“I’ll make sure the Leviathan is ready for launch,” Darkdoom said, as the door hissed shut behind Otto. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Nero said. “It’s strange to see him again after all these years. I know that H.I.V.E. is the safest place for him now, but I’d forgotten just how exasperating he can be.”
“He’s stubborn as a mule,” Darkdoom said, smiling. “Rather like someone else I know. You two have more in common than you realize. Though I think Natalya may be slightly annoyed with me that I didn’t tell her the whole truth about who Nathaniel was.”
“I’ll tell her that I asked you not to,” Nero said. “I’m sure that she’ll understand the situation in Venice was quite complicated enough without the details of my family tree complicating it still further. I was sorry to hear about the Megalodon’s crew, Diabolus. I know how much your people mean to you.”
“We’ve all suffered losses, Max,” Darkdoom replied. “The real tragedy would be if the people responsible weren’t held to account. For now we need to concentrate on getting your students back and making Furan pay for what she’s done.”
“Oh, she’s going to pay, Diabolus,” Nero said, a look in his eye that Darkdoom had only seen on a couple of occasions before. “That much I can promise you.”
Otto zipped up the front of his uniform and looked at his reflection in the mirror. It had been months since he’d worn it and he was surprised at how comfortable and familiar it felt. It seemed strange to think now that when he’d first arrived at H.I.V.E. all he’d wanted to do was to find a way to escape. Now it felt like home and it was good to be back. He opened the door of the cubicle and walked out into the changing room. There were a small group of Henchmen students getting changed after one of their physical training sessions and Otto immediately recognized two familiar, but unwelcome faces.
“I thought we’d finally seen the last of you, Malpense,” the hulking shaven-headed Henchman student called Block said with a nasty sneer. The last time Otto had seen Block, the thug had tried to kill him and very nearly succeeded. The other Henchman students turned to face Otto, including Block’s half-witted accomplice Tackle.
“Well, I’m back,” Otto said with a smile. “Awww, did you and Tweedle-dummer miss me? That’s sweet really.”
Block advanced toward Otto, his hands balling into fists, but Tackle grabbed him by the shoulder and held him back.
“Remember what Nero said,” Tackle whispered. “We touch ’im or any of his friends, we’re dead.”
Otto turned to leave. He didn’t have time to deal with these two idiots right now.
“Count yourself lucky, Malpense,” Block snarled. “Nero won’t always be around to watch your back, you know.”
Otto stopped, his hand on the door handle and then he turned back toward Block. The look on his face alone was enough to send a shiver down a couple of the other Henchman students’ spines. They’d heard the rumors about Otto. He could do weird things or at least that’s what they’d heard. Otto walked straight up to Block and jabbed his finger into the hulking brute’s chest.
“No, you drooling moron, count yourself lucky,” Otto snapped, something cold and hard in his voice. The lights in the room flickered for a moment. “Because I never told Nero what you and this idiot actually tried to do. He doesn’t know that you were going to kill me and Laura. I told him you were ‘unwitting accomplices’ of Harrington and that you weren’t really to blame. Here’s the thing though. I haven’t forgotten what you did or what you were going to do and if I ever think for one second that you’re going to lay a finger on me or any of my friends ever again, you’re both dead.”
“Yeah? What you gonna do, Malpense?” Block said, still sneering. “You gonna go running to Nero?”
“No,” Otto replied, his voice like ice. “I’m going to reach inside that thick skull of yours and switch you off. I’m not even really sure if I could do it. It might just leave you brain dead. It might leave you with just enough consciousness to feel each spoonful of baby food that the nurse shoves into your stupid fat face. I don’t know and I don’t care. You shouldn’t be afraid of Nero, you should be afraid of me.”
Block opened his mouth, but nothing came out. A moment later, he closed it again and swallowed nervously. Otto stared at him for a second and then turned and walked out of the room.
“Do you really fink he could do that?” Tackle whispered nervously as Otto left.
