‘Contessa!’ the squad leader shouted down the corridor. ‘Please stay exactly where you are. Chief Lewis has some questions for you.’
‘Wait,’ the Contessa whispered to Nero. He heard the unmistakeable click of a safety catch being switched behind him and his mind raced. He could not let the patrol take the Contessa here – it would almost certainly sign Brand and Trinity’s death warrants – but he wasn’t about to let the Contessa shoot any of these men either. The patrol leader may have felt confident, but it would only take the Contessa getting within earshot of his squad and it would be a very different story. He doubted very much that many of the men in the patrol had the mental strength to resist the Contessa’s power.
The Contessa turned slowly and faced the security patrol. Several Sleepers were pointed straight at her, the guards’ faces confused but determined.
‘Goodness me,’ the Contessa said with a slight laugh. ‘What on earth is all this about?’ She took a couple of steps towards the patrol.
Behind her Nero pulled the skull-shaped link from the cuff of his shirt and twisted the clip.
‘Stay right there, Contessa,’ the squad leader barked. ‘We have orders to fire if necessary.’
‘Nonsense,’ the Contessa replied. ‘In fact, I think you’re just all going to put your guns down.’ As the Contessa spoke there was the uncomfortable, almost subliminal, sound of a thousand voices whispering at once. Nero had never heard the Contessa exert her power so strongly before and the effects were immediate. To their credit, a couple of the guards just looked confused, but the rest started to slowly place their weapons on the ground, their expressions blank.
Nero knew he had to act now before the Contessa could order the guards to help her escape or, even worse, turn on one another, and he threw the tiny silver skull in his palm down the corridor. There was a blinding flash and a concussive thump as the minute disguised stun grenade went off, filling the corridor with thick grey smoke. Then all hell broke loose.
Nero threw himself to the floor as Sleeper pulses ripped through the air. The few guards who had retained their weapons were firing blindly through the smoke, still dazed from the Contessa’s manipulation.
‘Cease fire,’ the squad leader bellowed over the zapping blasts from the Sleepers. As the smoke cleared Nero could see the vague outlines of the patrol in the corridor, but he quickly realised that one person was missing.
‘Are you all right, sir?’ the squad leader asked as he staggered down the corridor towards Nero.
Nero nodded. He was fine, but the Contessa was gone.
Laura and Shelby watched in horror as the door hissed open and Francisco dropped the guard inside with a single neat Sleeper pulse to the chest. He silently gestured for the girls to go through the door and they found themselves in an area that they had long believed did not exist. The cavern was a fully functional docking facility that looked as if it could handle most medium-sized vessels, the sea lapping at the single long quay. Tied up at the quay were a couple of sleek black power boats and as Shelby saw them she shot a worried glance at Laura. Laura knew why her friend was so concerned. At least while they were on the island they had a chance of being rescued, but if Francisco managed to smuggle them outside the school then their chances would diminish alarmingly.
Laura felt a sharp jab in her ribs as Tackle prodded her forwards with the barrel of his Sleeper and they slowly walked along the quay towards one of the moored boats. As they approached, a figure detached itself from the shadows nearby and stepped out into the light. A broad grin spread across Laura’s face as she felt a flood of relief.
‘Look out, Contessa! They’re armed!’ Shelby yelled, throwing herself backwards into Block, trying to catch him off balance and buy the Contessa a couple of precious seconds.
‘Why, of course they are, my dear,’ the Contessa replied matter of factly, walking slowly towards Francisco. ‘How else would they keep you two under control?’
Laura’s brow furrowed in confusion. What was the Contessa doing? She had to stop them now while she still could.
‘Have they given you any trouble?’ the Contessa asked Francisco, glancing at the two girls.
‘No, everything, has gone according to plan,’ the Colonel replied, his voice flat.
‘Not quite everything unfortunately. Nero escaped, but all of the necessary elements are in place otherwise. We should proceed,’ the Contessa said, pulling a small PDA from her pocket. It was not a Blackbox.
