Aftershock

by Mark Walden

  Nero punched a button on the console in front of him and a holographic globe appeared, floating in the middle of the table.

  ‘Here is what we are planning for the first wave of attacks . . .’

  Mary and Andrew Brand sat holding each other, as their baby son Douglas slept in his mother’s arms. They had no idea how long they’d been kept there in the darkness but it seemed like a long time since the group of armed men had broken into their house and abducted them. They had undergone a long and terrifying journey in the back of the van with bags over their heads before a man in a mask had taken their photograph and then just locked them here in this bare concrete room with a bucket for a toilet and one meal a day. They had no idea why they were there.

  There were heavy footsteps outside and they heard the sound of the door unlocking. The lights in the room came on and two men entered wearing black ski masks. They were both carrying pistols.

  ‘Get the kid,’ one of the men said. ‘Minerva wants him for the Glasshouse.’

  ‘What about them?’ the other man asked, waving his pistol at Mary and Andrew.

  ‘We don’t need them,’ the first man said, cocking the hammer on his pistol. ‘They’re expend—’

  The two men both gasped as glowing purple blades burst simultaneously from the centre of each of their chests. A moment later the blades disappeared again as both men toppled to the floor to reveal a figure standing behind them in a skin-tight black bodysuit and a black mask, a glowing purple sword in each hand.

  ‘My name is Raven,’ the figure said. ‘I’m a friend of your daughter. We have to go . . . NOW!’

  two weeks later

  Otto walked out of the tube station and on to the street. People bustled around him but he was slowly getting used to being back in a big city after the comparatively small community he had been part of at H.I.V.E. What was harder to ignore was the constant hum of all of the digital devices and networks that surrounded him, day and night. He pulled his wallet out of his pocket and looked inside. He was getting low on cash but that wasn’t a problem. He walked for a couple of minutes until he found an ATM on a slightly quieter street. He waited as the woman who was using the machine completed her withdrawal before he stepped up and placed his hand on the numeric keypad. He closed his eyes for the briefest of instants and connected to the machine. First he bypassed the security routines inside the rudimentary computer that ran the machine and then he erased the hard drive inside it that was recording the faces of everyone that used it. He waited as the machine counted his money and then took the several hundred pounds it gave him. For Otto, it was like taking candy from a baby. He walked away down the street, stuffing the money into his wallet.

  Don’t you ever feel like a bully treating those poor machines like that? H.I.V.E.mind said inside his head.

  ‘Oh, come on,’ Otto replied, ‘it’s not like they’ve got feelings.’

  As far as you know.

  ‘What is this? The digital brotherhood or something?’ Otto asked with a grin.

  You may laugh but then you don’t know how close the internet is to becoming self-aware.

  ‘The internet with a personality, now that is a scary thought.’

  Suddenly the Blackbox in Otto’s pocket began to vibrate. He pulled it out and examined the screen.

  ‘Looks like we’re on,’ Otto said.

  I am decrypting the data packet now, H.I.V.E.mind replied. There appear to be three separate Disciple cells active within the London area at this time. Should I prepare infiltration parameters for review?

  ‘Yeah, let’s see who the first lucky Disciple we’re going to pay a visit to is,’ Otto said as the information began to flow into his brain.

  On a rooftop nearby a figure pulled a black mask over her head and then drew a glowing purple blade from the sheath on her back. Beneath her mask a smile spread across her face as she watched Otto head off down the street.

  ‘Now it’s our turn,’ Raven said quietly to herself. ‘Let’s go get ’em, kid.’

  She leapt from the rooftop and disappeared into the night.

  fifteen years ago

  Natalya ran across the rooftop and sprang into the air, smashing through the skylight and dropping to the tiled floor of the room below. She drew the two swords from her back and waited. Moments later armed guards began to flood into the room. Natalya dropped a cylinder billowing smoke to the floor and exploded into action. She couldn’t see the guards through the billowing white fog but she didn’t need to. They were slow, clumsy and noisy. She tracked their movements as they stumbled around her and closing her eyes, she danced. Her swords sang as they swept through the air, moving faster and faster, finding their targets flawlessly. The screams of the guards as they fell just drove Natalya to move faster and strike harder. In seconds it was over, the smoke slowly cleared and she stood alone in the centre of the room, surrounded by a dozen bodies. She knew that her target was close now. She sprinted up the nearby staircase and stopped outside the intricately carved wooden doors at the top. She pressed her ear to the wood, listening for any sound from within but she could hear nothing. She slowly turned the handle and eased the door open. In the room beyond there was a single high-backed chair facing a roaring log fire. Natalya walked silently across the floor towards the chair.

  ‘Hello, Natalya,’ Anastasia Furan said, getting up out of the chair and turning to face her. ‘Or would you prefer Raven?’

