Escape Velocity

by Mark Walden

  ‘Anything?’ she asked H.I.V.E.mind as he dropped silently to the floor beside her.

  ‘No, the second perimeter appears to be further inside,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied, his head twitching as he scanned the surrounding area with the array of sophisticated sensors that covered his face.

  ‘This is where we split up,’ Otto said quietly, pointing down one of several shafts that lined the walls of the room. ‘We go this way, you go that way.’ He pointed at another shaft on the opposite wall. ‘Are you sure you know where you’re going?’

  Raven and the two girls all looked over in his direction at the same time. It was impossible to see their expressions behind their masks but he was almost certain that they were glaring at him.

  ‘OK, OK,’ Otto said, holding his hands up in front of him, ‘I was just checking.’

  ‘I think perhaps we should leave while Otto still has all of his fingers,’ Wing said casually.

  ‘Indeed,’ Darkdoom said with a dry laugh. ‘I would wish you good luck, ladies, but I feel sure that you will not need it.’

  ‘You too,’ Raven replied. ‘Say hi to Nero for me.’ With that she ducked into the shaft and disappeared with Laura and Shelby close behind.

  Darkdoom turned back to H.I.V.E.mind, Otto and Wing.

  ‘H.I.V.E.mind, you take the lead; keep scanning ahead for any counter-intrusion devices. Wing, you and Otto will follow and I will bring up the rear. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears open, gentlemen. We won’t get a second chance at this.’

  ‘Understood,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied. Otto and Wing just nodded their silent agreement. H.I.V.E.mind ducked inside the darkened shaft with Wing close behind him. Otto hesitated for a moment as he was about to climb in and took a deep breath.

  ‘God, I hate ventilation shafts,’ he whispered to himself.

  The Contessa stared into the Professor’s empty cell, wondering just how this situation could get any worse.

  ‘Where is the guard?’ she asked, sounding tired and frustrated.

  ‘In sick bay,’ Phalanx One replied with a frown. ‘The medics are trying to revive him, but as you know a blast from one of those Sleeper pistols is not something one recovers from quickly.’

  ‘And you’re sure it was a Sleeper?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes, the level of unconsciousness along with the lack of any physical injury makes that a near certainty.’

  ‘You realise, of course, what that means?’ the Contessa said with a sigh. ‘Sleepers can only be fired by members of H.I.V.E.’s security detail or the teaching staff. This is an act of overt rebellion. It cannot be tolerated.’

  Suddenly Phalanx One’s radio began to bleep and he hit the receive button.

  ‘Sir, I have an urgent call from Number One for you and the Contessa,’ the voice on the other end said.

  ‘Very well,’ Phalanx One replied. ‘Please transfer it to the terminal in the detention centre.’

  They both turned to face the screen mounted on the wall as it lit up with the G.L.O.V.E. logo. Moments later the familiar silhouette of their leader filled the display.

  ‘More problems, Maria?’ Number One said, his voice cold.

  ‘Nothing we cannot handle,’ the Contessa replied quickly. She tried to ignore Phalanx One’s raised eyebrow.

  ‘Really?’ Number One said. ‘Well, it’s not really important at this precise moment. I need you to lock down the school. Teaching and security staff too – no exceptions. I would also like you to make sure that the pupils are segregated by stream.’

  ‘May I ask why?’ the Contessa said, a hint of nervousness in her voice. Nero had always fought to maintain a mixture of pupils from different streams in the accommodation blocks; separating the pupils out in this way could only lead to more trouble.

  ‘No, you may not. I take it that your men can handle this, Commander?’ Number One said, addressing Phalanx One.

  ‘Of course, sir,’ he replied. ‘Do you need anything else?’

  ‘You and the Contessa are to go to her office and await further instructions. I may need you at any time.’ It was not a request.

  ‘Understood,’ Phalanx One said with a nod.

  ‘Is the package I sent in place?’ Number One asked.

  ‘Yes, sir, everything is ready,’ Phalanx One replied.

  ‘Good. I shall speak to you again soon. Do unto others.’