Laura suddenly understood what was happening and just how carefully the events of the past couple of days had been orchestrated. The traitor wasn’t Francisco; it was the Contessa.
‘You two-faced old hag!’ Shelby shouted angrily, clearly having reached exactly the same conclusion as Laura. ‘How could you do this, you’ve –’
‘Oh, do be quiet, Miss Trinity,’ the Contessa said, her voice laced with sinister whispers. Shelby’s mouth continued to move for a moment, as if she was trying to form words but none would come. Laura said nothing, and simply glared at the Contessa, her mind racing as she tried to think of a way out of this situation.
‘That’s better,’ the Contessa said with a smile. ‘Now why don’t we all just get on board one of these boats that the school has so thoughtfully provided and be on our way.’
Laura felt another shove from behind as Tackle forced her towards the nearest power boat.
The Contessa watched as the two girls were loaded on to the boat, a smug, triumphant smile on her face.
‘Now, sit still and stay silent,’ she said, and Laura felt her free will disappear. No matter how hard she tried she could not move a muscle or make a sound. It was a deeply unsettling sensation.
‘Now, Colonel, I believe it is time that you and your two students ensured that our insurance policy is in place,’ the Contessa said, turning to Francisco. ‘You know what to do.’
‘Yes, Contessa,’ Francisco replied in a monotone, turning and walking back towards the entrance to the dock with Block and Tackle in tow.
The Contessa watched them leave and then turned to the two girls sitting paralysed in the boat.
‘Isn’t this nice? All girls together,’ she said sarcastically, climbing behind the controls of the boat. Neither of the two girls may have been able to offer a reply but the hate-filled looks in their eyes spoke volumes.
The Contessa fired the ignition on the boat and its powerful engines roared into life. She raised the silver PDA to her lips.
‘Activate H.I.V.E. emergency security procedure Sinistre Delta One,’ she said and placed the device back in her pocket. The rock wall at the far end of the dock rumbled upwards and Laura saw blue sky and the sea stretching off towards the horizon.
As the Contessa gunned the engine and steered the boat towards the opening alarm klaxons began to sound all over the school.
.
Chapter Fourteen
‘What the hell?’ Security Chief Lewis spat as one by one the monitors displaying security feeds from all over the school flickered and went black.
‘There’s an unknown routine running on the security net,’ a technician reported from a nearby workstation. ‘The grid’s going offline.’
The door to the situation room slid open and Dr Nero hurried into the room and headed straight for the nearest free terminal. He typed a string of commands into the terminal before slamming his fist down hard on the keyboard.
‘Damn you, Maria,’ Nero hissed. It was too late. She had locked him out of the system using her command access, and was now the only person who could reinitialise the system.
‘Student dormitories are locking down,’ another security technician announced, a look of confusion on his face.
‘Defence grid is offline too,’ another voice reported. ‘All external batteries are going into sleep modes.’
‘H.I.V.E.mind just dropped into standby mode. He’s not accepting remote commands.’
Nero watched in impotent fury as his school was rendered defenceless aroun
d him.
‘All external access points are opening,’ the Chief said, slight panic in his voice. ‘Do we still have exterior camera feeds?’
‘Yes, sir, scanning the perimeter now,’ a reply came from the other side of the room. ‘Nothing visible at the moment, looks all clear . . . hold on . . . something off the southern coastline.’
‘Put it on-screen,’ Lewis barked.
There on the screen a tiny boat was roaring away from the island. As the camera zoomed in Nero could see the unmistakeable figure of the Contessa at the controls. Sat behind her were two smaller figures, both wearing the black jumpsuits of the Alpha stream.
‘Where’s she going?’ Lewis said, sounding puzzled. ‘That’s only a patrol boat, she doesn’t have enough fuel to reach land.’
As if answer to the Chief’s query there was a strange shimmer on the surface of the ocean and then a huge, black warship materialised seemingly out of thin air.
