by A. G. Taylor
“Someone infiltrated the HIDRA global network four hours ago,” Kaminski explained. “A significant amount of data was stolen. They knew what they were looking for.”
“How was this possible?” Commander Craig said. “We’re supposed to have better encryption than the CIA.”
Kaminski shrugged. “I’m sorry, sir. It seems there’s someone better out there.”
He tapped the tabletop computer screen. A new image opened up – a red line bouncing around a world map.
“They walked right through every firewall and server we have. We traced the origin to this point.” The screen zoomed into a location in the Pacific, east of China. “There’s nothing there but ocean.”
“It has to be Hack,” Robert said.
Kaminski nodded. “The signal corresponds to the path of the tracking device you placed on the kid.”
“So,” Rachel said, “what did they get?”
“The target was the superhumans database,” Kaminski replied. “They managed to download a significant amount of information before we locked down the network.”
Sarah placed her hands on the edge of the table and leaned forward. “You’re joking, right? I thought that data was supposed to be safe!”
Rachel held up a hand. “Let’s try to stay calm here.”
“I’ve spent half a year contacting those kids! We’ve collected their names, their locations—”
“And for all we know that information is still safe,” Rachel interrupted.
“Well, it doesn’t sound like it,” Sarah fumed, no longer worrying about how they appeared in front of the HIDRA personnel. “We promised them anonymity! Protection! We should have just published their names in the paper and have done with it.”
“And if we hadn’t collected those details,” Rachel countered, “the American or the Chinese governments would have done it instead.” She walked round the table and faced Sarah. “We’ll get the data back, I promise. It sounds as if this kid from Hong Kong—”
“His name’s Hack,” Robert interjected.
“It sounds as if he’s involved in the data theft. This explains Major Bright’s interest. The tracking device Robert planted is going to lead us right to him.”
She nodded to Commander Craig, who brought up a map showing the path of the tracking device from Hong Kong to a point in the middle of the Philippine Sea.
“The tracker stopped less than an hour ago,” he said. “An island called Oshino. It’s about ten kilometres across, owned by the Japanese government and supposedly uninhabited. However, one of our spy satellites picked up these images.”
He tapped the screen. A black-and-white shot of the island appeared, showing a highlighted set of buildings and a landing strip.
“A base.”
Rachel said, “It looks like Bright’s assembling his own little army.” She pointed to some cross-shaped objects on the screen. “Correct me if I’m wrong, commander, but aren’t those helicopters?”
“Black Hawks, I’d say,” he agreed and indicated other points of interest. “Looks like he’s also got a couple of tanks, some troop carriers and two C-17 military cargo planes. That’s about a billion dollars’ worth of hardware right there.”
“Someone’s funding him,” Rachel said.
“Someone rich,” Sarah added. “This doesn’t make any sense. If he’s been hiding out in this region, I should have been able to detect his presence using my psychic ability. I’ve been searching for him ever since those photos confirmed he was alive, but found nothing…”
David Wisher rolled his eyes. “Here we go with the psychic mumbo-jumbo...”
“Who knows with Bright?” Rachel said, ignoring the comment. “The main thing is we have his location. And this time he isn’t getting away. What’s our current status, commander?”
“The Ulysses has altered course for the island, sir,” Craig said. “Our ETA is thirty hours, but we’ll be in drone attack range within eighteen. The crew is on alert for the primary strike. They’ve been waiting for another crack at Bright ever since we found out he didn’t die in the Spire collapse.”
“Good work,” Rachel said. “We already have permission from the Japanese to attack the island.”
“What about Hack?” Robert asked. “Aren’t we sending a rescue team for him?”
Rachel and Commander Craig met one another’s eyes, but said nothing.
“Well?” Robert persisted.
Unexpectedly, it was Wisher who spoke next. “At present we have the advantage of surprise. We can’t risk alerting Bright to our presence by sending in a commando team. I speak for General Wellman and the HIDRA high command when I say that Bright is to be taken out and the base destroyed at any cost. A rescue mission is just too dangerous. We can’t jeopardize the lives of HIDRA personnel.”
Robert said quietly, “But I promised Hack we’d protect him.”
“The evidence suggests this kid was behind the data theft,” Wisher said. “For all we know, he’s in league with Bright.”
“Bright forced him to break into the database!”
“We don’t know that,” Wisher said. “Didn’t you rescue him in the middle of robbing an office building? What kind of kid gives himself a name like Hack, anyway? It’s practically an admission of juvenile delinquency.”
Robert opened his mouth to argue more, but was clearly baffled by the man’s logic. He turned instead to Rachel. “I thought you were supposed to be in charge here. Make them rescue Hack!”
“Robert, it’s not that simple,” she said. “I can’t just bypass orders from—”
The boy ignored her and looked to Sarah. “Make them do it. I know you can. Make them do what you want—”
Robert! Sarah snapped. Stop it. Stop it right now. You’re making us both look stupid…
Well, I wouldn’t want to do that.
With that, Robert pushed past her and ran out of the room.
“Ridiculous behaviour,” Wisher said with no little satisfaction. He turned to Rachel. “Colonel, could we please have the war room cleared of non-essential personnel so we can have a proper strategy meeting?”
