Chapter One
Doctor Nero reclined in his desk chair and sighed. Today had not been a perfect day by any stretch of the imagination. It had started decently, but a surprise incident involving Franz Argentblum, Professor Pike and an oversized African snail had resulted in a panicked four hour security lockdown, which soon put a stop to his good mood.
Such events were par for the course at the Higher Institute of Villainous Education, and on some days he might have amused by it, but the recent death of student Tom Ransom, and the Alpha stream massacre that had preceded it was still badly affecting the mood of the school. Four hours stuck in safe rooms while the security team frantically tried to contain the snail in question before it reached the biotechnology department didn't exactly help raise spirits.
Nero was hoping that he could now relax, but as he poured himself a glass of whisky, he received a call on his blackbox from the communication technician.
"Doctor Nero sir, we've got a call from Mr Darkdoom on the line. He says it's important."
"Put him through then." Nero said dejectedly. At this moment, he really didn't care what Darkdoom wanted, but he owed it to his old friend to hear him out.
"Max, how are things?" Darkdoom smiled as his holographic image flickered to life in front of Nero's desk. Nero smiled grimly.
"Fine thank you Diabolus, but if you don't mind skipping the small talk, I've had one hell of a day."
"Of course" Diabolus chuckled sympathetically. He had had encounters with only six of the H.I.V.E students at a time, and that had been an eye opening experience to say the least. He couldn't imagine trying to run a whole school full of them. "What exactly happened?"
"Let's just say Mr Argentblum won't be trying any prototype escargot ovens for the foreseeable future. Now, if we could get to business?"
"After the pursuit earlier this year, I've been looking into Artemis Section's activities concerning Otto. We didn't manage to get anything from them, however the British did."
"MI6?"
"Yes, it would seem they took notice of the feelers put out by Mr Flack. Turns out anything the President's is interested in, they're interested in. We know that they put in a request for disclosure, and all the data files were transferred to MI6 via a highly encrypted link."
Nero put his head in his hands. "This could be a disaster for us. Do we know what Artemis Section has uncovered?"
Darkdoom shook his head. "We don't have operatives inside Artemis section, since we've always had the Overwatch satellites if we needed to find people. All we know is that the files were transferred straight to the British Intelligence minister. This was a week ago."
Nero furrowed his brow "He hasn't shown anybody since? That would indicate there wasn't anything interesting in the data."
"Probably," Darkdoom nodded "But if he has shown anybody, it's obviously to a branch of intelligence we don't even know about, which would be more worrying. Either way we should be on our guard."
"Very well, I'll brief the council tomorrow. Goodnight Diabolus."
"Goodnight Max."
The hologram slowly dissolved, and Nero looked down at his now empty whisky glass. He wasn't usually a heavy drinker, but suddenly he felt an unusual urge to pour a second shot. It had been a long day.