Escape Velocity

by Mark Walden

  ‘Anything?’ he asked for what must have been the twentieth time.

  ‘No, sir,’ the pilot replied, ‘no contacts.’

  ‘Wait a second,’ the co-pilot said quickly, ‘I’ve got something here. Yes, automated distress beacon. They must have ditched.’

  ‘How far?’ Phalanx One barked.

  ‘Twenty miles out, ETA three minutes,’ the pilot responded.

  Phalanx One braced himself against the back of the pilot’s seat as the Shroud banked to a new heading. Within a couple of minutes a column of black smoke was visible in the distance. Phalanx One felt his heart sink slightly, a fire did not bode well for his chances of finding survivors. As the Shroud finally came to a stop, hovering over the location of the distress beacon, his worst fears were confirmed. There was no life raft, in fact there didn’t seem to be a single piece of debris much bigger than a dinner plate.

  ‘Looks like they lost control,’ the pilot said matter of factly, peering out of his window. ‘Looks like a high velocity impact. You’re not going to find any survivors down there.’

  ‘I am quite aware of that, thank you,’ Phalanx One replied. ‘Conduct the scans anyway and retrieve the flight data recorder if you can. The Contessa is going to want to know exactly what happened.’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ the pilot replied and spoke into his headset mic. ‘This is flight leader. Conduct full sweeps, gentlemen. We’re looking for bodies and the flight data recorder. You know the drill.’

  Phalanx One slumped back down into the jump seat at the rear of the cockpit. This was not the report he wanted to take back to the Contessa.

  Otto, Wing, Laura and Shelby followed Raven and Captain Sanders through the belly of the giant submarine. Otto did not know an enormous amount about such vessels but he knew enough to realise that the Megalodon was bigger than any submarine that was known to be serving in any of the world’s navies. Each compartment they walked through was bustling with activity: crew members sat at stations filled with surveillance data or engineering schematics, some prepped deep-sea diving suits while others serviced miniature submersibles. It was certainly an impressive operation.

  ‘The Megalodon is unique,’ the Captain explained as they continued walking. ‘She’s designed to be a completely self-sufficient vessel that can operate without resupply for years at a time if necessary. She’s the largest submarine ever constructed and she is equipped to act in a number of capacities – hunter-killer, mobile launch platform, command and control centre. You name it, she can do it.’

  Otto guessed from the distracted look on her face that Raven had probably heard this briefing several times before. She certainly wasn’t paying a great deal of attention.

  ‘Does being this big not make her easy to detect?’ Laura asked, clearly excited by the high technology on display all around her.

  ‘In theory, yes, but her design means that she is effectively acoustically invisible, which means that she cannot be detected by any existing sonar systems. She is to all intents and purposes a stealth submarine,’ the Captain replied with pride. He obviously enjoyed showing off his ship to new people, and given the Megalodon’s awesome scale one could hardly blame him.

  ‘But we shall have to continue the tour another day,’ the Captain went on. ‘If you’d like to step inside, the Megalodon’s owner will be along shortly to introduce himself to you.’ The Captain pressed a button on the bulkhead next to him and a hatch marked ‘Briefing Room’ slid open.

  Raven stepped inside with the others in tow. The room was filled with large flat screens that displayed sea charts and detailed satellite imagery, and in the centre there was a large round steel table surrounded by high-backed black leather chairs.

  ‘Please take a seat, ladies and gentlemen. All of your questions will be answered shortly,’ the Captain said, waiting for them to sit down at the table before backing out of the room and resealing the hatch.

  ‘I think I speak for everyone when I say that my curiosity is beginning to outweigh my patience,’ Wing said to Raven, raising an eyebrow.

  ‘Can you at least tell us what happened to you and Nero?’ Otto asked.

  A distant look came over Raven’s face and she frowned as if reliving a painful memory.

  ‘It was my fault,’ she said quietly. ‘I let my guard down and we walked straight into a trap. I’m sure you know the rest: Nero was captured and I was lucky to escape with my life. It was a disaster.’

