Dreadnought

by Mark Walden

  ‘Have you ever been to Yellowstone national park, Mr President?’ Drake asked. ‘I’m told that it’s quite beautiful. But not for very much longer, I’m afraid. Because once the missiles from Thor’s Hammer hit at these locations,’ he pointed at the map, ‘it’s going to cause a chain reaction that will trigger the supervolcano that lies beneath it. When that happens, you’re going to be the President of the largest disaster zone in human history. Three quarters of the United States will be covered in a blanket of ash that will make human existence impossible. America will simply cease to exist as a world power and in the catastrophic global environmental and financial chaos that ensues it will be left to people of genuine vision, like myself, to pick up the pieces and create a new world order, a world without the malignant influence of your country, a world that we can shape in any image we choose.’

  ‘You’re insane,’ the President said quietly, a look of shocked disbelief on his face.

  ‘“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane”,’ Drake said calmly, ‘to quote Oscar Wilde. I think I’ll keep you alive long enough to witness the results of my supposed insanity for yourself.’

  Drake walked over to Darkdoom.

  ‘You see, Diabolus, this is what G.L.O.V.E. has lost. If only Number One could have lived to see this.’

  ‘Number One was psychotic,’ Darkdoom growled, ‘and so are you.’

  ‘Oh, but that’s the real beauty of this,’ Drake said with an evil smile. ‘Has it sunk in properly yet? It won’t be me that the world remembers as the villain behind all this. Thanks to your little pre-recorded address it will be you and G.L.O.V.E. that take the blame. You’re the one who will go down in history as the butcher of billions. They’ll find your body in some suitably public place, an apparent suicide, presumably overwhelmed by the guilt of what you had done. I, on the other hand, will be remembered as one of the heroes who rebuilt the world.’ He gestured to the guards flanking Darkdoom. ‘Take him away.’

  Nero walked through the Shroud’s cargo compartment, lost in thought. He struggled to hide his frustration at the fact that they had not been able to follow Drake.

  ‘Doctor Nero, I think I’ve found something,’ the Professor called to him from the other end of the bay, where he was still working on his laptop.

  ‘What do you have, Professor?’ Nero asked, walking towards him.

  ‘There,’ Professor Pike said, pointing at the screen. His laptop showed an image of the Atlantic Ocean that had been intercepted from a civilian weather satellite. In the centre of the image was a swirling mass of cloud.

  ‘Now look at the image from sixty seconds before that,’ the Professor said, tapping at the keyboard. The storm cell vanished. ‘I’m no meteorologist, but as far as I know it’s impossible for a natural storm to develop that quickly, even in the middle of the ocean.’

  ‘The Dreadnought,’ Nero said, carefully examining the two images.

  ‘I think that’s an entirely reasonable conclusion, yes,’ the Professor replied. ‘I’ve already taken the liberty of ordering the pilot to head to these coordinates. We should be at this location in about forty-five minutes.’

  ‘So what’s Drake up to in there and, more to the point, how do we get to him?’ Nero asked.

  ‘Just because any sane pilot would not choose to fly into a storm like that under normal circumstances doesn’t mean that it can’t be done,’ the Professor replied. ‘I won’t lie to you though: it will not be a pleasant ride. I can’t guarantee that we will make it through.’

  ‘Very well,’ Nero said after a few seconds. ‘Order the other Shroud to return to H.I.V.E. There’s no point risking both aircraft. I’ll go and talk to the pilot.’

  Wing pushed Otto back against the wall as four guards walked past the end of the corridor, surrounding Diabolus Darkdoom, whose hands were cuffed in front of him.

  ‘I think we may want to follow them,’ Otto said.

  Wing nodded. They shadowed the guards and their prisoner as discreetly as they could, and after a couple of minutes arrived at the Dreadnought’s brig. The lead soldier from Darkdoom’s escort walked up to the guard standing outside an armoured door.

  ‘Drake wants him locked up again,’ the soldier said. ‘Open it up.’

  The soldier turned back to the escort surrounding Darkdoom and was about to speak when he felt an arm slipping around his throat and the pistol being pulled from the holster on his belt. The last thing he heard as he lost consciousness was three gunshots.

