by Mark Walden
Otto forced himself to stop worrying about what Cypher’s plans might be and to focus on what he had to do now. Checking that there was no sign of the guards, he hopped up on to the conveyor belt and lay down as it carried him through the hole in the wall.
The H.I.V.E. security guard yawned. It had been a long shift and, since Francisco was the only prisoner in the brig, not a particularly exciting one. They had brought the Colonel in several hours ago and he had said nothing since, simply sat in his cell staring blankly at the opposite wall. The guard had heard rumours about what the Colonel was supposed to have done, but if he believed every rumour he’d heard while he’d been working at H.I.V.E. he’d have quit a long time ago. Usually the brig was only used for the worst and most unruly students – this was certainly the first recorded incidence of one of the teaching staff being locked up.
He heard the soft bleep of an authorised entry to the brig and turned to meet the visitor. To the guard’s credit, he got his Sleeper halfway out of its holster before he was struck full in the chest by the two stun pulses that shot from the identical guns that Block and Tackle were carrying. He slumped forward on the desk, out cold.
The two students moved quickly, Block moving to cover the door while Tackle punched a series of commands into the console on the security desk. With a hiss, the bars that trapped Francisco in his cell retracted into the ceiling. The Colonel walked calmly from his cell, displaying no sign of any emotion as Tackle handed him a Sleeper.
‘Phase Two has been authorised,’ Tackle said flatly.
‘Very well, you have your orders,’ Francisco replied calmly. ‘Initiate.’
.
Chapter Twelve
Raven came to and immediately wished she hadn’t. She felt as if she’d been run over by a truck; every part of her body ached. Her wrists and ankles were shackled to the chair in which she was sitting and her battered body protested as she strained against the restraints. The small room was bare save for a metal table and another chair; the only illumination came from the harsh white strip lighting overhead. Automatically she began to assess her chances of escape, just as she had been trained to do. Unsurprisingly, all of her gear had been taken from her and the restraints were well designed and strong enough to resist even her most determined efforts to break free. She wasn’t going anywhere.
The door to the cell hissed open and Cypher walked into the room. The black glass mask that he always wore might have concealed his face completely but he made no effort to conceal the smug, triumphant tone in his voice.
‘So, Nero’s pet finally wakes up,’ Cypher said sarcastically. ‘I was under the impression that you were supposed to be the best but it seems that my assassins got the better of you rather easily.’
‘You’ll burn for this, Cypher,’ Raven spat back. ‘You’re finished. When Number One discovers what you’ve done he’ll turn this place into a smouldering crater.’
‘Oh, I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about that for very much longer,’ Cypher replied calmly. ‘Indeed, by the end of today it will be Number One who will fear me.’
‘You won’t be the first to try,’ Raven said with a sneer, ‘and you won’t be the first who gets stepped on like a bug either.’
‘My dear Raven,’ Cypher replied coldly, ‘you underestimate my determination. Number One and Nero are relics of the past. I am the future.’
‘You have no future,’ Raven replied. ‘G.L.O.V.E. will put you down like the mad dog you are.’
‘You are foolish to place so much faith in an organisation that is made up of the cream of the world’s villains. If the ruling council of G.L.O.V.E. is known for anything, it is its pragmatism. After the demonstration of my power that they will all witness today, I very much doubt any of them will be inclined to oppose me.’
Raven had no idea what Cypher was hinting at and, even though she would show this lunatic no sign of it, she was worried. Whatever he was planning, it was clearly designed to be a spectacular display of his strength. People who stopped fearing the wrath of Number One were usually insane or extremely dangerous. Secretly she feared that Cypher might be both.
‘I have to admit I was impressed that you survived the explosion in Tokyo,’ Cypher continued. ‘Normally I would be annoyed, but in this case it gives me the undoubted pleasure of killing you twice in one day. I’ve been waiting to try out my latest invention, and you should make the perfect test subject.’