  ‘It’s not your fault, you know,’ Laura said softly. ‘I’m sure if there was anything you could have done –’

  She was interrupted by the hatch hissing open again and a tall, strikingly handsome and completely bald man walked into the room. Otto’s mind raced. There was something familiar about him but he could not quite put his finger on what it was.

  ‘Greetings,’ the man said with a smile. ‘My name is Diabolus Darkdoom. I believe you all know my son.’

  .

  Chapter Six

  Phalanx One walked into the Contessa’s office unable to shake the feeling that he would be extremely fortunate to walk out again. She sat at her desk reading a copy of the report he had filed earlier that morning. She gestured for him to take a seat on the other side of the desk, but continued to read. He sat down and took the opportunity to look around the room. The Contessa had clearly not yet had the time to change very much – the walls were still lined with mementos of Maximilian Nero’s long and illustrious career with G.L.O.V.E.

  ‘I am not a patient woman, Commander,’ the Contessa said, closing the report and laying it gently down on the desk, ‘and this report offers little in the way of explanation and much in the way of excuses. I am quite aware of Raven’s abilities but the ease with which she infiltrated the school and took down your men is unacceptable.’

  ‘Yes, Contessa,’ he replied, finding it hard to maintain contact with her cold grey eyes.

  ‘Number One assigned you and your men to me because you were supposed to be the best of the best. I hardly think that description describes your actions earlier today, do you?’

  ‘No. Rest assured that the men who were in charge of the extraction operation will be disciplined,’ he replied firmly.

  ‘I have no doubt of that, Commander, but the decision that faces me now is how I should go about disciplining you,’ the Contessa said, a terrifying edge of ice-cold malice in her tone.

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Phalanx One replied, bowing his head.

  ‘However, I am not an unreasonable woman. I’m going to give you one more opportunity to redeem yourself. Needless to say it will be your final chance – do I make myself clear?’

  ‘Perfectly.’

  ‘Good. I want this school locked down tight: no one arrives or leaves without my specific authorisation. That includes all members of staff, understood?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am.’

  ‘Somebody let them into the launch bay,’ the Contessa said coldly. ‘There is no way that they could have circumvented a full lockdown as quickly as they did, which means that they had assistance, and I want you to find the person responsible and bring them to me. The erasure of H.I.V.E.mind’s records of the incident suggest that it was someone with high-level access and great technical expertise. That narrows the field of potential suspects considerably.’

  ‘I shall begin interrogations immediately,’ Phalanx One replied smartly.

  ‘Good, you are dismissed.’

  The Phalanx Commander tried to keep the look of relief from his face as he stood and walked towards the door.

  ‘Oh, just one more thing,’ the Contessa said as her office door hissed open. ‘When you find out who is responsible for assisting Raven, inform me immediately. I want to deal with them personally.’

  ‘I hate to sound like a broken record,’ Otto said with a confused frown, ‘but aren’t you supposed to be dead?’

  ‘Oh, I am, Mr Malpense, I am,’ Darkdoom said with a broad grin. ‘At least as far as the rest of the world is concerned. And believe me when I say
that it is better for all concerned if I stay that way.’

  ‘Even Nigel?’ Otto said quickly.

  ‘Especially Nigel,’ Darkdoom replied, the smile slipping from his face. ‘I understand that none of you have any reason to trust me yet and that the events of the past twenty-four hours must have left you rather shell-shocked, but please just allow me to try to fill in some of the blanks for you.’

  ‘About time someone did,’ Shelby said irritably.

  ‘Indeed.’ Darkdoom’s smile returned.

  ‘We are, as they say, all ears,’ Wing said calmly.

  ‘What do you know about Overlord?’ Darkdoom looked at each of them in turn.

  ‘Not much,’ Otto replied. ‘Only that Cypher’s attempts to acquire the Overlord Protocol nearly cost us all our lives. The way I understand it, it was the ultimate hack – a back-door key to every computer system on the planet.’