Nero suddenly realised just how badly he had been outmanoeuvred. Cypher was here and H.I.V.E. was defenceless.
Nigel and Franz wandered slowly through the virtually deserted atrium of their accommodation block. There were a few other students sitting on the sofas and chairs dotted around the cavern but the vast majority of H.I.V.E.’s pupils were either still asleep or had only just woken up. Franz had woken early, complaining that he was hungry, as he always did when the previous evening’s meal had been salad. For his part Nigel had learnt long ago that it was entirely pointless to try and sleep through Franz’s morning routine and after two minutes of Franz singing in the shower he had grudgingly got out of bed too.
‘It is still nearly an hour till breakfast,’ Franz observed, ‘but it may be wise to take our places in the queue already, ja?’
‘There’s not going to be a queue yet,’ Nigel said slightly grumpily. ‘We’ll be fine if we’re five minutes early. Let’s go to the library instead. There are a couple of new organic chemistry papers that I need to catch up on.’
‘Oh, Nigel, with you it is always the library. You need to have more fun,’ Franz said matter of factly.
‘The library is fun,’ Nigel said insistently, wishing that Franz shared his passion for books. ‘Perhaps if you spent a bit more time there you’d understand.’
The huge blast doors that sealed the accommodation block at night had opened a few minutes earlier, signalling that students were free to wander the halls of the school again before their classes, as usual. Nigel and Franz walked through them and into the corridor beyond. At almost exactly the same moment alarm klaxons began to wail everywhere.
‘I didn’t do anything!’ Franz yelped as the alarms screamed.
There was a low grinding noise and the blast doors began to lower, re-sealing the accommodation block.
‘Come on,’ Nigel said. ‘That’s a high-level alert. It’s probably just a drill, but we still have to go back inside.’
‘No way!’ Franz yelped, backing away from the closing doors. ‘I am remembering what happened the last time all of the alarms are going off and we are locked in there.’
Nigel remembered too. On that day they had ended up trapped inside their room while the rampaging plant creature that he himself had inadvertently created tried to smash its way in. Franz was right – it had not been a pleasant experience.
‘Well, that’s unlikely to happen again, isn’t it?’ Nigel said slightly apologetically.
‘You have not been experimenting again, have you?’ Franz said suspiciously, his eyes narrowing as he looked carefully at Nigel.
‘No, I most certainly have not,’ Nigel said indignantly, feeling his cheeks burning. The blast door was nearly halfway closed now; they had to get back inside.
‘Well, I am staying out here,’ Franz said indignantly.
Nigel was surprised by Franz’s determination but he knew the only way to get him back into the accommodation area now would be to physically drag him and the laws of physics might have something to say about that, given the two boys’ relative masses.
‘OK, but let’s find somewhere quiet to sit out the alert,’ Nigel said nervously, looking up the corridor and half expecting to see an angry security patrol marching towards them.
‘An excellent idea,’ Franz said with a broad smile. ‘I suggest the dining hall!’
‘That’s what this was all about,’ Nigel said incredulously as the blast door sealed shut with a solid-sounding thud. ‘You just didn’t want to miss breakfast.’
‘No, that was not it at all –’ Franz began weakly.
‘I don’t believe you sometimes,’ Nigel said angrily. ‘I’m going to the library and if we meet any security patrols on the way you can explain what we’re doing outside the accommodation area.’ He marched away down the corridor.
‘But the dining area has much greater structural integrity,’ Franz continued as he followed Nigel. ‘It really would be the safer option in the event of an emergency . . .’
Laura’s mouth fell open as the huge black ship materialised just a couple of hundred metres in front of them. She looked across at Shelby, who shared her look of amazement, her mouth moving slightly as if she was trying to say something despite the command for silence that the Contessa had given them both just a few minutes earlier.
The stolen patrol boat slowed as they neared the side of the mysterious ship and a boarding platform lowered from the level of the deck to just above the surface of the water. The Contessa brought the boat alongside the platform and turned to the two girls. The pistol was in her hand again.