  Darkdoom looked down in astonishment at the three bodies that lay on the floor around him. The brig guard tossed the still-smoking pistol to the ground and stepped towards him, pulling off the black face mask and tactical goggles.

  ‘Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,’ Raven said, crouching down to search the body of one of the fallen guards.

  ‘A pleasure to see you as always, Natalya,’ Darkdoom said with a smile. ‘Are you here alone?’

  ‘Yes,’ Raven said, her eyes widening in surprise as she saw the two figures walking down the corridor behind Darkdoom. ‘At least I thought I was.’

  ‘If I’d known it was going to be a family reunion I’d have worn something smarter,’ Otto said with a grin.

  ‘Mr Malpense, Mr Fanchu,’ Raven said, shaking her head slightly as she used the keys she had found on the fallen soldier to release Darkdoom’s cuffs. ‘I honestly wish I could say that it was a surprise to see you here, but let’s face it . . .’

  ‘I, for one, am glad to see all of you,’ Darkdoom said, rubbing his wrists. He walked to the brig door and unbolted it. ‘And I think I know someone else who will be too.’ He opened the door and Nigel stepped out into the corridor. His look of confusion was replaced by a broad smile as he saw Otto, Wing and his father.

  ‘What on earth are you doing here?’ Nigel asked as he walked over to Otto.

  ‘It’s a . . . erm . . . long story,’ Otto said with a crooked smile. ‘I’ll tell you later.’

  ‘Where are the others?’ Nigel asked.

  ‘Safe . . . I hope,’ Otto said. Now was not the time to tell Nigel about the catastrophic destruction of Drake’s base in Nevada.

  Raven noticed that Wing seemed to be hanging back, a look of slight disapproval on his face.

  ‘Is there something wrong?’ she asked him quietly.

  ‘Was this . . . necessary?’ he said, gesturing at the bodies on the floor.

  ‘Three men with assault rifles surrounding a friendly target is not a situation that leaves much time for subtlety,’ Raven said with a frown. ‘In our world the non-lethal response is not always an option, Mr Fanchu. It is a lesson that, in time, you too will learn. Trust me.’

  Wing looked back at her, his expression unreadable.

  ‘Pleased as I am to see all of you, we have an urgent matter to attend to,’ Darkdoom said.

  ‘I’m going to assume that it has something to do with the high-profile prisoner I saw Furan with earlier,’ Raven said cryptically.

  ‘High profile?’ Otto asked.

  ‘You don’t get much higher,’ Darkdoom said and proceeded to explain the details of the plan that Drake had set in motion. ‘I think it probably goes without saying that we have to stop this.’ He looked at the shocked faces around him.

  ‘Of course,’ Raven replied, ‘but how?’

  ‘I might be able to do it,’ Otto said, ‘but I have to get on to the bridge.’

  ‘Furan’s men are going to be guarding it and once they realise what’s just happened down here, which won’t take long, they’re going to be on a heightened state of alert,’ Raven replied.

  ‘Then we have to move quickly,’ Darkdoom said, ‘before Drake locks the Dreadnought down completely. Wing, you and Nigel should head to the hangar bay and see if you can procure us some transport. Raven, you take Otto to the bridge. I’ll provide a diversion that should draw away most of the guards. Once I do, you need to stop those missiles from launching by whatever means necessary. Any questions?’ he as
ked, looking at each of them in turn. ‘No? Good. Let’s go.’

  Nero looked out through the Shroud’s cockpit window at the boiling black clouds of the enormous storm cell towering above the ocean, the vast formations lit from within by flashes of lightning.

  ‘You’re sure about this?’ the pilot asked nervously.

  ‘Absolutely,’ Nero replied, ‘we have to get inside.’

  ‘OK. You’d better get below and make sure everyone’s strapped in. This isn’t going to be a smooth ride,’ the pilot said, reaching up and flicking a couple of switches on a control panel on the ceiling.

  Nero climbed down the ladder to the passenger compartment, where Francisco was hurriedly strapping down the loose equipment crates.

