Rogue (12 page)

‘Very well, we will try again in a few hours,’ he said, frowning. He would have preferred to leave Otto hooked up to the network feed indefinitely, but Creed had warned him against placing him under undue strain, at least for the next couple of days. Trent reminded himself that this was a complex game they were playing and that it might be some time before all the pieces were in the correct positions on the board for him to make his final devastating move.

‘Report to Ghost,’ Trent commanded. ‘We may not be able to find our next target yet, but that does not mean you cannot continue your preparations.’

Otto nodded and left the room. He walked through the hidden base that had become his home over the last few months and headed for the training area. Ghost was already there, moving effortlessly through a series of flowing unarmed attacks that combined elements of several different fighting styles. She noticed Otto after a couple of seconds and beckoned him over. She still wore the gleaming white armour that she had been in when he first met her. It wasn’t as if she could remove it, Otto reminded himself. It was as much part of her as her muscles and bones; removing it or shutting off any of the numerous cybernetic implants throughout her body would probably kill her. They didn’t just give her enormous strength and speed, they kept her alive. He had tried, out of curiosity, to see if his abilities would allow him to access the systems within the woman’s body, but the Animus’s behavioural programming would not allow it. He did not question the fact that this restraint had been placed on his abilities, he simply accepted it, just as he did with any of the instructions that had been implanted within him.

‘Defend yourself,’ Ghost said, throwing him a long, wooden bo staff from the rack of weapons mounted on the wall. Otto dropped into a defensive stance, feeling the Animus within his nervous system responding to the situation.

Ghost took an identical staff off the wall and launched a series of swipes at Otto’s body and legs. He blocked each swing effortlessly, the staff in his hands moving in a blur to counter her attacks. He could feel the Animus strengthening him from within, stimulating his muscles and improving his reaction times. It did not require conscious effort on his part – his body was slowly being programmed by these sessions with Ghost in just the same way as his brain had been programmed by Dr Creed. Otto felt no pride or satisfaction in these new abilities; it was simply what was expected of him, nothing more, nothing less. Ghost attacked again and Otto blocked her attacks just as effortlessly. For the briefest moment he had an odd sensation of déjà vu and in his head there was the fleeting image of a tall Asian boy with long hair. He dismissed the image from his mind – a memory glitch, that was all.

‘Good, you appear to have mastered that,’ Ghost said, taking the staff from him and placing it back on the rack. ‘Now let’s try something else.’ She took an automatic pistol from the wall and threw it to Otto.

‘Blind field strip, thirty seconds,’ Ghost said.

Otto dropped to his knees, placed the gun on the floor in front of him and closed his eyes.

‘Go,’ Ghost said. Otto’s hands were a blur, stripping the loaded magazine, slide, barrel assembly and recoil spring from the gun and laying the components carefully alongside each other on the floor. He paused just for a second and then put the pistol back together just as quickly. He placed the reassembled gun back on the floor and opened his eyes.

‘Nineteen seconds,’ Ghost said, her expression completely unreadable behind her smooth faceplate. ‘Over to the range, please.’

Otto walked over to the target range at the other side of the training room, took the ear protectors off the hook on the wall and placed them on his head.

‘Silhouette target, thirty metres,’ Ghost said, hitting a button on the wall that dropped the paper target from the ceiling. Otto raised the pistol in both hands and fired, emptying the clip. The man-sized target slid down the range towards them along a rail mounted on the ceiling. Ghost stepped forward as the target reached the firing line, studying the bullet holes in it. All but two of the hits were inside the red disc over the silhouette’s chest that indicated the centre of body mass.

‘Not bad. Room for improvement, but quite satisfactory,’ Ghost said with a nod. ‘You’re becoming quite the little assassin, Mr Malpense.’

Otto had a fleeting sense that this was not a good thing, but in an instant it was gone.

Dr Nero walked into the Science and Technology department as the students who had just finished their lesson with the Professor filed out, chattering amongst themselves. The Professor looked up from the workbench as Nero approached.

‘Good morning, Doctor Nero,’ the Professor said. ‘Raven told me what happened to Diabolus. How is he?’