The door behind Cypher hissed open again and Raven’s eyes widened in surprise as two of Cypher’s assassins entered the room. They were not wearing the black silk robes that they had been swathed in before, and their exposed, black metallic endo-skeletons left little doubt as to their true nature.
‘Machines. I should have known,’ Raven said quietly.
‘Oh, these aren’t just machines,’ Cypher replied, a note of pride in his voice. ‘These are the cutting edge of robotic technology. Titanium skeleton, grade one positronic core, carbon fibre musculature, multi-layered combat programming. They are works of art. They may not be capable of much in the way of independent thought, but that is outweighed by their unquestioning loyalty.’
‘Am I supposed to be impressed?’ Raven said with a cold smile.
‘No, but you should be flattered. They were, after all, designed to beat you in single combat. Their core combat routines have been based on an extensive study of your capabilities. The only difference between you and them is that they don’t tire and they can take an assault rifle round to the head.’
Cypher looked straight at Raven, her angry face a distorted reflection in the smooth black glass.
‘They render you quite . . . obsolete,’ he said threateningly.
As Cypher leant over her Raven spat in his face, her saliva running down the smooth surface of his mask. Without hesitation Cypher backhanded her hard across the face, but Raven didn’t even flinch, she just stared back at him, defiance in her eyes. Cypher pulled a clean white handkerchief from his pocket and wiped the trickling spit from his mask.
‘Take her to the testing area,’ Cypher said angrily, gesturing to the two robots who advanced towards her. ‘I’m going to enjoy watching you die.’
Otto lay flat on his stomach, the conveyor belt carrying him through the dimly illuminated tunnel, its destination unknown. They seemed to be travelling downwards, as the belt was on a very slight incline, but without having a better idea of the layout of the facility Otto had no way of knowing exactly where he was being taken. Suddenly Otto could make out faint sounds of machinery coming from somewhere up ahead. He lifted his head to peer along the length of the belt in front of him and could just make out a more brightly lit opening towards which the belt was travelling. As the belt moved him inexorably towards the light Otto could see that a pair of large yellow robotic claws were lifting the robots from the end of the belt and carrying them out of sight. As Otto neared the end of the belt he rolled off it and slowly snuck forward to see what lay in this new room.
The claws were lifting the robots from the end of the belt with clockwork precision, hoisting them into the air before swivelling away and positioning the inactive assassins in neatly ordered rows within the vast hangar-like space. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of the mechanical killers arranged in perfect lines that stretched off in all directions. Otto’s blood ran cold at the sight. Cypher was not just assembling a security or special operations force. This was an army. Having seen what these things were capable of in small numbers Otto knew that with an army of them Cypher would be almost unstoppable.
Otto hopped down from the opening and on to the hangar floor. The assassins were clearly all deactivated at the moment and he decided that it would be best to find an exit while that was still the case. He had just started to move towards the other side of the room when he suddenly heard voices. Quickly Otto ducked into the long rows of motionless robots, using their massed ranks as cover. Otto could not see who was talking as the voices drew nearer but he could hear th
eir conversation clearly.
‘They’re ready for final loadout,’ the first voice said.
‘I wish they’d given us a bit more notice,’ the second voice complained.
‘Everything is ready, isn’t it?’ the first man asked, a slight note of panic in his voice.
‘Yeah, I think so. We’ll have to skip a couple of the final checks but otherwise we’re good to go.’
‘OK, let’s fire them up, then,’ the first man said, exhaling loudly.
There was a low hum and suddenly the heads of all the robots in the front row snapped upright, each assassin turning as one on the spot and then proceeding to march to the far end of the room, all in perfect step with one another. As they turned Otto could see that the tiny holes in the sides of their faces were now lit up with a blood-red glow. Otto guessed that they must be sensory arrays, but these spider-like eye clusters did nothing to improve their sinister appearance.