  ‘We’re nearly at the storm front, Colonel,’ Nero said. ‘Make sure everyone and everything’s secure down here.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ Francisco replied, pulling the cargo straps tight on a large metallic crate.

  Nero moved through the Shroud, past the H.I.V.E. security team operatives who filled the crowded compartment, to where his four recently rescued students were buckling up the harnesses attached to their seats.

  ‘Mr Argentblum, ladies,’ Nero said, ‘I’m sorry that we couldn’t return directly to H.I.V.E. but there is one more thing we have to do. We do not leave our people behind. I’m sure you can appreciate that.’

  ‘Of course,’ Laura said, speaking for them all.

  ‘Good,’ Nero said. ‘We’re going to be experiencing some . . . turbulence.’

  ‘I am not liking the sound of that,’ Franz said nervously as Nero walked back towards the cockpit ladder. ‘I am not liking the sound of that at all.’

  .

  Chapter Twelve

  Otto waited as Raven retrieved her twin swords from their hiding place amid the pipes that ran along the ceiling and strapped them to her back. She had kept the body armour that she’d ‘borrowed’ from the man guarding the brig, as well as one of the assault rifles from the fallen men who had been escorting Darkdoom. She looked very much like someone with whom you did not want to mess.

  ‘Right, once Diabolus has drawn off the guards we’re going to hit the bridge hard and fast,’ Raven explained. ‘If anyone starts shooting, keep your head down. All of this will have been for nothing if you catch a bullet. Understood?’

  Otto nodded and the pair of them set off, keeping a careful look out for Drake’s men. When they reached a junction with the corridor leading to the bridge, Raven carefully peeked around the corner. She raised her hand, indicating with four fingers. How many guards she could see. There were bound to be more inside.

  The pair of them waited in the shadows, not knowing how long it would take for Darkdoom to provide the necessary diversion. A couple of interminable minutes passed and Otto was just starting to convince himself that something had gone wrong when the alarms sounded. Raven pushed him back out of sight behind a storage locker as Furan and the guards from outside the bridge ran down the corridor, heading for the stairs that led to the lower decks.

  They waited a few more seconds and then approached the bridge door. Raven hit the switch next to the door as Otto took cover to one side. It slid open with a hiss and she burst into the room, scanning for any immediate threats. The bridge crew were sat at their stations, leaving only two guards flanking the President. Drake turned as she entered and Raven felt a grim satisfaction at the horrified shock in his eyes as she levelled her rifle at him.

  ‘Nobody move,’ Raven shouted to the bridge crew and the two remaining guards. ‘Anyone so much as looks at me funny and Drake’s the first to die, understood?’

  The guards on either side of the President tensed, as if considering their options, but quickly realised that she had the drop on them.

  ‘You two,’ she shouted at the guards, ‘pop the magazines and then put the rifles on the ground. Slowly.’

  The men did as they were told and then raised their hands.

  ‘Otto, get in here!’ Raven yelled, keeping the gun trained on Drake.

  ‘You really are very irritating, you know,’ Drake said. ‘I should have had Furan kill you in New York. I won’t make the same mistake again.’

  ‘You won’t get another chance,’ Raven growled.

  Otto hurried on to the bridge and quickly spotted the black briefcase that was connected to the weapon control terminal. He unplugged the cable connecting it to the console and closed the case.

  ‘That won’t do any good,’ Drake said smugly. ‘The orders have been issued. You can’t countermand them without access to the satellite communications grid, and only I have the code.’

  ‘Give it to me,’ Raven said, stepping forward and pressing the muzzle of the rifle to Drake’s forehead.

  ‘No,’ Drake replied, ‘I don’t think I will. In fact I think you’ll give me that rifle and put your hands in the air.’

  Raven felt something cold and hard press into the back of her skull.

  ‘Sloppy, Natalya,’ Furan said, cocking the hammer on the pistol he held to her head. ‘Poorly planned and poorly executed. I thought I’d trained you better than that.’

  Raven lowered the rifle and let it fall to the deck.

