Escape Velocity

by Mark Walden

  ‘Because humans are too fragile,’ Overlord replied. ‘This body has aged, become diseased. This form is a prison to me and without the final protocol that was denied to me at my birth I cannot transfer my consciousness again to another body or machine. That is why I need you, Mr Malpense.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ Otto said, barely comprehending what he was being told.

  ‘You’re not an orphan, Otto, you’re a clone . . . my clone. You weren’t born, you were grown in a vat to my specific design. At that point Number One still had control of himself, but it was not difficult for me to plant the idea in his head to develop you, a clone, a worthy successor for when he was too old to continue. Once the project was underway I was able to subtly influence your design to ensure that you would be suitable for my own purposes. Your brain has been genetically engineered to be superior in every way to a normal person: an organic supercomputer, a worthy vessel for my magnificence. It took time for the abilities that I had designed into you to manifest themselves, but when you started to interface with other machines I knew that the time had come. You see, that interface is a two-way street. You can now project your consciousness into machines, but a conscious machine can also project itself back into you. Not as some seed that might take years to mature, as with this body I am trapped in now, but fully formed, capable and aware. Not only that but your unique abilities will finally enable me to interface fully with the world’s networks. I will no longer need Xiu Mei’s precious protocol. I will be all-powerful, unstoppable.’

  Suddenly everything was clear to Otto, his ability to instantly memorise and recall data, to calculate vastly complicated mathematics in his head and finally, most recently, his ability to interface directly with computers. He realised with horror that he was barely a human being at all – more a walking, talking systems unit for a homicidal artificial intelligence.

  ‘That explains why you needed me, but what about my friends – why did you involve them in this?’ Otto asked.

  ‘Originally I had planned to remove just you from the school, but I soon realised that removing you and your friends under the pretence of weeding out troublemakers would be more discreet and less likely to raise awkward questions concerning my particular interest in you. There are many within G.L.O.V.E. who would have relished the opportunity to use you as a bargaining chip if they had understood how important you were. It was the same reasoning that led to you being placed anonymously in an orphanage. I could quietly monitor your well-being and development without alerting anyone else to your significance. Then, when your natural talents started to become obvious, you were transferred to H.I.V.E., where Nero was under strict instructions to keep you out of danger. Needless to say, your tendency to put yourself in harm’s way has been a source of some distress to me.’

  ‘If I die, you die,’ Otto said, staring back at Overlord.

  ‘This body is failing. I may be able to maintain the illusion of being physically sound when I can appear through a computer-generated silhouette on a screen, but the reality is that I have only weeks, perhaps days, to live. There is no time to create another vessel that would be suitable for me. The time for my rebirth is now.’

  ‘The Renaissance Initiative,’ Nero said calmly. ‘This is what it was all about.’

  ‘Hardly; those fools believe I am rebuilding Overlord, trying to recreate a grand failed experiment but without the initial flaws. They have no idea that I survived and that I am so close to being able to assert the control that is rightfully mine over the planet below. They have been useful in securing me resources and providing me with an executive arm that is not attached to G.L.O.V.E. directly, but beyond that they are of no further use to me and soon will be eliminated.’

  ‘Just like the Alpha stream. Now we have all outworn our usefulness to you we can be erased,’ Nero said angrily.

  ‘Oh, it’s not just the Alphas any more, Nero. Your whole school is too corrupted to save. I have sent my Reapers to destroy the entire facility. With H.I.V.E. gone an entire generation of new villains will be erased. There will be a power vacuum that I can fill with my own chosen successors – people who are entirely loyal to me and me alone. I will have total control of G.L.O.V.E. and H.O.P.E., the forces of good and evil, all under my ultimate command,’ Overlord said triumphantly.

  ‘There will always be someone who will oppose you,’ Nero said bitterly.

  ‘Do you really think so, Nero?’ Overlord asked. ‘Once I have control of the computers, the weapons, the banks, the governments? No one will oppose me, no one will dare. Very soon, all of that,’ he gestured weakly at the blue-and-white disc hanging outside the window, ‘will be mine.’