  ‘Madame Furan,’ Natalya said, sliding the swords into the crossed sheaths on her back and dropping to one knee, head bowed.

  ‘You have passed your final test, my dear,’ Anastasia said, walking towards her. ‘This is the moment you have been trained for. Do you feel ready?’

  ‘I want nothing more,’ Natalya replied.

  ‘Very well, but before I give you your first mission I want to ask you something.’

  ‘Of course. Anything,’ Natalya replied.

  ‘Tell me, Natalya, do you still want to kill me?’

  ‘Very much,’ Natalya replied, head still bowed.

  ‘Then why do you not cut me down now, on this very spot?’

  ‘Because it would change nothing,’ Natalya replied.

  ‘Would it not give you satisfaction?’

  ‘I feel no satisfaction in killing. I am an instrument, a tool, a weapon. If it is not you wielding that weapon then it will just be someone else. You talked to me many years ago about the illusion of choice. You were right – you have taught me well.’

  ‘Then truly you are ready,’ Anastasia said with a smile. She picked up a large manila envelope from the table beside the chair and unsealed it, pulling a black and white photograph from inside.

  ‘This is your target. He murdered someone I loved very much, many years ago. He is an elusive and dangerous man and that is why his execution must be swift and merciless.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘His name,’ Anastasia said, handing Natalya the photograph, ‘is Maximilian Nero.’

  The H.I.V.E Series in reading order

  Higher Institute of Villainous Education

  The Overlord Protocol

  Escape Velocity

  Dreadnought

  Rogue

  Zero Hour

  Aftershock

  Answer the following questions to find out which stream you belong in.

  1. If you were an animal, which of the following would you be?

  A. Panther

  B. Rhino

  C. Spider

  D. Snake

  2. How might you make one of your enemies sorry?

  A. With a hypnotic trigger phrase – so that every time someone says ‘Pass the salt’, they cluck like a chicken

  B. Break every bone in their body – even the ones they didn’t know existed

  C. Rewire their alarm clock so that it always goes off at 4 a.m.

  D. Discover their most embarrassing secret, and publicly expose it – after blackmailing them for a brief, yet lucrative, period

 
; 3. If you could choose any instrument to aid you in your villainous cause, what would it be?

  A. Nothing – your cunning is all you will ever need

  B. A bazooka

  C. A computer

  D. Money – after all, it is the root of all evil

  4. You decide to take over your school. How would you achieve this?

  A. Simply inform the headmaster that you are indisputably the most qualified person for the job – you had read every book in the library by the time you were four years old, and have a better understanding of the subjects than the teachers do

  B. Threaten to show the headmaster what his/her spleen looks like if control of the school is not relinquished immediately

  C. Hack into the computer system and rewrite all of the school’s files to show that you are, in fact, already the headmaster

  D. Infiltrate the local council and appoint yourself as Head of Education – why settle for just your school?

  If your answers are mostly As . . .

  Alpha: The Alpha stream specialises in leadership and strategy training. You exhibit certain unique abilities which mark you out as one of the leaders of tomorrow.

  If your answers are mostly Bs

  Henchman: Your aggression knows no bounds, and you are happiest when you’re doing damage to something, or more likely, someone. Your uncluttered, uncomplicated mind makes you the perfect trusted subordinate.

  If your answers are mostly Cs

  Technical: There’s not a computer that you cannot hack, or a bomb you cannot defuse (or build, for that matter). You put the ‘EEK!’ in computer geek.

  If your answers are mostly Ds

  Political/Financial: You have a brilliant head for figures (as well as ways to fudge them), and also happen to be excessively charming and a natural born liar – the perfect combination for a successfully sinister career in politics or finance.

  Your Stream has been selected. Now take the test to discover how villainous you are . . .

  1. You find a wallet on the floor filled with ten pound notes, do you:

  A. Immediately take the wallet to the police and hand it over, still filled with the money

  B. Help yourself to some of the money and then take it to the police

  C. Take the money, throw the wallet in the bin and spend the cash on stolen blueprints for the nearest bank

  2. You see a small child eating your favourite ice cream, do you:

  A. Ask the child where he got the ice cream and set off to buy your own

  B. Explain to the child that ice cream is bad for the teeth and make them feel guilty enough to hand it over

  C. Organise two henchmen to suspend the small child upside down over a duck pond while you enjoy the icy goodness of their treat

