by A. G. Taylor
“You stole his idea.”
Good shrugged. “Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that one.”
“Is this why you kidnapped me?” Hack said. “All we wanted was the evidence of Jonesey’s original game. We didn’t take anything else.”
For a moment Marlon Good looked genuinely confused. Then he broke into a high-pitched laugh. “Please! You don’t really think that all this is about a game, do you?”
He turned and snapped his fingers at one of the soldiers by the door. The man stepped into the other chamber and reappeared with a laptop, which he passed to Good.
“I’ve been looking for someone like you for a long time,” he explained, taking a seat beside Hack. “Ever since the fall virus started ramping up human evolution, I knew there would eventually be someone with a power I could use. A power like being able to interface with computer systems with your mind.”
Hack shifted nervously. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure you don’t,” Marlon Good said with a wink. “But let’s say that there was a person who could do that… Well, he could influence the future of computer development. And as computers control the world, the possibilities for that person would be endless. Given the right support. You get my point?”
“Not really.”
Good carried on regardless. “Imagine my shock when my security operatives informed me about two high-school kids planning to infiltrate Two IFC. That’s right – we knew what you were planning for weeks. Ever since the office schematics were stolen. After that, it was easy enough to track you down and find out that you were more than just your usual criminals.”
Hack thought of the man and woman who had been tailing him – not HIDRA or the Triad, but Goodware operatives.
“We could have stopped you at any time,” Good continued, “but I really wanted to see what you could do.” He opened the laptop. A film clip showed Hack moving through the Goodware office disabling the lasers. “I had some extra surveillance put in especially – stuff not included on the official plans. After all my searching, in the end you came to me. Such a stroke of luck – it almost seems like fate. Imagine my distress when it looked like those idiot security guards were going to shoot you off the side of the building.”
“I was pretty distressed too,” Hack said.
Good chuckled. “Well, at least we can laugh about it now.”
“What do you want from me?”
Good minimized the video window and brought up a login screen bearing the HIDRA logo. “This is the portal for the HIDRA global network. Only a few people in the world have access and it’s protected by some of the best encryption software ever created. I’ve had a team of genius-level computer criminals working on it for three months and they haven’t got further than this screen.”
Hack met his eyes. “So, what do you expect me to do?”
“I expect you to cut through the HIDRA firewalls and access the database they’ve created of children with superpowers like yours. I want names, addresses, details of everything they can do.”
Hack folded his arms across his chest. “No way.”
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
Marlon Good closed the lid of the laptop and rose to his feet. “I wouldn’t have expected you to say anything else.”
He nodded to the bearded soldier sitting opposite. The mercenary advanced on Hack with a pair of handcuffs. He fixed one bracelet round Hack’s left wrist, then pulled the cuffs through a bar on the wall above his head and locked them around his right wrist. The merc walked to the stack of crates, opened one and removed a metal pack with two long cables extending from it. He fitted the unit over his shoulders like a backpack and took a cable in each hand.
“I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing here,” Good said to Hack conversationally as the merc adjusted the equipment on his back. “I am, after all, an incredibly successful and rich man. One of the richest in the world, in fact.”
“The thought had crossed my mind,” Hack said nervously as the merc approached. In each of his gloved hands he held a cable end, which Hack could now see had metal contact points like oversized plugs.
“Well, aside from wanting to control the future of the world,” Good answered, “I get bored. Terribly, terribly bored. Then I met Major Bright – I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Now I get to play real soldiers. It’s much more fun than computer games, believe me.”
Hack swallowed heavily. “You’re crazy.”
“That’s what my psychiatrist keeps telling me,” Good said. He turned to the merc and jerked his thumb at Hack. “Would you mind torturing him until he gives us what we want?”
The bearded merc nodded. “Not a problem, sir.”
“Great!”