  ‘That is correct, but I’m afraid to say the Overlord Protocol was just the tip of the iceberg; the whole story is much more worrying. Many years ago G.L.O.V.E. began a project to create the first true artificial intelligence, an entity that would give our organisation unparalleled surveillance and intelligence-gathering power. This project was called Overlord and it was the first step into a brave new world: an unbelievably powerful super-computer with a consciousness that would allow it to display initiative and imagination. The project was initiated by Number One but was under the day-to-day supervision of Doctor Nero. Overlord was Max’s project and it was very nearly the end of him.’

  ‘What happened?’ Laura asked quickly.

  ‘The details are irrelevant but suffice to say that Overlord turned out to be far more dangerous than anyone could possibly have imagined. On the day of his activation something went wrong; far from being the obedient servant that he had been designed to be he turned out to be homicidally insane. He killed nearly everyone at the research facility where he was housed – only a handful of people escaped, among them Nero and your mother and father, Mr Fanchu. It was only your mother’s bravery that stopped Overlord acquiring the code that he needed to escape the facility and to fully integrate with the rest of the world’s computer systems.’

  ‘The Protocol,’ Otto said quietly.

  ‘Exactly, the very same code that Cypher was so desperate to acquire. We still do not fully understand his motives for going to such great lengths to acquire the Protocol but we believe that it has something to do with an operation codenamed the Renaissance Initiative. I learnt of the Initiative myself from one of the original designers of Overlord. She had uncovered evidence that this covert project was somehow involved in an effort to recreate Overlord, an aim that is just as insane as it sounds. The information that she brought to me cost her her life. She was one of the bravest people I have ever met. You should be extremely proud of your mother, Wing . . .’

  Wing stared at Darkdoom, as if trying to assess the truth of what he was being told and whether or not he could trust this man.

  ‘Operatives of the Renaissance Initiative assassinated her in an effort to keep the full extent of their project a secret. If it had not been for her we might never have discovered what they were planning.’

  ‘So you believe that my father was working with these people, the people who murdered my mother, in order to acquire the Protocol for this project?’

  ‘No, Wing. Whatever Cypher – your father’s – motives were, it is hard to imagine that he would have sided with people who had not only been responsible for your mother’s death but were also planning to resurrect the monster that had very nearly claimed both their lives so many years before.’

  ‘So why did he go to such lengths to retrieve it?’

  ‘We cannot be sure, but I believe that he was going to try to use the Protocol in some way to destroy the Renaissance Initiative once and for all. Unfortunately, as you all know, he became obsessed with this goal and it seems that it tipped him over the edge into madness. I am sorry for your loss, Wing. I only wish we could have known what he was planning.’

  ‘Do not mourn my father,’ Wing said with no trace of emotion. ‘He was dead long before Cypher was born.’

  ‘I understand,’ Darkdoom said quietly, ‘but it is my belief that he acted as he did out of desperation. I believe that he knew the Initiative was close to succeeding in its goal, that Overlord was about to be reborn.’

  ‘So how is this connected to Doctor Nero’s capture?’ Otto said a little impatiently.

  ‘When Nero was captured he was meeting with Gregori Leonov,’ Darkdoom continued. ‘Gregori had information for Nero regarding the Initiative, information that cost him his life. On the surface of it, H.O.P.E. mounted an astoundingly well-planned operation to kidnap Nero, but it is nearly impossible to see how they could have known about the meeting ahead of time. Both Leonov and Nero have been players in this elaborate game for many decades; they should not have been caught out so easily. It was remarkably similar to the operation that was carried out to assassinate me when the Initiative discovered that I knew of their existence. The problem is that there is only one person who I told of my discovery, a person who then apparently framed me as a traitor to G.L.O.V.E. and gave the order to have me killed. That same person must continue to believe I am dead if we are to have any hope of stopping the Initiative from achieving its goals. That same person was, I believe, responsible for handing Nero over to H.O.P.E. and that same person is actually in charge of the Renaissance Initiative . . . Number One.’

  Darkdoom looked slowly around the table, carefully watching the astonished reactions of the new arrivals.

  ‘If it’s any consolation, I found it equally hard to believe,’ Raven said quietly. ‘But the fact remains that if it had not been for our intervention you would all now be in the hands of Number One, and I think it’s safe to assume that you will be better off here.’

