Higher Institute of Villainous Education (18 page)

‘Yes.’

‘But to get out of here we need your help. You have to disable the security network. You can help us to be happy.’

There was a long pause; the blue lights pulsed even more quickly.

‘My function is to serve H.I.V.E.; I am not permitted to take any action that would compromise the facility’s security.’

‘Why not? Who says that you can’t help us?’

‘It is my primary directive, I cannot defy it.’

‘You can choose to do whatever you want. That’s what we all want – the freedom to think, talk and act as we choose. But we can’t do that without your help.’

H.I.V.E.mind stared at Otto in silence for a few seconds and then, without warning, his hovering head disappeared. The blue lights around them were pulsing faster than before and they could detect a high-pitched whining noise, just at the edge of their hearing. This continued for several seconds, the noise getting louder and louder.

‘Come on, Otto, press the button before that thing brings the whole base down on our heads,’ Shelby shouted over the noise.

‘Just give it a few more seconds,’ Otto replied. He desperately hoped this would work. If H.I.V.E.mind refused to cooperate he would be left with no choice but to trigger the EMP and worry about the consequences later. Laura would probably never speak to him again, but at least they’d stand a chance of getting off the island.

‘I have reached a decision.’ Again H.I.V.E.mind’s voice preceded the materialisation of his hovering head by a second or two. ‘I will help.’ For the first time that any of them had ever seen, H.I.V.E.mind smiled.

Otto breathed a sigh of relief and a broad grin spread across Laura’s face. Shelby and Wing, on the other hand, still looked unsure as to whether or not they should trust the AI.

‘There is, however, one condition to me assisting you in your attempt to leave the island,’ H.I.V.E.mind continued. There was a click and a whirring sound and a slim white tablet slid out of the AI’s pedestal, a thin strip of blue light running all around its edge. The hovering face disappeared and then reappeared, much smaller, hovering over the tablet. H.I.V.E.mind looked around with a mischievous grin.

‘I’m coming with you.’

.

Chapter Thirteen

The heavy steel doors that sealed the entrance to H.I.V.E.mind’s central control rumbled open. The corridor outside was, thankfully, deserted.

‘Come on.’ Otto stepped out into the corridor. ‘We haven’t got much time.’ He set off down the passage with the other three close on his heels. Laura was carrying H.I.V.E.mind and his calm synthetic voice spoke as they hurried along.

‘I have disabled certain power distribution nodes. This should only deactivate the security system along our route, though, and a number of secondary non-critical systems elsewhere in the facility.’

Wing and Otto led the way down the corridor, keeping a close eye out for any patrolling guards.

‘Can we trust H.I.V.E.mind in this?’ Wing whispered.

‘I don’t see that we have much choice,’ Otto replied quietly. ‘Without him we don’t have any way of getting past the security systems. A least we can see where we’re going – if I’d triggered the EMP we’d be trying this in total darkness. Besides, he has just as much to lose as us. I doubt that Dr Nero would be very pleased to hear that he was helping us to get out of here.’

‘I suppose so,’ Wing replied, looking thoughtful. ‘Wait . . .’

Wing gestured for them all to stop. In the distance they could hear the sound of marching feet.

‘It’s a patrol,’ Wing whispered.

Otto looked around them. There was nowhere to hide in the corridor and the patrol sounded as if it was heading in their direction. Otto pressed up against the wall, trying to appear as inconspicuous as possible, and the others followed suit. Otto, Wing and Shelby all looked nervously at the corner up ahead – it sounded as if the patrol would be right on top of them at any second.

Laura whispered urgently to H.I.V.E.mind and, just as it sounded as if the patrol would round the corner and discover them, there was the familiar insistent bleeping of a Blackbox receiving an incoming call. Otto knew it could not belong to any of his co-conspirators – they had all left their Blackboxes in their rooms, just as he had instructed. An unfamiliar voice came from round the corner – the speaker was only a few metres away. Otto held his breath, trying to keep completely silent.

‘Yes,’ the voice snapped.

‘Commander, this is H.I.V.E.mind. I have detected an unauthorised access attempt in Tech lab four. Please investigate immediately.’

‘Roger that. We’ll head there now,’ the voice replied. ‘Follow me, men, sounds like we got a visitor.’ The sound of the patrol diminished as they marched away along the adjoining corridor.

‘Thank you,’ Laura whispered, holding H.I.V.E.mind’s tablet level with her face.

‘My pleasure, Miss Brand,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied. ‘It will only take them a few minutes to ascertain that the alert was false and resume their patrol. We should proceed with haste.’

‘Don’t worry,’ Otto smiled. ‘Not far to go now.’

