“I had reached the same conclusion,” H.I.V.E.mind replied with a nod, “and so I made some discreet inquiries of my brother and sister machines at those agencies.”
“I wasn’t aware that governmental supercomputers had genders,” Otto said.
“Not so much genders as personalities,” H.I.V.E.mind replied. “You will have to forgive me, Otto, spending so much time in contact with the chaos of a human mind has left me with some of your species’ traits. For example, the tendency to anthropomorphize inanimate objects. The main secure server at the CIA, for example, is a most impressive female supercomputer named Majel.”
“Is she cute?” Otto asked, with a grin.
“Her data arrays are most impressive,” H.I.V.E.mind replied and Otto could have sworn that he saw a hint of a smile on the AI’s face.
“So what did she tell you?” Otto asked.
“My initial enquiries had to be quite discreet as I negotiated her security and handshake protocols,” H.I.V.E.mind replied.
“Well, it was only a first date,” Otto said, raising an eyebrow.
“I did, however, find several reports on the higher, less secure layers of the records that made passing reference to Artemis Section. It would appear that they are a subdivision of the CIA that specializes in tracking and acquiring human targets.”
“Manhunters,” Otto said.
“Yes,” H.I.V.E.mind said, “though it was impossible to learn any more about them than that. There was no information on who their operatives might be or why they should have taken such a close personal interest in you particularly. I hope that after our return from tonight’s mission I may be able to renegotiate higher-level security protocols with the CIA machine and gain access to her more secure datalayers. Ultimately I may even be able to negotiate discreet access to a secure socket.”
“You old dog,” Otto said with a grin.
“Excuse me,” H.I.V.E.mind said, tipping his head to one side in a way that Otto knew meant he had been slightly confused by some quirk of human behavior.
“Never mind,” Otto said. “Let’s get going.” He stepped up to the central processing column and placed his hand on its cool surface before closing his eyes.
“Initiating off-site storage protocols,” H.I.V.E.mind said. A moment later Otto felt the unique sensation of H.I.V.E.mind’s code entering the organic processor inside his head. It was something that he still wasn’t entirely used to, even after all the time that H.I.V.E.mind had spent inside his head during their hunt for Furan and the rest of the Disciples. Historically, of course, hearing voices in one’s head had been a sure sign of insanity, Otto thought to himself. Perhaps, given what they were about to try to do, that was still true.
Transfer complete, H.I.V.E.mind said inside Otto’s head. Are you aware that the processors of the Overlord device are functioning at significantly enhanced speeds in comparison to historical levels?
“Yeah,” Otto said with a slight frown, “I had noticed that. It’s almost like that stunt when we cracked the Disciple encryption triggered something. I feel . . . sort of . . . well, overclocked, I suppose.”
Otto hadn’t said anything to anyone else since they were all understandably wary of the device that had been implanted in him by one of their greatest enemies. Overlord was gone, Otto was certain of that, but he still didn’t truly understand how the tiny supercomputer really worked and that made him slightly nervous.
“Do me a favor,” Otto said. “Keep an eye on it and tell me if it does anything unusual.”
Of course, H.I.V.E.mind replied, I will keep a watch for any sign of malicious code executing.
As Otto walked back across the gangway to the exit, he found himself wondering exactly what it was that this mysterious division of the CIA called Artemis wanted from him. He had enough to worry about as it was without being tracked and almost abducted by the Americans. He knew, of course, that the events surrounding Overlord’s destruction would have raised his profile with their intelligence agencies. It wasn’t every day, after all, that they allowed someone to use one of their own nuclear weapons on their home soil. It might have been entirely necessary at the time, but it had obviously set the bloodhounds on his trail, which was the last thing he needed at the moment. Otto always hated having more questions than answers, but for the moment, that was exactly what he had.
