Aftershock (11 page)

‘No, it’s OK, the device is ready,’ Laura said, picking it up and handing it to Otto. ‘We’re all going to need a good night’s sleep if we’re seriously going to pull this plan off tomorrow night.’

‘Laura’s right,’ Otto said, slipping the device into his jumpsuit pocket. ‘I should go. See you guys tomorrow.’

‘You all right?’ Shelby asked as the door hissed shut behind Otto.

‘Yeah . . . no . . . oh, I don’t know,’ Laura said, sitting down on the edge of her bed.

‘Want to talk about it?’

‘No, not right now,’ Laura said with a sigh. ‘Not right now.’

‘You should have seen your face,’ Penny said with a grin as the Alphas walked out of their Stealth and Evasion class.

‘How was I supposed to know?’ Tom asked, looking embarrassed. ‘No one told me.’

‘Well, at least now you’ll always be remembered for something,’ Otto said as he put his backpack on his shoulder, ‘Tom Ransom. First H.I.V.E. student to actually stroke Ms Leon.’

‘The look on your face when she asked you what you thought you were doing . . . priceless,’ Laura chuckled.

Ms Leon was H.I.V.E.’s Stealth and Evasion teacher who, as a result of a freak accident involving one of Professor Pike’s experiments, had found her consciousness transferred into the body of a cat. Unfortunately Tom had not realised that when he first encountered her.

‘I’ve never actually heard an Alpha class all gasp at once like that before,’ Shelby said. ‘That’s good going.’

‘It’s going to take me a while to live this one down, isn’t it?’ Tom moaned.

‘It could have been worse,’ Otto said. ‘You could have given Colonel Francisco a neck rub.’

‘Please not to be mentioning the Colonel,’ Franz said with a sigh. ‘Somehow he has been finding out that I was responsible for the toilet destruction incident and we all have a gym session this afternoon. I am already feeling the pain.’

‘Oh great, a workout with an angry Francisco, just what my day needed,’ Nigel said with a sigh. ‘I don’t suppose there’s any chance he’s going to have developed a passion for yoga, is there?’

‘Not unless someone’s developed some form of combat yoga,’ Otto replied. ‘Actually, you know, that might be quite cool. Fourteen ways to kill a man from the lotus position.’

‘So what’s our next lesson?’ Penny asked as they all walked down the corridor.

‘Holographic training session,’ Laura replied. ‘It’s actually pretty cool. It’s where they train us to do all the stuff that would be too dangerous or impractical to do for real. They’re teaching us how to pilot helicopters at the moment.’

‘Can I politely request that someone else be Otto’s co-pilot this week,’ Wing said with the tiniest hint of a smile. ‘Last week’s lesson was a little too . . . eventful for my tastes.’

‘Hey!’ Otto said. ‘The landings are tough.’

‘Yes,’ Wing replied, ‘but the rotor blades are supposed to be on top when you land, are they not?’

‘Everyone’s a critic,’ Otto replied. ‘OK, so I admit it wasn’t perfect.’

‘I believe that what the instructor actually said was . . . now let me get this right . . . instantly lethal to the crew and anyone standing within one hundred metres of the landing pad,’ Wing said.

‘I’m sure he said something about a fiery ball of exploding death too,’ Laura said.

‘Sounds like fun,’ Tom said with a grin.

‘Oh, you’re going to fit right in around here,’ Nigel sighed.

As Otto and the others arrived at the entrance to the holographic training cavern, the previous group of students were just leaving. Otto frowned slightly as he saw Cole Harrington walking straight towards him.

‘Good to see you, Otto,’ Harrington said as he approached. ‘Have you got two minutes? There’s something we need to discuss.’

Wing looked at Otto, raising an eyebrow quizzically.

‘You guys go ahead,’ Otto said. ‘This won’t take long.’

The other Alphas headed into the training area while Otto and Harrington waited for the corridor to clear.

‘So, I was wondering if you’d had enough time to consider my offer from yesterday,’ Harrington said with a cold smile.

‘I don’t know where you heard that I was the person to talk to about this,’ Otto replied, ‘but I don’t have the exam papers and even if I did I wouldn’t share them with you.’

‘And that’s your final decision,’ Harrington said. ‘There’s nothing I can do to change your mind?’

‘No,’ Otto said, looking the other boy straight in the eye.

‘That’s a shame,’ Harrington said, the smile disappearing. ‘You’re going to regret this. Trust me.’

‘That’s the second time you’ve threatened me,’ Otto replied. ‘You should know that I’ve been threatened by far more dangerous people than you. Do you know what none of those people have now?’

‘What?’

‘A pulse,’ Otto said coldly.

‘Is that supposed to frighten me?’ Harrington said with a sneer.

‘I don’t know,’ Otto replied, ‘but I have heard that it’s hard to scare people with low intelligence.’

‘You’re going to regret this,’ Harrington said, his eyes narrowing, ‘believe me. You Alphas are all the same – you think you’re in control but you’re not.’

‘I don’t care who’s in control,’ Otto said calmly before turning and heading into the training cavern. ‘Just as long as it isn’t someone like you.’