Marlon Good stepped back, eyes sparkling. The merc touched the contact points of the cables together. There was a crackle and a jagged, dancing beam of electricity expanded between the cables as he pulled them apart. Hack shrank back against the wall of the plane. The merc advanced, holding the energy beam before him.
“No, wait!” Hack cried. “You don’t have to—”
He screamed as the electricity hit his body. It was like being stunned by the taser again – only a hundred times worse. For a moment he was lost as the energy surged through every fibre of his body. His muscles convulsed, legs thrashing, arms straining against the handcuffs. Then the merc stepped back and the agony ceased. Hack collapsed against the seat, breathing heavily. He tried to say something, but all that came out was an incoherent mumble.
“Give him what he wants, kid,” the merc said. “Don’t make me hit you up again.”
Hack sucked air into his lungs, trying to get control.
“Well, what’s it gonna be?” the merc demanded.
Hack looked at him. “Don’t do that again. I’m warning you.”
Marlon Good clapped his hands together like he was really starting to enjoy himself. A look of annoyance passed over the merc’s face.
“All right, son, you asked for it.”
The merc stepped forward and brought the energy beam across Hack’s chest. This time Hack was ready, however. The moment the beam made contact with his body, he pushed back with his own energy surge – sending a mighty wave of electricity up the cables and into the backpack. The merc howled as he was engulfed in the blast-back. He flew across the plane and hit the opposite wall.
The two soldiers by the door rushed over as their comrade hit the floor face down and lay unmoving. Smoke rose from the backpack. One of the soldiers kneeled down and gingerly felt for a pulse in his neck.
“Is he dead?” Marlon Good asked.
The soldier shook his head. “He ain’t well.”
Hack looked at Good. “I told him not to do that. The next one who tries the same will really get fried. Or maybe I’ll just send an energy surge to the engines and crash this plane.”
The excitement drained from Good’s face. “If that’s how you want to play it. Bring out the other prisoner.”
The soldiers disappeared through the door. Seconds later they pushed a hooded man into the cargo bay. The man’s suit was in tatters, but Hack recognized it instantly, along with the Rolex watch on his wrist. One of the soldiers ripped the hood off the man’s head, revealing that it was Hui. His face was battered and his left hand clumsily wrapped in a bloody bandage. He struggled against the soldiers holding his arms.
“Well, this is an unexpected reunion,” Marlon Good said as he flicked a lever on the wall. The loading ramp at the back of the plane lowered, allowing air to howl into the cargo bay. The soldiers pushed Hui towards the ramp.
“It was the kid!” Hui screamed. “It was his idea! Please!”
The soldiers held Hui in front of Good, who looked him up and down with contempt. “And I thought the Triad were meant to be tough.”
“What do you want?” Hui begged.
Marlon Good grinned. “I just want to know one thing: can you fly?”
; He gave the nod to the soldiers, who pushed him to the edge of the ramp and then threw him off the side of the plane. Hui’s final scream was lost in the roar of the wind and the engines. Hack looked away.
Marlon Good walked over and prodded the semi-conscious merc with the tip of his shoe. “This one doesn’t look so good either. Toss him as well.”
The two soldiers by the ramp exchanged a look.
“Well?” Good demanded. “Am I paying you to stand around?”
The soldiers grabbed the bearded merc by the ankles and dragged him to the ramp. As they threw him off, Good came to sit beside Hack once more. One of the soldiers flicked the lever and the cargo bay became relatively quiet again as the ramp closed.
“I just had one of my own men thrown into the Pacific,” Good said, leaning close to Hack with his voice almost a whisper. “What do you think I’m going to have done to you if you annoy me? Or your friend Jonesey? Or your grandfather in Tai-O?”
Hack looked round at him with wide eyes. “Leave them alone!”
Good reached for the laptop and flipped up the screen showing the HIDRA portal. Hack nodded in defeat.
“I need my hands free.”
9
“Sarah, are you listening?”
She kept her eyes on the view of the endless Pacific Ocean out the narrow window of the consultation room.