Rachel looked at Sarah, who was already heading for the door after her brother.
“Don’t worry, I’m leaving,” she said. “There’s a bad smell in this room.”
She found Robert in the rec room on the lower deck, punishing the buttons of the ancient Space Invaders machine in the corner. Louise and Wei stood by the machine and looked round as Sarah entered. Robert didn’t. She smiled at the younger girl and boy.
He’s mad at you, Wei informed her. He was a round-faced Chinese kid with dark hair and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of sci-fi T-shirts. Today: Battlestar Galactica. Beside him, Louise brushed a lock of blonde hair out of her eyes and backed him up with a nod of her head. The two of them were inseparable and, with Wei’s ability to control fire and Louise’s ever-strengthening telekinetic powers, quite a team.
I never would have guessed, Sarah replied with a slight smile.
Robert lost his last life in a tinny explosion from the speakers of the machine and gave the controls a final bash, before turning to face Sarah.
“We had a vote,” he said. “We’re going after Hack whether HIDRA likes it or not.”
“You had a vote.” Sarah looked at Wei, who couldn’t meet her gaze, and then Louise, who shrugged as if it didn’t really matter to her one way or the other. Sarah turned back to Robert. “And how do you intend to do that?”
“Using the stealth jet you stole from Makarov,” Robert said. “It’s still sitting in Bay 3, right? They keep it flight ready?”
“Yes,” Sarah said, “but we don’t have permission—”
Robert interrupted, “Since when did we need permission to do anything? We made a deal with HIDRA that we can leave any time we want. And that jet is ours.”
“He’s right, Sarah,” Louise said. “That was the deal they gave us after we beat Makarov for them.”
Sarah kept her eyes o
n Robert. “It’s not that simple.”
“Are you one of them now?”
Sarah was taken aback by his question. “What do you mean?”
“We’re supposed to be a team,” Robert replied. “Not you and HIDRA. You and us.”
Both Louise and Wei nodded. Sarah suddenly felt as ganged up on as she had in the war room. “You don’t understand what’s going on here. Rachel is in a really difficult position. She can’t just send us running off on some suicide mission.”
“If Alex and Nestor were here, they’d help.”
Louise nodded in agreement. “Even Octavio would.”
“Well, they’re not here,” she said sharply. “They were the ones who wanted to leave, remember?” She took a deep breath, thinking how she was sick of hearing about Alex and the other two.
Up till recently the boys had been part of their team… Alex had helped them escape from the clutches of Major Bright in Melbourne and she’d fought alongside him in the wastes of eastern Russia. The twins, Nestor and Octavio, had been with them since the very beginning, when they had first discovered their new powers in the Australian outback and had taken on a rogue HIDRA colonel. Despite the fact they’d been on the verge of killing one another half of the time (particularly Nestor and Octavio, who had a strained sibling relationship, to say the least), they’d always managed to come through for each other in the end. And after their return to HIDRA, Sarah had begun to realize that, along with the younger kids, the boys were the closest thing to a family she’d had for a long time. The world had become a dangerous place for kids like them, but at least they had each other to rely on…
And Sarah had become particularly close to Alex – perhaps because of their experience together in Russia, when they’d had to flee into the Arctic waste together, facing death above and below the ice. Which had made his desire to leave so hard to accept. To her, the return to HIDRA was the chance to put an end to the fighting – to concentrate on helping Rachel Andersen and the scientists find a cure for the fall virus and bring their families back. But following their battle against Makarov, Alex had wanted more freedom, more excitement – more opportunities to get them into trouble. When the information came through that Major Bright had been spotted in Europe, he’d wanted to take the others and go running off after him. With Bright still alive, it was only a matter of time before he came after them again, Alex reasoned. Sarah had disagreed – hadn’t they all had enough fighting? They were safe. HIDRA could take care of the major…
But Alex was determined to carry on the fight against Bright and, to Sarah’s surprise, so were the twins Nestor and Octavio (who could usually be relied upon not to agree on anything at all). After several heated arguments all around the ship, Rachel Andersen had stepped in and moderated a solution: Alex, Nestor and Octavio would transfer to the HIDRA base in England, where they would have the chance to see some duty in the field – maybe even against Major Bright, when he was found. Sarah would stay with the younger members of the team on the Ulysses and continue her work tracking down virus-altered kids in the region. That had been almost six months ago and although she’d had occasional video calls with both Nestor and Octavio, Sarah hadn’t spoken to Alex since.
Sarah rounded on her brother. “Perhaps you should have run away with them to England. It would have been easier for me. Do you think I want to be in charge all the time?”
Immediately Sarah regretted her words, seeing the hurt look in her brother’s eyes. She took a step towards him, but he backed away.
“So you’re not going to help us then?”
“Robert, I can’t—”
He disappeared…teleporting away to some other part of the ship. With a frustrated sigh, Sarah turned to Louise and Wei, who looked at one another. Some silent understanding passed between them and they walked towards the exit.
“Where are you two going?” Sarah said.
Louise looked over her shoulder. “We’re going to find Robert. We’re with him.”
