Wing ran for the still-lowered loading ramp and leapt up to grab the edge. He caught the lip of the ramp as the Shroud slowly turned to face the Phalanx team that were now quickly making their way from cover to cover across the cavern. Otto ran towards the ramp too – their time was up. Wing let go of the edge of the loading ramp with one hand and reached down towards Otto.
‘Jump!’ Wing shouted, stretching out his hand. Otto leapt into the air, reaching for Wing’s hand and feeling it close on his wrist. ‘Go!’ Wing yelled into the interior of the Shroud and it began to rise more quickly into the air. Otto cursed himself for looking down as the landing pad dropped away beneath them and they climbed quickly towards the opening above. Wing grunted; his grip on the landing ramp was slipping. He was unusually strong but there was no way that he’d be able to support both his own weight and Otto’s with just one hand for very much longer. Suddenly two familiar faces appeared at the edge of the ramp.
‘Need a hand?’ Shelby bellowed over the roar of the Shroud’s engines. Laura tossed a rope down to Otto, who caught it with his free hand, wrapping it tightly around his wrist. They were at least thirty metres above the pad now: one slip and it would all be over. Otto let go of Wing’s hand and swung free on the end of the rope. Wing lifted his exhausted arm and started to haul himself up on to the ramp, Shelby helping to pull him back inside.
‘Hold on, Otto!’ Laura shouted and disappeared from view back inside the cabin.
Moments later Otto felt a tug on the line he was dangling from as an electric winch started to pull him slowly back up towards the landing ramp and safety. Suddenly the Shroud lurched sickeningly to one side, the white trail of a surface-to-air missile rocketing past, just inches from the ship’s wing. The missile struck the crater wall nearby, exploding in a ball of fire that sent debris tumbling down towards the landing pad below and bouncing off the Shroud’s metal skin. Otto swung out wildly, the rope cutting deep into his wrist, and slammed hard into the rock wall of the cavern, all of the wind knocked from him instantly. He struggled to breathe; it felt like he’d cracked a couple of ribs in the impact and the black veil of unconsciousness began to play at the fringes of his field of vision. His grip on the rope began to fade.
Inside the Shroud there was chaos: Wing, Laura and Shelby were tossed to one side of the cabin like toys as Raven manoeuvred wildly to avoid the missile and the flaming debris of its nearby impact. Wing struggled back to his feet as the Shroud righted itself and staggered over to the winch. He hit the controls and once again the machine began to haul Otto up towards them. Wing felt a wave of frustration as Otto moved closer and closer; the winch was making an agonisingly slow job of reeling his friend in. He urgently scanned the smoke-filled hangar deck below for any sign of another missile racing up to smash them from the air. Otto was just a few feet from the ramp now and Wing lay flat, stretching his hand out, willing Otto to reach out and grab it.
‘Otto!’ Wing shouted. ‘You have to grab hold of me!’
Otto looked up at Wing’s outstretched hand, letting go of the rope with his one free hand and reaching up. His arm felt very heavy and Wing suddenly seemed to be a very long way away, even though Otto knew logically that it was only a matter of inches. He willed his hand to reach just that short distance before he passed out. He felt Wing’s hand on his wrist and then nothing.
Wing hauled Otto’s unconscious body on to the loading ramp.
‘I have him!’ he yelled up towards the cockpit. ‘GO! Now!’
Raven did not wait to be told twice. The Shroud reared up, its nose pointing at the crack of blue that shone between the partially opened bay doors. The gap now looked awfully narrow. She forced the doubt from her mind, annoyed at herself, and lined the Shroud up before punching the afterburner controls. The engines roared and the Shroud shot through the gap like a bullet, one wing scraping its very tip against the bay doors with a worrying crunch. Suddenly they were free, the Shroud rocketing almost vertically out of the volcano that disguised H.I.V.E.’s location and screaming into the deep blue sky. Raven hit the controls for the stealth systems and the Shroud vanished as if it had never been there at all.
Phalanx One had experienced all manner of horrors in his career as part of Number One’s protective detail, but the look on the Contessa’s face at that precise moment was enough to make the blood run cold in his veins.
