Deadlock (9 page)

Otto and Raven walked along the darkened pier. The night air was cold and a thick bank of fog was rolling in off the ocean. There were a handful of lights visible from isolated houses on the hills that surrounded them, but otherwise they were completely alone, the only sound coming from the waves crashing against the shore.

‘They’re late,’ Otto said, glancing at his watch.

‘They’ll be here,’ Raven said, looking out to sea. Barely a minute later they both heard the high-pitched whine of turbines and a sleek black powerboat raced towards them out of the fog, bouncing across the tops of the waves. It slowed to a stop as it approached the pier and a familiar figure got up out of the seat next to the helmsman.

‘Natalya, Otto, it’s good to see you both again,’ Diabolus Darkdoom said, giving them a broad smile. ‘I hear you’ve been getting involved in politics. I never really fancied it much myself, such a dirty business.’

‘Hello, Diabolus,’ Raven said, taking his offered hand and stepping down into the boat’s passenger compartment. ‘It’s good of you to give us a lift. Is the meeting set up?’

‘I’ll brief you when we’re safely on board the Megalodon,’ Darkdoom said as Otto hopped down into the boat. The three of them took their seats and the helmsman steered them away from the pier. Moments later they were heading back out to sea, the boat’s engines whining as it bounced along the surface at phenomenal speed. The ocean ahead of them was lit up by the boat’s FLIR sensors, highlighting any nearby vessels or obstacles on the HUD that was projected on to the black glass in front of the helmsman.

‘Manta One to Megalodon,’ the helmsman said after a couple of minutes, ‘we’re thirty seconds out. Surface for docking.’

Ahead of them the ocean seemed to bulge for a moment and then separate in a shower of spray as the massive conning tower of Darkdoom’s stealth submarine, the Megalodon, broke the surface. A large hatch in the rear of the tower opened and the helmsman expertly piloted the boat into the brightly lit docking area. Docking clamps thudded into place on the boat’s hull as the hatch sealed shut behind them and the Megalodon disappeared once more below the waves. The boat’s passengers climbed out one by one on to the narrow gangway that led up to the dock.

‘We’re under way, sir,’ one of Darkdoom’s men reported. ‘We should reach our destination on schedule.’

‘Very good,’ Darkdoom said. ‘I’m heading to the bridge with our guests. Please make sure that their quarters are ready.’

‘Yes, sir,’ the crewman replied.

Otto and Raven followed Darkdoom as he made his way forward towards the giant submarine’s command centre. They were making their way through the Megalodon’s armoury when Darkdoom paused for a moment and beckoned for Otto to come and look at something.

‘I think you’ll appreciate this, Otto,’ Darkdoom said. ‘I call it the Moray.’ He gestured to a rack of weapons stored within one of the Megalodon’s torpedo-loading racks. At the front of the weapon was a smooth black egg-shaped nose that was surrounded by an array of cameras and sensors. Behind that was a long, thin segmented metallic body that ended in a vicious-looking barbed tail.

‘You’re probably aware of the race to develop intelligent airborne drones for the military,’ Darkdoom said, gesturing towards the machine. ‘Well, the Moray is an equivalent device for submarine warfare. Extremely manoeuvrable and quick, it can be equipped for stealthy intelligence gathering or as a highly versatile assassination device, acquiring and eliminating its target completely autonomously.’

‘Very cool,’ Otto said, examining the Moray more closely. He closed his eyes for a moment and reached out for the Moray’s on-board systems. He could feel the hum and buzz of the Megalodon’s other systems, but the weapon in front of him was just dead space as far as his unusual senses were concerned.

‘Fully electromagnetically shielded as well,’ Darkdoom said with a wry smile, ‘immune to all known countermeasures, including young men with organic supercomputers lodged in their brains.’

‘So I see,’ Otto said, raising an eyebrow. ‘You know it’s almost like people don’t want me interfering with their highly advanced experimental weapon systems these days.’

‘How very inconsiderate of them,’ Raven said. ‘Now, if you boys have finished admiring your new toys, we do have things we need to discuss.’

‘You really have no appreciation of craftsmanship, Natalya,’ Darkdoom said. ‘I would have thought you of all people would have appreciated a new and interesting way to kill someone.’

‘I prefer the personal touch,’ Raven replied, putting her hand on the hilt of one of the twin katanas that were strapped across her back. ‘You know that.’

They continued forward to the bridge which was, as usual, filled with the quiet bustle of a well-trained crew performing its duties. Darkdoom walked quickly around the dimly lit room, checking several gauges and the readouts on key displays. He spoke briefly to his first officer and then gestured for Raven and Otto to follow him through the hatch into his office.

‘Everything is in place,’ Darkdoom said as he closed the door. ‘The Architect has agreed to a meeting. It took some persuasion, but we’ve known each other for a long time and he owed me a favour. Be warned though, he is not pleased about being dragged into this conflict, so there is no guarantee that he’ll be willing to help us.’

‘There’s only one way to find out,’ Otto said. ‘So where are we meeting him?’

‘Venice,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘Tomorrow afternoon. Piazza San Marco.’

‘Isn’t that a little too public?’ Raven asked.

‘It was his choice,’ Darkdoom said. ‘It was hard enough getting him to agree to the meeting in the first place, so I thought it best not to start questioning his choice of location.’