‘Critical, but stable,’ Nero replied. ‘Doctor Scott was cautiously optimistic.’

‘That’s the best we can hope for under the circumstances, I suppose,’ the Professor said. ‘I take it this is not a social call.’

‘No,’ Nero agreed. ‘I need you to come with me. Bring a copy of that code you found hidden on the network, please.’

The Professor went into his private workshop at the rear of the classroom and emerged a minute later carrying a tablet display.

‘Do you mind me asking where exactly we’re going?’ the Professor asked curiously.

‘I think it will be easier to just take you there,’ Nero said, gesturing towards the door.

Nero led the older man along a series of corridors that took them away from the main areas of the school and past the storage areas containing operational equipment and archive materials. After a few minutes they arrived at a small steel door at the end of a long corridor and Nero stopped as a bright white light flashed above the door frame.

‘Welcome, Doctor Nero. Access granted,’ a mechanical voice said as the heavy door slid up into the ceiling. The Professor could hardly suppress his curiosity as Nero gestured for him to go through the door. He had no idea that this area of H.I.V.E. contained anything of significance, certainly not something that would require security like this. The Professor found himself in a white corridor leading to another door. Nero walked past and again there was a bright flash as his identity was confirmed before the second set of doors rumbled apart.

‘What’s this all about, Max?’ the Professor asked as the doors opened.

‘You said you needed an expert on AI systems code,’ Nero said, gesturing for the Professor to enter the room with him. ‘Well, I think I may know just such a person.’

The Professor walked into the room beyond. It was comfortably furnished, with a bed and a pair of armchairs, and several well-stocked bookcases lined the walls. Sitting at a desk on the far side of the room was a man writing in a notebook. As Nero and the Professor entered the room and the doors rumbled shut behind them the man at the desk laid down his pen, slowly stood up and turned to face them.

The Professor gasped involuntarily.

‘Professor Pike, it is good to see you again. I do not get many visitors,’ Cypher said with a slight smile.

.

Chapter Six

‘I saw you die,’ Professor Pike said, sounding amazed. ‘We all did.’

‘A necessary deception,’ Nero said with a slight frown. ‘Wu Zhang suffered serious injuries during his abortive attempt to take over the school, but they were not fatal. It suited my purposes at the time however to allow everyone to believe that he had been killed. Number One could not be allowed to know that he had survived. Wu Zhang was the first person to alert me to the insanity that our former leader was planning, and while I could never forgive him for his methods or for the attack on the school, I came to realise that without him we might not have discovered what Number One was attempting to do until it was too late.’

‘And yet still you will not release me,’ Cypher said, ‘or even allow me to see my son.’

‘Wing is better off without you, and so is the outside world,’ Nero said coldly. ‘You may have chosen to forget how many people died needlessly during your attack on H.I.V.E., but I have not.’

‘Who would think that a leader of global villainy could be so self-righteous?’ Cypher said with a sneer. ‘There are times when I wonder if you’re really cut out for this kind of thing, Max.’

‘My friends call me Max,’ Nero said, looking him straight in the eye. ‘You can call me Doctor Nero.’

‘So,’ Cypher said with a slight smile, ‘to what do I owe the rather dubious pleasure of this visit?’

‘Unfortunately, we need your help,’ Nero said as calmly as he could. Even after all this time, Cypher still had the ability to get under his skin.

‘Explain to me why on earth I should help you,’ Cypher said calmly, sitting down on the edge of his bed.

‘Because it could be your first small step on the path to redemption,’ Nero replied, trying to keep his temper in check.

‘You’ll have to do better than that,’ Cypher said with a dismissive snort of laughter.

‘Then perhaps because you might be one of the only people in the world who can tell us exactly what this is,’ Professor Pike said, tapping the tablet display he was carrying.

‘Very clever, Professor,’ Cypher said with an amused smile. ‘An appeal to my intellectual curiosity. I do so lack stimulation here.’ He gestured at the bookshelves that surrounded them. ‘I have no idea how many times I have read each one of these books.’