  3. Your parents agree to buy you any birthday present you want, do you ask for:

  A. Nothing, you would rather your parents treated themselves

  B. A new hi-fi and games system so you can lock yourself away in your bedroom

  C. A small island in the middle of the Pacific, fully equipped with secret hideout, submarine base and lasers

  4. When buying a new house what room is your priority?

  A. An ecologically sound conservatory

  B. A huge communications room so you can spy on your nearest and dearest

  C. An underground lair complete with torture devices and a shark-filled pool

  5. You have a red button in front of you that you have been told never to press, do you:

  A. Quietly read a book, never giving the button a second thought

  B. Stroke the button gently, always feeling tempted to give it a good push

  C. Instantly press the button – you built this doomsday device so why shouldn’t you use it!

  6. An army of robots is about to take over your town, do you:

  A. Find a way to foil the robots and destroy them for ever

  B. Find a way to foil the robots but keep one just in case you might need it one day

  C. Find a way to foil the robots because frankly your army of GIANT SPACE ROBOTS will do a better job

  7. You need to hire a henchman, who do you hire:

  A. Your mum

  B. A couple of ex-cons you found through eBay

  C. A suitably subservient weakling who will bow to your every needs . . . and a GIANT SPACE ROBOT

  8. You have captured your heroic foe and can at last be rid of him, do you:

  A. Have a change of heart, let him go and give yourself up to the authorities

  B. Give the hero five minutes to escape from a shrinking room while making a quick getaway

  C. Take a long time to explain your convoluted plans for ruling the world, realise the hero has escaped and send your GIANT SPACE ROBOT after him

  If your answers are mostly As . . .

  To be fair you don’t really have a villainous bone in your body. In fact, I suspect you would rather share a cup of tea with your foe, talk about old times and generally have a nice time. It’s probably best to give up villainy now and try something more suited to your needs, say knitting or looking after bunnies.

  If your answers are mostly Bs . . .

  OK, so you have some villainous traits but you’re not quite ready for big time yet. You’re the kind of villainous soul that would pull only half the legs off a spider so they would have some chance of getting away. With a little training you could be a decent villain but you’re no way ready for the big league.

  If your answers are mostly Cs . . .

  Hello future megalomaniac and ruler of the world. You are a vile villain through and through. You’ve probably got some plans to take over the world hidden in a draw somewhere and if you haven’t already undergone training in Applied Villainy at H.I.V.E. then you should be applying for a place now. Oh, and I hear that GIANT SPACE ROBOTS are currently half-price at your local superstore.

  STUDENTS

  Otto Malpense

  Orphaned at birth, Otto is a criminal genius with a limitless mind, photographic memory and rare extra-sensory skills. Using a robotic mind control device he coerced the British Prime Minister into mooning at a press conference, and ended up in H.I.V.E.

  Wing Fanchu

  Otto’s best friend, Wing was recruited into H.I.V.E. due to his exceptional skill in martial arts and numerous forms of selfdefence.

  Laura Brand

  Laura has an uncanny expertise with computers, so much so that she made it into H.I.V.E. by hacking into an US military airbase in order to use their military frequency to find out if one of her friends was gossiping about her behind her back.

  Shelby Trinity

  This all American girl is actually a world renowned jewel thief known as The Wraith. Shelby stole her way into H.I.V.E.

  Nigel Darkdoom

  It’s tough following in your father’s footsteps, particularly when you’re small and bald and your dad is the infamous criminal mastermind Diabolus Darkdoom. Nigel has a lot to live up to. He does, however, have a talent for science and a strange affinity with plants.

  Franz Argentblum

  Franz is son and heir to the largest manufacturer of chocolate in Europe. Like Nigel, his father is also a criminal mastermind. Franz is most easily recognised by his impressive size and strong German accent.

  INSTRUCTORS

  Dr Nero

  Dr Maximilian Nero is the founder and headmaster of H.I.V.E. He also happens to be one of the most ruthless and devious men alive, and is a senior member of G.L.O.V.E.

  Raven

  Natalya (a.k.a. Raven) is the most feared assassin in H.I.V.E. She was originally trained in infiltration and counter-intelligence in Russia. She has a long, curved scar that runs down one cheek, although very few people would know as most people she ‘encounters’ rarely get a chance to make note of their assailant’s appearance before they lose consciousness (if they are lucky).

  Colonel Francisco

  Head of the Tactical Educational department, Colonel Francisco is thought by the
students to be one of the toughest teachers at H.I.V.E.

  Professor Pike

  Head of the Science and Technology department, Professor Pike may appear disorganised and distracted, but appearances are often deceiving. He is one of the original creators of H.I.V.E.mind.

  Ms Leon

  Currently, her consciousness is trapped in the body of her fluffy white cat (with special thanks to Professor Pike). Tabitha Leon is an expert at infiltration and counter-surveillance. She teaches Stealth and Evasion at H.I.V.E.

  H.I.V.E.mind

  H.I.V.E.mind is a first generation artificially intelligent entity and the school’s omnipresent super-computer. The purpose of H.I.V.E.mind is to serve and ensure the uninterrupted functioning of the school.

  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Berlin, New York and Sydney

  First published in Great Britain in August 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  36 Soho Square, London, W1D 3QY

  This electronic edition published in 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

  Copyright © Mark Walden 2011

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  All rights reserved

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