Deadlock (26 page)

‘Laura, it’s OK, it’s me, Otto,’ he said softly as he took a step towards her.

‘You’re not Otto,’ Laura said, ‘you’re not Otto.’

‘Of course it’s me,’ Otto said, suddenly feeling a sickening sense that something terrible had happened to her. ‘Look at me, Laura. I’m here to take you home.’

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with fear, but then slowly her expression changed as she seemed to recognise him.

‘It is you,’ Laura whispered, reaching out and touching his face. ‘Otto, listen to me, you have to get out of here, you have to get out of here
now
. You don’t understand. They knew you were coming. I told them about the message. I couldn’t help it, he took it from my head, I couldn’t stop him.’

‘Couldn’t stop who, Laura?’ Otto asked, feeling a shiver run up his spine when he saw pure terror in her eyes as she caught sight of something behind him.

‘She couldn’t stop me,’ a hauntingly familiar voice said behind him, as he felt something cold and hard press into the back of his head. ‘Hands in the air and turn around slowly.’

Otto raised his hands as Laura crawled into the corner with a terrified sob. He turned around and let out an involuntary gasp. Standing in front of him was a boy with snow-white hair, whose face was identical to his own.

‘Hello, brother,’ the other boy said. ‘I’ve been looking forward to meeting you so very, very much.’

chapter twelve

‘Come on, Otto,’ Shelby said impatiently, as she waited for the door to the dormitory block containing the captured H.I.V.E. students to open.

‘Shelby, come with me quickly. You need to see this,’ Wing said as he came running round the corner from the adjacent corridor.

‘What is it?’ Shelby asked as she followed him back round the corner.

‘Here, look,’ Wing said, gesturing towards the open doors halfway down the concrete passage. She looked inside and saw an empty dormitory filled with unmade beds.

‘This room looks like someone just left in a hurry,’ Shelby said, feeling a creeping sense of unease.

‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ Wing said with a nod. ‘And I know that it’s the middle of the night, but I couldn’t help but notice on the way down here that there were no guards on duty. I could understand a reduced security presence, but none at all . . .’

‘You know, I’m starting to get a horrible feeling that someone was expecting us,’ Shelby said.

‘I know just what you mean,’ Wing said. He glanced up at the camera drones that were still hovering in the air above them. The lights on their undersides which had all gone red a few minutes ago had turned to green again. ‘The security grid is back online. Something’s wrong. I’m going to contact Raven. Can you get that other dormitory door open?’

‘Yeah, but we’re not going to be able to get anyone out of here safely with the security system active,’ Shelby replied.

‘We’ll worry about that when the time comes,’ Wing said. ‘You just get that door open. Switch to person-to-person comms too. No open channel, we might have been compromised.’

‘You think something might have happened to Otto?’ Shelby asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Wing said. ‘I hope not. You need to get that dormitory door open. If our people are inside we need to get them out now.’

‘OK,’ Shelby said, heading back around the corner. Wing flipped open the panel on the inside forearm of his armour and tapped at the touch screen beneath, instructing the comms system to contact Raven directly. It was a gamble – he had no idea if she too might have been captured, but he had to warn her what was happening if she had not been.

‘Raven, go,’ the familiar voice said in his ear.

‘I think something’s wrong,’ Wing said. ‘The security net has come back online and it looks like most of the dormitories have been evacuated. I don’t like the feel of this at all, security’s far too light.’

‘That’s probably because the security barracks I’ve just reached are empty too,’ Raven said. ‘I think we have to get out of here, in fact, I think we have to get out of here
now
.’

The guard shoved Otto and Laura roughly, pushing them into the Glasshouse’s command centre, their hands cuffed in front of them. The room was empty except for Anastasia Furan, Heinrich and the boy with the face that was a perfect mirror of his own. Anastasia waved the guard away and with a nod he left the room.

‘I had been wondering who Nero would send,’ Furan said as she walked towards Otto with an evil smile on her face. ‘I’m so glad it was you, Malpense. I was hoping you’d at least get to meet your successor before you died.’ She gestured towards the boy standing beside her. ‘It’s just a prototype really. It took us years to duplicate the technology that Overlord used to create you, dozens of failed attempts before we achieved success, but finally we did. When Overlord was destroyed we thought we might discontinue the project, but we persisted with the last batch of test subjects and ultimately we were successful. It’s really quite remarkable – its gifts exceed even yours. Like you, it can influence electronic devices, such as when it took control of the weapons on Darkdoom’s submarine resulting in its destruction. Unlike you though, it can also influence organic electrical impulses, such as the impulses that run through the human brain as neurons fire.’

‘
It
is a person,’ Otto said, reaching out with his senses, trying to connect to the security network.

‘No, Malpense, it is not,’ Furan said angrily. ‘It is just like you, an organic machine, but a machine nonetheless. And just like you it was built for a very specific purpose. You were created to provide an organic shell for Overlord to inhabit, but this version has a quite different, much more
imaginative
purpose.’

‘He is attempting to interface with the security network,’ the boy said. ‘I have blocked his abilities.’