‘Who fired that missile?’ she barked.
‘It was me,’ one of the Phalanx team members said nervously, gesturing at the discarded launch tube that lay among the debris nearby.
‘I gave explicit instructions that only non-lethal weaponry was to be used,’ she said coldly, advancing on the nervous-looking man.
‘I thought it might force them down,’ the operative responded weakly, fear in his voice now.
‘Stop talking,’ the Contessa said, her voice suddenly filled with what sounded like hundreds of barely audible whispers. The unfortunate operative opened his mouth as if to speak but found he could say nothing, his free will entirely subverted by the Contessa’s sinister voice of command.
‘Actually,’ the Contessa said with an evil smile, ‘on second thoughts, why don’t you just stop breathing?’ A look of horror spread across the man’s face as his throat constricted. He made a horrible gurgling noise and collapsed to the ground with a strangled gasp.
‘Please, Contessa,’ Phalanx One said quietly, ‘I shall see that this man is suitably disciplined. There is no need for this.’
The Contessa shot a withering glance at him.
‘I do not tolerate incompetence,’ she said firmly. ‘If he had destroyed that aircraft things would have gone . . . badly . . . for all of us. Do you understand?’
‘Yes, Contessa, but allow me to take care of this.’
‘Very well,’ the Contessa replied. She looked down at the twitching man on the ground. ‘Breathe,’ she said quietly and the man coughed explosively before drawing in huge lungfuls of the air that he had up until a few moments ago taken for granted.
‘Contessa!’ another Phalanx operative shouted as he ran across the launch area towards her with a terrified-looking technician in tow.
‘Yes?’ the Contessa said as the men came to stand in front of her.
‘Tell her what you just told me,’ the Phalanx operative said quickly.
‘Well, I was just explaining that we’d better get the other Shrouds airborne quickly,’ the technician said, looking like he might pass out from fear at any moment.
‘Why?’ the Contessa asked sharply. ‘You know as well as I do that we have no chance of pursuing them.’ Finding Raven’s Shroud with its stealth field engaged would be like looking for an invisible needle in a haystack.
‘It’s not for chasing them,’ the technician replied, ‘it’s for search and rescue.’
‘What do you mean?’ the Contessa growled; she was getting increasingly impatient.
‘Raven didn’t check the log,’ the technician replied. ‘That Shroud she took was in turn around; I hadn’t started the fuelling cycle. They’ve only got about fifteen minutes flight time with the fuel they have on board. They’re going to have to either come back here or ditch in the ocean.’
A smile suddenly spread across the Contessa’s face.
‘Have the remaining Shrouds launched,’ she instructed. ‘Find them.’
This was not over yet, she thought to herself, not by a long shot.
When Otto came round his body was seized with agony. The right-hand side of his chest felt as if it was on fire, every breath both difficult and painful.
‘How are you feeling?’ Laura asked, her eyes filled with concern.
‘Like someone who was swung into a rock face while dangling out the back of a top-secret stealth dropship,’ Otto said with a chuckle that he immediately regretted as it sent spasms of pain through his side. ‘Is everyone else OK?’
‘Yeah,’ Laura replied, ‘if a little confused about what the hell is going on. Did she tell you anything before she
woke the rest of us up?’ Laura nodded her head towards the ladder leading up to the cockpit.
‘I’m afraid not. You know as much as I do at the moment, which is essentially nothing.’
Wing climbed down the ladder from the cockpit, smiling as he saw Otto sitting up and talking to Laura. Shelby was right behind him.
‘How’s the patient, Doctor Brand?’ Shelby said as she sat down on the other side of Otto.
‘He’s OK,’ Laura said with a smile, ‘but I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t have a couple of cracked ribs, and he’s going to be even sorer in the morning.’
‘How many times I got to tell you, English?’ Shelby grinned. ‘You leave the action sequences to me or the big guy here. You’re the brains of the outfit.’
Otto chuckled again and immediately wished he hadn’t.
