everyone,’ Professor Pike said, ‘class is dismissed until we get this mess sorted out. Please use the rest of the morning for constructive study. Remember that you all have exams coming up.’
Otto and the others headed out of the lab, leaving Professor Pike to coordinate with the maintenance and repair team that had just arrived.
‘Good work, Franz,’ Shelby said with a grin. ‘I’ve always said that H.I.V.E. needed more windows.’
‘I am just being glad that Colonel Francisco will not discover that I was being involved,’ Franz said, shaking his head.
‘Yeah,’ Otto said with a chuckle, ‘but I would have paid good money to see the look on his face when it happened.’
‘At least no one was hurt,’ Laura said. ‘That’s the main thing.’
‘Indeed,’ Wing said with a nod, ‘though I am not sure that it is a positive thing that what qualifies as a good day at H.I.V.E. is one where no one was either killed or permanently maimed.’
‘So are you guys going to head to the library?’ Nigel asked. ‘Beause I could do with a hand with some of the political and financial corruption coursework. I still don’t understand some of the corporate banking loopholes.’
‘Does anyone?’ Otto asked.
‘I can be helping with those,’ Franz said happily. ‘It is actually being quite simple.’
‘I’m glad you think so,’ Shelby said with a sigh. ‘It might as well be a foreign language to me.’
Franz had actually always shown a talent for that particular sphere of villainy. He excelled in developing new and inventive ways of hiding and then discreetly distributing vast sums of money. It was a subject that even Otto found baffling at times but it seemed to be almost second nature to Franz.
The six of them made their way through H.I.V.E.’s twisting volcanic rock corridors until they eventually arrived at the library. The large glass double doors, engraved with G.L.O.V.E.’s globe-smashing fist logo hissed apart and they headed inside. The cavernous chamber beyond was filled from floor to ceiling with countless shelves of books. Robotic arms slid backwards and forwards along rails mounted in front of the shelves, removing and returning volumes for the students who sat at the hundreds of desks arranged in clusters across the cavern floor. There was a definite atmosphere of barely suppressed panic that could only mean one thing. Exams were coming and time for revision was running out.
Otto and the others sat at the far end of the room and started unpacking notepads and books from their backpacks.
‘Isn’
t all this studying a bit pointless if the plan to . . . borrow the exam papers works?’ Laura whispered to Otto as he sat down and opened one of his textbooks.
‘Maybe,’ Otto whispered, ‘but we have to keep up appearances.’ He nodded towards one of the many security cameras that lined the walls. ‘They’re going to be looking out for anyone who’s not bothering with revision. We need to try not to attract any unnecessary attention. Besides which, if the plan goes wrong, I don’t want to be going into the exams having done absolutely no revision at all. I don’t know about you but that’s the kind of thing I have nightmares about.’
‘I am having nightmares about sitting my exams naked,’ Franz said with an earnest expression as he sat down across from them. ‘Most disturbing.’
‘If it’s any consolation I have nightmares about Franz sitting exams naked too,’ Shelby whispered to Laura. ‘One’s where I’m sat at the desk right behind his.’
‘Oh, thanks very much for that mental image. Especially when I’m trying to concentrate,’ Laura said.
‘Thing is,’ Shelby whispered, ‘in the dream he’s really nervous because of the exam and so he’s sweating a lot.’
‘OK, I am really not listening to you any more,’ Laura said, grimacing.
‘It gets worse because then he . . .’ Shelby leant over and whispered something in Laura’s ear.
‘Is Laura OK?’ Wing asked Otto quietly on the other side of the cluster of desks. ‘She appears to have suddenly gone quite pale.’
Otto looked over at Laura who was now repeatedly hitting Shelby with one of her notepads. Shelby meanwhile was laughing uncontrollably at the look of pure disgust on Laura’s face.
‘Shelby Trinity, there is something seriously wrong with you,’ Laura said, shaking her head.
‘You know, I am thinking Laura is struggling to be coping with the stress of the exams,’ Franz said sadly as he watched Laura rubbing at her temples as if desperately trying to erase something from her brain.
‘It was an unfortunate accident,’ Professor Pike said, looking slightly uncomfortable.
‘That’s one way of describing it,’ Dr Nero said as he studied the damage report on his tablet display. He walked to the other end of the Science and Technology lab and examined the recently patched hole in the wall. ‘I don’t really want to have to review the safety procedures for your department yet again, Professor. Especially when you’ve been doing so well with the departmental fatalities.’
‘Only three this year!’ the Professor said, smiling happily before noticing the look on Nero’s face. ‘Which is, of course, three too many.’
‘A certain level of staff and student mortality is to be expected, Professor,’ Nero said, ‘but it’s best if we can try and avoid it where possible. Colonel Francisco was extremely lucky.’
‘Yes, he seemed rather angry when I saw him,’ the Professor said with a frown. ‘He said that it was a good job he was sitting down when it happened. I suppose it must have been quite a shock for him.’
‘Yes, I think that’s safe to say,’ Nero replied. The lab door hissed open and Chief Dekker marched into the room. ‘Ahh, Chief, you said you wanted to see me.’