As the first row filed out of the hangar the second row snapped to attention and proceeded to follow them to the exit. Otto realised that if they kept moving at this rate he’d run out of hiding places very quickly. He crept backwards, trying to put more rows of the ever-dwindling robot army between him and the voices he had heard previously. Otto looked around desperately for somewhere else to hide but there were no immediately obvious options. There were now only a couple of rows of the neatly ordered assassins still in front of him. He had nowhere to run.
Back in the fabrication cavern the console controlling the alloy delivery system beeped once. The giant crucible full of boiling molten metal tipped as it had done countless times before, but as the glowing yellow torrent poured from the lip of the cauldron it began to move. Otto had not had much time with the console so his reprogramming had been quick and dirty – there had been little time for elegance. The crucible began to move along the length of the production line, molten metal pouring on to the delicate machinery below, destroying it completely in a shower of sparks and flame. At first the automated production system tried to keep functioning but, as pressures started to build and more and more parts of the system reported catastrophic failures, the system began to overload. There were a couple of loud bangs and then something somewhere within the ranks of heavy machinery decided that it had had enough and exploded with enough force to shake the entire cavern . . .
Otto felt the hangar floor move and heard the muffled sound of a distant explosion.
‘What the hell was that?’ one of the voices at the front of the hangar said.
Suddenly a huge ball of fire bloomed from the opening through which the conveyor belt fed the recently manufactured droids. The shockwave knocked Otto to the ground and toppled a couple of the still-inactive assassins. They fell like statues, ramrod straight, just so much scrap metal until they were activated. There was the sound of another explosion in the distance and another jet of flame shot from the opening leading to the manufacturing cavern.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ one of the voices shouted and Otto could just make out the sound of running footsteps receding into the distance. As he peered around the last row of inactive robots he could see two men in white coats running towards the hangar exit.
Otto smiled to himself as another distant explosion shook dust from the ceiling. That was what he called throwing a spanner in the works. Suddenly a much closer and more violent explosion sent a girder tumbling down from high overhead. It smashed down on to the row of assassins just a couple of feet in front of Otto with an enormous crash. As Otto picked himself up and brushed the dust and debris from his uniform he wondered if maybe there was such a thing as a spanner that was just a little too big. He ran for the exit.
Cypher stood on a gantry looking down into the featureless concrete pit below. Raven stood in the centre of the pit twenty metres below him, staring straight back at him.
‘You’re certain,’ Cypher said to the frightened-looking technician who stood just a few feet away.
‘I’m afraid so, sir. Whoever has sabotaged the manufacturing facility did an exceptionally efficient job of it. There’s no chance of containing the fire and if it continues to spread at its current rate it will reach the fuel cells in just a few minutes.’
‘It would appear that G.L.O.V.E. has responded more quickly than I expected,’ Cypher replied thoughtfully, ‘though I am impressed that their saboteurs got in undetected.’
‘We’ve reviewed the security logs,’ the technician reported. ‘There’s no sign of a team entering the facility, but with G.L.O.V.E. commandos that doesn’t mean that they’re not here.’
Cypher nodded. ‘How far along is the load-out of the Kraken?’ he asked, glancing back down at Raven in the pit.
‘Seventy-five per cent of our forces have been loaded,’ the technician replied, looking around nervously as the distant rumble of another explosion sent an unnerving tremor through the gantry.
‘That will be sufficient. Order a full evacuation and prepare the Kraken to disembark. Such a shame,’ Cypher said with a sigh. ‘I had been looking forward to this.’ He gestured at Raven. He picked up the roll of black silk that was leaning against the gantry rail beside him.
‘Raven, my dear,’ Cypher said, looking down into the pit, ‘I’m afraid that I really have to go. It’s unfortunate that I’ll have to miss the show, but I thought that you at least deserved the chance to go out fighting.’
With that Cypher tossed the roll of black silk into the pit below. Raven stepped forward and carefully unrolled the silk. Inside were her twin swords. She quickly scooped up the weapons and looked up at the gantry far overhead.
