highlights what a danger to us he has become.’
‘It still does not justify what Diabolus did,’ Raven replied. ‘You know as well as I do that the order he gave cannot be countermanded. Every G.L.O.V.E. kill team on the planet will be looking for him now.’
‘Which is why we have to find him first,’ Nero said with a sigh.
.
Chapter Four
Laura stared at the display on the desk. Shelby had gone to bed an hour ago, but Laura knew she’d find it impossible to sleep with the mystery of what was causing the systems malfunctions rattling around inside her head. It made no sense that the network’s storage capacity was dropping but that no new data was taking up that space. She tapped at the keyboard, pulling up another screen of diagnostics. She knew that the strange events had started a few months ago, so she started to run a byte by byte comparison of all the files on the system from that approximate date forward. She was not surprised to find that many of the file sizes had changed over that period, but suddenly something struck her as odd. Of the huge numbers of archived files that she did not have the right permissions to access, at least some were showing file size mismatches that made no sense. These were old files, files that had apparently not been called up in years, and yet some of them were showing tiny increases in size. These were the ones that caught her attention. All she could do was pull the dates on which they’d last been modified. Almost immediately she started to see a pattern emerge. The tiny increases in file size had happened at the exact same times as the system glitches. She checked again, wanting to be sure of what she’d found.
Laura got up and hit the button to leave the room, but the buzz from the door quickly reminded her that the accommodation blocks were in night-time lockdown. She pulled her Blackbox communicator from the pocket of her jumpsuit and placed a call to Professor Pike. The screen flashed the single word ‘connecting’ for a few seconds and then the Professor’s face appeared on the screen. From what she could see of the background, he was still in the computer core.
‘It’s very late, Miss Brand. I hope this is something important,’ the Professor said.
‘Aye, Professor, I think it might be,’ Laura said. ‘I think I know where our phantom data is hiding.’
The Shroud touched down in H.I.V.E.’s crater landing bay, and the medical team that had been waiting at the edge of the pad rushed forward as the engines spun to a halt. Nero hurried down the landing ramp at the rear of the aircraft and ushered the team inside. Barely a minute later the medics wheeled a gurney back down the ramp with Darkdoom’s pale, unconscious body on it. Dr Scott, H.I.V.E.’s chief medical officer, walked alongside the stretcher, looking at a portable screen which was displaying the wounded man’s vitals. Judging by his face, the doctor was not happy with what he saw.
‘Prep him for immediate surgery,’ he said.
Nero walked back down the Shroud’s ramp and watched the medical team leave, knowing that now was not the time to interfere.
‘He’s in good hands, Max,’ Raven said.
‘I know,’ Nero replied, ‘but that’s not all I’m worried about.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘Word of the attack on Diabolus is bound to leak out. You saw what the atmosphere was like in the council meeting. The one thing that G.L.O.V.E. does not need now is a power vacuum, and I fear that Trent is perfectly aware of that.’
‘You think that the council will move to replace him?’
‘It is not beyond the realms of possibility,’ Nero said with a sigh. ‘They are a group of people not known for their patience, and I fear that some among the council will see this as a perfect opportunity to stake their claim.’
Raven did not want to believe that was true, but then she had never been particularly interested in the politics and power games that the senior members of
‘It still does not justify what Diabolus did,’ Raven replied. ‘You know as well as I do that the order he gave cannot be countermanded. Every G.L.O.V.E. kill team on the planet will be looking for him now.’
‘Which is why we have to find him first,’ Nero said with a sigh.
.
Chapter Four
Laura stared at the display on the desk. Shelby had gone to bed an hour ago, but Laura knew she’d find it impossible to sleep with the mystery of what was causing the systems malfunctions rattling around inside her head. It made no sense that the network’s storage capacity was dropping but that no new data was taking up that space. She tapped at the keyboard, pulling up another screen of diagnostics. She knew that the strange events had started a few months ago, so she started to run a byte by byte comparison of all the files on the system from that approximate date forward. She was not surprised to find that many of the file sizes had changed over that period, but suddenly something struck her as odd. Of the huge numbers of archived files that she did not have the right permissions to access, at least some were showing file size mismatches that made no sense. These were old files, files that had apparently not been called up in years, and yet some of them were showing tiny increases in size. These were the ones that caught her attention. All she could do was pull the dates on which they’d last been modified. Almost immediately she started to see a pattern emerge. The tiny increases in file size had happened at the exact same times as the system glitches. She checked again, wanting to be sure of what she’d found.
Laura got up and hit the button to leave the room, but the buzz from the door quickly reminded her that the accommodation blocks were in night-time lockdown. She pulled her Blackbox communicator from the pocket of her jumpsuit and placed a call to Professor Pike. The screen flashed the single word ‘connecting’ for a few seconds and then the Professor’s face appeared on the screen. From what she could see of the background, he was still in the computer core.
‘It’s very late, Miss Brand. I hope this is something important,’ the Professor said.
‘Aye, Professor, I think it might be,’ Laura said. ‘I think I know where our phantom data is hiding.’
The Shroud touched down in H.I.V.E.’s crater landing bay, and the medical team that had been waiting at the edge of the pad rushed forward as the engines spun to a halt. Nero hurried down the landing ramp at the rear of the aircraft and ushered the team inside. Barely a minute later the medics wheeled a gurney back down the ramp with Darkdoom’s pale, unconscious body on it. Dr Scott, H.I.V.E.’s chief medical officer, walked alongside the stretcher, looking at a portable screen which was displaying the wounded man’s vitals. Judging by his face, the doctor was not happy with what he saw.
‘Prep him for immediate surgery,’ he said.
Nero walked back down the Shroud’s ramp and watched the medical team leave, knowing that now was not the time to interfere.
‘He’s in good hands, Max,’ Raven said.
‘I know,’ Nero replied, ‘but that’s not all I’m worried about.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘Word of the attack on Diabolus is bound to leak out. You saw what the atmosphere was like in the council meeting. The one thing that G.L.O.V.E. does not need now is a power vacuum, and I fear that Trent is perfectly aware of that.’
‘You think that the council will move to replace him?’
‘It is not beyond the realms of possibility,’ Nero said with a sigh. ‘They are a group of people not known for their patience, and I fear that some among the council will see this as a perfect opportunity to stake their claim.’
Raven did not want to believe that was true, but then she had never been particularly interested in the politics and power games that the senior members of
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