  ‘Do unto others,’ the Contessa and Phalanx One dutifully replied as the screen went dark.

  Phalanx One walked briskly towards the exit but the Contessa waited for a moment, staring at the blank screen.

  ‘Is there something wrong, Contessa?’ he asked as he opened the door.

  ‘No . . . it’s nothing,’ she said quietly as she turned to follow him. ‘Nothing at all.’

  ‘Right, that should do it,’ the Professor said, clipping the jewelled collar back around Ms Leon’s throat.

  ‘So I just have to get within range of the Contessa’s terminal,’ Ms Leon said, hopping down from Francisco’s desk.

  ‘Yes, anywhere within about five metres should do,’ the Professor replied. ‘The transponder that I’ve installed in your collar should allow me to remotely access her computer. The security network may have been crippled when she shut H.I.V.E.mind down but if I can gain access to that specific machine I should still be able to activate the systems we need.’

  ‘I’d better get going then,’ she said with a flick of her tail.

  Francisco quickly leant out of the door to his office and looked both ways.

  ‘Corridor’s clear,’ he whispered.

  Ms Leon trotted across the floor of the room and out of the door.

  ‘What about us?’ Nigel asked as the door hissed shut again.

  ‘I think you should return to your normal routine,’ the Professor said after a moment. ‘The Contessa has no reason to suspect your involvement at this point. Just be sure to do nothing that would attract undue attention to yourselves.’

  ‘We are being very good at this,’ Franz said with a smile of genuine relief. The excitement of the past few hours had been just a little too intense for his tastes.

  Suddenly there was a loud double beep from the school tannoy system.

  ‘This is a level one security announcement,’ the voice of Phalanx One said over the speaker. ‘By G.L.O.V.E. executive order, H.I.V.E. is now in a state of emergency lockdown. All pupils are to immediately report to the following accommodation blocks. Alpha stream to block four, Henchman stream to block six, Science and Technology stream to block two and Political and Financial stream to block one. All staff are to report immediately to the staff meeting area, and all security personnel to briefing area three. Anything but full and immediate compliance with these instructions will be met with the harshest of penalties. That is all.’

  The Professor said nothing as the tannoy fell silent, merely raising an eyebrow at Francisco.

  ‘What is she up to now?’ the Colonel said, frowning.

  ‘I suspect that it may have something to do with my unscheduled release,’ the Professor said calmly. ‘Those with something to hide will probably not report as ordered. Also, searching H.I.V.E. will be considerably easier during a full lockdown.’

  ‘Then we have to act now,’ Francisco said with a snarl.

  ‘Indeed, but we can’t do anything until Ms Leon has completed her mission; until then we shall just have to stay out of sight. You two should report as ordered to block four,’ the Professor said to Nigel and Franz. ‘Not reporting as ordered will simply single you out for special attention and the Contessa has ways of extracting information from people who have something to hide.’

  ‘That is not sounding like fun,’ Franz said with a gulp.

  ‘Believe me, it’s not,’ the Colonel said with a frown.

  ‘Go now,’ the Professor said, pointing towards the door, ‘and again, thank you for what you did today. It might be hard to understand at the moment but you did the right thing.’

  ‘I hope so,’ Nigel s
aid with a weak smile and headed out of the door with Franz in tow.

  ‘Can we trust them?’ Francisco said as the door closed behind the two boys.

  ‘We’ll have to,’ the Professor replied. ‘Right now we need all the allies we can get.’

  H.I.V.E.mind peered out though the grille at the darkened briefing room, his scanners checking for surveillance devices. Their progress through the ventilation system had been slow but uneventful; the real challenge started here. He gently pushed the grille open and dropped silently to the floor of the room. Otto, Wing and Darkdoom followed, carefully resealing the shaft behind them.

  ‘The detention area is on the other side of this level,’ Otto whispered as he visualised the layout of the facility in his head. ‘That’s where Nero is being held.’

  ‘And you’re sure that we’ll have enough time?’ Darkdoom asked quietly.