“Sarah?”
Dr. Lesley Smith’s voice became more insistent. With a sigh, Sarah looked round at the blonde, thirty-something psychologist sitting across the table from her.
Lesley pointed a manicured fingernail at the half-hour timer ticking away on her desk. “I thought we agreed that during our sessions we would be completely honest and not be mentally reticent.”
Sarah had to smile. Mentally reticent. She probed just a little with her mind.
“You haven’t called your boyfriend this week, Lesley,” she said. “Is that because of the Skype argument you had last Thursday?”
The psychologist’s eyes narrowed just a little and she sat back in her leather chair. She fiddled with a pen between the index and middle finger of her left hand.
“I know you’re dying for a cigarette right now,” Sarah went on, unable to help herself. “But you did make a promise to Paul, remember?”
“Stop that!” Lesley slapped the pen down on the desk with a little more force than she probably intended. Taking a breath, she tilted her head to one side and assumed a mask-like expression of calm once more. “Sarah.”
“Lesley.” Sarah mimicked the woman’s delivery.
“You know the rule we agreed for our sessions. No using your psychic ability as a weapon against me or others. You know all I want to do is support you. Help you come to terms with your gift.”
Sarah looked out the window again. The weekly sessions with Lesley were part of the price of being with HIDRA. They were supposed to make sure she and the other kids weren’t becoming a danger to themselves. Or going insane. Or something. She knew from experience that annoying Lesley just led to an increase in the number of meetings per week, so she decided to rein it in a little.
“I’m sorry, Lesley,” she said. “It was wrong to read your mind. Do you forgive me?”
“It would mean more if you’d look at me when you said that.”
Sarah turned to face the psychologist. If she wanted to, she could use her power to make Lesley forget everything that had happened in the previous five minutes. Or even that they had a meeting full stop. Unfortunately, the woman had a hidden camera installed somewhere in the office and she always reviewed the tapes of their sessions. Sarah had found this out after she’d made Lesley dance around the office like a chicken one afternoon and then wiped her memory of the event.
“Sorry, Lesley,” she said. “I’m just a little worried about my brother. He’s on his way back from a mission. Things went bad.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
“I’d love to. But the mission details are on a strict need-to-know basis. I’m not sure you have the security clearance.”
“Why don’t you like me, Sarah?” Lesley asked with a note of hurt in her voice. “You know I just have your best interests at heart.”
Because you don’t have our best interests at heart, Sarah thought. You’re just a spy trying to get to the bottom of me and the others. She had understood this about Lesley from the first moment they met. Although the psychologist reported directly to Colonel Rachel Andersen, Sarah sensed her real allegiances were to other groups within HIDRA. Shadowy figures such as David Wisher, the suited observer who had flown in from the Paris HQ just a few days before. He was a man who made everyone on the Ulysses nervous. Sarah remembered her promises to Rachel…
Play nice with Wisher. Play nice with Lesley.
“I like you just fine, Lesley,” Sarah said. “I guess all the trauma that I’ve suffered has made me a little prickly at times. There’s nothing I’d like more than to bond with a big-sister figure like you. I think it could be really…good for me.”
Lesley regarded Sarah with a look that said she knew very well when she was being strung along. An alarm echoed down the corridor outside.
“Incoming flight,” Sarah said and rose from her chair. “The rescue choppers they sent to pick up Robert.”
“We still have ten minutes in this session.”
Sarah paused at the door. “Well, I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. Should give you time to sneak that cigarette on the loading bay before your next appointment.”
Before the psychologist could respond, she slammed the door and went running down the corridor.
The HS Ulysses was cutting through the waters of the Pacific Ocean north of the Philippines as the three-hovercopter rescue party approached. Ignoring the protests of the deck commander, Sarah Williams emerged from the command tower and walked out onto the landing deck. The flight crew of the Ulysses ran forward as the three copters touched down. The door of the nearest machine swung up and Robert emerged. Sarah breathed a sigh of relief as her brother ran over.