“I dunno,” Block said, shaking his head and silently praying to himself that he’d never find out.
“Hey, what you guys up to?” Shelby said cheerily as she flopped down onto the couch next to Wing, who was frowning at the piece of paper on the table in front of him. On the paper was a phenomenally complicated diagram that looked like a set of intricately nested flowcharts.
“I am being trying to explain to Wing how G.L.O.V.E. is using the bankers’ bonuses as a way of paying operatives,” Franz said. “It is being quite simple really, but I am not being sure if I am making it clear enough.”
“Your explanation has been quite clear, thank you, Franz,” Wing said, still frowning. “I just think that financial corruption on this scale may be a little more than I can get my head around.”
“Poor old ninja boy,” Shelby said, smiling. “Knows twenty-seven ways to take you down with just his pinky, but can’t actually count to twenty-seven.”
“So this makes perfect sense to you, I suppose,” Wing said, handing the sheet to Shelby.
“Yeah, it’s easy,” Shelby said, pointing out one area of the diagram. “See this piece here is just gobbledegook.” Her finger moved to another area. “Whereas this section is premium-grade incomprehensible gibberish and this section,” her finger moved again, “appears to be mostly in Greek.”
“Am I to take it that you have not studied for the test tomorrow at all then?” Wing asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Nope,” Shelby said with a grin. “There’s going to be some good old-fashioned last-minute cramming later though. Either that or I’m going to just sit near my best bud Franz here and he’s going to write out all the answers in nice, b-i-i-i-i-g, easily legible letters. Right, bud?”
“This is being what I normally do,’ Franz said with a sigh, “isn’t it?’
“You could always try studying for a change,” Wing said, taking the incomprehensible diagram back from Shelby.
“Yeah, but where’s the fun in . . . oh my God!” Shelby’s eyes widened in shock and a huge grin appeared on her face as she spotted something over Wing’s shoulder. She instantly leaped to her feet and began sprinting across the atrium. Wing turned and looked behind him, a look of bewildered surprise on his face, trying to see just what had provoked her reaction. Standing in the entrance of accommodation block seven was a boy with snow-white hair.
“Otto!” Wing yelled and he too jumped up, running toward his friend. Otto braced himself as Shelby hit him at high speed, almost knocking him clean off his feet, hugging him and squealing at a pitch that was normally only audible to dogs.
“OhmyGod, OhmyGod, OhmyGod,” Shelby said after a second, talking incredibly quickly. “What are you doing here?” She grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him up and down with tears in her eyes, as if checking that he was actually real. She stepped back as Wing reached his friend and wrappped him in a back-breaking bear hug, lifting him off the ground and laughing.
“Whoa there, big guy,” Otto said, grinning. “I’ve only got the one spine, you know.”
“Otto, it is so good to be seeing you,” Franz said, jogging up to the others as Wing put his friend back down on the ground.
“Where have you been? What have you been doing? When did you get back? Aren’t you expelled? Are you unexpelled?” Shelby asked, apparently unconcerned with breathing.
“My friend,” Wing said, smiling from ear to ear, “it is so good to see you.”
“You too, Wing, you too,” Otto said, suddenly feeling as if a massive weight had somehow been lifted fr
om his shoulders.
“Are you back for good?” Shelby asked, oblivious to the crowd of students in the atrium who were all suddenly looking in their direction.
“I’m back for now,” Otto said, his expression suddenly becoming more serious. “I’m afraid there’s good news and there’s bad news. Come on, let’s sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.”
The four of them walked back to the sofa and sat down. Otto explained exactly where he had been for the past few months and exactly what it was that he’d been doing. He explained how they now had an idea where Laura and the rest of the captured Alpha students were, but that there was still a lot that needed to be done before they might be in a position to rescue them.
“So that’s why H.I.V.E.mind has been offline all this time,” Shelby said as Otto finished. “You had big blue rattling around inside your noggin again the whole time.”