‘This is a challenge that I believe you will relish,’ the Professor said, knowing that the lure of such a puzzle would be nearly irresistible for someone like Cypher.

‘Very well, you have piqued my interest,’ he said with no small measure of smug satisfaction in his voice. ‘Tell me more.’

The Professor quickly described the disruption of H.I.V.E.’s systems and their recent discovery of the rogue code. Cypher tried to feign uninterest at first, but as the Professor went on Nero could see that he was becoming intrigued.

‘What you are describing sounds like a seed program,’ Cypher said as the Professor finished outlining their discoveries. ‘We would sometimes use them to build elements of core code that were too labour-intensive to be written by hand. Though I must admit that it is the first time that I have ever heard of a program going to such extraordinary lengths to hide its output. I will look at what you’ve found,’ he said with another sly smile, ‘but there is a price.’

‘You’ll do it or I’ll have Chief Lewis come down here and shoot you,’ Nero said angrily. He found Cypher’s arrogance infuriating.

‘Threats, Max?’ Cypher said with a grin. ‘Empty ones at that. If you kill me, where does that leave you? No, I think you might just have to give me what I want – if you want my help, that is.’

Nero fought to control his growing frustration. The fact of the matter was that Cypher was one of the only people in the world, possibly
the
only person in the world, who could help them solve this riddle. He had been instrumental in the creation of the Overlord AI, and while that project had been a near catastrophic failure, he was still the only person he knew who had any experience of this kind of technology.

‘What do you want?’ Nero asked through gritted teeth.

‘I want to see Wing,’ Cypher said, sudden and surprising sincerity in his voice.

‘
If
you do this, I will . . . consider it,’ Nero said after a few seconds’ thought.

‘How do I know I can trust you?’ Cypher asked.

‘Because you have my word and that is more than someone like you deserves,’ Nero said as calmly as he could. Cypher stared at Nero for a few seconds, as if trying to read something in his face.

‘Let me see what you have found,’ he said, holding out a hand.

The Professor passed the tablet display to Cypher and he began to study the glowing screen. As he looked at the code that the Professor and Laura had found, his expression changed from one of smug amusement to one of confusion and then, finally, shock.

‘You have to take me to your network core now,’ Cypher said, looking up from the display, his face suddenly pale.

‘Why on earth would I do that?’ Nero asked, feeling a prickling sense of unease as he saw the look in Cypher’s eyes. The infuriating arrogance was gone and in its place was fear.

‘Because this,’ Cypher said, jabbing a finger at the display, ‘is Overlord code.’

Chief Lewis, head of H.I.V.E. security, was having a bad day. The security system had been reporting periodic outages all morning, and it seemed like a member of staff or student was reporting a minor malfunction or problem every other minute. His Blackbox started beeping and he pulled it from his pocket. It was a priority call from Nero.

‘What can I do for you, sir?’ Lewis asked as Nero’s face appeared on the device’s screen. Nero looked worried, and that was never a good thing.

‘I want a full system shutdown,’ Nero said urgently.

‘What’s happened?’ Lewis asked quickly. A full shutdown would disable all of H.I.V.E.’s electronic systems except those that would actively endanger the school if deactivated, such as the ventilation and the controls for the geothermal power core. It was not something to be done lightly, but Lewis was aware that Nero already knew that. The Chief glanced at the location code at the bottom of the screen. Only Lewis, Nero and Dr Scott, the chief medical officer, knew who was secured in that particular room. If alarm bells had started ringing in Lewis’s head before, now they were being joined by wailing sirens.

‘Do you need me to send a team down there, sir?’ Lewis asked.

‘No, I need you to shut the damn system down NOW!’ Nero snapped.

‘Yes, sir,’ Lewis replied, knowing that Nero was not someone who panicked for no reason.

He hurried over to the shutdown panel on the other side of the room and was just pulling his access card from his pocket when all around the room the technicians who were monitoring the security system started coughing and then slumping forward on to their workstations. Lewis just had time to realise what was happening before the tranquilliser gas that was pouring through the ventilation system reached him and he collapsed unconscious to the floor.