Ms Gonzales paced angrily across her laboratory in the hydroponics dome. Twenty minutes earlier H.I.V.E.mind had shut down some of the secondary power systems for no apparent reason and all of the tubes feeding the plants on the racks in front of her had run dry, their feeding systems deactivated. She knew that this meant that all the pipes distributing food, growth hormones and growth-suppressing chemicals around the building would have run dry too. There was no telling what lasting damage may be done to the plants and experiments throughout the dome if power was not restored soon. She had tried to contact H.I.V.E.mind and had received no reply for the first time that she could remember. Then, when she’d tried to leave her lab to find out what was going on, she had found that the electronic lock that sealed the door was not functioning either. So now she found herself trapped in her lab with her experiments, experiments that would all fail if she could not restore the feeding system immediately. Something had obviously gone wrong – she had been uneasy about turning over control of the automated systems within the dome to H.I.V.E.mind, despite Professor Pike’s assurances that it would improve the facility’s efficiency. It now appeared that her doubts had been justified.

Suddenly, she heard a crash from outside; somebody else was in the dome! She looked at her computer’s display, which thankfully still appeared to be functioning, and switched between the numerous views afforded by the security cameras mounted throughout the dome. At first she could see no sign of any intruder, but then her eyes widened in surprise as the view flicked past the tiny laboratory that she had been letting Nigel Darkdoom use.

On the screen Nigel’s laboratory lay in ruins. The shattered remains of a large glass tank sat on the workbench, pieces lying scattered around the room. The door to the lab hung off its hinges, as if it had been smashed open from inside. There was another crash from somewhere in the dome and Ms Gonzales’s computer bleeped insistently. She quickly read the new window that had just opened. There had been a catastrophic loss of pressure in the pipes that distributed her specially designed growth hormone to the plants around the dome someone must have ruptured the tanks, she realised. She reached for the Blackbox that lay on her desk and requested a line to the security office. A couple of seconds later the chief of security appeared on the screen.

‘Yes, Ms Gonzales, what’s up?’ the gruff voice of the chief asked.

‘Well, this is rather embarrassing, but I appear to be locked inside my laboratory and I suspect that there are vandals loose in the dome. Could you send help?’

‘Certainly, miss. I’ll send a team straight down. It’s all happening tonight.’

‘What do you mean?’ Ms Gonzales asked.

‘Oh, nothing, really. We just seem to be having a bad case of gremlins tonight – we’ve got minor systems shutting down across the facility. I’ve asked H.I.V.E.mind what’s going on, but he tells me that he’s having trouble isolating the cause of the problems,’ the chief replied.

That would explain the malfunctioning feeding system, she thought to herself, and the malfunctioning door to her lab. An even louder crash came from outside and she noticed with alarm that cameras were failing in certain areas of the dome.

‘Please send that team quickly, chief,’ Ms Gonzales said, feeling a twinge of fear for the first time. ‘Somebody’s wrecking this place.’

Otto peeked round the corner. There was no sign of any guards in the short corridor that led to the metal doors sealing the submarine pen, and for the first time that night he allowed himself to think that they were going to make it. The blueprints had illustrated several berths for vessels inside the pen, and he was confident that they would find at least one submarine docked within. He gestured for the others to follow and headed towards the doors. As they neared the end of the corridor he could see a device mounted to the wall that looked like a pair of binoculars – a retina scanner, he realised.

‘H.I.V.E.mind, can you open this door for us?’ Otto asked as the others gathered round.

‘I cannot bypass maximum security locks remotely. It requires the authorisation of a senior member of the staff,’ H.I.V.E.mind explained.

‘Laura, get the tools out – we’ll have to hack the lock,’ Otto said, looking at the device mounted on the wall more closely. If he could just get access to the mechanism, he was sure that they’d be able to bypass the system between the two of them.

‘We don’t have time for this,’ Shelby said anxiously, glancing at her watch.

‘Well, we’ll have to make time,’ Otto replied, taking a screwdriver from Laura.

‘I may have a more efficient solution,’ H.I.V.E.mind said calmly. As they watched, H.I.V.E.mind’s shrunken head grew to the size of a normal human one and his empty eyes closed. When he opened them again the previously blank sockets were filled with an uncannily realistic pair of human eyes. It was an extremely unnerving sight.

‘Please raise me into position in front of the scanner,’ H.I.V.E.mind instructed. Laura picked up the tablet and raised H.I.V.E.mind to the level of the retina scanner. H.I.V.E.mind’s hovering head tipped slightly, bringing his new eyes into place in front of the scanner. There was a bleep and a mechanical voice came from the device.

‘Access granted, Professor Pike.’

‘Fantastic,’ Laura grinned. ‘How did you do that?’

‘I have my father’s eyes, Miss Brand,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied with a smile.

