Free Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden

have to get out of here, off this island, as soon as possible.’
    Wing frowned slightly. ‘Agreed. H.I.V.E. is certainly impressive, but I have no desire to spend the next few years of my life as a virtual prisoner.’
    ‘My sentiments exactly,’ replied Otto, nodding. ‘The problem is how. I’ve not seen any sign of an exit to the surface and I’ve been looking for one all day.’
    ‘As have I, but even if we were to find an exit, what would we do once we got to the surface? I doubt that we would be given enough time to construct a raft.’
    ‘We might not need to. Did you notice the sign pointing to the submarine pen earlier?’ Otto asked, his voice dropping to a whisper. He’d searched the room thoroughly as soon as the door had closed but he still wasn’t sure if the room was bugged or not. It looked clean, but until he knew for certain, he had decided that he would work on the assumption that any unguarded conversations should not be treated as private.
    Wing looked at Otto carefully and replied in a whisper, ‘Yes, I saw it, but are you seriously proposing that we use a stolen submarine as our escape vehicle? How would we pilot it? Somehow I suspect that requests for submariner lessons will arouse a certain amount of suspicion.’
    ‘I could do it, I don’t need lessons,’ Otto said calmly.
    ‘You know how to pilot a submarine?’ Wing arched one eyebrow.
    ‘No, but I’m a quick learner,’ Otto replied with a slight smile.
    ‘You would have to be. You’ll forgive me if I choose not to stake my life on your ability to improvise.’ Wing seemed almost irritated that Otto was suggesting something so ridiculous.
    Otto suspected that Wing probably thought he was losing his mind. He could understand his disbelief, but Otto knew that if he could get a couple of uninterrupted minutes to examine any vehicle he’d be able to pilot it. Assuming that it was physically possible for one person to do it of course, but they would cross that bridge when they came to it. The problem would be convincing Wing that he could do it. ‘Trust me, I know what I’m doing’ wasn’t going to cut it when he was effectively asking his new friend to put his life in his hands.
    ‘Anyway, it doesn’t really matter until we get some idea of what the security around the submarine pen is like,’ Otto said. ‘The fact that it’s so openly signposted means that our hosts are confident that it’s secure.’
    Wing nodded. ‘Indeed, security is clearly taken quite seriously around here.’
    That was something of an understatement. There had seemingly been security cameras in the corner of every room during the tour. Steel spheres, the size of a tennis ball with a single black eye surrounded by blue LEDs, intended presumably to remind students that these were the eyes of the all-seeing H.I.V.E.mind. A person would have to be invisible to make their way around H.I.V.E. undetected, or may be . . . Otto felt a familiar tingling as the seed of a plan began to germinate in his head.
    ‘Well, let’s just keep our eyes and ears open for now and see if any other opportunities present themselves. Anyway,’ continued Otto, ‘I haven’t thanked you properly for saving my skin at lunch today. I’m not sure what I’d have done without your help.’
    ‘You seemed to be handling the situation quite admirably,’ Wing replied. ‘You certainly subdued your first assailant efficiently.’
    ‘You just have to know which buttons to press,’ Otto smiled. ‘Or, more accurately, what vulnerable clusters of sensitive nerve-endings to press.’
    ‘I fear we may have drawn unwelcome attention with our actions. Dr Nero did not seem pleased,’ said Wing, frowning slightly.
    Otto knew what Wing meant. Otto rarely met people who he truly considered to be his equal, so when he did it meant that they were people to be added to the pile marked ‘Dangerous’. At the moment Dr Nero was right at the top of that pile. Otto would have to discreetly