  ‘Once Raven and the girls kill the power we’ll have about sixty seconds before the back-up generators kick in and the security net is partially back online. That should give us more than enough time to get inside,’ Otto replied.

  ‘It’s not the getting in I’m worried about,’ Darkdoom said. ‘It’s the getting back out.’

  ‘We still need to get across this level and get into position,’ Wing said calmly. ‘We should get moving.’

  ‘OK,’ Darkdoom said, walking towards the door leading out of the room. ‘Keep it tight and quiet. Remember that if we encounter H.O.P.E. personnel to keep your movements to a minimum. These suits are effective but the more you move, the easier you are to spot and the more power the camouflage field consumes.’

  Otto glanced at the battery-level indicator in the corner of his helmet’s head-up display. He still had just over an hour’s worth of charge left in the suit. It would be tight but it should be enough time.

  Darkdoom slowly opened the door and stepped outside. There was nobody immediately visible but they could hear voices coming from not very far away. This level was clearly far from unoccupied.

  ‘H.I.V.E.mind, take point,’ Darkdoom said as the four of them crept cautiously along the corridor. Moments later, a man in black combat fatigues with the H.O.P.E. emblem on his chest walked around the corner and headed down the corridor towards them. Otto could not help but hold his breath even though he knew logically that it made no difference to their chances of being spotted. The man walked past them without even hesitating and they continued their slow, silent progress. Otto had always wondered what it would be like to be invisible. Now he knew: nerve-wracking and slightly creepy.

  The facility reminded Otto oddly of H.I.V.E., carved out of the mountain as it was. In his previous life he would never have believed that such a place could be built and maintained in perfect secrecy, but after seeing H.I.V.E. and Cypher’s base hidden in the jungle he had come to realise that anything was possible when one had unlimited resources.

  The corridors were lined with glass-walled rooms, containing operational control rooms and monitoring stations. H.O.P.E. personnel manned row after row of workstations and huge wall-filling displays showed maps and satellite imagery, all overlaid with mission status reports and target indicators. There was no doubt that they were in the hub of H.O.P.E.’s operations and Otto idly wondered how much information he could extract from the base’s servers if he could just get near enough to interface with them. Maybe some other time, he thought to himself. For now they had to concentrate on the mission at hand.

  Otto felt a sudden chill as a door at the end of the passageway opened and three familiar figures walked out. There was no mistaking the predatory features of the man in the middle. It was Sebastian Trent, the commander of H.O.P.E. Otto had only seen him once, in the video announcing Nero’s capture, but that face had been burnt deep into his memory. On either side of him walked the tall, blonde assassins Constance and Verity. The three of them were deep in conversation about something and after a few moments the twins nodded and strode off in the other direction. Trent walked straight past just a few metres from Otto and the others before striding into one of the operational command centres they had just passed. They were in the lion’s den now, Otto thought to himself.

  After a couple more minutes of slow, stealthy progress they were in position. Thirty metres or so away from them a glowing red energy field blocked the corridor. Beyond that there was a security checkpoint which was manned by two large guards carrying sub-machine guns. Mounted on the walls were several security cameras and numerous displays. It was impossible to make out the details of what was displayed on the screens but it all pointed to a stifling level of security.

  ‘Now we just have to hope that Raven and company can hold up their end of the deal,’ Darkdoom whispered.

  They’d better, Otto thought to himself, or this was going to be a wasted trip.

  Raven stepped over the unconscious bodies of the two guards and looked at the palm reader mounted next to the door into the power plant. She picked up the limp arm of one of the guards, peeled the black leather glove from his hand and pressed his palm to the reader. The display flashed ‘access denied’.

  ‘I knew that would be too easy,’ Raven said quietly. She looked at the heavy armoured doors for a moment. Her swords could probably cut through them but that was hardly the most discreet means of entry.

  ‘Mind if I take a crack at it?’ Shelby said, looking at the doors.

  ‘Be my guest,’ Raven said, ‘but make it quick.’

