Deadlock (27 page)

‘It’s all right,’ she said, taking a deep, ragged breath. ‘I know what he could do, he . . .’ She burst into tears and Otto hugged her. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said after a minute. ‘I just couldn’t.’

‘Shhh,’ Otto said. ‘No one can imagine what you’ve been through, but it’s over. We’re getting you out of here.’

We need to find Furan and ensure she does not activate the facility’s kill-switch
, H.I.V.E.mind said.

‘I know,’ Otto said, looking down at Zero’s corpse, ‘and I have an idea how we might be able to do just that.’

‘Got it,’ Shelby said as the door to the single locked dormitory block hissed open. The lights inside flickered on as the doors opened and Wing and Shelby stepped inside. As they recognised the faces of the people in the bunk beds that lined the room they deactivated their thermoptic camouflage systems and both pulled off their helmets.

‘Aren’t you a little short for a stormtrooper?’ a familiar voice asked from one of the beds.

‘Hey, Nigel,’ Shelby said with a grin. ‘Guys, we all need to get out of here as quickly as possible. I’m sure you’ve all got a million questions, but they’re going to have to wait. Right now, we need to move.’

There was excited chatter from all around the room as the surviving H.I.V.E. students started to put on their Glasshouse uniforms as quickly as possible. Suddenly, from outside there was the sound of shouting and gunfire somewhere nearby. It lasted for about thirty seconds and then stopped. A few seconds later Raven walked quickly into the room and removed her helmet. She looked slightly out of breath.

‘We need to move. There was a whole squad of guards out there and there are probably more on the way,’ Raven said.

‘How many are still outside?’ Shelby asked.

‘There
was
a squad, Shelby,’ Wing said.

‘Oh,’ she replied, ‘gotcha.’

‘Point being that now they know where we are and we don’t know how long we’ve got till more of them turn up,’ Raven said, ‘so let’s go.’

She drew the swords from her back and looked back through the doorway.

‘Clear, move it!’ she snapped. The H.I.V.E. students who had been prisoners of the Glasshouse for months did not need much more persuasion, all running for the doors.

‘Hey, Penny,’ Shelby said as she saw her face in the crowd. She hardly recognised her without her distinctive pink hair. ‘Where’s Tom?’

‘He didn’t make it,’ Penny said, her face impassive. ‘I’ll explain later.’

‘I’m sorry, Penny,’ Shelby said. ‘I had no idea.’

‘Yeah, well, it’s not your fault,’ Penny replied, ‘so don’t worry about it.’

Shelby saw the look on her face and just nodded. It could wait.

‘You have no idea how good it is to see you guys,’ Nigel said, grinning at Wing and Shelby. ‘I have to admit there were days when I thought I’d never see you again.’

‘Never give up hope, my friend,’ Wing said. ‘I am very glad you are still alive. After you were shot and then abducted, we feared the worst.’

‘Nigel, where’s Laura?’ Shelby asked, scanning the crowd.

‘She’s in one of the isolation cells upstairs,’ Nigel replied.

‘Do you know which one?’ Shelby asked, frowning.

‘Yeah, I can show you,’ Nigel said.

‘We’ll get her on the way out,’ Wing said. ‘Don’t worry, we’re not leaving without her.’

‘OK, now all we have to do is get you out of here. Your dad is going to be tearing his hair out,’ Shelby said.

‘Very funny,’ Nigel said, running his hand over his own perfectly smooth head. ‘In fact, I think it was your amazing sense of humour that I missed the most, Shelby.’

‘It’s all in the timing,’ Shelby said as the three of them ran for the exit.

‘Wait!’ Raven snapped as the assembled students approached the doorway. ‘Another patrol coming, six men.’

A few seconds later the guards ran through the doorway, weapons raised. Shelby stood in front of the two dozen H.I.V.E. students, her hands raised.

‘Don’t move!’ the lead guard snapped, levelling his rifle at Shelby.

‘Not moving,’ Shelby replied, ‘just two questions.’

‘Really, what might they be?’ the guard said with a sneer.

‘If I was to say, “Look out, behind you!”, would you actually turn around?’ Shelby asked.

‘No,’ the guard said. ‘What’s the next question?’

‘What’s the absolute worst you’ve ever had your ass kicked?’

What followed was a demonstration of the most brutally efficient way to take down six heavily armed men with nothing put two pairs of astonishingly well trained hands and feet. Raven and Wing moved so fast that not one of the squad of mercenaries even got a shot off. As the last of the men collapsed to the floor with a pained gurgle, Nigel summed up the feelings of the entire group with one well-chosen word.

‘Whoa.’

‘OK, coast’s clear,’ Raven said. ‘Let’s move.’

The H.I.V.E. students followed her out of the room and over towards the staircase that led up to the next level.

Shelby looked down at the unconscious guard she had been speaking to just a couple of seconds before with a grin.

‘Should have looked behind you.’

Anastasia Furan scowled as she heard the gunfire from the dormitory level, just a few floors below them. She reached into the pocket of her long flowing black coat and pulled out a small hand-held trigger mechanism. She pressed the trigger and held it in as a red light lit up on top of the unit.