  ‘Mr Malpense, I presume,’ Drake said with a smile as he walked towards Otto. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll take that.’ He held out his hand for the briefcase and Otto reluctantly give it to him. ‘I assume since you two are here that it’s Darkdoom running around causing trouble down in engineering. Not to worry. My men will find him soon enough.’

  He stared at Otto for a moment.

  ‘I’ve been doing some research on you, Mr Malpense, or may I call you Otto?’ Drake said. ‘Some friends of mine provided me with quite a detailed file on you and your special abilities after you started to make a nuisance of yourself. I’m curious. What’s it like to be able to do what you can do? I’d imagine it must be quite a unique sensation. I have to say I was really quite impressed with the way you bypassed the security on the servers at my building in New York. I designed the security system myself. It was supposed to be quite impregnable and yet you got around it in just a couple of minutes. You know, you don’t have to die with Darkdoom and the rest of the idiots that follow him. There could be a place for you in our new world. You could be a valuable asset. What do you think?’

  ‘I think you’re a nut job with a god complex that likes the sound of his own voice just a little too much,’ Otto said with a nasty smile.

  Drake gave a single short laugh and then backhanded Otto hard across the face, knocking him to his knees. Otto tasted blood in his mouth as he stood back up, a look of defiance on his face.

  ‘I see Nero already has his hooks too far into you for you to be of any further use to me. Such a shame,’ Drake said, turning away. He stopped for a moment and then turned back towards Otto. ‘Tell me one thing though, Mr Malpense. Why haven’t you just taken control of the Dreadnought? Surely, given what you can do, you could just have infiltrated her control systems. They are well secured, admittedly, but no more so than the systems in New York. It would certainly have been more effective than this –’ he gestured at Raven – ‘brute force approach.’

  ‘You know perfectly well why I didn’t,’ Otto replied. ‘I couldn’t. But I suppose that’s why you integrated that black filth into your network.’

  ‘Black . . . What on earth are you talking about?’ Drake asked, looking genuinely confused.

  ‘The organic supercomputer,’ Otto said, ‘the black slime that you’ve got running through your system.’

  ‘Just how stupid do you think I am, Mr Malpense,’ Drake replied impatiently. ‘Firstly, there’s no such thing as an organic supercomputer, not yet anyway, and secondly, I would certainly never integrate something like that with the Dreadnought’s systems, even if it did exist.’

  ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ Otto said quietly.

  ‘Know what?’ Drake demanded angrily.

  ‘Why don’t you just take a look f
or yourself?’ Otto suggested, nodding towards a cabling access panel on a nearby wall.

  Drake stared at him for a moment and then moved over to the panel, unclipping it and removing it from the wall. There, clearly visible, intertwined with the other cabling, was a seething mass of glistening black tendrils. They seemed almost to pulse, as if in time with the data that coursed through the other wires. Drake looked at them with a mixture of confusion and revulsion.

  ‘What is this?’ he said, sounding genuinely bewildered. ‘Who put this into my ship?’

  ‘I did,’ Furan said, pushing Raven towards Otto and Drake, covering them all with his pistol.

  The Shroud lurched violently to the left, its engines screaming in protest as the full force of nature’s fury tried to swat it from the sky. The pilot fought with the controls, a thin film of sweat covering his pale face. ‘I’m not sure how much more of this we can take,’ he shouted over the noise of the labouring engines and the howling of the storm outside.

  Suddenly there was a bright white flash and an enormous cracking sound as the Shroud was struck by a bolt of lightning. The engines stuttered for a moment and then roared back into life. A series of flashing red warning lights lit up across the control panel in front of the pilot.

  ‘We’ve lost cloaking,’ the pilot said, an edge of panic in his voice.

  Nero was sitting strapped into the seat behind the pilot and he could understand why the man was concerned. Without cloaking engaged there was nothing to stop the Dreadnought spotting them the moment they left the storm clouds. That was, of course, assuming that they made it through the storm in the first place.

  Down in the passenger compartment the situation was no better. Francisco’s men were hardened soldiers, men who were used to putting their lives on the line, but even so he could almost smell the fear in the air. They were in the hands of Mother Nature now and she was not happy.