‘Does he know what we need?’ Otto asked.

‘No,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘I thought it would be best if we discussed the situation face-to-face. It may be the only chance we have of obtaining the information we require.’

‘There are other ways of getting information out of someone you know,’ Raven said. ‘Given time.’

‘No, Nero doesn’t want him harmed,’ Darkdoom said, shaking his head. ‘He either gives his help willingly or we find another way to track Furan down.’

‘We don’t have any other leads at this point,’ Otto said. ‘We may never get another chance.’

‘I understand exactly what’s at stake here, Otto,’ Darkdoom said. ‘At this point I don’t even know if my own son is alive or dead, but Max is calling the shots on this and I trust his judgement.’

‘So he’s agreed to meet with you and Raven’s there as security,’ Otto said. ‘So how are you going to explain who I am and why I’m there?’

‘By telling the truth,’ Darkdoom replied matter-of-factly. ‘That you were one of the only survivors of Furan’s attack on the Hunt and, as such, one of the only eyewitnesses to her crimes.’

‘You really think that’s going to make a difference?’ Otto asked.

‘It certainly can’t do any harm,’ Darkdoom replied. ‘We have to show him that Furan needs to be stopped no matter how important his neutrality is to him. You can help prove that to him.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Otto said, ‘because it might just be our only chance.’

Anastasia Furan walked through the airlock and into the laboratory area with two nervous-looking scientists in white lab coats trailing behind her. She surveyed the room and seemed satisfied with the level of bustling activity. Technicians hurried about, monitoring workstations and readouts; there was an atmosphere of hurried but not panicked work. At the far end of the laboratory was a sectioned-off area contained within a thick Plexiglas box. Inside the box a large robotic arm was making quick precise movements, working on something that lay hidden within a cloud of white vapour that filled the lower half of the box.

‘Is the prototype ready?’ Furan asked.

‘Very nearly,’ the older-looking of the two scientists replied. ‘A couple more weeks of testing and we should be ready for deployment.’

‘We don’t have a couple more weeks, Dr Klein,’ Furan said, turning towards him with a slight frown on her face. ‘I want it ready for deployment now. My sources within G.L.O.V.E. have provided me with some very useful information and I wish to take advantage of the opportunity that it affords us. That opportunity is finite, Doctor, and I will not allow us to miss it because you wish to conduct more tests. Now, I will ask you only one more time. Is it ready?’

‘Yes,’ Klein replied, avoiding eye contact with Furan, ‘it’s ready.’

‘Good,’ she replied. ‘Prepare it to be put into the field immediately. We will need to move the moment that we have a firm target location.’

‘Understood,’ Klein said with a nod before walking quickly towards the technicians near the vapour-filled box and engaging them in urgent, hushed conversation.

‘Now, Dr Ross,’ Furan said, turning towards the other man, ‘I believe you have work to do.’

‘Yes, of course,’ the other scientist replied. ‘If you’d just follow me.’

He led Furan through a nearby door and into another section of the laboratory. He walked over to a steel cabinet with a keypad on the front and punched in a series of numbers. The cabinet popped open with a hiss and he reached inside, pulling out a metal case. He carried the case over to one of the metal tables in the centre of the room and opened it as Furan approached. Inside was what looked like a thin skeletal hand made of gleaming steel.

‘We are ready to carry out the procedure whenever you are,’ Ross said, gesturing towards the box. ‘I should warn you though that you will need to remain fully conscious throughout the procedure so that we can be sure that the neurotech grafting has taken correctly. It will be extremely painful.’

‘You need not concern yourself with that, Dr Ross,’ Furan said, carefully pulling off the black leather glove and revealing the hideously scarred claw that was all that remained of her right hand after Otto Malpense had severely injured her just a few months ago. ‘I know all about pain.’

Otto, Raven and Darkdoom walked across the bustling Piazza San Marco, the heart of Venice, trying as much as possible to blend in with the crowds of tourists. Darkdoom was, as usual, wearing a perfectly tailored dark suit and shirt and looked every inch the well-dressed local. Raven had swapped her customary, rather conspicuous, tactical outfit for a pair of tight black jeans, a high-necked sweater and a long dark trench coat. She had, with great reluctance, left her swords on board Darkdoom’s boat, which was moored nearby. They had, after all, no desire to attract the attention of the
Carabinieri
– tangling with the local police was an additional complication that they did not need. Darkdoom took a seat at a table in front of one of the many pavement cafés that surrounded the square and Otto and Raven followed suit.

‘Now we wait,’ Darkdoom said, as a waiter walked over to their table and offered him a menu, which he waved away. ‘
Solo un caffè per me per favore
. Do either of you want anything?’

‘Just water,’ Raven said, her eyes flicking from person to person in the crowds that milled around the square, constantly watching for any sign of a hidden threat.

‘No, I’m fine, thanks,’ Otto said.

‘
Un caffè e una di acqua, grazie signore
,’ the waiter said with a nod and walked away.

Otto took the opportunity to appreciate some of the magnificent architecture that surrounded them, dominated by the spectacular ornately decorated marble arches of St Mark’s Basilica and the towering red brick Campanile opposite it. The most striking thing for a place this busy was the lack of traffic noise; instead there was just the burbling white noise of humanity as a hundred different conversations went on around him.