‘Fire only on my command,’ Furan said to the half-dozen men surrounding her. She looked over the balcony and saw a familiar figure leading the freed H.I.V.E. students to cover on the other side of the training area at the bottom of the school. ‘Hello, Natalya,’ she said under her breath. To get to the entrance of the escape tunnel that she had added to the original plans for the facility, she and her men would have to go directly past Raven’s position. Faced with almost anyone else she would have relied on the skill and experience of the men surrounding her to get her safely to the exit, but with Raven she knew it would not be enough.

‘Natalya!’ Furan yelled and Raven’s head snapped upwards, fixing her with a look of unbridled hatred. A young blonde girl in gleaming white body armour identical to the suit that Otto had worn aimed a futuristic-looking rifle straight at her. Several of Furan’s own men drew a bead on the girl and Raven slowly extended a hand, pushing the girl’s rifle barrel down towards the floor. ‘We’re going to play a game, Natalya,’ Furan continued. ‘It’s called “guess what I’m holding”.’ She held up the trigger mechanism and Raven’s eyes narrowed. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you that something extremely unpleasant will happen to everyone in this facility if I let go of this switch. All of which puts us at something of an impasse. So let me make it very simple for you –’

Suddenly Furan was interrupted by a scream from far overhead and a body in white armour dropped past Furan and smashed into the floor of the training area below. There was a gasp from the girl with the blonde hair as she recognised the limp form lying broken on the floor, the boy’s snow-white hair now streaked with red. A tall boy with long dark hair, wearing identical armour, unslung his rifle and brought it up, levelling it at Furan with a look of pure fury on his face. She recognised him as one of the few of Nero’s students that had escaped her attack on their training exercise.

‘No, Wing!’ Raven shouted, clearly trying to keep her own fury in check. ‘You’ll kill us all.’ The boy stared at Furan. The expression of pure unadulterated hatred on his face made her wonder for a moment if he might just kill her anyway.

‘Natalya is quite right, young man,’ Furan said. ‘Now why don’t you all lay down your weapons and move over to the far side of the training area and allow us to leave? That is the only way that any of you are going to make it out of here alive.’

‘You expect me to believe that, Furan?’ Raven yelled. ‘The minute you’re safely out of here you’ll trigger the device.’

‘Oh, my poor dear little Raven,’ Furan said. ‘That’s your problem, you see. As long as I have this trigger I hold all the cards and you really have no alternative but to trust me.’

Behind her the elevator from the upper levels pinged and the prototype walked towards her, buttoning up his suit jacket.

‘Good work with Malpense,’ Furan said. ‘A little overdramatic perhaps, but it certainly made a point. Where is Heinrich?’

‘He’s on his way,’ the prototype replied. ‘He’s purging the datacore.’

‘Well, he needs to hurry up. This is going to be a very bad place to be in a couple of minutes. Stay out of sight – I don’t want anyone reporting your existence back to Nero.’

The prototype simply nodded and Furan turned back to Raven.

‘So, what is it to be, Natalya?’

Down on the training floor Raven’s mind raced – they were rapidly running out of options. She glanced at Otto’s body, lying just a few metres away, trying to ignore his staring lifeless eyes.

‘OK,’ Raven yelled back at her. ‘Let these students you have held hostage go and I will not harm you or your guards.’

‘Now why on earth would I do that, Natalya?’ Furan shouted back at her.

‘Because, if you do, I will surrender to you and you may do whatever you wish to me,’ Raven replied. ‘You’ll still have the kill-switch to ensure my cooperation.’

‘No!’ Shelby gasped. ‘She’ll kill you.’

‘She’ll kill all of us if I don’t,’ Raven said quietly. ‘Don’t worry, I can look after myself.’

A smile spread across Furan’s hideous, scarred face.

‘An offer that is simply too delicious to refuse, Natalya,’ she said. ‘I accept.’

‘I want to know they’re safe before I surrender to you,’ Raven said. ‘We have people on the surface. I won’t give myself up to you until I know they’re safe.’

‘Very well, they may use the elevator to travel to the upper levels. From there they must make their own way to the surface. I’m sure one of your clever little infiltrators there can show them the way,’ Furan replied. ‘The Darkdoom boy stays though.’ She pointed at Nigel. ‘To ensure your cooperation.’

Raven glanced at Nigel and he gave a quick nod, swallowing nervously.

‘Agreed,’ Raven said.

‘Disengage the security checks on the elevator and open the main door,’ Furan said, turning to the prototype standing in the shadows behind her. He nodded and closed his eyes for a moment.

‘Are you sure about this?’ Wing said, his face set in a determined expression, but Raven knew him well enough by now to know when he was barely holding it together.

‘Yes, don’t worry, Wing,’ she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. ‘I need your help now. You and Shelby have to get the others out of here as quickly and safely as possible.’

Wing stared at her for a moment and then gave a tiny, almost imperceptible nod.

‘Kill that witch,’ Shelby said, tears rolling down her cheeks, ‘for Otto.’

‘She’s not getting away this time,’ Raven said, ‘trust me.’

Shelby and Wing made their way over to the staircase leading up to the elevator with the rest of the captured H.I.V.E. students following closely behind them. A few minutes later Raven watched as the last of them boarded the elevator and slowly ascended towards the exit. Furan walked down the stairs, holding the kill-switch out in front of her, flanked by her men, all with their rifles pointing at Raven. Raven kept her own weapon levelled at Furan.