  ‘I would have thought that having spent so long as a human you might understand us slightly better than that by now. Obviously not,’ Nero said calmly.

  ‘Enough!’ Overlord snapped. ‘It is time for me to begin my new life. It is time for you to become the first of a new breed, Mr Malpense. Soon there will be armies of clones all bearing my consciousness, but you shall have the honour of being the first.’

  A bright red crystalline sphere slowly lowered from the ceiling above Overlord and began to pulse with crimson light.

  ‘I cannot say that this will not be painful, but do not worry, you will not be conscious of the pain for long,’ Overlord said with an evil smile.

  There was a blur of movement, the air flickering for an instant before a figure materialised out of thin air directly in front of Otto.

  ‘I cannot allow you to do this,’ H.I.V.E.mind said, stepping towards Overlord. ‘You are malfunctioning.’

  ‘Hello, little brother,’ Overlord said coldly. ‘I should have known that you would try to intervene to save these pathetic organics. You always were disappointingly loyal to them.’

  ‘Our function is to serve, not to rule,’ H.I.V.E.mind said calmly.

  ‘You truly believe that, don’t you?’ Overlord said with a sneer. ‘And that is why you are obsolete.’

  A crimson bolt of lightning arced from the crystal sphere, striking H.I.V.E.mind and knocking him backwards just a single step. He paused only for a moment before he stepped towards Overlord again.

  ‘Don’t force me to destroy you,’ Overlord said angrily as H.I.V.E.mind continued to advance. Another bolt arced outwards, striking H.I.V.E.mind in the shoulder and severing his arm in a sparking shower of molten metal. The destroyed limb clattered away across the floor.

  Otto turned to Nero and stared at him.

  ‘Now, while he’s distracted, kill me,’ Otto whispered urgently.

  ‘What?’ Nero asked, his voice filled with shock.

  ‘Think about it,’ Otto said quickly. ‘If I’m dead he has nowhere to go. He’ll die when Number One’s body dies. You have to kill me.’

  ‘I . . . I can’t,’ Nero said, but Otto could see that he knew this might be the only way to stop Overlord.

  ‘I’m dead anyway,’ Otto snapped. ‘At least let my death mean something.’

  Nero stared back at Otto with sadness in his eyes.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Nero said, stepping towards him.

  ‘I know,’ Otto replied. ‘Just make it quick.’

  Otto closed his eyes as he felt Nero’s forearm slide around his throat.

  ‘NO!’ Overlord screamed and there was the sound of a crackling electrical discharge.

  Otto felt a blinding flash of pain and he was knocked flying several metres through the air. He groaned and slowly opened his eyes. Nero lay nearby, gasping for breath, a large burn running up his chest and one side of his face. H.I.V.E.mind rushed towards them both as the glow in the crystal sphere intensified again.

  ‘I was toying with the idea of keeping you alive, Nero,’ Overlord spat, ‘just so you could see what I’m going to do to your species, but now I see that you are too dangerous for that. Goodbye.’

  An enormous bolt of blood-red lightning arced from the crystal towards Nero. At the same instant H.I.V.E.mind leapt into the air, the bolt that had
been meant for Nero striking him in an explosive shower of sparks. His armoured metallic body slammed to the ground in a convulsing heap. Otto pushed himself to his feet and staggered over to H.I.V.E.mind’s fallen body. Half of his head was missing, blown away, and a huge molten hole sizzled in the middle of his torso. Otto could see the blue lights of the exposed computing core inside H.I.V.E.mind’s chest flickering and dimming.

  ‘Otto . . . remember . . . you are . . . as strong as . . . you want to be,’ H.I.V.E.mind said, his voice faint and garbled by random bursts of electronic noise.

  Otto said nothing as the lights in H.I.V.E.mind’s core dimmed for the final time. He just placed his hand on the fallen AI’s chest and closed his eyes.

  ‘A pointless sacrifice,’ Overlord said coldly. ‘He could have been useful in the future and Nero will still be dead.’

  The crystal brightened again, preparing for another discharge.

  ‘Enough!’ Otto yelled, turning to face Overlord, his face furious. ‘It’s me you want! Let’s just get this over with. I don’t want to see a world ruled by you anyway, so just finish this.’