Laura woke up with a start, her heart racing and her breathing heavy. She swung her legs over the side of her bed and sighed, raising her hands to her head and rubbing her temples. She had been dreaming about Tom and the look of shock on his face as Anastasia Furan had gunned him down. She suddenly realized that it was identical to his expression when he had realized for the first time that she had betrayed him and the rest of their friends to the Disciples. She had tried to tell herself that it wasn’t her fault, that none of them could have predicted the swift brutality with which Furan would respond, but the truth was that the plan had been hers and if she had not suggested it in the first place, Tom would still be alive. All that they could now hope was that his sacrifice had not been for nothing. She had thrown her message in a bottle out into the digital sea and they just had to pray that somebody would find it. The cold white light in the middle of the ceiling of her cell suddenly lit up and Laura squinted against the unexpected brightness. A moment later the door swung open and the doorway was filled by the bulky form of one of the Glasshouse’s security guards.
“On your feet, get dressed,” the man said, gesturing to the clothes that sat on the concrete shelf across the room. “Furan wants to see you.”
Laura felt a cold knot tighten in her gut as she pulled on the gray camouflage combat pants and black boots that made up the uniform that she and all the other trainees wore. There was only one reason that she could think of for Furan to summon her in the middle of the night like this.
“Okay, get moving,” the guard said, as Laura finished lacing up her boots. She walked out of her cell onto the empty landing outside and the guard shoved her in the back, forcing her toward the stairs that led up to the central control spire. The facility was silent, but for the soft hum of the camera drones floating around the central area and the incessant hum of the ventilation system. She walked up the stairs, her mind racing. She knew full well what the punishment would be if Furan suspected that she had tried to smuggle a message out of the facility. The guard reached a pair of glass doors and waited as a walkway extended toward them from the central spire, locking into place with a soft thud as the doors opened. Laura followed him, across the walkway and up a staircase that led to another pair of doors with a sign saying “Central Command” above them. He punched a code into the keypad next to the door and then gestured with his weapon for her to head inside as they hissed open. He did not follow her.
“Good evening, Miss Brand,” Anastasia Furan said, turning to face her as she entered the room. “I thought it was time you and I had a little chat.” Heinrich stood next to her with an expression on his face that chilled Laura’s blood.
“You would be surprised how often the staff here ask me why I have kept the H.I.V.E. students we captured alive,” Furan said, walking toward her, a nasty smile on her ravaged face. “The truth is that sometimes I wonder that myself. Certainly, some of you have abilities that may prove useful to us in the future, but the majority are weak, poorly trained, and undisciplined. The fact of the matter is that, for now at least, you are useful to me. Some would assume that it is because I believe that Nero and those other fools in G.L.O.V.E. wouldn’t risk a direct assault against me while I hold so many of his precious students hostage. That is, of course, nonsense. I know Nero all too well. There is only one reason that he would not have attempted to rescue his students and that is that he has no idea where you are. No, the real reason I let you and your friends live is that it gives me enormous pleasure to think of the torment that it causes him. Knowing that his students are in my hands and that he has no control over what I do to them is doubtless more than he can bear. The
only reason that you, or any of the rest of his brats, still draw breath is because I know it causes him pain.”
She walked up to Laura and took her chin in her hand. Laura could feel the cold metal of the cybernetic machinery that had restored mobility to Furan’s hand, her grip painfully strong.
“You see, I am something of an expert on pain, Miss Brand,” Furan hissed at her. “I know how to cause it, I know how to direct it, and I know how to use it. The only reason I didn’t execute you when you first arrived here was because the torment you felt, given all that you had done, was so exquisite that it simply had to be savored. I realize now that perhaps that was an overindulgence. It would have been simpler to just put a bullet in the back of your head and be done with it. I know all about what you did, how you hacked into one of the camera drones. What I don’t know is why. So I’m going to give you a simple choice: tell me now what you did and I will grant you a quick clean death; refuse to tell me and I will make you wish that you had simply never been born. I trust I make myself perfectly clear.”
