“I wasn’t aware we’d reached international waters,” Darkdoom said calmly, glancing at his watch for a split second as he raised his hands and then slowly placed them behind his head as instructed. “I wonder how your friends in the Italian security services would feel about this?”
“I guess we’ll just have to make sure that they never find out,” the agent replied. He turned to the man next to him. “Cuff them and bring them onboard. I’ll call it in.”
The two Artemis Section boats edged closer to Darkdoom’s vessel as the first agent put a single finger to the side of his neck and spoke into his throat mic.
“Yeah, this is Able Seven. We have the Malpense boy, the male we spotted in St. Mark’s Square, and another unidentified elderly male in custody. No sign of the woman though. I can see the retrieval choppers now.” In the distance Otto could just make out two helicopters flying low over the water of the lagoon, heading straight for them.
Decryption of their communications is now complete, H.I.V.E.mind said inside Otto’s head. These men are agents of a branch of the Central Intelligence Agency known as Artemis Section. They report to a director of operations whose name is Flack.
Behind the agents Otto saw a hand reach up and grab the rail that ran along the side of the Artemis agents’ boat. The agent who was talking on the radio started to turn toward the hand clutching the rail; in a second he would spot it and they would be out of options. Otto’s mind raced for a moment and an idea formed in his head.
“Let us go,” Otto said calmly, “or Flack’s dead.”
There was a sudden look of surprise on the lead agent’s face as he turned back toward Otto, which was swiftly replaced by a look of suspicion.
“What are you talking about, kid?” the agent asked, keeping his gun trained on Otto as his colleague leaned over and grabbed the rail of Darkdoom’s boat, pulling the two vessels together.
Behind the two agents Otto saw a second hand on the rail.
“I have an operative in position right now,” Otto said calmly. “All I have to do is give her the signal.” Otto reached out with his abilities, searching for the capacitor inside the throttle assembly of the other Artemis boat behind him.
“Oh yeah,” the agent said with a sneer, “and what kind of signal might that be?”
“This kind of signal,” Otto replied and sent a mental command to the throttle capacitor in the boat behind him. The Artemis boat’s engine roared, catching its helmsman completely off guard. He was pitched backward, tumbling across the deck, knocking his fellow agents flying as the runaway speedboat powered away across the water, hopelessly out of control. At the very same instant Raven leaped over the side of the stationary Artemis boat, taking advantage of the distraction to surprise the three agents on board. The two agents wielding the submachine guns were the first to go down in a flurry of swift kicks and punches. To the helmsman’s credit he managed to get his own pistol halfway out of his shoulder holster before he too joined his unconscious companions out cold on the deck.
“You look like hell,” Darkdoom said with a wry smile as Raven took a deep breath. Her tactical harness was gone and her body armor was torn to pieces down one side. She had a long gash that ran down the upper half of her right arm and another similar wound in her thigh.
“Do me a favor, Diabolus,” Raven said. “Next time you build yourself something like that thing and its brothers, give them an easily accessible ‘off’ switch, would you?”
“They were designed to be tamper-proof, you know,” Diabolus replied, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah? Well, they weren’t me-proof,” Raven replied. “And you owe me a new pair of swords. Give me a hand.” She put a hand under each of one of the unconscious agent’s arms and dragged him over to the side before rolling him onto Darkdoom’s swamped boat. In the distance they could see a small armada of Venetian police boats heading in their direction.
“I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the American ambassador’s office when the Italians figure out who these men are,” Darkdoom said as he climbed aboard the Artemis boat.
“I always say that it’s not really been a good day if you haven’t caused a major diplomatic incident by lunchtime,” Otto said with a grin.
Otto had just helped Nathaniel across onto the Artemis boat and Raven and Darkdoom were halfway through transferring the last unconscious agent over to their own slowly sinking vessel, when a voice crackled over the agent’s radio.
“Able Seven, this is control,” the voice said. “Did you say that you could see the retrieval choppers? Because they’ve only just dusted off—they won’t be with you for another ten minutes.”
