Free Higher Institute of Villainous Education by Mark Walden Page A

find out as much as he possibly could about Nero without attracting his closer attention. He felt certain that you didn’t want to be top of the Doctor’s ‘Things to Do’ list. Unbidden a mental image formed in Otto’s head of a giant Dr Nero using a magnifying glass to focus the burning rays of the sun on to a little white-haired ant. He dismissed the disturbing image from his mind and rose from the bed. ‘Well, here’s hoping that we don’t have a repeat performance at dinner. Speaking of which, we’d better get going or we’ll be late.’

    Wing hadn’t been joking about the snoring. Otto lay in his bed with a hastily fashioned toilet-paper plug in each ear. He could no longer hear Wing, but he swore he could feel his bed vibrating slightly.
    Dinner had thankfully passed uneventfully. Block and Tackle had been there but they’d been seated at a distant table with a group of similarly hulking brutes, all of them wearing the same blue henchman overalls. Save for a couple of murderous stares when either Wing or Otto had inadvertently caught their eye they had steered well clear of the new recruits. The security guards patrolling the cavern probably had something to do with that. It also became clear that the staff did not eat dinner with the students since the top table had remained empty throughout the course of the meal. Otto wondered what their evening dining arrangements might be.
    After dinner he and Wing had spent a couple of hours exploring the accommodation block’s facilities. This had included an abortive game of darts which was abandoned after Wing hit nine bull’s-eyes in a row. The more time Otto spent with Wing the more the large, well-spoken Asian boy surprised him. He had tried gently probing Wing for more details of his background but when Wing had seemed reluctant to discuss the topic Otto had dropped it, not wanting his curiosity to damage the friendship that was developing between them. After all, if they didn’t come up with a plan and do something about their current situation they’d have six long years to find out all about each other.
    The plan that Otto was nurturing was still slowly forming in his mind, but the more he concentrated on it the more elusive the details seemed. He knew that he had to just stop consciously thinking about it and over time the problems with the scheme would resolve themselves, but he was impatient – he felt trapped.
    As he lay in bed, blissfully deaf to the ungodly noise coming from Wing’s side of the room, he found himself mentally going over the events of the weeks leading up to his arrival at H.I.V.E. Looking back on it now, he supposed it had all started with the letter . . .

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    Chapter Five
    ‘They can’t do this!’ Otto shouted, waving at the letter that lay on the desk in front of him. ‘I’ve spent years getting this place running just right, and now this!’
    He stood up from the battered leather office chair behind his desk and paced around the room. The old attic where he stood was lined with shelves full of books and the scattered remains of hundreds of different electronic devices. Standing in the centre of the room was a middle-aged woman in an expensive suit. Her red eyes betrayed the fact she had been crying recently.
    ‘Oh, I just don’t know what to do, Mr Malpense. I brought you the letter as soon as I read it. These horrible people are going to close the orphanage down and there’s nothing we can do. I’ve spent my whole life working here and I just don’t know what will become of me if they close it down . . . oh, Mr Malpense, this is terrible.’ With great heaving sobs, she burst into tears again.
    Otto put his hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t worry, Mrs McReedy, I’ll think of something. They needn’t think that they’re shutting us down without a fight. St Sebastian’s isn’t finished yet.’ He handed Mrs McReedy a hankie from his pocket and she proceeded to blow her nose explosively.
    ‘I’m sorry, Mr