‘I am pleased that you are feeling better,’ Wing said quietly, ‘but I, for one, would like to know a little more than we are currently being told.’
‘Raven not giving anything away, then?’ Laura said softly.
‘No, she is being most guarded in her explanation of these events,’ Wing replied with a slight frown. ‘She did ask that Otto join her in the cockpit when he woke up. That is, if you feel you are able?’
‘Hey,’ Otto said, ‘I’m not a complete invalid.’ He stood up slowly and grabbed on to one of the nearby handrails. At first he felt a little shaky on his feet but he knew that was probably just the delayed effects of shock. His ribs still hurt like hell but he pushed the pain to a quiet corner of his head and tried very hard to ignore it.
‘Let me see if I can get anything else out of her,’ Otto whispered to the other three and walked carefully over to the ladder.
‘Yeah, good luck with that,’ Shelby said, sighing, and she lay back in her seat and closed her eyes.
The landing pad was bustling with frantic activity, technicians running back and forth prepping the three Shrouds that had been rolled out, as well as clearing the debris from Raven’s escape. The Contessa stood amid the chaos, watching the men scurrying around. Despite all of this activity there was still an area around her that was completely free of people. Few would dare to approach the Contessa at the best of times, let alone when she was in the kind of mood she was at the moment. Unfortunately for Phalanx One he had little choice in the matter. He was not a man who was used to feeling nervous but he was exceedingly glad that he only had good news to deliver.
‘Report!’ the Contessa snapped as he approached.
‘The remaining Shrouds will be airborne within five minutes,’ he said quickly. ‘I have verified the technician’s report myself. Raven has no more than ten minutes of flight time remaining, more if she deactivates the stealth systems – but that would make her easier to track.’
‘Good,’ the Contessa replied. ‘Remember that I want none of them harmed.’
‘Yes, ma’am, but if they are forced to ditch in the ocean their odds of survival drop dramatically.’
‘I am aware of that, Phalanx One, but Raven is an irritatingly capable individual; if anyone can keep them alive it’s her. All you have to do is find their life raft and pick them up. I trust that will not be too difficult for you.’
‘No, ma’am,’ Phalanx One replied, ‘I will not fail you.’
‘You are quite correct,’ the Contessa said slowly. ‘You will not.’
Otto climbed the last couple of rungs of the ladder up to the cockpit of the Shroud very carefully, holding one arm to his side against his injured ribs.
‘Nice to see you up and about,’ Raven said, glancing over her shoulder.
‘Yeah, I feel like a million dollars,’ Otto said with a groan as he slumped down into the co-pilot’s seat.
‘Sorry about the rough ride,’ Raven said, flipping a switch on the control panel in front of her.
‘I should hope so,’ Otto said, grinning. ‘Next time you have to avoid a surface-to-air missile can you try to do it gently?’
‘I’ll do my best.’
‘So, you going to tell me what this is all about?’ Otto asked, glancing out of the window at the ocean rushing past only twenty metres or so below them.
‘All in good time,’ Raven replied. ‘First we must get to our destination. Then everything will be explained.’
‘Or you could just tell me now,’ Otto said hopefully.
‘It’ll be a lot easier when we get there,’ Raven said firmly.
Otto knew better than to argue the toss with Raven and so he sat back in his seat and scanned the instrument panel.
‘Uh . . . Raven . . . I think we may have a problem,’ he said quietly.
‘Really?’
‘Um . . . yeah,’ Otto replied, pointing at the display in the centre of the instrument panel. Displayed on the panel was a flashing warning that read ‘WARNING! Three minutes flight time remaining.’
‘You worry too much,’ Raven said with a grin.
‘Under the circumstances I think I worry just the right amount,’ Otto replied, frantically scanning the horizon ahead of them for any sign of land. There was none.
Raven hit another button on the control panel and spoke into the microphone attached to her headset.
‘This is Raven to Megalodon, repeat, Raven to Megalodon, we are on final approach.’
Another voice crackled over the cockpit speakers.
‘We have you on scope, Raven. Breaching in ten . . . nine . . .’