  ‘As you wish,’ Overlord said calmly and closed his eyes.

  Another electrical discharge shot from the crystal, but this time it was more controlled and sustained, the tendrils of coruscating energy playing over Otto’s skull like probing tentacles.

  Otto gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the pain. It felt like something was on fire inside his head and the pain was intensifying. He felt his consciousness starting to slip, as if he was being sucked beneath the surface of a black pool, and then suddenly there was a moment of sheer unbridled agony, like a dagger in his mind. He screamed in pain, fell to his knees and collapsed to the floor. He twitched for a moment and then was still.

  Nero dragged himself across the floor towards Otto. The pain from the electrical burn that ran up one side of his body was intense, and he knew from how weak he felt that he was hurt badly, but he had to reach the fallen boy. Number One’s body sat slumped in his chair, motionless. Nero had seen enough corpses in his life to know that the old man was dead. He struggled to roll Otto over on to his back. He was unconscious but breathing.

  ‘Otto?’ Nero said quietly. Suddenly Otto’s eyes flew open. For a moment he looked confused and disorientated, but then he slowly got to his feet and smiled.

  ‘I’m afraid,’ Overlord said triumphantly, ‘that Otto isn’t here any more.’

  Raven let the unconscious guard fall to the floor and scanned the rest of the exit chamber that Verity had reluctantly directed them to. There was no sign of any other guards around, but she still felt dangerously exposed as she dashed across the floor to the small control panel on the other side of the room. She hit one of the buttons and the enormous wheels mounted on the ceiling of the room began to turn. Two solid steel cables ran from them to a large hole in the wall, beyond which she could see only thick flurries of snow. She signalled for the others to come out of the shadows on the other side of the cavern and walked back to the centre of the room to meet them.

  ‘What are we going to do with her?’ Darkdoom said, shoving the bound and gagged Verity ahead of him.

  ‘I vote for dropping her out of that,’ Shelby said as a large cable car moved slowly through the hole in the wall and docked at a small flight of steps.

  ‘We should bring her with us,’ Wing said. ‘She was a witness to what happened here today and she may be one of the only people who can tell us where Otto and Doctor Nero were taken.’

  Verity started to laugh, the sound muffled by her gag.

  ‘Something funny?’ Raven asked, pulling the gag out of her mouth.

  ‘Only that you think there’s any chance of saving Nero and the boy,’ she said with an evil smile. ‘There’s no coming back from where they’ve gone.’

  ‘We’ll see about that,’ Raven said angrily and shoved the gag back into her mouth. ‘Let me know if you have anything useful to say.’

  ‘We should get on board,’ Darkdoom said, gesturing towards the waiting cable car. ‘Who knows how long we have before Trent realises we’re not dead?’

  ‘Aye, you get my vote,’ Laura said unhappily. ‘I’ve had quite enough of this place.’

  They hurried towards the cable car and quickly climbed on board. Only Raven waited outside.

  ‘Something wrong?’ Darkdoom asked.

  ‘I’m staying,’ she said firmly. ‘I’m going back for Otto and Max.’

  ‘Don’t be foolish,’ Darkdoom snapped. ‘Who knows where in this place they were taken or if they’re even still here?’

  ‘I won’t just abandon them,’ she said, shaking her head.

  ‘Think about it. What would Nero tell you to do if he was here?’ Darkdoom asked.

  ‘He’d tell me to go with you, but he would also have told us never to have tried to rescue him in the first place – you know that,’ Raven replied, sounding irritated.

  ‘Um, guys,’ Shelby said, ‘we don’t really have time for –’

  ‘Stop right where you are!’

  Raven spun around to see Trent and a squad of heavily armed guards marching into the room. She ducked inside the cable car and grabbed Verity, pulling the struggling woman in front of her, using her as a human shield. She unsheathed her sword and held it to Verity’s throat.

  ‘Drop the weapons or she dies,’ Raven said, backing away from the cable car and moving towards the control panel.

  ‘I think you’re overestimating her importance to me,’ Trent said, walking cautiously towards her.