Raven and Otto exchanged a quick glance and then turned and looked at the approaching helicopters. They were much closer and it was now obvious that they weren’t designed for transporting personnel. They were clearly gunships, probably the very same ones that would have taken them out at Nathaniel’s home if Otto had not realized Gretchen’s deception in time.
“I think we need to go,” Otto said.
“Yup,” Raven replied with a nod.
Seconds later, they were bouncing away across the lagoon, weaving between the sandbanks and mudflats that made navigation of the vast tidal pool so difficult. The boat was no match for the speed of the gunships though and they were relentlessly gaining ground. It would only be a matter of seconds before they were within firing range.
“I hope you have something up your sleeve, Diabolus,” Nathaniel said, as they raced toward the gap in the sea wall that led out into the Adriatic Sea. Out here, on the open water, they were sitting ducks.
Darkdoom glanced at his watch and then pulled a small earpiece from his pocket.
“Confirm position,” Darkdoom said. He listened for a response and nodded. “Confirm targets, fire when ready.”
Nothing happened for a moment and then Otto, Raven, and Nathaniel ducked, flinching as a pair of air-to-air missiles seemed to appear out of thin air just ahead of them and screamed past over their heads straight toward the two gunships. Otto watched as the two pursuing helicopters broke off their pursuit, banking hard as they recognized the danger, but they never had a chance. The burning wreckage of the two gunships tumbled slowly into the lagoon as ahead of the boat there was a shimmering in the air and a giant loading ramp dropped down in midair, hitting the surface of the water in a plume of spray. At the top of the ramp Otto could see the interior of the Leviathan’s cavernous cargo hold, the rest of the giant dropship’s enormous airframe was rendered invisible by the thermoptic camouflage that covered its armored skin.
“You and your toys, Diabolus,” Raven said with a sigh, shaking her head.
“Like I said,” Diabolus smiled, “backup plan.”
“Most impressive,” Nathaniel said, eyebrows raised.
Darkdoom pushed the throttle forward as the Leviathan dropped further, its cargo deck flooding with water as its giant invisible turbines kicked up clouds of spray, which in turn revealed the faint outline of its huge hull. Darkdoom steered the boat straight onto the flooded deck and moments later the Leviathan lifted back into the sky, Darkdoom’s men running forward and stabilizing the beached boat as the water ran off the deck and back into the lagoon below. The huge loading ramp sealed shut as the Leviathan continued to climb and Darkdoom, Otto, Raven and Nathaniel got out of the boat.
“Drop this thing in the ocean once we’re a few miles out,” Darkdoom said to the deck chief, gesturing toward the Artemis vessel. “Who knows what sort of tracking devices it has onboard. Best not to take any chances.”
The four of them walked across the cargo bay and up the stairs leading to the Leviathan’s command center. The room was bustling with activity as the operators at various terminals around the room tried to extract any pertinent information from the confused radio chatter that was filling the airwaves of the city below.
“What happened to the Megalodon?” Darkdoom asked as he walked to the center of the room.
“We found her automated d
istress buoy and we’ll have Remotely Operated Vehicles onsite shortly, sir,” one of the operatives reported. “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but it appears she’s gone down with all hands.”
Darkdoom looked down at the floor for a moment and took a deep breath.
“How did it happen?” Darkdoom asked, trying in vain to keep the fury he felt from his voice.
“We’re not sure, sir,” the crewman replied. “The last telemetry we received from her indicated a catastrophic breach of her fire-control systems, which would tally with the fact she appears to have launched the Moray drones with you and your companions assigned as the primary targets. It seems that she then suffered an on-board detonation of her remaining munitions.”
“How is that possible?” Darkdoom asked angrily. “There’s no way that anyone could possibly have breached her network security and I am certain of the loyalty of the crew. What the hell happened?”
“We don’t know yet, sir,” the crewman replied. “We may have a better idea when the ROVs complete their survey of the wreckage.”
“Let me know the moment you have the initial report,” Darkdoom said, turning to Otto, Raven, and Nathaniel. “We’re going back to H.I.V.E. We need to brief Nero and plan our next move. Nathaniel, we need your help. We need to know where Furan’s facility is located and what it will take to get our people out.”