‘This isn’t over, Cypher,’ Raven yelled defiantly.
‘Oh, I rather think it is,’ Cypher replied and pressed a switch on a control panel mounted on the gantry rail.
There was a low grinding rumble as a three-metre-square area of the pit’s floor dropped away and slid aside. With a sudden hiss white vapour shot up from the hole and a dark shape rose up through the opening. The robot that stood on the raising platform was huge – at least twelve feet tall and seemingly almost as wide. It was covered in the same matt-black armour as the smaller robots, but that was where any similarity ended. If the assassin droids were a stiletto blade sliding unnoticed between the joins of an opponent’s armour, this machine was a sledgehammer, designed to crush its enemies without mercy.
Cypher hit another button up on the gantry and with a low growl the sensory arrays in the behemoth’s face plate lit up with a dull red glow.
‘Kill her,’ Cypher said, ‘slowly.’
‘Command acknowledged,’ the robot replied in a low, growling synthesised voice.
Cypher took one last look down into the pit as the huge machine advanced on Raven and then turned and walked away down the gantry.
‘All crew members, preparation for phase two launch complete. Final embarkation authorised. Please proceed to duty stations,’ the voice blared from the tannoy.
Otto pressed himself into the shadows of a recessed doorway as a group of worried-looking technicians ran past. He stayed well out of sight – clearly Cypher’s personnel were in the final stages of preparation for something, but he doubted that they were distracted enough to ignore the presence of a thirteen-year-old boy. Fortunately most of the facility seemed to be deserted – whatever was going on was obviously important. Otto walked past a short side corridor and stopped. At the end of the corridor was a balcony that opened on to another vast cavern but what had really caught Otto’s attention was the sound he could hear coming from the corridor: it was the sound of the sea, waves crashing against rocks. Otto moved cautiously down the corridor and peered out over the edge of the balcony.
The cavern had obviously been a large sea-cave originally but now it had been converted to work as a docking facility. A huge concrete jetty had been constructed along one wall and electro-magnetic crane rigs mounted on the ceiling were lifting containers from the jetty and lowering them into the belly of the bizarre ship that was dock
ed there. The ship was the size of a modern missile cruiser but its sleek, flowing, almost organic lines suggested that it was significantly more advanced than any normal naval warship. Its black metallic skin seemed to soak up the illumination from the huge floodlights overhead, just like the skin of the Shroud had done, and Otto realised that there was a good chance that they were both coated with the same material. Until recently Cypher had had access to all of the technical resources that any senior member of G.L.O.V.E. did and Otto supposed that the material coating this ship and H.I.V.E.’s stealth transports may well be exactly the same. Arranged around the rear third of the ship’s deck were half a dozen turrets, each mounted with a very serious-looking launcher tube. Technicians were swarming all over the ship’s deck, checking systems and stowing equipment, apparently making final preparations for the ship to get underway.
Otto’s attention was drawn by movement on the superstructure of the ship as several figures walked out on to a platform that overlooked the deck. He felt a sudden hot flash of anger as he recognised the figure at the head of the group, Cypher. Suddenly Otto flashed back to the events of the rooftop in Tokyo, the pain that Cypher had caused him and the debt that he owed Wing.
He had to get on board that ship.
Raven dived to her left. The massive robot was unbelievably fast for its size but fortunately not quite as agile as its more normal-sized counterpart. A fist the size of a wrecking ball smashed into the concrete wall of the pit, leaving a small crater where Raven’s head had been just moments before. Raven counterattacked, swinging her blades at one of the exposed bunches of muscle cables on the back of the behemoth’s leg. Her katanas had been made and maintained by some of the finest weaponsmiths in the world but they glanced off the cables like a butter knife off a brick. She moved quickly away from the robot as it swivelled to face her, trying desperately to stay out of its reach. Raven knew that she could not win this fight; the machine she was fighting had as much armour plating as a tank and it would take more than agility and fancy swordplay to bring it down.