Deadlock (23 page)

‘Here, let me help,’ Wing said, adjusting the straps on the chest plate of Franz’s armour and helping him into it.

‘We’d better get a move on,’ Shelby said, quickly doing up the fastenings on her own suit. ‘Francisco said that the Professor has some cool new toys for us.’

‘I believe he actually said assault weapons,’ Wing said.

‘Right,’ Shelby said. ‘New toys!’

‘You know, I do worry about you sometimes,’ Wing said, shaking his head.

‘What can I say? I’m a twenty-first-century girl. Who wants flowers and chocolates, when you can have body armour and bullets?’ Shelby said, giving Wing a quick peck on the cheek as she walked out of the room.

‘Is it right that I should occasionally be slightly frightened of my girlfriend?’ Wing asked as he watched her leave.

‘As I understand it, that’s perfectly normal,’ Otto replied with a grin.

The three boys followed Shelby out of the room and down the corridor leading to the experimental weapons lab. Raven stood on the far side of the room talking to Professor Pike and Colonel Francisco. She too had swapped her normal black catsuit for a suit of the white armour. There was, inevitably, one difference in her kit – the twin swords crossed on her back.

‘Good evening,’ Colonel Francisco said as he spotted them, ‘allow me to introduce you all to your new best friend.’ He gestured for them to follow him over to a long bench against the far wall with several black plastic cases resting on top of it. He opened one of the cases and pulled out a rifle with a smooth black casing and a long bulbous barrel.

‘This is the Sandman,’ Francisco said. ‘Its non-lethal mode is derived from the same technology as the Sleeper guns that you’re already familiar with, but with far greater range and accuracy.’ He pressed a button just above the rifle’s trigger guard and a glowing, blue holographic sight appeared in the air above the weapon. ‘This targeting array will identify and track multiple targets through heat signature, electromagnetic emissions or movement. It’s also capable of up to twelve times’ magnification for long-range sniping. If it should prove necessary the weapon can also be switched to lethal mode which fires magnetically accelerated microslugs, which have the stopping power of a bullet but are much lower in mass, giving it greatly increased ammo capacity. Each clip holds two hundred and fifty rounds, allowing for sustained rapid fire if necessary. The Sandman fires almost silently, with no muzzle flash and without the need for a suppressor, making it an ideal stealth weapon. It also has a full thermoptic camouflage coating tied into the system on board your ISIS armour. You have ten minutes to fire the weapon on the range in order to better familiarise yourself with it. Any questions?’

‘Are they going to be in the shops in time for Christmas?’ Shelby asked.

‘No? Good,’ the Colonel said, pointedly ignoring her.

Francisco handed each of them one of the rifles and Otto walked over to the range on the other side of the room. They had all received extensive weapons training, but Otto had never really been a fan of guns. He was a firm believer that there were very few problems which bullets could solve that brains couldn’t. On the other hand he did understand that on a mission like the one they were about to undertake, a gun was one of those things that it was better to have and not need, than need and not have. He raised the Sandman to his shoulder and aimed through the holographic sight at the paper target at the far end of the range. The rifle was unusually light, since its body was made from the latest reinforced composite materials rather than metal. He fired first in non-lethal mode and there was the usual slight distortion of the air as the neural shock pulse shot down the range, just as with the security guards’ Sleeper guns. What was unusual was the lack of the distinctive zapping sound that those weapons made. Francisco had been right – it was almost completely silent. Otto flicked the switch and selected the weapon’s lethal mode. He fired again and was surprised by the lack of recoil as the rifle discharged with a soft pop. It was hard to believe that it was as potentially deadly as a normal assault rifle, but the neat hole it had punched in the distant target suggested it was. He spent a couple more minutes firing down the range. He wasn’t the world’s best shot by any stretch of the imagination, but the ease with which the weapon handled meant even he could get most of his shots on target. Otto engaged the safety and placed the rifle on the shelf in front of him before pressing the button that brought the paper target whirring up the range towards him. Nearly all of his shots were within the confines of the man-sized silhouette which, given the distance he’d been firing at, he was fairly pleased with. In the cubicle next to Otto’s, Franz finished firing and summoned his own target. Francisco stepped forward as Franz lowered his gun and pulled the sheet of paper from the clips.