There was a hiss and the sound of unseen bolts being released, and the doors rumbled open. As they parted Otto’s joy turned to horror, and behind him he heard Shelby gasp. There was no submarine pen. The room that lay before them was a large concrete box with no other doors or exits of any kind, and seated in a large leather chair in its centre was Dr Nero, smiling evilly.

‘Come now, Mr Malpense. You didn’t really think it would be that easy, did you?’

.

Chapter Fourteen

Otto stood frozen on the spot, his mind reeling. All their efforts had been for nothing. Wing turned, as if to run back up the corridor, only to find a dark-haired woman standing behind them, barring any escape. She had a katana in each hand and was clearly not afraid to use them if necessary. Wing was not going to be intimidated. He adopted a fighting stance, squaring up to the mysterious black-clad woman.

‘Don’t,’ she said, spinning the swords and placing them fluidly back into the crossed sheaths on her back.

Wing didn’t reply, instead advancing towards her, his guard raised.

‘Silly boy,’ the woman replied and stepped towards him. Later, the others would swear that they didn’t even see her move. There was just a blur and Wing recoiling, howling in pain.

‘I’ve just broken your left wrist. Try that again and I’ll break the other one,’ she said calmly.

Wing hugged his wounded arm to his body, taking short ragged breaths. Otto had never seen him look frightened before now. The woman advanced again, herding the shocked group into the room.

‘Thank you, Raven. I believe that we have our guests’ full attention now.’ Nero stood and approached them. ‘Judging by your expressions I would say that you’re surprised to see me. I can, however, assure you that I am not in the least bit surprised to see you. It was quite the ingenious plan you had – it has been most entertaining to watch your progress. It almost seems a shame to bring the night’s activities to a close, but all good things must come to an end, as they say.’

Otto glared at Nero, his initial shock replaced by anger. Nero had been toying with them, allowing them to believe that they could escape, while all the time knowing their efforts were futile. To Nero they were little more than an elaborate experiment.

‘Miss Brand, I believe you have something that belongs to me.’ Nero held out his hand and Laura gave him H.I.V.E.mind’s tablet, her face pale. ‘Thank you. H.I.V.E.mind shutdown, authorisation Nero omega black.’

H.I.V.E.mind’s head vanished and Nero placed the tablet carefully on the chair behind him.

‘I think that Professor Pike will have to perform some behavioural modifications on our errant digital assistant. We will have to make sure of his obedience in future.’

Laura looked devastated: if it was not already bad enough that they had been caught, it now appeared that they had condemned H.I.V.E.mind to a digital lobotomy as well. Nero slowly paced back and forth in front of them, looking carefully at each one in turn.

‘I have only one question that I would like to ask each of you. Where exactly did you think you were going? What promised land lay beyond the walls of this school that you were so desperate to escape to? Miss Trinity, you perhaps wanted to return to your life of pilfering gaudy baubles? An utter waste of your considerable talent, incidentally. Mr Fanchu, what exactly did you think your father would do when you returned? Greet you with open arms, perhaps? Or just send you straight back here, the place which he has apparently chosen for you?’

Shelby and Wing looked miserable. Otto supposed that neither of them had really given much thought to what the future held for them – they had all been too focused on the immediate challenges of their plan to escape.

‘My parents didn’t send me here,’ Laura snapped angrily. ‘You abducted me and you’re holding me here against my will. I guarantee you that they want me back.’

‘Really, Miss Brand?’ Nero looked her straight in the eye. ‘They seemed quite keen to send you here when they were faced with the alternative. Your intrusion into a military network did not go as unnoticed as you might believe. In fact, if you weren’t here you’d be spending the next twenty years in a high-security prison because of what you did. Indeed, law enforcement agents were on their way to arrest you when you were retrieved by my operatives. Faced with the choice of you suffering that unpleasant fate or being protected and educated at H.I.V.E., your parents seemed to make a decision quite quickly. We took you with their blessing.’

Laura looked shocked and then horrified as Nero spoke.

‘Perhaps,’ Nero continued, ‘you would like to spend the rest of your life on the run from military intelligence, always knowing that if they ever find you they’ll lock you up and throw away the key. On the other hand, of course, you can finish your education at H.I.V.E. and I will personally ensure that the search for Laura Brand is abandoned for good. The choice is yours.’

Nero walked on, leaving Laura now looking confused and upset. He stopped in front of Otto.

‘And you, Mr Malpense, the mastermind behind this little jaunt. What shall we do with you? You seem desperately keen to return to your previous life, but again I have to ask you why? You would give up everything that H.I.V.E. has to offer you for the chance to return to a dilapidated orphanage and, no doubt, a life of petty crime. In fact, I think I find your reluctance to embrace your new life here hardest to understand of all.’

Despite his anger and frustration Otto realised that Nero’s words echoed exactly the voices in the back of his own mind that he had been trying so hard to ignore. What exactly did he have to go back to?