  ‘So you think that Number One is working with H.O.P.E.?’ Otto said after a few seconds.

  ‘I think it would perhaps be more accurate to say that Number One created H.O.P.E.,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘Number One knows that he would not have the support of the G.L.O.V.E. ruling council if they knew what he was planning, and using H.O.P.E. instead allows him to act without it being immediately obvious that it is his hand moving all the pieces. Powerful as he is, he is still dependent on the support of his council to run G.L.O.V.E. If they knew what he was planning he would quickly lose control.’

  ‘So why not just go to the council with this?’ Laura asked quickly. ‘Surely that would be the quickest way to put a stop to it.’

  ‘Indeed,’ Darkdoom replied, ‘but how? As far as the council is concerned I’m a traitor, a dead traitor at that. They would have no reason to believe anything I told them, and while Raven is respected for her abilities she does not have the seniority to address the council without Number One’s specific permission – something which, under the circumstances, he is unlikely to grant. Even if we were somehow able to present our case, we are still lacking the one thing that would leave Number One vulnerable . . . hard proof.’

  ‘So we need to get that proof,’ Otto said. ‘And once we have it we need a way to present it to the council.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Darkdoom replied with a nod.

  ‘You’ve still not explained how we fit into all of this,’ Shelby said, sounding cross. ‘Why were we being taken from H.I.V.E.? What do they need from us?’

  ‘We do not know,’ Darkdoom replied quickly. ‘All we do know is that it was the first and highest priority of the school’s new principal.’

  ‘The Contessa,’ Wing said. ‘Though I find it hard to believe that Number One would trust a proven traitor with such a task.’

  ‘That is exactly why he chose her,’ Raven said. ‘He knows that she has nowhere left to turn. This is her final throw of the dice and so he can order her to do whatever he wishes without fear that she will risk betraying him. Let’s face it: even if she knew what Number One was ultimately aiming to do, who would bel
ieve or trust her?’

  ‘What we do know is that you are the true focus of all these efforts, Mr Malpense,’ Darkdoom replied.

  ‘Why me?’ Otto asked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. ‘Why would he go to these lengths just to take me from H.I.V.E.?’

  ‘I wish we knew,’ Darkdoom replied, ‘but whatever he has planned, evidently you are a critical component.’

  ‘How can you be sure of that?’ Wing asked quickly.

  ‘Because we had one trump card,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘We had someone on the inside of the Renaissance Initiative, someone who warned us of the operation to extract Otto and its apparent importance.’

  ‘Couldn’t they get us the proof we need of what Number One’s doing?’ Shelby asked.

  ‘Possibly – if the fact that they were working for us had not been discovered. Suffice to say we no longer have a source inside the Initiative. We have tried to discover more, but the truth of what Number One and the Initiative are attempting is a secret that only a tiny handful of people know, a secret that is rarely shared and ruthlessly guarded. I believe it was this secret that cost Gregori Leonov his life and Nero his liberty.’

  ‘So what’s our next move?’ Otto asked, frustrated by the lack of concrete information.

  ‘Simple,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘We find Nero. He was the last person to speak to Leonov – if anyone knows what the Initiative has planned, it is him. He also wields enough influence with the council to be able to present the facts to them and have them take the situation seriously. Then we simply have to wait and see how the rest of the cards fall.’

  ‘Kill two birds with one stone,’ Otto replied.

  ‘Exactly, but there is one small problem with this plan. We have no idea where H.O.P.E. is holding him, or even if he is still alive. We believe we know where that information may be being stored, but it goes without saying that it may prove troublesome to extract.’

  ‘Because . . . ?’ Otto said.

  ‘Because the only place that we can be sure that this information is held is Deepcore, MI6’s most secure data storage archive. The facility that houses Deepcore is one hundred metres below MI6 headquarters and is to all intents and purposes impregnable. The archive is network isolated and surrounded by security systems that are supposedly impossible to breach. The fact of the matter is that the data we need would be marginally easier to retrieve if it were on the moon.’