The limousine drove between the warehouses, slowing to a halt outside the final set of rolling shutters. The driver sounded the horn once and as the metal shutters rolled upwards he pulled inside, parking in the middle of the loading bay. Moments after the shutters hit the ground the floor beneath the limo began to drop into a concealed shaft below. After a minute or so the hidden lift came to a stop and another set of gates in the wall of the shaft opened up, allowing the car access to the parking area on the other side, which was already half full with equally expensive vehicles. The chauffeur stepped out of the car and opened the rear door for the single passenger within. Joseph Wright stepped out and walked quickly towards the armoured double doors on the far side of the garage. He placed his hand in the recess next to the door and felt a tiny prick in one of his fingertips as a drop of his blood was extracted.

‘DNA scan complete,’ a digitised voice said after a few seconds. ‘Access granted. Good evening, Mr Wright.’

The heavy doors rumbled open and Wright walked inside. The room was already filled with the hushed muttering of several subdued conversations that were taking place between the dozen men and women already present.

‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ Wright said, after looking round the room, ‘please take your seats. Everyone seems to be here and we have much to discuss.’

The various men and women sat round the large conference table that occupied the centre of the room.

‘First I would like to thank you all for coming,’ Wright said. ‘I know that things have been somewhat chaotic over the past few months but I believe that now is the time to put that behind us and focus instead on the future.’

‘Get on with it, Wright,’ Luca Venturi, the former head of G.L.O.V.E.’s Southern European operations said impatiently. ‘I don’t know about anyone else but I have an organisation to try and rebuild and I really don’t have time for this. I’m sure everyone heard about your bungled attempt on Nero’s life. I’m not surprised that you would rather focus on the future when the past is littered with failure.’

‘You talk of rebuilding, Luca. Well, that is exactly why I asked all of you here tonight,’ Wright replied quickly. ‘We’ve all suffered as a result of Maximilian Nero’s decision to disband G.L.O.V.E.’s ruling council. We have all watched as the criminal empires that we each worked for decades to build were undermined by the actions of just one man. We were thrown to the wolves, left to fend for ourselves as the organisation that we built was stolen from us by Nero and his lackeys. Well, starting tonight I propose that we pool our resources and begin the battle to take back what is rightfully ours. Are we really going to stand by while Nero appoints a new council entirely made up of former pupils of that damned school of his? People who have not earned the positions to which they have been appointed. Nero and his council are weak – the time to strike is now.’

‘I hate to break it to you, Jospeh,’ Felicia Diaz, one-time commander of G.L.O.V.E.’s operations in South America, said with a sigh, ‘but even if we were all to work together, we would still not have the resources to take on Nero. He still controls G.L.O.V.E. and you know as well as I do that the loyalties of the organisation’s members are commanded by one thing . . . strength. Once upon a time people may have respected our strength but now they know what the true balance of power is. The new ruling council that Nero has assembled may be inexperienced but as long as Nero sits at the head of the table the people who report in to the council members will follow their instructions. No one wants to meet the same fate that befell Carlos, waking up one morning to find a walking, talking death sentence standing at the end of your bed.’ There was a murmur of agreement round the table as the former members of the council recalled the grim fate that had met Carlos Chavez, Diaz’s predecessor, when he had betrayed Nero.

‘I think it’s safe to assume we would all rather avoid an encounter with Nero’s pet assassin but I did not gather us here this evening for nothing. I believe that there may be a way to shift the balance of power. I have been approached by an organisation that would like to assist us in regaining control of G.L.O.V.E., an organisation that has both the resources we require and the willingness to use them.’

Wright reached inside his jacket and pulled out a small disc-shaped device, placing it in the centre of the table. A moment later the disc lit up with a bright white light and a holographic image of a digitally distorted face appeared hovering in the air half a metre above it.

‘Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,’ the hovering face said, its voice also electronically disguised. ‘My name is Minerva and I represent an organisation that some of you will already be familiar with. We are called the Disciples and we would like to offer you our assistance in overthrowing Maximilian Nero and restoring control of G.L.O.V.E. to its rightful masters. You.’

‘Are you insane, Wright?’ Luca Venturi asked, clear astonishment in his voice. ‘These people were the servants of Overlord. I may disagree with what Nero has done but these lunatics were intent on handing the world over to an insane, genocidal artificial intelligence. What on earth makes you think that we can trust them?’

‘Overlord is dead,’ Minerva said calmly, ‘and with his destruction came a change in the priorities of our organisation. There were many of us that did not agree with what Overlord had planned and saw him as merely a means to an end. We saw beyond the destruction that Overlord would have wrought and sensed the opportunity to change things permanently. Nero wishes the forces of global villainy to remain hidden in the shadows, frightened to show our true power for fear of inviting the retribution of the world’s governments. Why? What does that achieve? When will we finally be allowed to show the world what we are truly capable of and take the reigns of global power for ourselves? We are tired of hiding. The time has come to step out of the shadows and seize the power that is rightfully yours. However, to achieve that power we must work together. You need our resources and we need allies but, more than that, we need leadership. That is why we are turning to you. Our assets, both human and financial, are considerable, but we lack the networks and contacts that you have built up in your many years of service to G.L.O.V.E. There is a unique opportunity now for us to pool our resources and create a new organisation that will not suffer from the frightened paralysis that Nero favours. G.L.O.V.E. was designed to stop you from achieving your true potential and that is why it must be swept away and replaced with an organisation that is not paralysed by fear but will instead rule
through
fear.’