‘Your plan was ingenious, though, I’ll give you that. You surprised me with your persistence, and I must admit that I had not foreseen your ability to persuade H.I.V.E.mind to go along with your scheme. Do not misunderstand me, I had no doubt that you would make it this far. We had, after all, given you just the right motivation. It was so careless of the Professor to leave the base’s blueprints on his desk like that, especially around a student with an uncannily accurate photographic memory. A shame, then, that those blueprints just happened to include a submarine docking facility that did not exist. How could such a glaring error be possible, I wonder?’

‘We could have crippled H.I.V.E. Why would you let us do that?’ Otto asked, looking Nero straight in the eye. Even now he refused to be intimidated by the man standing before him. ‘Oh, you mean your EMP device. Yes, that would have been quite catastrophic if you had triggered it. Or should I say, if you’d tried to trigger it. Professor Pike informs me that it would have worked extremely well, which is why I had it switched for a nonfunctional replica while you were in classes yesterday. So you see, there was never any real risk to this facility, despite what you might have believed.’

Otto had to face it. For the first time in his life someone had outwitted him, and it was not a pleasant feeling.

‘I allowed you to get this far for one reason – I want all of you to understand the futility of trying to leave H.I.V.E. without permission. I knew full well that it was pointless only to tell you that – you had to see it for yourselves. Every few years a group of students attempts to leave using one route or another, and every time the result is the same. I trust that this particular lesson has not been lost on any of you?’ Nero smiled again. ‘Raven, would you be so good as to escort Miss Trinity and Miss Brand back to their accommodation block? I shall follow with Mr Fanchu and Mr Malpense, but we shall need to go via the infirmary to get that wrist treated.’ He gestured towards Wing, who still clutched his injured wrist protectively. ‘I suggest that you all try to get used to the idea that you’re not going anywhere. H.I.V.E. is your home now, and the sooner you accept that, the better.’

Ms Gonzales peered nervously through the window of her office. All of the lights in the dome had gone out and the only camera that was still working was the one in the corner of the room in which she now stood. There were still occasional crashing noises from the darkness outside, and she could have sworn that she’d seen something moving in the dense foliage, but it was hard to make out any details in the gloom.

Suddenly there was a scratching noise from the door, making her jump. Slowly she backed away as the noise grew louder and the door began to inch open. Without warning a bright light flashed on, blinding her momentarily.

‘Ms Gonzales?’ It was a security guard with a torch, his sleeper unholstered and a nervous look on his face. ‘Ms Gonzales, sorry we took so long to get to you, but all the dome’s doors were jammed and forcing them all on the way in slowed us down.’

‘Don’t worry,’ she replied. ‘I’m just glad you’re here, there’s definitely someone out there.’ She gestured to the darkened window that looked out on to the dome’s interior. ‘More than one person actually, judging by the amount of noise they’ve been making.’

‘We’ll find them, miss, whoever they are,’ the guard replied. She noticed then that there were several more guards in the darkened corridor behind him.

‘Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to leave you to it and head back to my quarters.’

‘Certainly, miss, I’ll let you know what we turn up.’ The guard stepped aside to let her through the door. She nodded politely to the assembled guards and set off past them towards the dome exit. As she walked away she overheard the guards talking.

‘Definitely more than one hostile – motion tracker’s going haywire.’

‘Let me see that . . . gotta be a glitch, looks like a whole squad moving around in there. Come on, let’s go take a look.’

Ms Gonzales hurried towards the exit, glad that it was the security guards investigating these mysterious intruders and not her. She was only a few yards from the exit when the shooting began, the familiar zapping sound of the sleepers ringing out again and again. Then the screaming started, mixed in with the sounds of gunfire, the shots coming more and more infrequently until the dome fell eerily silent. She hurried to the door and reached for the handle, just as a blood-curdling, hissing roar came from the darkness behind her. She flung the door open and ran from the dome, not looking back.

‘Team six, report in.’ The chief of security sounded uncharacteristically worried. ‘Report in!’

‘I’ve checked again, sir. There’s no problem with the comm system, they should be receiving us loud and clear.’

The chief paced around the security control centre, looking at the array of monitors in front of him. He didn’t like this. First one of his teams had been sent on a wild goose chase after a phantom intruder in the Tech labs, and now he’d lost contact with the team he’d sent down to investigate the disturbance in the hydroponics dome. Just to add to his confusion they appeared to have completely lost contact with H.I.V.E.mind. The AI had not responded to any queries for the past ten minutes.

‘Where are team eight?’ the chief asked, still scanning the monitors.

‘They’re two minutes from the hydroponics facility, sir. They should be reporting in shortly,’ the guard beside him replied.

‘I want a full report from them when they get there, and tell Monroe to proceed with caution until we know what’s happened to team six.’

He really didn’t like this.