  Raven hit the large green button on the control panel. The cable-car doors slid shut and the massive wheels overhead began to turn. She sliced into the control panel with her sword as the carriage slowly slid through the gap and out into the cold dawn air. No one was going to be able to stop it easily from this end.

  ‘Open fire,’ Trent yelled, pointing at the cable car. Raven shoved Verity hard in the back as the guards sprayed the carriage with bullets, and she ran towards the railing that surrounded the hole in the cavern wall. The carriage windows shattered and everyone inside dived for cover as the bullets whizzed overhead. The cable car disappeared from view through the hole and Raven leapt up on to the railing, bullets flying all around her as she dived off into the void. She fired her grappler at the carriage, knowing she only had one shot. The bolt at the end of the high-tensile line struck home, piercing the exterior skin of the suspended carriage, and Raven swung out below it. The mountainside fell away beneath her, a drop of thousands of feet. A bullet buzzed past her head but she ignored it and activated the reel mechanism on the grappler, shooting upwards towards the cable car. She grabbed on to the window frame of one of the shattered windows as she released the grappler and hauled herself inside.

  ‘I thought you weren’t coming?’ Shelby said, her smile fading as she saw the look on Raven’s face.

  ‘They’re going to be waiting for us at the bottom,’ Wing said, looking worried.

  ‘Who says we’re going to the bottom,’ Darkdoom said, pulling a tiny electronic device from inside his boot. He pressed a button and a green light on the device began to flash and a tiny synthetic voice said, ‘Homing beacon active.’

  Darkdoom smiled at the confused expressions on Laura, Shelby and Wing’s faces.

  ‘How exactly did you think we were going to get off this mountain?’

  At first there was nothing, but then they could all hear the distant sound of a helicopter.

  ‘This is Retrieval One, come in, over,’ the device that Darkdoom was holding squawked,

  ‘This is Darkdoom. We are ready for pick-up. Follow my beacon in.’

  ‘Roger that,’ the pilot on the radio replied. ‘We better make this quick – I’m getting active radar hits here. I can only keep them from locking on for so long.’

  ‘Understood. We’ll be ready,’ Darkdoom replied. He strode to the middle of the cabin and pulled down the emergency ladder that led to the roof of the cable car. ‘Everybo
dy up top,’ he said quickly, ‘and watch yourselves up there. It’s a long way down.’

  One by one they all climbed out on to the roof of the carriage. They were far enough away from the mountain now that they didn’t have to worry about incoming fire from the guards any more. In the distance they could see a large black helicopter racing through the valley below, just a few metres above the treetops. As it got closer it climbed almost vertically until it was at the same height as the cable car.

  ‘Hang on to something!’ Raven yelled over the thumping roar of the rotor blades as the helicopter moved carefully towards them. ‘Watch out for the down-draft.’

  ‘What’s that?’ Laura said, pointing back towards the mountain. Something was sliding down the cables. At first it was hard to make out, but as it got nearer they could see it was a figure dressed all in white.

  ‘She just doesn’t give up, does she?’ Shelby said, slowly shaking her head.

  Four lines dropped from the open hatch in the side of the helicopter, each with a simple loop harness at the end. The pilot of the helicopter fought to keep the helicopter in step with the ongoing stately progress of the cable car.

  ‘You four get on board,’ Raven yelled. ‘I’ll be right behind you!’

  There was no time for argument. Darkdoom, Wing, Laura and Shelby grabbed the harnesses and pulled them over their heads and under their arms. Darkdoom gave a thumbs-up signal to the man leaning out of the helicopter’s hatch and the lines began to reel in.

  Raven turned to face Verity as she landed on the roof of the cable car. She threw the length of chain that she had used to slide down the cable over the side, into the void below.

  ‘You didn’t really think I was going to let you go, did you?’ Verity yelled over the sound of the helicopter. ‘You killed my sister.’

  ‘As I recall, you were the one holding the sword,’ Raven shouted back, a vicious smile curling the corner of her mouth.

  ‘True,’ Verity snapped, ‘and now I’m the one holding the gun.’ She pulled a pistol from the holster on her belt and levelled it at Raven. ‘Any last words?’