  Shelby ran her hand over the doors and around their edges. She reached to her belt and unclipped a small wallet, opening it up and running her fingers along the array of custom-made tools inside before selecting a long thin probe and sliding it into the tiny gap between the huge doors and the concrete frame. She ran the probe up and down as if feeling for something, until she stopped at a point about a third of the way from the top. Quickly pulling another long thin wand from the wallet, she pressed a switch and a tiny arc of electricity jumped between the two prongs at the end of the device. Shelby slid the second tool into place just above the first probe and pressed the switch again. There was a tiny puff of black smoke from the door frame and the huge doors rumbled apart.

  ‘Still got it,’ Shelby said, sounding smug.

  ‘Show-off,’ Laura said, smiling behind her mask, and walked into the cavernous space beyond. The huge rock-walled chamber was filled with enormous turbines, their deafening whine uncomfortable even through the noise-cancelling circuitry built into her helmet. Raven dragged the bodies of the two guards inside the door and hid them behind a nearby stack of crates. She looked upwards and pointed to a long flight of metal stairs that led to a control room that was carved into the wall of the cavern above them. Laura and Shelby followed as she jogged silently up the stairs and peeked through the glass panel in the door at the top. Inside, two bored-looking technicians sat watching a large complicated control panel that was displaying the distribution of power throughout the facility. Raven opened the door slowly and crept up behind the first technician, reaching out and pushing her fingers into just the right spot behind the man’s ear. He slumped forward silently, immediately unconscious.

  ‘Sven!’ the other man shouted in a Scandinavian accent and leapt up out of his chair, running over to his stricken workmate. He jumped with fright as something shimmered in the corner of his field of vision, and he felt an invisible pressure on his neck before he too collapsed silently to the ground.

  ‘These suits make this too easy,’ Raven said, almost sounding disappointed.

  ‘Only for the next thirty-eight minutes,’ Laura said, glancing at the battery meter on her HUD.

  She pulled the notebook computer from her belt and sat down in the seat recently vacated by Sven’s colleague. She flipped the computer open and watched as her custom-written routines nibbled at the edges of the security on the power plant’s control network. After a few seconds a window popped up detailing the system’s vulnerabilities.

  ‘OK, as we expected, the emergency generators
are completely isolated and they’re controlled by mechanical switching so I can’t do anything about them from here. The big guys out there,’ Laura pointed out of the window at the rows of enormous generators, ‘they’re a lot more vulnerable. I can effect a complete shutdown and then lock the system from resetting.’

  ‘And they won’t be able to get past your locks?’ Raven said quickly.

  ‘Not a chance,’ Laura said confidently. ‘H.I.V.E.mind might be able to . . . given a week or two.’

  ‘Now who’s the show-off?’ Shelby said with a chuckle.

  ‘OK, get ready,’ Raven said calmly. ‘Raven to team two, we are ready to pull the plug. Are you in position?’

  ‘Affirmative,’ Darkdoom’s voice replied. ‘Any problems?’

  ‘No, so far so good,’ Raven replied. ‘Miss Brand will give you your go.’ Raven nodded at Laura.

  Laura found the primary power distribution routine and prepared the lock-out program.

  ‘OK, lights out on my mark . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . mark!’

  Up on the detention level everything went black. There were cries of surprise and anger and through his night-vision goggles Otto could see the two guards frantically searching in the pitch blackness for any sign of intrusion.

  Wing and H.I.V.E.mind moved quickly up the corridor, past the deactivated force field and into the guard room. For a fleeting moment Otto almost felt sorry for the two men as they were both silently dropped by the pair of invisible assailants, but then he reminded himself why they were there.

  Otto and Darkdoom ran through the guard room and into the detention wing beyond. The clock was ticking now and while Wing and H.I.V.E.mind dragged the unconscious guards towards the rear of the detention area, Otto ran along the row of cells, looking through the tiny barred window in each door for their target. Peering through the final door, he felt a thrill of recognition as he glimpsed the man sitting on the bare concrete slab that served as a bed.

  ‘Got him,’ Otto said excitedly. ‘H.I.V.E.mind, need a little help with the door.’