Rogue by Mark Walden Page B

abortive attempt to take over the school, but they were not fatal. It suited my purposes at the time however to allow everyone to believe that he had been killed. Number One could not be allowed to know that he had survived. Wu Zhang was the first person to alert me to the insanity that our former leader was planning, and while I could never forgive him for his methods or for the attack on the school, I came to realise that without him we might not have discovered what Number One was attempting to do until it was too late.’
    ‘And yet still you will not release me,’ Cypher said, ‘or even allow me to see my son.’
    ‘Wing is better off without you, and so is the outside world,’ Nero said coldly. ‘You may have chosen to forget how many people died needlessly during your attack on H.I.V.E., but I have not.’
    ‘Who would think that a leader of global villainy could be so self-righteous?’ Cypher said with a sneer. ‘There are times when I wonder if you’re really cut out for this kind of thing, Max.’
    ‘My friends call me Max,’ Nero said, looking him straight in the eye. ‘You can call me Doctor Nero.’
    ‘So,’ Cypher said with a slight smile, ‘to what do I owe the rather dubious pleasure of this visit?’
    ‘Unfortunately, we need your help,’ Nero said as calmly as he could. Even after all this time, Cypher still had the ability to get under his skin.
    ‘Explain to me why on earth I should help you,’ Cypher said calmly, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
    ‘Because it could be your first small step on the path to redemption,’ Nero replied, trying to keep his temper in check.
    ‘You’ll have to do better than that,’ Cypher said with a dismissive snort of laughter.
    ‘Then perhaps because you might be one of the only people in the world who can tell us exactly what this is,’ Professor Pike said, tapping the tablet display he was carrying.
    ‘Very clever, Professor,’ Cypher said with an amused smile. ‘An appeal to my intellectual curiosity. I do so lack stimulation here.’ He gestured at the bookshelves that surrounded them. ‘I have no idea how many times I have read each one of these books.’
    ‘This is a challenge that I believe you will relish,’ the Professor said, knowing that the lure of such a puzzle would be nearly irresistible for someone like Cypher.
    ‘Very well, you have piqued my interest,’ he said with no small measure of smug satisfaction in his voice. ‘Tell me more.’
    The Professor quickly described the disruption of H.I.V.E.’s systems and their recent discovery of the rogue code. Cypher tried to feign uninterest at first, but as the Professor went on Nero could see that he was becoming intrigued.
    ‘What you are describing sounds like a seed program,’ Cypher said as the Professor finished outlining their discoveries. ‘We would sometimes use them to build elements of core code that were too labour-intensive to be written by hand. Though I must admit that it is the first time that I have ever heard of a program going to such extraordinary lengths to hide its output. I will look at what you’ve found,’ he said with another sly smile, ‘but there is a price.’
    ‘You’ll do it or I’ll have Chief Lewis come down here and shoot you,’ Nero said angrily. He found Cypher’s arrogance infuriating.
    ‘Threats, Max?’ Cypher said with a grin. ‘Empty ones at that. If you kill me, where does that leave you? No, I think you might just have to give me what I want – if you want my help, that is.’
    Nero fought to control his growing frustration. The fact of the matter was that Cypher was one of the only people in the world, possibly the only person in the world, who could help them solve this riddle. He had been instrumental in the creation of the Overlord AI, and while that project had been a near catastrophic failure, he was still the only person he knew who had any experience of this kind of technology.
    ‘What do you want?’ Nero asked