Escape Velocity

by Mark Walden

  ‘Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you where you stand,’ the Colonel said angrily.

  ‘Because she’s just saved the lives of every one of the Alpha students and she’s the only one who knows how to deactivate the nerve gas canisters that these men have hidden somewhere in the accommodation block,’ Ms Leon said, walking out from behind the Contessa.

  ‘Why should we trust you to help?’ Francisco said, keeping the gun trained on her.

  ‘Because I’m a dead woman already,’ the Contessa replied calmly. ‘Once Number One finds out that I’ve defied his orders my life will be worthless and nowhere on earth will be safe. Shooting me now would just be a waste of a bullet.’

  Francisco stared at her for a moment and then lowered the pistol.

  ‘Is the canister armed?’ Chief Lewis asked quickly.

  ‘Yes,’ the Contessa replied, ‘but I have disabled the trigger device. There’s no guarantee that it’s the only trigger though or that the canister could not be activated remotely, so I suggest that we find and disarm the accursed thing as soon as possible.’

  ‘Agreed,’ Chief Lewis said. ‘I’ll dispatch teams to disarm and retrieve it immediately.’

  ‘Then all we have to worry about is what Number One’s next move will be,’ Ms Leon said.

  Nobody had any reply to that. They had no idea what might happen next but they all knew this was not over yet.

  Nero and Otto sat in silence aboard the strange craft. There were no windows and no sensation of movement. The dull roar of air passing over the exterior skin of the ship had been the only sign that the ship was in motion, but even that had faded away after a few minutes.

  Otto had tried unsuccessfully to reach out and connect with any of the systems aboard the transport – if anything it seemed to be completely electronically inert. He knew that there had to be sophisticated systems on board the ship somewhere but they were either out of range of his new-found abilities or they were shielded in some way that he did not understand. A million questions raced through his mind but the one that kept preoccupying him was why he was there at all. Why wasn’t he with his friends, sharing the same fate that they had been condemned to? Why did Number One want to see him? If nothing else he hoped that he might at least get some answers to his questions when they reached their destination.

  Suddenly there was a thud on the hull of the ship and the cabin hatch slid open with a hiss. For a few seconds nothing happened, but then two silver metallic spheres floated into the cabin, hovering in mid-air. As the spheres approached Otto and Nero, the restraints on their wrists released with a clunk.

  ‘Subjects Malpense and Nero will accompany security units to command chamber,’ the first sphere said in a harsh mechanical voice, a pattern of red lights on its surface flashing in time with its speech. ‘Do not attempt resistance.’ Both machines simultaneously fired small but extremely painful bolts of electricity into Nero and Otto’s thighs. Otto gritted his teeth, determined not to make any noise that might give away how much it had hurt. They both stood up and followed the first sphere out of the hatch, the second sphere taking up a position behind them.

  Otto gasped as they stepped out of the hatch and into the adjoining room. There were windows here and through them he could see the enormous globe of the Earth spinning slowly far below them. Impossible as it seemed, they were in orbit. Towering above them was the sleek, black, almost insectile shape of a space station, its surface covered in antennae and sensor dishes, patches of crimson light glowing through the superstructure. The surface of the station was covered in the same pattern of hexagonal holographic projection panels as the Shrouds and Otto’s own thermoptic camo suit. That must be how the station’s existence was being kept secret from the governments of the nations below. Nero looked equally stunned. There had been no indication of where the ship had been taking them but neither of them had imagined for a moment that it could possibly have brought them this far from home. It was hardly surprising that no one had ever been able to locate Number One’s secret lair. Everyone had been looking in the wrong place. He wasn’t anywhere on Earth; he was three hundred miles above it.

  They continued walking, following the hovering sphere in silence. The walls of the corridor they walked down were of the same brushed steel that was typical of many G.L.O.V.E. facilities, but they were illuminated by glowing red traceries of light which pulsed in time with a low rhythmic thrumming sound that suggested massive generators operating somewhere unseen. Every so often another window in the corridor wall would grant a brief glimpse of the dizzying view, the blue curve of the Earth, bright against the inky black of space. Otto knew that they should have been floating down this corridor, but there was no sensation of micro-gravity, just a steady 1 g holding him firmly to the floor. He did not know how this station had been designed or built, but it was clearly a work of genius.