On screens all over the room a single phrase appeared, flashing red.

SCHOOLWIDE LOCKDOWN INITIATED.

‘The interaction between financial institutions and those in political power is often overlooked as a potential vector for the spread of corruption,’ Ms Tennenbaum said, gesturing towards the large interactive display on the wall of the classroom. ‘While one should never dismiss traditional bribery techniques, it is also important to remember –’

Suddenly alarm sirens began to wail in the corridor outside and the graphic depicting the flow of funds between banks and political parties was replaced by the single word LOCKDOWN. A murmur of surprised conversation broke out all around Shelby, Lucy and Laura as their fellow Alpha students reacted to the sudden interruption.

‘Now what?’ Shelby said quietly as she watched Ms Tennenbaum pull out her Blackbox and look at its dead display with obvious confusion.

‘Probably just another glitch,’ Lucy said with a sigh.

‘I’m not sure,’ Laura said with a frown. ‘The security system hasn’t been affected before. This looks more serious.’

Ms Tennenbaum replaced her Blackbox in her pocket and looked back up at the chattering students.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, could we have some quiet, please?’ she said, holding her hands up to appeal for silence. ‘I’m afraid that you all have to return to your accommodation blocks. You will need to wait there until the lockdown has finished. Quickly now, please.’ She had no idea what was causing the alert – all of the communication systems were down – but like all the teachers at H.I.V.E. she had been well briefed on the procedure to follow.

‘You don’t think this has got anything to do with . . . erm . . . absent friends?’ Shelby said, nodding towards Wing’s empty seat.

‘I don’t know,’ Laura said. ‘It seems like a bit of an overreaction if it is.’

All around them their fellow Alphas gathered up their belongings and headed for the door. Laura, Lucy and Shelby joined the group as they filed out of the classroom, Ms Tennenbaum in the lead, and began walking down the corridor to their accommodation block. As they made their way along the passageway they were passed by several H.I.V.E. security guards, all clearly in a state of some agitation.

‘I don’t like the look of this,’ Laura whispered to the other two girls as yet another squad of guards ran past.

Shelby looked down the corridor ahead and then glanced back over her shoulder.

‘Hey, guys,’ she said to the other two, ‘slow down a bit.’

Laura looked at Shelby with a slightly puzzled expression as she started to drop back from the other students.

‘What are you doing?’ Laura hissed.

‘I don’t know about you,’ Shelby said quickly, ‘but I’m not getting buttoned up in one of the dormitories until I’ve got a better idea what’s going on. I probably don’t need to remind you, but the last time we did that we almost got eaten by a giant Venus flytrap.

‘Erm . . . you might need to remind me,’ Lucy said, looking genuinely confused.

‘Long story,’ Laura said. ‘Shel, we’ve got no idea what’s going on. It could be even more dangerous out here than in the accommodation blocks, for all we know.’

Ms Tennenbaum walked round a bend in the corridor, with the rest of the class following obediently behind. Shelby glanced over at a dimly lit side corridor.

‘Come on,’ she said, and pulled Laura and Lucy towards the shadowy passageway. Laura opened her mouth to object, but suddenly the memory of being locked in their room while the tendrils of Nigel’s mutated plant monster smashed down the door popped into her head, and she reluctantly followed.

‘I hope you know what you’re doing,’ Laura said with a sigh as Shelby opened a door leading into a darkened classroom.

‘Nope,’ Shelby said with a grin, ‘but that’s never stopped us before, has it?’

‘You might not think it’s so much fun if Nero runs a headcount and realises that we’re missing,’ Laura said as they heard the sound of more heavy-booted feet running past in the corridor outside.

‘I figure we’ve got a while at least,’ Shelby said, holding out her Blackbox. Laura looked at the slim PDA. It was completely dead. She pulled her own unit from the pocket of her uniform and realised that it too was deactivated. Normally when a headcount was called, every student had to let their Blackbox perform a quick retinal scan to prove that they were where they were supposed to be, but there was no way that could happen if the units had been shut down. It only increased her suspicion that this was more than just another systems glitch.