Otto looked out of the cockpit ahead of them and noticed a disturbance on the surface of the ocean. A long black pole emerged out of the foaming water and into the air. Moments later the mammoth black cylinder of an enormous submarine broke the surface, sea water cascading from its dark flanks as it rose. Raven slowed the Shroud until it hovered just above the enormous vessel, and then she brought it in to land on the deck with a gentle bump. Men suddenly appeared from hatches dotted around the submarine’s hull and ran towards them.
‘You and the others get on board,’ Raven said quickly. ‘I have a couple of things to take care of.’
Otto didn’t bother arguing; he was too busy staring at the huge sub beneath them.
‘You sure know how to travel,’ Otto whispered.
‘Oh, she’s not mine, but I know that the owner is keen to meet you.’
Otto pushed himself up out of the co-pilot’s seat and made his way slowly back down to the passenger compartment.
‘Am I imagining things or did we just land?’ Laura said, sounding confused.
‘Um . . . yes . . . we did,’ Otto replied with a smile.
‘Where?’ Shelby was, getting up out of her seat.
‘Probably easiest just to show you,’ Otto replied, moving to the back of the compartment and hitting the controls to lower the loading ramp. The others came and stood alongside him as the ramp went down and the smell of the sea filled the cabin.
‘Woah,’ Shelby said, looking out along the black metal deck of the sub.
‘Indeed,’ Wing said softly. ‘Most impressive.’
Suddenly a man in a dark naval uniform appeared at the bottom of the ramp.
‘Miss Brand, Miss Trinity, Mr Fanchu and Mr Malpense, I presume,’ he said with a smile. ‘Welcome to the Megalodon. Please come aboard.’
He held out his hand to Laura and guided her down on to the deck. The ocean was calm, the vessel rolling only slightly in the swell. The others followed Laura and watched in fascination as technicians ran up the ramp and into the Shroud.
‘Raven will be with us shortly,’ the man in uniform said calmly. ‘In the meantime allow me to introduce myself. My name is Captain Sanders and this vessel is under my command.’
‘So this is your ship?’ Otto asked.
‘It’s my command but I’m not the owner. He’s below and he’s quite keen to meet you all, I must say,’ Sanders replied.
Before Otto could ask anything else, Raven came hurrying down the ramp behind them.
‘All set, Captain,’ she said quickly. ‘The flight record
er has been swapped and the autopilot’s set.’
‘Very good,’ Sanders said with a smile. ‘Time to go then, I think. Follow me.’
Sanders turned and set off at a brisk pace for the submarine’s conning tower. Raven and the others followed along behind as the technicians left the Shroud and closed the loading ramp. The Captain ushered them forwards as a hatch opened at the base of the tower.
‘One second,’ Raven said and pulled what looked like a small remote control from her belt. She pressed a button on the unit and the Shroud’s engines spun into life, lifting it from the deck and pushing it forwards over the ocean. Suddenly the Shroud’s nose tipped back, pointing almost vertically into the sky, and the engines roared as it shot upwards at incredible speed. They watched for thirty seconds or so until the Shroud was a near-invisible dot in the blue sky. Without warning it seemed to tip over before rocketing back down towards the ocean. Mere seconds later it hit the surface just a couple of hundred metres from the starboard side of the Megalodon, detonating like a missile and sending debris scattering across the surface in all directions.
‘Well, that’s that,’ Raven said with a grin. ‘You’re all dead.’
‘How comforting,’ Otto chuckled.
‘I, for one, am rather tired of being dead,’ Wing said with a perfectly straight face.
‘That makes two of us,’ Raven laughed. ‘Come on, we need to go before the Contessa’s hounds get here.’
She ushered them all through the hatch, which sealed shut behind them with a clunk and hiss. Immediately, the huge ship began to submerge and within moments it had vanished once again beneath the surface. All that remained was the burning debris field that marked the Shroud’s final resting place.
The three aircraft came in low over the water, the wash from their engines leaving a wake behind them. On board the lead Shroud, Phalanx One looked worried.