“Well, he’s not there right now,” Otto said, tapping the side of his head. “He’s back in the school datacore, but yeah, he’s been along for the ride the whole time.”
“So how long before we can mount a rescue operation?” Wing asked.
“Hopefully not long,” Otto said, smiling at his friend’s assumption that they would all be going to find their friends. “I need to spend some time with H.I.V.E.mind and see if we can crack the encryption on the Disciple beacon. If we can, we can begin tactical planning immediately. If we can’t, well, frankly, we’re back to square one.”
“Do you think it’ll work?” Shelby asked. “You think you’re going to be able to work your mojo on this Disciple gizmo?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Otto said. “We’ll see. It depends on whether or not my plan for cracking the encryption is sound. The theory’s good, but theory’s one thing, practice is another.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Franz asked.
“Not right now, but if we do find out where the Glasshouse is I want you with me when we go in. Not just because you’re my friends, but because you also just happen to be the best damn infiltration team I know.”
“Just try and stop us,” Shelby said. “I’ve been getting cabin fever without you around to get us into trouble.”
“Awww, never knew you cared, Shel,” Otto said with a wink.
“You think Nero will allow us to come with you?” Wing asked with a slight frown. They all knew that Nero was notoriously reluctant to deliberately place his students in harm’s way.
“Yeah, I do,” Otto replied.
“And why is that?” Wing asked.
“Because I have absolutely no intention of giving him any say in the matter.”
chapter eight
“It’s not your fault,” Nigel whispered as he and Laura walked down the featureless gray concrete corridor that led to the Glasshouse’s mess hall. In the hours since Tom’s death Laura had run the gamut of emotions from grief to rage, but now she just felt numb.
“It doesn’t matter whose fault it is, Nigel,” Laura said, shaking her head. “Tom’s dead, nothing’s going to change that.”
Penny walked toward them from the opposite direction, her face ashen.
“Penny,” Nigel said as she approached. “I’m so sorry, we had no idea that—”
“Save it, Nigel,” Penny snapped, staring at him with bloodshot eyes. “Just stay away from me, okay?”
“Nigel’s not to blame,” Laura said. “I—”
“I don’t care,” Penny snapped. “Do you understand? I . . . don’t . . . care! You’re all to blame, you, Furan, Nero, this whole insane world that we were both dragged into. I never asked to be part of this, neither of us did, and now it’s cost the life of my best friend and I’m still stuck in this godforsaken hell hole. Well, I hope it was all worth it and that your stupid little plan works, but you know what? I don’t care, because none of it’s going to bring Tom back, is it? Nothing is. So just stay the hell away from me.”
Penny pushed past Laura and walked away, her shoulders shaking as she broke down sobbing again.
“Come on,” Nigel said, putting a hand on Laura’s arm. “There’s nothing you could say that would make her feel any better right now.”
“You don’t get it, do you, Nigel?” Laura said, glaring at him. “She’s right. We’re all better off on our own—that’s the only way we’re going to survive this place.” She pushed his hand off her arm and walked away. Deep inside her, she felt something fragile finally break. Something new was growing to replace that last vestige of hope that she had been protecting for all this time, something, hard, sharp and cold.
At the same instant, on the other side of the Glasshouse, a camera drone sent a status report to the facility’s central mainframe. The viral payload within that data packet was unleashed, spreading through the network like an invisible wildfire, as it searched relentlessly for just one thing—a route to the world outside.
Otto sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of H.I.V.E.mind’s central datacore and took a long deep breath. He wasn’t even sure if what he was about to attempt was possible, but he had to try regardless. In all likelihood it was the only chance they had of ever finding the Glasshouse and rescuing their friends. Professor Pike stood off to one side watching a monitor that displayed numerous separate windows, all filled with diagnostic readouts. Wing, Shelby, and Franz had wanted to be there, but Otto had asked them not to come. He’d told them that he didn’t want any distractions, but the truth was he had no idea what effect what he was about to try might have on him and he didn’t want them to be there if something went wrong.