‘Get out,’ she said coldly. ‘Try anything stupid and I’ll feed you to the sharks myself.’
Shelby and Laura climbed out of the patrol boat and on to the platform, the Contessa close behind them, and immediately the platform rose again towards the bigger ship’s deck.
As they rose to the level of the upper deck the two girls found a welcoming party waiting for them. A tall man, dressed in an immaculate suit and a smooth oval mask of highly polished black glass, stood flanked on either side by slim, humanoid robots, their matt-black metallic bodies covered in plates of armour.
‘Contessa,’ the man said. ‘How nice to see you again. I trust everything has gone according to plan?’
‘Yes, Cypher,’ the Contessa replied. ‘The island is yours for the taking.’
Shelby made a sound that could only be described as a snarl and ran towards Cypher. The robots to either side of him reacted instantly, intercepting Shelby and restraining her in their vice-like grip.
‘Murderer!’ Shelby gasped as she struggled in vain to break free of the guards.
Laura stepped forward as if to help her friend but instead was forced to her knees as another guard clamped its mechanical hand down hard on her shoulder.
‘And two unexpected guests – how lovely,’ Cypher said coldly, stepping towards Shelby.
‘Yes, may I introduce Shelby Trinity and Laura Brand. They have made rather a nuisance of themselves so I thought I’d bring them along as extra insurance,’ the Contessa explained.
Cypher took Shelby’s chin in his hand. The look on her face suggested that he should be very glad that she wasn’t able to get her hands on him.
‘I’m afraid, Miss Trinity, that H.I.V.E. is going to be permanently closed very shortly, but I’m sure that we can find a use for someone with spirit in my organisation in the future,’ he said with infuriating smugness. ‘In the meantime I think it would be best if we provided these ladies with some very secure accommodation. Take them to the brig. Put them in separate cells.’
‘They’ll have to share a cell,’ one of the guards replied. ‘The other cell is currently occupied.’
‘Very well,’ Cypher said quickly, ‘they may have the small pleasure of each other’s company. Take them away.’
The guards obeyed immediately, tightening their already uncomfortable grip on the two girls and marching them away towards a hatch that led below.
‘Keep an eye on those two,’ the Contessa
told Cypher. ‘They’re more dangerous than they might appear.’
‘Aren’t we all, Contessa?’ Cypher replied, turning back towards her. ‘You have done very well today, Maria. I could not have asked for more. I only wish I could have seen Nero’s face when he realised that you were working for me. You have my sincere thanks.’
‘You can save your gratitude, Cypher,’ the Contessa replied. ‘You know that I expect to be well rewarded for my troubles.’
‘Oh, don’t worry, Maria. By the end of the day I will be in a position to give you anything you want. This is the dawning of a new era.’
The Contessa said nothing. There was a disturbing edge of fanaticism to Cypher’s tone all of a sudden. She told herself not to worry – after all she had worked with much more unbalanced people than Cypher in her time, and if push came to shove she’d just have to take what she was owed.
A man in a naval uniform walked up to them, saluting efficiently as Cypher turned to face him.
‘Yes, Captain, what is it?’
‘Your chopper is on the pad and all launchers are reporting ready, sir. Just give the word.’
Cypher looked at the island sitting less than a mile away.
‘The word is given, Captain. The word is most definitely given.’
The Shroud had picked up Cypher’s ship on radar as soon as it dropped its thermoptic camouflage so Raven and Otto knew they were too late even before they could see the black battleship holding position just off the coast of the island. They had had no contact with H.I.V.E. since they had first left the ruins of Cypher’s base, Raven had barely had time to warn H.I.V.E. about the ship that was on its way before the transmission had dissolved into static and now they all feared the worst.
‘We’re at full stealth,’ the pilot reported. ‘They have no idea we’re here, and judging by the number of active radar scans that thing’s putting out we’d better stay that way if we don’t want to end up on the wrong end of a SAM.’