‘Good,’ Furan said. ‘We wouldn’t want anybody escaping, would we? No, Malpense, you shan’t be rescuing anyone today. In fact, all you have really done is sign the death warrant of every one of Nero’s students that remains in this facility. If you are here, then that means Nero sent you, and that in turn means that this facility has been compromised. Fortunately the prototype was able to extract the exact nature of the message that Miss Brand sent, and how it could lead someone to this location. That gave us just enough time to evacuate everyone from the facility save for a handful of my best men and the captured H.I.V.E. students that you came to rescue. I’m told that the extraction of the information from Miss Brand was difficult and extremely painful.’ She walked over to Laura, who flinched away from her, tears trickling down her cheeks. ‘The prototype’s abilities are something of a blunt instrument, I’m afraid. They cause no lasting physical damage but the psychological effects can be quite permanent. I would, however, like to know who came with you. I’m assuming that whoever came here with you is wearing one of these clever little suits and that makes it rather hard for me to know just how many of you breached the facility, but you know, don’t you? I’ll bet you even know where they are. Shall we find out?’

‘I’m telling you nothing,’ Otto said defiantly.

‘Oh, but you will, Malpense,’ Furan said with a vicious smile, ‘whether you want to or not.’ She turned to Otto’s doppelgänger. ‘Hollow him out. I want everything – who he’s here with, details of H.I.V.E., Nero’s weaknesses, everything. When you’re done, dispose of them. Understood?’

‘Understood,’ the boy replied.

‘Good.’ She turned to Heinrich. ‘When it’s done, escort the prototype to the escape tunnel. We all need to be inside before I can trigger the switch.’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ Heinrich replied.

‘Goodbye, Mr Malpense, Miss Brand,’ Furan said with a smile. ‘We shan’t meet again.’

She walked out of the room and the boy known only as the prototype came over to Otto.

‘You know, it’s odd,’ the boy said, ‘to look at an inferior version of yourself. Ironic really that they call me the prototype and yet you were the first of us, the blueprint as it were. I’m faster, stronger, cleverer, superior in every way and so it is fitting that I should replace you.’ He turned to Heinrich. ‘Give me the keys to their cuffs.’

‘Why?’ Heinrich asked.

‘Let me put it another way,’ the prototype said, closing his eyes. A momentary look of confusion shot across Heinrich’s face and then he winced, crying out in pain, his hands flying to his head. He staggered backwards, blood starting to trickle from his nose. He grunted once and then pulled the pistol from the holster on his hip and with a look of terror on his face he slowly began to raise the pistol to his own head. The prototype smiled and Heinrich pulled the trigger, his lifeless body crumpling to the ground. The boy walked over to the twitching corpse and pulled the keys from Heinrich’s pocket. ‘They call me the prototype, but I have a name, they just don’t know it. My name is Zero.’ He walked over to Laura, smiling at her as she backed away from him with terror in her eyes. She felt the glass wall at her back as he approached. ‘I understand why he feels the way he does about you – your mind was quite delicious. Such a shame I had to break you.’

‘Leave her alone,’ Otto said, running across the room towards the twisted copy of himself.

‘On your knees, Malpense,’ Zero spat at him and Otto felt a stabbing pain lance through his skull and his legs gave way beneath him. ‘Do you not understand yet? They have no idea what they’ve created. Overlord made us to be more than these pathetic mewling creatures. We are superior, the next step in human evolution. That stupid witch Furan thinks she can control us, but she has no idea what we’re truly capable of. Unfortunately, for now at least, we need her, but when the time comes and she and the Disciples have outworn their usefulness to us, we will destroy them and anyone else foolish enough to oppose us.’

‘What do you mean
us
?’ Otto said, his skull still ringing.

‘You will never know,’ Zero said with a smile, as he unlocked Otto’s cuffs, ‘because I’m going to make you kill her –’ He nodded towards Laura – ‘then I’m going to extract every last iota of information from your head and then I’m going to make you kill yourself and there’s not a thing you can do to stop me. Here, take my gun.’ Otto winced as he felt himself losing control of his body, searing pain shooting through his head. ‘Now point it at me,’ Zero said with a smile. Otto felt his arm rising, levelling the weapon at the other boy. ‘Now all you have to do to save her life is pull the trigger – if you can.’ Zero continued to smile as Otto focused every scrap of will to try and just squeeze his index finger on the trigger, but no matter how hard he tried he could not.

‘I think I’ve made my point,’ Zero said. ‘If Furan had the slightest inkling of the true extent of my power she would kill me in an instant, but the time is coming when I won’t have to hide anything any more and the whole world will kneel before us.’

‘You sound just like Overlord,’ Otto growled.

‘Well, you know what they say, Malpense,’ Zero hissed, bringing his face within centimetres of Otto’s. ‘Like father like son. Now get up!’

Otto got to his feet, feeling the same sense of powerless rage that he had experienced when he had been under the control of the Animus, forced to watch while something else took control of his body.

‘Point the gun at her forehead,’ Zero said and Otto involuntarily levelled the weapon at Laura. Tears were rolling down her face.

‘You know, I still have one thing you will never have,’ Otto said through gritted teeth.

‘Oh, really,’ Zero replied, ‘and what exactly is that?’

‘Friends,’ Otto replied.

I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!
A voice suddenly bellowed from somewhere inside Zero’s head.

Otto felt the other boy’s control slip for an instant and he turned and fired the pistol. Zero dropped to his knees with a look of bewildered surprise on his face.

‘How?’ The boy whispered before collapsing forward on to his face.

‘You’ll never know,’ Otto said, feeling H.I.V.E.mind re-enter his head, as the last breath rattled from Zero’s body. ‘Thank you. You saved both our lives.’

He was corrupted; there was no alternative
, H.I.V.E.mind replied.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Otto said, taking the keys from Zero’s hand and undoing Laura’s cuffs. ‘I couldn’t stop him.’