Otto picked up the headband that lay on the floor in front of him, cables trailing away from it that fed directly into the giant central column that was H.I.V.E.’s central computing hub. He placed the device on his head and adjusted it till it was comfortable. Then he picked up the Disciple tracking device, cradling it in his lap.
“Are you ready, Otto?” H.I.V.E.mind asked, his blue wireframe head hovering above the pedestal in front of the core.
“No, not really, but let’s try this anyway,” Otto said with a lopsided smile.
“As you wish,” H.I.V.E.mind replied with a nod.
Otto closed his eyes and the fiber-optic cables linking him to the core began to pulse with light. He could have used his abilities to connect with the core, but that would have taken extra effort and he wanted to save his strength for the real test to come. A direct connection was far more efficient.
“Activating ghost protocols,” H.I.V.E.mind said calmly, “opening all sockets, engaging datastreams in five, four, three, two, one . . . activate.”
Otto gasped, his head thrown back and eyes wide. For a moment he felt as if his whole consciousness was compressed down to an infinitely dense point and then it exploded, racing across the internet in all directions, traveling at the speed of light and he was lost. There was no Otto anymore, just a vast amorphous cloud with only the vaguest sense of self-awareness, like a fleeting memory. This was something close to omniscience, his mind stretched impossibly thin and yet bombarded from all directions with an endless torrent of limitless information.
Otto, a voice called from nowhere, listen to me. I have been here, I have felt this, you must focus or you will be lost.
The entity that had once been called Otto felt a nagging sensation, like a tiny insect bite. The distraction was annoying at first, but then it began to coalesce into something more, an idea, a concept of self. Somewhere deep within the cloud a tiny voice cried out, struggling to make itself heard over the cacophony of endless data.
“Help me,” Otto whispered into the void.
Back in H.I.V.E.’s datacore Professor Pike watched Otto’s biometrics with a deepening frown. His heart rate was dangerously high and his brain activity was literally off the scale, the software reporting it as an error, incapable of understanding the data it was receiving. Otto had not moved; his head was still thrown backward, his blank eyes staring unblinking at the ceiling far above. The Professor glanced t
oward Dr. Nero whose hand was hovering over the kill-switch that would instantly sever the connection between Otto and the core.
“Not yet,” the Professor said, shaking his head, “give him a few more seconds.”
Elsewhere, Otto’s consciousness spread thinner and thinner and within the tiny shred of awareness that he retained he experienced an instant of pure animal fear as he felt himself fading away.
Your name is Otto Malpense, a voice said calmly. You are currently sitting in the datacore of the Higher Institute of Villainous Education. You have to listen to me. My name is H.I.V.E.mind, I am an artificial intelligence, I am your guide, but more than that, I am your friend.
Ever so slowly, somewhere within the cloud of data, a swirling mass began to form, slowly taking shape, until hovering in the darkness was a humanoid shape made of golden light surrounded by countless millions of glowing streams that flowed away from it and into the blackness.
“My God,” Otto said as the glowing blue figure of H.I.V.E.mind appeared in the void in front of him, “the power.”
Otto, H.I.V.E.mind said, you must focus. Remember why we are here.
“But I could fix everything,” Otto said. “A new start. A new world—everyone sharing in this under my guidance.”
I have only ever heard one entity speak like that before Otto, H.I.V.E.mind said.
“Overlord,” Otto whispered.
Yes. You must not give in to the temptation to rule. You must harness that power and direct it to break the encryption on the Disciple device. That is all.
Otto nodded. H.I.V.E.mind was right; it would be all too easy to give in to the near limitless power that he had at his fingertips at that moment, but that was not why he was here. He focused on the device resting in his hands back in the datacore and suddenly a bright red glowing filament appeared, hanging in the air in front of him. He willed his virtual form to follow the filament, gradually accelerating until he was flying along it at impossible speed. Ahead of him was a solid red wall that the filament passed straight through. Otto slowed as he approached the wall and drew upon the power that was now available to him.