Rogue by Mark Walden Read Free Book Online Page B

for one, no longer want to be a part of.’
    ‘Choose your next words very carefully, Max,’ Darkdoom said slowly.
    ‘How dare you threaten me?’ Nero said angrily, standing up. ‘Do I really need to tell you who you’re starting to sound like?’
    Suddenly the room was plunged into darkness, the only illumination coming from the lights of the city outside Darkdoom’s office window.
    ‘What the hell?’ Darkdoom said, stabbing quickly at the communications console on his desk, but it too was dead.
    A sudden tiny flicker caught Raven’s eye, the briefest flash of bright red light flaring on the glass behind Darkdoom. She acted without hesitation, diving across Darkdoom’s desk and knocking him to one side as the window pane behind him exploded. Diabolus grunted as the bullet struck him just below the shoulder blade, exiting through the front of his chest and spraying Raven’s face with a fine mist of blood.
    ‘Sniper!’ Raven yelled at Nero. ‘Get down!’
    Nero dived for cover just as another bullet tore into the seat behind him. Raven hooked her arms under Darkdoom’s shoulders and he gave a low moan of pain as she crawled towards the door, struggling to drag his limp body.
    ‘Get out of here!’ Raven yelled as a bullet struck the wall half a metre above her head.
    ‘Not without you,’ Nero said.
    He crawled across the floor towards her and helped her drag Darkdoom the last few metres to the door. As Nero reached up and turned the door handle, another shot hit the door frame centimetres from his hand. Together he and Raven helped to haul Darkdoom out through the door just as a security guard came running down the corridor outside.
    ‘Darkdoom’s been hit,’ Nero yelled as the man in body armour approached.
    ‘We’ve lost the security system building-wide,’ the guard reported. ‘It just shut down. No warning.’
    Nero had a horrible feeling that he knew what might have caused that to happen. ‘We have to get out of here NOW!’ he snapped. ‘Natalya, take point. You –’ he jabbed a finger at the guard – ‘help me with him.’
    The guard helped Nero lift Darkdoom groaning to his feet, one of the injured man’s arms over each of their shoulders.
    ‘We need to get to the roof,’ Raven said, looking down the corridor.
    ‘The hangar bay is locked down,’ the guard replied. ‘The only way out is at ground level.’
    The corridor was suddenly filled with a blood-red glow as the emergency lighting kicked in.
    ‘No, that’s where they want us,’ Raven said quickly. ‘We have to get to the Shroud.’
    ‘I just told you, it’s sealed tight,’ the guard said, looking confused. ‘We can’t get in.’
    ‘I’ll find a way,’ said Raven, drawing the crackling purple blades from the twin sheaths on her back. ‘Where are the stairs?’
    ‘That way,’ the guard said, pointing down the corridor.
    They set off, Raven in the lead, Nero and the guard behind, carrying Darkdoom between them.
    As they passed the elevators the guard noticed that the call buttons beside the doors were illuminated.
    ‘We can take the elevator,’ the guard said. ‘It’d be quicker.’
    ‘Trust me,’ Raven said, shaking her head slightly, ‘not a good idea.’

    Otto walked into the security control centre on the ground floor of the building flanked by two men in full body armour and carrying assault rifles. Their chests displayed an image of an angel flying upwards with a sword held aloft in its outstretched hand. The symbol of H.O.P.E..
    The leader of the three-man team that had gone into the room before them pushed the dead body of the G.L.O.V.E. security technician out of his chair in front of the numerous security monitors. Otto walked over, sat in the recently vacated seat and began to study the displays.
    He could see G.L.O.V.E. security guards hurrying to their positions throughout the upper floors of the building, but they weren’t what he was looking for. He eventually spotted movement on a monitor in