‘Yes, Doctor Nero,’ Dekker replied. ‘I want to request that I be allowed to put some new security measures in place in the lead up to the examinations. I’ve been running inventory checks and some unusual pieces of equipment have gone missing from the school storerooms. I’d like your permission to search certain students’ quarters and see what they might be hiding.’
‘Absolutely not,’ Nero said, shaking his head.
‘But, sir,’ Dekker said, ‘if we don’t . . .’
‘Chief Dekker,’ Nero said firmly, interrupting her, ‘you have only been with the school for a few months so I am aware that there are still certain things that you may find difficult to understand, so allow me to explain. H.I.V.E. is not a prison. Certainly the students are brought here against their will and they are most definitely not allowed to leave except under the closest of supervision but that is where the similarities end. The students are entitled to a certain amount of freedom and privacy and that is why I have made it the policy of this institution that students’ quarters are not to be searched unless there is unequivocal proof of a direct threat to the safety of the school. That may seem like a strange decision to you but it is my belief that if we treat our students like common criminals that is exactly how they will behave. What I want H.I.V.E. to produce is uncommon criminals. No searches without my explicit permission and that is my final word on the matter. Do I make myself clear?’
‘Yes, sir,’ Dekker said with a curt nod. ‘Understood. I do have one other concern though. I have reviewed the file on Otto Malpense and if everything that I read about his abilities is true I’m worried that there is no meaningful way to secure the school’s network against his intrusion. Given the sensitivity of the data that’s stored there, how do we ensure that he won’t be able to gain access to it?’
‘H.I.V.E.mind,’ the Professor replied. ‘You will have read, no doubt, about everything that took place during our final confrontation with Overlord. So you will know that H.I.V.E.mind was stored temporarily within the organic computer that is implanted inside Otto’s brain. One of the side effects of that has been that H.I.V.E.mind is now uniquely attuned to Malpense’s brain patterns. As long as H.I.V.E.mind is active there is no way that Otto can access the school’s networks using his abilities without being immediately detected. One of H.I.V.E.mind’s prime directives is to protect certain pieces of sensitive data at all costs. The examination papers are one such piece of data. Otto can’t access them with his abilities and he will know that.’
‘Nevertheless, my instincts tell me that he’s up to something,’ Dekker said with a frown. ‘I’m not sure what yet but if I could just search his quarters . . .’
‘You’re almost certainly correct, Chief,’ Nero said with a slight smile, ‘but, to be honest, I’d be more worried if your instincts were telling you that he wasn’t up to something. Otto Malpense’s default state is “up to something” and I would have it no other way. Is there anything else?’
‘No, sir,’ Dekker replied.
‘Very well. If you do find positive evidence of whatever it is that Mr Malpense is planning, then do please let me know. I’m sure it will be entertaining at the very least.’
Dekker nodded and marched out of the room.
‘I don’t much like her, Max,’ the Professor said as the lab door hissed shut behind the Chief.
‘I didn’t think many people would. Chief Lewis was a difficult man to replace,’ Nero said. ‘However, she comes highly recommended and she’s exceptionally good at what she does and just at the moment I need someone who will keep this school safe. No matter what the cost.’
Raven watched from the monitoring station in the belly of the Shroud as retrieval teams all around the world provided constant status updates on their operations. She was not the sort of person to suffer from stress but this was the one occasion every year which, she conceded, she found slightly worrying. Part of it was that there was no way that she could be there for each retrieval operation personally but the other part was that she knew how important it was to Nero that every one of these children be retrieved successfully. She had stopped worrying about the rights and wrongs of recruiting H.I.V.E.’s new students in this way many years ago. They were being saved from lives of mediocrity and being given the sort of opportunity that would change their lives for the better for ever. Besides which, all of them had done something to earn their place at H.I.V.E. None of them were angels.
She continued to scan the reports coming in. She wasn’t worried about the legacy student retrievals. They were simple since they occurred with the full knowledge of the parents or guardians of the children involved. No, the tricky ones were the other students, the children who had earned their place through merit, if that was really the right word under the circumstances. Those were the operations that Raven
watched most closely.
‘Team nine, retrieval complete,’ a voice crackled over the comms system. Team nine, Brazilian girl, ran a team of pickpockets in the favela. Exceptional leadership skills, master of stealth and evasion, highly adept thief. Alpha stream candidate.
‘Team seventeen, retrieval complete,’ another voice reported. Team seventeen, American boy, son of a wealthy banker. Siphoned nearly a million dollars from the accounts of his father and his golf club buddies by cloning their credit cards while they were out on the fairways. Politics and Finance stream candidate.
‘Team twenty-nine, retrieval complete.’ Russian boy, assassin for the mob. Used age as cover to get close to targets. Highly skilled with pistols and knives. Henchman stream candidate. That was one she’d been worried about.
And so the reports continued to roll in. No problems so far but there was plenty of time yet.
‘We’re over the target area,’ a voice in her earpiece said.
‘Roger that,’ Raven replied, pulling the black mask over her head. The black lenses activated, giving her perfect twenty-twenty, full-colour night vision. She walked towards the rear of the passenger compartment and checked her equipment rig one last time. Satisfied that everything was in place she slapped the hatch release and stepped out on to the ramp. The ground was only a couple of metres below and she jumped down and landed silently.