“I’ll help in any way I can, Diabolus,” Nathaniel said, “but you must understand that I merely designed the facility. I had no part in its construction. I have no idea where it’s located.”
“Don’t worry,” Otto said, pulling the Disciple communicator that they had taken from Gretchen out of his pocket. “I think we might just have that covered.”
“Okay, here he comes,” Laura said, spotting one of the maintenance technicians doing his regular round of checks on the camera drones on the far side of the pit. He was flanked, as normal, by two guards with assault rifles, their faces hidden behind their black Plexiglas masks.
“How long are you going to need?” Tom asked Laura quietly as the pair of them walked along one of the circular balconies surrounding the pit, heading for the first training session of the day.
“I’m not sure,” Laura said. “Two minutes maybe.”
“Okay,” Tom said with a nod. “You’re sure Nigel’s okay with this?”
“As okay as you could expect him to be under the circumstances,” Laura replied. “More to the point, are you sure you’re okay with it?” Laura knew that Tom was going to be taking perhaps the greatest risk of all.
“Yeah, what you said before was right. We can’t let this place beat the fight out of us.” Tom spotted Nigel farther along the balcony and they exchanged a quick glance. “Oh well, I suppose there’s no time like the present.”
Tom strode toward Nigel, a sudden look of anger on his face.
“Darkdoom!” Tom yelled as he approached the startled-looking Nigel. “I’m going to kill you.”
Tom got to within a couple of yards of Nigel, cocked his arm back and punched him squarely in the face. Nigel staggered backward with a yelp, his hands rising to his face and clutching his nose. The two guards began to run along the balcony toward the boys as the maintenance technician and the other students all turned to look at the fight that had just broken out. Laura began to walk away from the fight and around the balcony in the other direction. Tom slammed Nigel against the concrete wall that ran around the balcony, grabbing him by the throat and forcing him backward over the barrier until he was hanging over the fifty-yard drop to the open-air training area at the bottom of the pit. Unseen by anyone, Penny walked past the maintenance technician, whose attention was firmly focused on the unfolding drama and in a quick, fluid movement lifted the PDA from the pouch on his belt. She kept walking, quickly passing the PDA to Laura who shoved it into the pocket of her combat trousers, before ducking back into her cell. She pressed her back against the wall, taking cover behind the door frame and activated the PDA, her thumbs dancing across the touch-sensitive keyboard on the screen in a blur.
Outside, the guards slowed as they approached Tom and he pushed Nigel further out over the lethal drop to the ground below. Nigel had a look of fear on his face, both hands clinging onto Tom’s wrist as the other boy held his throat in a vice-like grip.
“Stay away from me,” Tom yelled at the guards. “One more step and he’s gone. I mean it.”
“Okay, kid,” one of the guards said. “No one needs to do anything stupid.”
The camera drones that had been watching the trainees on that level make their way to lessons, all now hovered with their lenses focused on Tom and Nigel as their operators in the glass control tower, hanging from the ceiling above, analyzed the developing situation. No one noticed as the light on the bottom of one of the hovering drones flickered from green to red.
Laura worked at blinding speed, working through the tools that were installed on the technician’s device. She found what she needed—a basic scripting tool for composing diagnostic subroutines—and she started to code, almost falling into a trance as she typed line after line of code, never having to pause for thought. To her, English was her second language; the lines of instructions that scrolled up the screen were written in her true mother tongue and it had been too long since she had been able to speak it.
Meanwhile, guards were now flanking Tom and Nigel on both sides. Tom looked at them as they slowly advanced.
“Keep back,” Tom screamed, “or he’s dead. I want to speak to Furan.”
One of the guards turned away, raising his hand to his ear as he received a transmission inside his helmet. The guard turned back toward Tom.
“You should be careful what you wish for, kid,” the guard said. A few moments later the watching crowd parted and Furan, flanked by more guards, strode through the crowd. She stopped ten yards away from Tom, glaring at him with an expression that was a mixture of anger and contempt.
“What are you doing?” Furan growled.
