Aftershock Read Online Free Page A

worse. I can see now that I was wasting my time.’ He stood up to leave. ‘Goodbye, Max.’
    Nero sat in silence as the opera finished, applauding as the cast took their final bow. He had suspected that this was what Wright had wanted to discuss with him and he was quite aware of the events his refusal to change his mind may set in motion. In some ways it was inevitable but it did not make the prospect of open conflict between G.L.O.V.E. and the former members of its own ruling council any more pleasant.
    He made his way down from the private box and through the foyer of the Opera House before stepping out into the cool night air of Covent Garden. As usual in London the streets were still busy even at this late hour.
    ‘I wish you’d let me sit in the box with you,’ Raven said as she came and stood beside him. She was wearing a stunning black cocktail dress, as different as one could imagine from her usual uniform.
    ‘I appreciate your concern,’ Nero replied with a slight smile, ‘but I think that might have made Joseph rather nervous.’
    ‘Good,’ Raven replied with a frown, ‘he should be nervous. He practically threatened you in there.’
    ‘We knew it might come to this, Natalya,’ Nero replied as a black executive saloon car pulled up to the kerb. ‘Now we just have to wait and see what they do next.’ Nero ushered Raven to the waiting car and they both climbed inside.
    ‘Take us to the rendezvous point,’ Nero instructed the driver. There a Shroud, one of H.I.V.E.’s stealth dropships, was waiting to transport them back to the school.
    ‘Do you really think it’s wise for us to wait for them to make the first move?’ Raven asked as the car made its way through the busy streets.
    ‘I will not be the one to declare war,’ Nero said, shaking his head. ‘Perhaps conflict is inevitable but I won’t be the one that starts it.’
    ‘It could make us look weak,’ Raven said.
    ‘Let them make their move and then they will see how weak we are,’ Nero replied.
    Raven recognised the steely determination in Nero’s voice, the very same determination that had propelled him to the head of the most powerful criminal organisation on Earth and then kept him there.
    ‘Why are we slowing down?’ Raven asked the driver as she felt the car suddenly decelerating.
    ‘Road’s blocked, Miss,’ the driver said, pointing to the road ahead where a lorry was unloading cardboard boxes on to the pavement. Raven stared at the men unloading the lorry and felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up as one of them glanced at their car for just a moment too long.
    ‘Get us out of here!’ Raven snapped.
    The driver hesitated for a moment and then saw Raven’s expression. He threw the car into reverse and hit the accelerator just as two high-sided vans pulled into the road behind them, blocking them in. The doors in the side of the vans slid open and half a dozen men in black body armour leapt out raising assault rifles.
    ‘Get down!’ Raven yelled as the soldiers behind them opened fire. The car rattled and shook as the high velocity rounds struck it. The car was armoured, of course, but there was still a limit to how much damage it could take before it was disabled. The driver threw the car into a forward gear and floored the accelerator, aiming for the narrow gap between the lorry ahead of them and the parked cars that lined the streets on either side. Raven saw one of the men reach into a box on the pavement. He pulled out a long tube-shaped object, placing it on his shoulder as he turned towards their speeding vehicle. There was a bright flare from the rear end of the tube and a missile shot down the street and struck the front of the car. The explosion flipped the car over and it landed with a sickening crunch on its roof, sliding to a halt thirty metres further down the road, its whole front end now little more than a twisted shell of burning metal.
    The gunmen from the two vans walked slowly towards the