“You’re safe,” she said, putting her arms around him. “I shouldn’t have sent you alone.”
“It was Major Bright’s men,” Robert said, pulling away. “They got the kid you sent me after. His name’s Hack. We have to find him!”
“We will,” Sarah said. “Bright’s been in hiding for six months. Why has he resurfaced now?” It didn’t make sense to her: when a HIDRA sweep of the Spire wreckage had failed to find any trace of Bright, they’d suspected he’d escaped the destruction somehow – then secret photos of the major meeting a weapons dealer in Indonesia had confirmed those suspicions. Somehow he’d got out when Makarov’s tower came down. “And what does he want with a kid we’ve never met before?”
“I don’t know.”
“I think we just got an answer to that question,” Commander Craig’s voice announced behind them. They turned to see the fair-haired young officer standing in the open doorway to the control tower. He was in charge of the military personnel on the ship, and second-in-command to Rachel Andersen, to whom he was unflinchingly loyal. “Come on. We’re in the war room.”
A meeting in the war room – both Sarah and Robert knew that meant something big was up. They followed the commander back into the ship and down two levels. Colonel Rachel Andersen, the head of HIDRA Asia–Pacific, stood on one side of the giant computer table, studying a series of images as they entered. She looked up, the worry lines on her face illuminated starkly in the LCD glow. Sarah thought that in the year the doctor had been in charge of HIDRA, she seemed to have aged ten. There was even grey starting to show in her long, dark hair. Rachel smiled briefly, but then her face became grave again.
“Are you okay?” she asked Robert and looked relieved when he nodded. “It was only a matter of time before Major Bright reared his ugly head.”
“I placed a tracker on Hack,” Robert said urgently. “We have to use it to find him.”
A figure stepped out of the shadows in
the corner of the room, looking out of place in an immaculate grey suit and blue tie – everyone else was either in HIDRA uniform or dressed in combat trousers and T-shirts. David Wisher. He cast an unimpressed look over Sarah and Robert, little piggy eyes glinting behind round glasses.
“Excuse me, Colonel,” Wisher said, rounding on Rachel. “Is it necessary to have these children in the war room during a crisis situation?”
Rachel Andersen’s voice was extremely measured as she replied, and Sarah sensed that she was working hard to keep herself under control. “Robert and Sarah have been involved in a mission to retrieve a boy we think is intimately involved in the crisis. It’s entirely appropriate that they’re here, in my opinion. Do you have an issue with that, Mr. Wisher?”
The man held up his hands. “I’m just an observer, Colonel. Don’t let me stop you from running things as you see fit. I’ll be sure to note it all down in my final report.”
Sarah sensed Rachel controlling her anger, but also her anxiety about the man. Wisher might look like a pipsqueak alongside the HIDRA personnel, but he clearly had the power to make everyone’s lives difficult. She sensed he even had the power to have Rachel removed from command if she did the wrong thing.
“Thank you,” Rachel replied, casting a quick glance at Commander Craig. Her second-in-command exuded hatred towards Wisher.
“What about Hack?” Robert said again. “We have to find him fast!”
Rachel nodded. “We’re on that. Right now, there’s a more serious issue at hand.”
“But his life is in danger! Who knows what Bright has planned!”
Sarah placed a restraining hand on her brother’s shoulder. It’s okay, she reassured, aware of Wisher’s scrutiny. Let’s hear what they have to say.
Robert looked like he was going to protest further, but Sarah gave him a warning look and spoke to him telepathically. Do you want to get us thrown out?
He folded his arms in a semi-sulk, but kept his mouth shut. All eyes turned towards the colonel.
“Judging from what Robert has reported about Hack’s skill with computers,” Rachel said, “he’s connected to our other crisis.” She nodded to her assistant, Lt. Kaminski, who stepped up to the table.