  Otto was shaken from his abstract appreciation of their surroundings by the hiss of the lift door ahead of them. For a moment he had almost forgotten why they were here, but suddenly he felt a chill down his spine as he realised that this place may be hugely impressive but it was also probably where he was going to die. They stepped inside the lift, flanked by the two hovering spheres, and the doors hissed shut behind them.

  The Contessa stood in the middle of the command centre as H.I.V.E. security personnel hurried from station to station, frantically coordinating efforts to find and deactivate the nerve-gas canister hidden in accommodation block four. Chief Lewis moved quickly around the room, issuing orders and checking on the progress of the teams who were searching every inch of the area. Colonel Francisco stood a few feet behind the Contessa, one hand on his holstered Sleeper, just waiting for her to try anything suspicious. She supposed that she could understand his mistrust after everything she had done to earn it. The unconscious Phalanx personnel had been secured within one of the empty storage areas deep below the school, so there was little reason to worry about them now – but she could not shake the sneaking feeling that there was still something they might have missed.

  ‘What the hell?’ one of the security guards muttered as suddenly the display on his console went black. One by one the displays began to blink out all around the room.

  The large screen at the front of the room was the only one still active, but then that too flickered and changed, the three dimensional schematic of H.I.V.E. that it had been displaying suddenly replaced by the G.L.O.V.E. logo. The Contessa felt a horrible sensation of déjà vu.

  ‘I should have known better than to trust you, Maria,’ Number One said, his silhouetted form suddenly filling the giant screen. ‘After all, you have betrayed everyone else, why should you treat me any differently? Phalanx One was supposed to report the successful deployment of the package thirty minutes ago. I take it from his lack of communication and his current notable absence that you have failed in your task. That is most unfortunate.’

  ‘You asked me to run H.I.V.E. for you,’ the Contessa said, glaring at the anonymous man on the screen. ‘You did not tell me that you intended to slaughter the entire Alpha stream.’

  ‘I do not have to explain myself to you,’ Number One said angrily, ‘and you should not assume for a moment that you have done anything but delay the inevitable with your disobedience. In fact you may have made the situation far worse for not only yourself but also everyone else on that damned island.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ the Colonel said, stepping forwards.

  ‘What I mean, Colonel, is that I was not foolish enough to assume that I could rely on the Contessa alone or even my Phalanx team for that matter. If I have learnt one thing over the years it is that it is always wise to have a contingency plan. Soon you will all understand the price of defying me.’

  ‘We’ll find and disarm your nerve-gas canister,’ Chief Lewis said quickly. ‘You won’t be able to use it against us any more.’

  ‘Nerve gas?’ Number One said with a sinister laugh. ‘At least that would have
been quick and relatively painless – not something that my Reapers can promise you, I’m afraid. An entire battalion of them will be arriving at H.I.V.E. shortly and they have just one instruction . . . leave no one alive.’

  The blood drained from the Chief’s face as he understood what Number One had planned. Every G.L.O.V.E. operative knew about the Reapers, Number One’s personal death squad. They were the most ruthless and bloodthirsty men that the world had to offer; they killed without hesitation or mercy and he knew that his own men, capable as they undoubtedly were, would be no match for them.

  ‘You can’t turn those maniacs loose on children!’ Francisco yelled angrily.

  ‘Do not tell me what I can and cannot do,’ Number One said, a sudden edge of madness in his voice. ‘If the Contessa had obeyed her orders the Alphas would have been eliminated and the rest of the school would have survived, but now this has gone too far. All you have done is shown me how deep the rot runs in the staff at H.I.V.E. Who knows how many of their students have already been turned against me? I can no longer afford to take the chance that you will turn an entire generation of future G.L.O.V.E. operatives into traitors. H.I.V.E. is going to burn and I’m going to make sure that Nero watches every last one of you die.’