“I want out,” Tom said, a slight tremor in his voice. “Let me go or I swear to God I’ll kill him. I know who his father is and how important he is to you. Let me go and I’ll vanish—no one will ever hear from me again, I swear.”
Laura finished typing. There was no time for fixing bugs or checking her code, it had to be right the first time. She hit the transmit button and the new subroutine was uploaded wirelessly to one of the camera drones hovering just outside. A moment later the light on its belly flicked back from red to green. She shut down the PDA and walked back outside, passing the device to Penny as she walked past her. Penny kept walking, watching Tom’s confrontation with Furan nervously as she approached the technician who was still watching the drama on the other side of the central chamber. She slipped the device back into the pouch on the man’s belt as she passed and he never noticed a thing. The distraction had worked.
“Give me your sidearm,” Furan said to one of the guards and the man pulled the pistol from the holster on his hip and handed it to her. She turned back toward Tom.
“Did you really imagine, even for one second, that I was going to let you just walk out of here?” Furan asked Tom, approaching him.
“If you don’t, he dies,” Tom said, sounding desperate.
“I’m afraid, young man,” Furan said, raising the pistol, “that you’ve seriously overestimated the strength of your negotiating position.”
She pulled the trigger and the gun bucked in her hand just once. Tom gasped, his eyes wide with shock, as the bullet struck him in the center of his chest. His grip on Nigel went slack as his knees buckled and he collapsed to the ground. Nigel clawed at the air frantically as he tipped backward and fell over the balcony wall.
“No,” Laura whispered as she saw Tom topple over and Nigel begin to fall. Nigel’s arms flailed as he fell, only a thin strangled scream escaping his lips. Ten yards below him there was the sound of an explosive release of pneumatic pressure and a catch net shot out from the wall of the pit, dir
ectly beneath him. Nigel hit the net and lay there gasping for breath, his face a mask of fear and shock. Penny ran toward where Tom was lying on the ground, but a guard grabbed her and roughly shoved her back against the wall where she stood sobbing, tears rolling down her face as she watched another pair of guards grab her best friend’s arms and drag his lifeless body away.
“Clear the area,” Furan said, handing the pistol back to the guard. “I believe that this particular lesson is complete.”
The Leviathan slowly descended into H.I.V.E.’s crater landing bay, the giant aircraft filling the entire area as it settled with a thud on to its landing gear. The loading ramp at the rear of the dropship lowered with a whirring sound and Darkdoom, Otto, and Raven made their way down the ramp with Nathaniel following behind.
“Impressive,” Nathaniel said, looking up at the giant hangar doors that were sliding shut far above them, concealing the hangar hidden within the volcano that was home to H.I.V.E.
“Welcome back,” Colonel Francisco, head of H.I.V.E.’s tactical training department, said as he walked toward them. “Doctor Nero sends his apologies for not being here in person to welcome you, but he’s in the middle of briefing the G.L.O.V.E. ruling council on the latest developments. Diabolus, he asked if you would join him in the conference room? The meeting is already in progress.”
Darkdoom gave a quick nod and walked briskly toward the exit.
“Nero will meet the rest of you in his office as soon as the briefing is complete. Raven, would you be good enough to escort our guest there?”
“Of course, this way please.” Raven gestured for Nathaniel to follow her. “You too, Otto.”
The three of them walked toward the hangar exit as Francisco supervised the ground crews refueling and rearming the Leviathan.
“Mind if we stop by block seven on the way?” Otto asked as the three of them walked up the stairs.
“Maybe later,” Raven said. “You’ll have to ask Nero.”
They walked through the empty corridors of the school, seeing no one but the familiar security guards in their distinctive orange jumpsuits, patroling the hallways for stray students while lessons were in progress. Otto couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different about the place. The guards eyed them with suspicion as they passed, despite Raven’s presence. There was a subtle tension in the air, almost as if H.I.V.E. was on a war footing, bracing itself for the next attack. He supposed that was not entirely surprising under the circumstances. The attack on the Hunt had been a massive hammer blow to the school after all, and the people who were responsible were still very much a threat.