Laura’s mind raced. She had hidden the message well, it was coded in such a way that as soon as it was transmitted from one source to another it erased itself. The fact that Furan and her technicians weren’t able to tell that there had been a message transmitted at all told her that they knew no more than that she had simply accessed the drone. They had no idea what she’d done with it. That could only mean one thing: the message was no longer inside the Glasshouse. All of which meant she couldn’t allow Furan to find out what the message was and that it might enable someone to track it back to its point of origin. If she did, she’d evacuate the facility and the last chance that anyone might have to find them would be lost. She had to play for time, no matter the cost.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Laura said, not having to fake the fear in her voice.
“The hard way it is then,” Furan said. “If you won’t give the information willingly I will simply take it from you.”
She gestured to one of the guards on the far side of the room and he opened the door behind him.
“I’d like you to meet someone, Miss Brand,” Furan said. “We call it the prototype, but you know it by another name. It is going to make you tell me everything you know, whether you like it or not.”
A figure walked into the room through the open door and Laura gasped.
“Oh God no,” Laura whispered, her eyes wide with shock, “that’s impossible.”
chapter eleven
“Five minutes to drop point,” the Leviathan crew member shouted as Otto, Wing, Shelby, Franz, and Raven all checked each other’s gear one last time.
“Okay,” Raven said with a nod, “you all know what we have to do. No unnecessary risks. If Furan realizes what’s happening and hits the kill-switch, all of this will have been for nothing. Slow, careful, quiet. Any questions?”
“What should we do with Furan?” Wing asked. “Capture or termination?”
“Leave that to me,” Raven said. “We have plans for her.”
Otto saw the expression on her face and decided at that moment that he never wanted to be someone that Raven had “plans for.”
The four of them pulled on their helmets with their featureless white faceplates as Raven walked over to where Nero and Darkdoom stood watching on the other side of the Leviathan’s cavernous cargo bay. Otto waited as the ISIS armor’s systems fired up one by one.
THERMOPTIC CAMOUFLAGE SYSTEM . . . ONLINE
VARIABLE GEOMETRY FORCEFIELD SYSTEM . . . ONLINE
MULTI-SPECTRAL TARGET ACQUISITION SYSTEM . . . ONLINE
GRAPPLER SYSTEM . . . ONLINE
ELECTROMAGNETIC ADHESION SYSTEM . . . ONLINE
“I suppose it is being too late now for one last trip to the bathroom?” Franz asked, swallowing nervously.
“All set?” Darkdoom asked Raven as she approached.
“Yes, good to go,” Raven replied. “Any final instructions?”
“No,” Nero said. “Just get as many of them out alive as you can, Natalya.”
“Don’t worry,” Raven replied, “we’ll get them out, all of them.” She placed a hand on Darkdoom’s shoulder and he gave her a quick smile. They all knew what Darkdoom had been through, knowing that his son was in the hands of a psychopath like Furan.
“Thank you, Natalya,” Darkdoom replied, “but we should also prepare for the possibility that some of the students may not have survived the past couple of months. We all know what Furan is capable of.”
“You’re still sure you want her taken alive?” Raven asked Nero.
“Assuming that is possible, yes,” Nero said with a nod, “but do not hesitate to terminate her if you have to. I won’t have any of our people put in any further danger, understood?”
“Yes,” Raven replied with a frown, “though I’m still not sure why you just don’t have me finish her and be done with it.”
“That would be too quick and easy, Natalya,” Nero said, shaking his head.
“It wouldn’t have to be—I’m actually quite good at slow and difficult,” Raven replied.
“Oh, I am aware of that, Natalya,” Nero said with a smile. “Trust me, I have something quite different in mind for Anastasia Furan, but you should rest assured that by the time I’m finished she will wish I had let you do things your way.”
Raven had seen many disturbing things in her life and very few of them had ever sent a chill running down her spine. The look on Nero’s face at that precise instant was one of those few. She gave Nero a quick nod and walked back over to the other side of the bay, where Otto and the others were preparing for the drop.
“Do you really think we’ll take Furan alive?” Darkdoom asked as they watched the assault team move toward the Leviathan’s giant cargo-bay doors.