They left without another word.
Alone in the rec room, Sarah stood completely still for a moment, took a deep breath and tried to process everything that had happened in the last half-hour. When the intelligence had come through that Major Bright was alive, she knew it was only a matter of time before HIDRA would have to go into battle against him again. And she knew that once again her brother and her friends would be dragged into the fight. Now that their mother was gone, along with their father, Daniel (who they had only been starting to get to know when he was taken from them by the fall virus), Sarah was the one responsible for making sure Robert was safe. Sending him to rescue a kid from Hong Kong was one thing, but the thought of him having to face Major Bright once more was something that worried her desperately. She just didn’t know if she could face seeing him, or Louise and Wei, in harm’s way once again.
“Everything okay?”
She started at the sound of Commander Craig’s voice from the doorway of the rec room. He’d appeared there and she’d been so deep in thought, she hadn’t even heard him.
“Just thinking about what’s coming,” she said. “Another fight with Major Bright. I promised my mum before she died that I’d look after Robert. I’m supposed to be keeping him out of danger.”
Craig shook his head. “You worry too much.”
Sarah laughed. “He’s hell-bent on facing off against an insane military commander with superhuman powers to rescue a kid he hardly knows. Yeah, I guess I am being overcautious.”
The commander raised an eyebrow. “Robert seems to understand the risks. He isn’t running away from the fight.”
“Neither am I,” Sarah said indignantly. “I can take on Bright myself. But not Robert…” Her voice cracked and she stopped talking. It was only in moments of danger that she realized just how much she cared for her brother. If something happened to him, she didn’t know what she would do…
“Like I said, you worry too much,” Craig said. “You need to clear your head. Sparring room. Fifteen minutes.”
With that, he turned and left before she could argue. Alone again, Sarah wondered if she was the only one (contrary to what Lesley the psychologist might think) who hadn’t gone crazy on this ship.
10
After the plane landed, Hack was led down the ramp by two of the mercs to a waiting jeep. One took the wheel, while the other bundled him wordlessly into the back. Thankfully Marlon Good had already disembarked and left in his own vehicle. Hack did as he was told without protest. He was intent on taking in every detail of his new surroundings – trying to find some clue as to his location.
Judging by the position of the sun, he estimated it was just before midday. This meant that the plane had been in transit for about nine hours. The air was incredibly humid and the temperature was in the high thirties. Seabirds swooped overhead and Hack thought he heard the sound of waves crashing as the jeep pulled away from the plane, suggesting they were on an island or near the coast. The heat and the vegetation around the runway – palm trees and dense jungle – suggested a semi-tropical location in the Pacific.
The jeep sped along the runway towards a control tower and a pair of hangars in the distance. As they drew closer, Hack counted more mercenaries, all dressed in the same camouflage uniform and heavily-armed. They reached a security check at a chain-link fence and passed into a compound that included two hangars and a group of smaller buildings. Military equipment was parked all around: tanks, trucks, helicopters.
This Major Bright guy isn’t messing around, he thought. It’s like something out of Modern Warfare.
The jeep pulled up outside a group of weather-beaten concrete buildings that looked as if they pre-dated the rest of the camp. The merc beside Hack grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out. Opening a steel door, the soldier led him down a corridor to another door. This led into a cell no more than a few metres across. There was no chair. No bed. Just hard, bare walls and floor. An iron-barred window was set high in the back wall.
> “Home sweet home,” the merc said and pushed him inside.
Hack spun as the door slammed shut and several bolts slid into place. His heart sank. He would have given anything for an electronic keypad or magnetic locks to subvert, but the cell was as low-tech as you could get. There wasn’t even a light fitting in the ceiling.
As the merc’s bootsteps echoed away, Hack stepped forward and ran his fingers over the door hinges. They were solid, but the brickwork was crumbling around them. After a second’s thought, Hack removed the belt from his jeans and scraped the metal buckle against the brick experimentally. It gave. He pressed harder with the buckle and more of the wall became brick dust.
“Don’t do that.”
Hack turned. He’d assumed he was alone in the cell, but now he made out a figure sitting against the far wall in the shadows. He strained his eyes and saw that it was a girl, about his age and Asian in appearance, although her accent was Australian. She looked painfully thin and wore a tattered T-shirt and jeans. Black hair hung around her shoulders in straggles. She met his eyes and he could see her face was dirt-smeared, as if she hadn’t washed in weeks.
“If you mess with the door, they won’t feed us for a day,” she said.
Hack took a few steps towards her and kneeled down in the middle of the cell. “Who are you?” he asked.
The girl turned to the wall, avoiding his gaze.
“How long have you been here?”
The girl looked round at him and he could tell from her tear-filled eyes that she’d been in the cell for a very long time.
Most of the Oshino compound consisted either of decrepit brick cells like the one in which Hack had been placed, or prefabs that doubled as weapon storage facilities and barracks for the mercs. There was one exception: a circular, single-storey building in the centre of the camp. Communications masts and dishes adorned the roof and the curved walls were mirrored glass, reflecting back the camp and surrounding jungle. There was only one entrance and this was constantly guarded by two mercs bearing machine guns.