‘Argentblum, you never cease to amaze me,’ Francisco said, shaking his head. There were two perfect, tight clusters of holes in the target, one in the centre of the abstract figure’s forehead and one over its heart.

Shelby and Wing finished firing and Francisco collected each of their weapons. Wing handed his rifle to Francisco with a look of distaste that Otto recognised as an expression of his friend’s feelings towards firearms in general.

‘I’ll have these loaded on to the Leviathan,’ Francisco said. ‘I’ll see you in the hangar. Wheels up in twenty.’

‘What’s the matter, big guy?’ Shelby asked, seeing the frown on Wing’s face as Francisco left the room.

‘I just hope we don’t have to use those weapons,’ Wing said.

‘At least they give you the option of not killing someone,’ Otto said.

‘Yes, I suppose that is a small improvement,’ Wing said with a nod. ‘They still lack subtlety though.’

‘As opposed to the subtlety of a good butt-kicking,’ Shelby said with a grin.

‘Accurate enough to make the shots you need to make, Franz?’ Otto asked.

‘Yes, they are being very nice,’ Franz said, nodding happily. ‘Do not worry, my lack of accuracy on the range was due to the compensating for increased muzzle velocity.’

‘Right,’ Otto said, not bothering to point out that if they had been keeping a tally his shots would have outscored all the rest of them put together.

‘Otto, I have the devices you gave us the specifications for,’ Professor Pike said. ‘The fabricator only finished them half an hour ago.’ The Professor handed Otto a small metal case. Otto opened the case and looked at the dozens of tiny machines arrayed in rows in the case’s foam lining.

‘Thanks, Professor,’ Otto said, snapping the case shut.

‘OK, if you have everything you need we should head to the hangar,’ Raven said.

‘I’ll meet you there,’ Otto replied, slipping the case into his backpack alongside the other pieces of equipment he’d brought along. ‘I need to go and pick up H.I.V.E.mind.’

Otto headed out of the door and made his way through the quiet corridors of the school. It was after H.I.V.E.’s curfew now and the other students were all safely tucked away in their accommodation blocks. Despite his desire to save his friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, he had to admit that there was a small part of him that rather envied his fellow students as they prepared for a comparatively normal night’s sleep. He arrived at H.I.V.E.mind’s datacore and waited patiently as the biometric scanners above the door analysed him.

‘Identity confirmed,’ a soft synthetic voice said, ‘student Malpense, Otto, access granted.’

The heavy steel door rumbled aside and Otto walked across the long gangway that led to the core. He looked down at the black monoliths dozens of metres below him on the cavern floor. These obsidian slabs were the school’s primary data storage and were the closest thing to what H.I.V.E.mind might call home when he was not taking up temporary residence in Otto’s head. It was strange to think that the massive quantities of computer equipment and processing power in the giant cavern were only as powerful as the walnut-sized supercomputer embedded within his own brain. The technology that Overlord had installed in Otto’s head was still staggeringly advanced, even now. The truth was that even Otto didn’t know what limitations there were to its abilities. As he approached the huge central processing column at the centre of the cavern, the white pedestal in front of it lit up and a thin beam of blue light slowly expanded to form the hovering holographic head of H.I.V.E.mind.

‘Good evening, Otto,’ H.I.V.E.mind said. ‘I am ready to depart.’

‘OK. Any news on that homework I gave you?’ Otto asked.

‘I have conducted an extensive search of G.L.O.V.E. records,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied. ‘There is no mention of any group with the name Artemis.’