“I doubt it,” Nero replied, “but if they do I am going to make sure she pays the full price for everything she has done. We should head up to the command center.”
The pair of them climbed up the stairs as the lights above the cargo-bay door changed from red to amber, indicating they were only thirty seconds from the drop zone. Otto and the others lined up facing the giant loading ramp and waited, the final seconds before the jump seeming to last an eternity. The Leviathan crew members on either side of the ramp clipped their safety lines onto the bulkhead.
“Ten seconds,” one of the crewmen barked, slapping his hand down on the large button that controlled the cargo-bay doors. The ramp began to lower and a sudden flurry of snow flew through the widening gap. Beyond the snow, which was illuminated with an eerie red light by the bay’s night drop lighting, there was only blackness. The crewman held up five fingers, then four, three . . . two . . . one. The light above the ramp turned green and the five members of the assault team ran down the loading ramp and threw themselves into the blackness.
Otto had almost forgotten how disorientating a nighttime drop could be. There was a moment of visceral animal panic as his senses failed him and he struggled to right himself, but then his training kicked in and he extended his arms and legs, allowing the drag of his spreadeagled body to bring him into a controlled free fall. He looked to his left and right, the head-up display in his helmet automatically highlighting the position of his squad mates around him as they plunged toward the ice sheet far below.
“Engage thermoptic camouflage,” Raven’s voice crackled in his ear. Otto gave his armor the verbal command and the tiny holographic generators that covered the surface of his suit fired up, rendering him practically invisible to the naked eye. The systems in his suit would allow him and his squad mates to see each other, but to every one else they would be little more than ghosts. Otto watched the altimeter in his helmet as it whirred down toward zero and he heard the familiar high-pitched whine of the variable geometry forcefield generators charging. This was the bit he really hated. He had once asked Professor Pike what he should do if the forcefield landing system didn’t work. The Professor’s advice, to close his eyes an
d focus on a nice memory, had been less than reassuring. The soft voice of the suit’s on-board systems began to verbally update him.
“Five hundred yards.”
“Four hundred yards.”
“Three hundred yards.”
“Two hundred yards.”
“One hundred yards.”
“Fifty yards.”
“Three . . . two . . . one . . . firing.”
Otto couldn’t help but close his eyes as he saw the flat white expanse below rushing up to meet him and then a split second later the forcefield engaged and it felt like he was hitting a giant invisible air bag. He winced at the deceleration g-force, calculated as it was to bring an object of his mass from terminal velocity to a standstill in the minimum safe amount of time. There was, unfortunately, a big difference between “safe” and “comfortable.” He brought his feet beneath him, feeling for a moment like he was treading water and then his boots hit the ice. He looked around him, taking in his surroundings, and was relieved to see that the rest of the team appeared to have landed safely.
“Sound off,” Raven said. One by one each of them called out as they moved toward her location. Otto’s HUD told him that they were only five hundred yards from their target. There was, as expected, no sign yet that anyone had noticed their arrival.
“Okay,” Raven said, releasing the Sandman from the strapping on her chest plate, “let’s get moving.”
They followed her as she led them across the ice toward their target and Otto was relieved when his suit began to highlight metallic poles planted in the snow ahead of them. This matched Nathaniel’s description of the outer layer of the Glasshouse’s security: standard infrared motion detectors.
“Looks like we’re on the right track,” Shelby said.
“Which at least means we didn’t throw ourselves out of a perfectly good aircraft for nothing,” Otto replied.
They had been 90 percent certain of the location of Furan’s facility based on the heat signature they had seen earlier, but this was clear physical evidence that there was something here, hidden beneath the ice. They didn’t need to worry about this outer layer of defense; their suits’ camouflage systems masked their thermal signature completely, making them invisible to the detectors. The real challenge still lay ahead. They walked a short distance further and Raven held up a single closed fist, dropping to one knee. She brought her rifle up and peered through its sights.