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Maximilian,’ Number One said, ‘more painful methods.’
    ‘I think she could be useful,’ Nero said, shaking his head slightly. ‘Let me see if I can turn her; that way we may gain an asset at the same time as ridding ourselves of a threat.’
    ‘I leave it to your discretion,’ Number One said, ‘but I want results quickly. This was not just an attack on you and Darkdoom, this was an attack on our entire organisation. Our retribution must be swift. The girl must tell us what she knows and soon. My patience has its limits, Nero.’
    Nero knew all too well what happened to anyone who overstepped those limits.
    ‘I will report my progress with her directly to you,’ Nero replied.
    ‘See that you do,’ Number One said. ‘Do unto others.’
    ‘Do unto others,’ Nero replied with a nod and the connection was cut.
    A few hours later, Nero walked into the room where the wounded girl lay strapped to the bed. She was conscious now and she glared at him as he approached.
    ‘You should have killed me when you had the chance,’ the girl said, her voice dripping with venom.
    ‘I still have that option,’ Nero replied. ‘I am simply choosing not to exercise it at this precise moment. Now, you know my name, but I do not know yours. What should I call you?’
    ‘My name is Raven,’ the girl replied, still glaring at him. ‘And that is all you will get from me.’
    ‘Not your codename,’ Nero said, shaking his head, ‘your real name. What is it?’
    ‘My name is Raven, ’ the girl hissed back at him. ‘I have no other name.’
    ‘Very well, Raven,’ Nero replied, ‘I imagine that someone like you must find this kind of incarceration rather boring, so I’ve brought this.’ He held up the battered leather-bound book that he was holding. ‘I’m afraid I can’t release your hands, since I suspect that they would end up around my throat. So, I’m going to have to read it to you. I hope you like it, it’s one of my favourite novels and my father read it to me when I was young.’
    ‘Do what you like,’ Raven replied with a dismissive sneer. ‘It makes no difference to me.’
    ‘That’s exactly what I used to say to my father,’ Nero replied with a smile, opening the book and turning to the first page. He cleared his throat and began to read.
    ‘ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . .’

    Nero looked down into the combat training area and watched as Raven swiftly incapacitated the men around her. It had been three months since her arrival at H.I.V.E.’s temporary facility in the Alps and her recovery from her injuries had been astonishingly quick. The men she was fighting were no ordinary sparring partners. They were some of the very best of G.L.O.V.E.’s special forces operatives and yet they were being systematically humiliated by the teenage girl in the middle of the room. Initially they had attacked individually, obviously feeling that it would be unfair for her to have to take on more than one of them at once, but that restraint had quickly been abandoned. There were more guards stationed around the edge of the area with the prototype Sleeper stun guns that Professor Pike had just developed. The Professor assured him that these new weapons would incapacitate anyone without causing any lasting physical harm. He hoped for the sake of the men in the room that he was right.
    ‘She’s remarkable,’ Colonel Francisco said, as he walked along the balcony towards Nero. ‘To be honest with you, Max, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself. Those are my best men and she’s making them look like amateurs.’
    ‘Yes, it would appear that my instinct about her potential was correct,’ Nero replied. ‘Now all we have to do is work out how to ensure we can safely tap it. That girl has been subjected to some of the most brutal training imaginable, it is a wonder that her mind is still intact.’ The truth was that it had taken weeks just to persuade her to