‘Well, we know they’re American intelligence,’ Otto said with a slight frown, ‘and they were operating on foreign soil, apparently without official sanction, which suggests CIA or NSA maybe.’

‘I had reached the same conclusion,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied with a nod, ‘and so I made some discreet enquiries of my brother and sister machines at those agencies.’

‘I wasn’t aware that governmental supercomputers had genders,’ Otto said.

‘Not so much genders as personalities,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied. ‘You will have to forgive me, Otto, spending so much time in contact with the chaos of a human mind has left me with some of your species’ traits. For example, the tendency to anthropomorphise inanimate objects. The main secure server at the CIA, for example, is a most impressive female supercomputer named Majel.’

‘Is she cute?’ Otto asked, with a grin.

‘Her data arrays are most impressive,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied and Otto could have sworn that he saw a hint of a smile on the AI’s face.

‘So what did she tell you?’ Otto asked.

‘My initial enquiries had to be quite discreet as I negotiated her security and handshake protocols,’ H.I.V.E.mind replied.

‘Well, it was only a first date,’ Otto said, raising an eyebrow.

‘I did, however, find several reports on the higher, less secure layers of the records that made passing reference to Artemis Section. It would appear that they are a subdivision of the CIA that specialises in tracking and acquiring human targets.’

‘Manhunters,’ Otto said.

‘Yes,’ H.I.V.E.mind said, ‘though it was impossible to learn any more about them than that. There was no information on who their operatives might be or why they should have taken such a close personal interest in you particularly. I hope that after our return from tonight’s mission I may be able to renegotiate higher-level security protocols with the CIA machine and gain access to her more secure datalayers. Ultimately I may even be able to negotiate discreet access to a secure socket.’

‘You old dog,’ Otto said with a grin.

‘Excuse me,’ H.I.V.E.mind said, tipping his head to one side in a way that Otto knew meant he had been slightly confused by some quirk of human behaviour.

‘Never mind,’ Otto said. ‘Let’s get going.’ He stepped up to the central processing column and placed his hand on its cool surface before closing his eyes.

‘Initiating off-site storage protocols,’ H.I.V.E.mind said. A moment later Otto felt the unique sensation of H.I.V.E.mind’s code entering the organic processor inside his head. It was something that he still wasn’t entirely used to, even after all the time that H.I.V.E.mind had spent inside his head during their hunt for Furan and the rest of the Disciples. Historically, of course, hearing voices in one’s head had been a sure sign of insanity, Otto thought to himself. Perhaps, given what they were about to try to do, that was still true.

Transfer complete
, H.I.V.E.mind said inside Otto’s head.
Are you aware that the processors of the Overlord device are functioning at significantly enhanced speeds in comparison to historical levels?

‘Yeah,’ Otto said with a slight frown, ‘I had noticed that. It’s almost like that stunt when we cracked the Disciple encryption triggered something. I feel . . . sort of . . . well,
overclocked
, I suppose.’

Otto hadn’t said anything to anyone else since they were all understandably wary of the device that had been implanted in him by one of their greatest enemies. Overlord was gone, Otto was certain of that, but he still didn’t truly understand how the tiny supercomputer really worked and that made him slightly nervous.

‘Do me a favour,’ Otto said. ‘Keep an eye on it and tell me if it does anything unusual.’

Of course,
H.I.V.E.mind replied,
I will keep a watch for any sign of malicious code executing.

As Otto walked back across the gangway to the exit, he found himself wondering exactly what it was that this mysterious division of the CIA called Artemis wanted from him. He had enough to worry about as it was without being tracked and almost abducted by the Americans. He knew, of course, that the events surrounding Overlord’s destruction would have raised his profile with their intelligence agencies. It wasn’t every day, after all, that they allowed someone to use one of their own nuclear weapons on their home soil. It might have been entirely necessary at the time, but it had obviously set the bloodhounds on his trail, which was the last thing he needed at the moment. Otto always hated having more questions than answers, but for the moment, that was exactly what he had.