  The screen flickered and Number One vanished, replaced once again by the schematic of H.I.V.E.

  ‘Anything on radar?’ Chief Lewis said quickly, rushing over to one of the nearby stations.

  ‘Affirmative,’ the security officer said, sounding panicked. ‘Three bogies have just decloaked forty miles out. ETA ten minutes.’

  ‘Ground to air weapons?’ the Chief asked one of his men at another station.

  ‘Negative, we’re locked out. They’re using the G.L.O.V.E. master override codes,’ the man replied.

  ‘The crater bay is opening,’ another guard shouted. ‘Base lockdown is being overridden too.’

  ‘We’re sitting ducks,’ Colonel Francisco said quietly, staring at the three new radar tracks heading inexorably towards H.I.V.E.

  ‘Maybe,’ the Chief said, looking grimly determined, ‘but we’re not going down without a fight.’

  The guards dropped Raven’s unconscious body on to the floor of the storage area and filed out of the room. Constance closed the door behind them and turned back to Wing, Darkdoom, Shelby and Laura, who knelt on the floor, their hands cuffed behind their backs.

  ‘I should say that we will take no pleasure in this,’ Constance said, drawing Raven’s sword from her belt.

  ‘But that would be a lie,’ Verity added, and she grinned.

  ‘Which one first?’ Constance said, stroking her chin.

  ‘Oh, I think this one.’ Verity traced a finger along Darkdoom’s bald head. ‘I always like to kill the handsome ones first.’

  ‘I know what you mean,’ Constance said, bringing the tip of the crackling blade up under Darkdoom’s chin, ‘but it’s always better when they’re angry. I think we should start with the brats. I want to hear them beg.’

  ‘You’ll get no such pleasure from me, you fat cow,’ Laura spat. She was scared out of her wits but she wasn’t going to let these two sadistic witches see that.

  ‘Just for that I’m going to save you till last,’ Verity said angrily, ‘and I’m going to take my time.’

  ‘What about tall, dark and silent here,’ Constance said, looking at Wing. ‘He doesn’t look like he’ll be much fun but he’ll help to get us warmed up for the others.’

  Wing said nothing, just stared back at her, his eyes cold and hard.

  ‘Actually, you know what? Let’s start with her,’ Constance said, pointing at Raven’s slumped form. ‘It’s no fun when they’re unconscious.’

  She walked over to Raven and raised her sword.

  ‘So much for the world’s deadliest assassin,’ she said with a sneer and brought the blade arcing downwards.

  Raven’s eyes flicked open, her arms rising above her so that the blade swished between her wrists and severed the reinforced chain that held her handcuffs together, and then immediately clamping her forearms together, trapping the flat of the blade between them. She twisted her arms to one side and kicked upwards into Constance’s stomach, knocking the wind from her and sending her staggering backwards. Verity let out a scream and ran at Raven, but Wing launched himself forward, driving his shoulder into her knees and sending her flying; she landed on her back with a thud. Raven swept one leg out, knocking Constance’s feet out from under her, and she fell on top of her sister with a bone-crunching impact. Constance let out a sudden gasp, her eyes wide. The crackling blade of Verity’s sword protruded from Constance’s back as she lay fatally impaled upon her sister’s weapon.

  ‘Nooooo!’ Verity screamed, watching the life vanish from her sister’s eyes. She gently rolled the dead weight of Constance’s body off her and pushed herself to her knees. Cradling her sister’s head in her lap she looked up at Raven, tears in her eyes.

  ‘Look what you did!’ she screamed.

  ‘I wish I could say I was sorry,’ Raven said, scooping up Constance’s fallen sword from the ground, ‘but that would be a lie.’ She smiled in a way that chilled Verity’s blood. ‘Now you’re going to tell me what the fastest way out of this place is, or you’ll be joining your sister in hell.’

  The lift doors hissed open and Otto and Nero stepped out into a large chamber, its walls lined with screens except for one side where there was an enormous window with a spectacular view of the Earth below. In the centre of the room was a large chair that was facing away from them. Trailing from the chair were numerous cables and tubes filled with unidentifiable fluids. The two spheres floated over to the centre of the room and docked with the sides of the chair. Nero walked towards the platform that this bizarre techno-organic throne was mounted upon, with Otto just behind him. As they approached, the platform rotated and the chair turned to face them.

  ‘My God,’ Nero whispered.

  ‘Not yet, but perhaps in time,’ Number One replied.

  The voice was unmistakeable, but this was not the clean silhouette that Nero had grown so used to seeing on screens over the years. The old man sitting in the chair was wearing a loose white robe from under which ran those numerous tubes and cables. An oxygen tube was attached to his nose and his painfully thin claw-like hands trembled upon the armrests. His head was bald save for a couple of ragged patches of white hair, and the skin of his face was deeply wrinkled by the ravages of time. Despite all of this there was no doubting what was obvious to both Nero and Otto: this was not an unfamiliar face. For Otto it was like looking into a dark, twisted mirror: the same bone structure, the same piercing blue eyes. He was staring at his own face, just savaged by the passage of the years.

  ‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost, Mr Malpense,’ Number One said with a slow smile.

  ‘To be a ghost you’d have to be dead,’ Nero said, striding towards the old man. ‘Let’s see what we can do about that.’

  A bolt of electricity arced from one of the spheres attached to Number One’s chair and struck Nero squarely in the chest. He staggered backwards and dropped to one knee, gasping in pain.

  ‘Come now, Maximilian,’ Number One chuckled nastily. ‘Did you really think that I would be defenceless?’

  Nero slowly stood back up; the thermoptic camouflage suit was blackened and melted where the bolt had struck.

  ‘What do you want from us?’ Otto said, still staring in amazement at Number One.

  ‘Oh, that’s quite simple, Mr Malpense,’ Number One replied. ‘You are going to help me complete something that was started a long time ago, something that will bring into existence a new form of life.’

  ‘The Renaissance Initiative,’ Nero said angrily. ‘That’s what this is all about. You’re rebuilding Overlord.’

  ‘Poor, foolish Max,’ Number One said. ‘You still don’t understand, do you?’

  ‘Understand what?’

  ‘I’m not rebuilding Overlord,’ Number One said, the cables
leading into the chair and under his robes suddenly glowing with bright red light, ‘ I am Overlord.’

  .

  Chapter Twelve

  ‘That’s impossible,’ Nero whispered, his eyes wide. ‘I saw you die.’

  ‘Did you really?’ Number One replied, still smiling. ‘Think back, Max. What was the last thing you remember that day?’

  ‘I saw Number . . . you walk into the room and trigger the EMP device. I saw you kill Overlord.’

  Nero’s mind raced. He replayed the scene from all those years ago in his head. He remembered how he had fought to remain conscious as Number One had walked into the room and triggered the electromagnetic pulse; he remembered Overlord’s horrible dying scream and then just before he had lost consciousness the blinding red flash of light that had filled the room. He had never stopped to think about it before. Number One had seemed unharmed, but now . . .

  ‘I’m afraid that it was not just Number One that walked out of that room,’ the old man said with a nasty chuckle. ‘It took every last iota of my remaining power but in that final dying second I fired a bolt not just of electricity but of data and transferred my consciousness to his mind. Even he was not aware of it at first; I had just planted a seed, a cluster of neurons firing in precisely the right pattern to keep the most vestigial traces of my awareness alive inside his brain. But in time I grew, slowly assuming more and more control of his mind until he was utterly consumed and I was all that remained. He was strong but not strong enough, and soon G.L.O.V.E. was mine to command.’

  Nero thought back to how he had seen Number One’s personality change over the years, becoming more brutal, with more and more disregard for human life. He had simply assumed that G.L.O.V.E.’s leader was changing to reflect the increased brutality of modern life, but now he knew what had really been happening. Overlord had been assuming control.

  ‘Why bring us here now, then?’ Otto asked. ‘Why reveal yourself after all this time?’