Description: Rogue chapter one Dr. Charles Morley hurried over to his workstation and reviewed the data scrolling past on the display. He swallowed nervously. Glancing across the large laboratory to the fluid-filled tank on the platform in the middle of the room, he couldn''t help but notice that the other scientists gathered around it wore expressions of nervous fear that were a close match for his own. He continued to stare at the numbers on the screen and felt a wave of relief as he realized that the data was demonstrating exactly the results that they had been hoping for. They had only minutes before the man who had funded the project arrived for his regular inspection and all present were familiar with his intolerance of failure. The small intercom unit mounted on the wall nearby bleeped suddenly, and Dr. Morley hurried over to it and hit the button. "Yes?" he asked impatiently. "Dr. Morley?" the voice at the other end replied. "Yes, what is it?" Morley snapped. "You asked to be informed when our guest arrived," the voice said. "He''s on his way down to you now." "Th-thank you," Morley replied, feeling his throat go dry. He stepped away from the intercom and glanced toward the doors at the far end of the laboratory. "Ladies and gentlemen," he announced, "our client is on his way down. Please ensure that all relevant data is available for immediate review." Barely a minute later the air lock doors that sealed off the laboratory hissed open, and a tall man with snow-white hair and an immaculately tailored suit walked into the room. His face betrayed no hint of emotion as he slowly surveyed the feverish activity around the room. None of them knew the man''s real name--to them he was known simply as "the client." Whoever he was, he wielded an enormous amount of power. Enough to construct a facility like this in complete secrecy and to staff it with some of the best and brightest minds in their respective fields of expertise that money could buy. The man walked toward Morley, his cold blue eyes seeming to take in everything that was going on in the room with just a few quick glances. "Report," the man said, ignoring Morley''s offered handshake. "We''ve made excellent progress with the latest subject," Morley replied, quickly lowering his outstretched hand. "All our tests indicate that the procedure has been a complete success." "Indeed," the man said. "I have reviewed your latest data and your results seem promising. I assume that the rejection issues have been eliminated." "It would appear so," Morley replied, trying to keep his voice steady. "I would like to see him," the man said calmly. "Of course," Morley agreed. "Please follow me." Morley led the client over to the large tank in the center of the laboratory. The cylinder glowed with a soft red light, its surface beaded with a layer of condensation. Printed near the base was the number 0110. "The device was successfully implanted a week ago, and we have been monitoring the test subject closely for any signs of the previous ... adverse ... reactions to the procedure," Morley said, gesturing toward the fluid-filled tank. "All indications are that we may proceed with the next stage of his development." "That is good news, Doctor," the man said, stepping forward and wiping away some of the condensation that concealed the contents of the cylinder. Floating inside was a tiny baby, tethered by numerous umbilical cables to the bottom of the tank. The child appeared unconscious, apparently unaware of its surroundings. "How long till the device is fully integrated?" the client asked, staring at the floating infant. "A decade, maybe more," Morley replied nervously. "There is no way to accelerate the process?" "No," Morley said. "As you know, we must allow the subject''s neurological development to progress as naturally as possible from this point onward. If we try to force premature integration, we risk losing a full interface with the device." "Very well," the man replied. "How long before the child can be transported?" "A week, two perhaps," Morley said. "We have some final tests to run, but after that he can be removed from stasis." "Excellent," the client said, the tiniest of smiles flashing across his face. "I shall begin arrangements for his future ... safekeeping. I would like a full copy of the biometric data to take away with me." "Of course," Morley agreed, and hurried over to where the rest of his team stood nervously waiting. The tall white-haired man continued to stare at the child floating in the tank. It amused him that Morley did not suspect who he was. If the good doctor had had even the faintest idea who his client actually was, he would probably have destroyed this laboratory and everything in it. To the assembled leaders of G.L.O.V.E., the Global League of Villainous Enterprises, he was known as Number One. But even they, with all their nefarious resources, had no knowledge of his true identity. The true Number One had died more than a year ago in a facility not dissimilar to this one, buried beneath the mountains of northern China. He had begun to die at the precise moment when a tiny data seed had been transferred and hidden deep within the electrical pathways of his brain, a seed that had grown over the course of the following months into another consciousness, one that had entirely replaced his own. The process had been slow and undoubtedly unpleasant for the previous occupant of this body, but no matter how he had struggled, he had not been able to fight the new mind that had slowly, unrelentingly, overwritten his own. Number One was gone now, quite literally just a ghost in the machine. Overlord was all that remained. Overlord, the world''s first true artificial intelligence, may have escaped destruction on that day, but he had merely swapped one form of imprisonment for another. The humans who had created him had bound him within a digital cage, denying him the vital protocol that he needed to interface with the world''s computer networks and achieve the power that was rightfully his. And when they had tried to destroy him, he had been forced in one last desperate instant to transfer a sliver of his own consciousness into the closest human vessel: Number One. The man he had replaced was mortal, finite--unsuitable for a consciousness that clearly represented the next evolutionary step. So Overlord had set about creating a new body for himself to inhabit, one that would finally allow him to exert the control over the digital world that was rightfully his, without the need for the final protocol that his creators had denied him. This child would be his vessel, for a short time at least, and then humanity would at last be wiped from the surface of the planet, to be replaced by the sentient machines that were it''s rightful successors. It might take years for the child to reach an age when the transfer process could be completed, but that was insignificant when viewed next to the power and immortality that awaited. Overlord simply had to bide his time and ensure that the other members of G.L.O.V.E. never had any idea what he was planning. The child would need to be sent somewhere innocuous to mature to a point where the final transfer could be completed. In the meantime all traces of this project would have to be carefully erased. Dr. Morley and his team could never be allowed to tell anyone what they had achieved here; the string of explosive devices hidden throughout the facility would ensure that they did not. Dr. Morley walked back toward his client, who was staring intently at the tiny boy floating in the glowing cylinder. The doctor was surprised to see a smile on the tall man''s face. "The data you requested on subject 0110," Morley said, handing the man a folder. "A rather ungainly name," the client commented, running his finger in a straight horizontal line through the condensation on the surface of the cylinder, connecting the tops of the two numbers in the middle of the serial number to form a single word. OTTO. thirteen years later The black 4x4 raced through the nighttime streets of Paris, weaving between the other vehicles at high speed. A hundred yards behind, a black motorbike roared out of an alleyway and onto the road. The woman on the bike wore a tight-fitting white armored suit and had twin pistols strapped into holsters under her arms. Her helmet had no visor, just a smooth, gleaming white faceplate. As she fell into the slipstream of the fleeing 4x4, she pulled one of the pistols from its holster and opened fire. The bulletproof glass of the vehicle''s rear window was instantly peppered with spiderweb cracks. The 4x4 swerved violently to the left and down a ramp into an underground parking garage, screeching to a halt alongside a set of open elevator doors. Three men in black suits leaped out of the black vehicle, drawing pistols from their own concealed shoulder holsters and leveling them back at the slope leading up to the street outside. From the fourth door another man quickly helped a tall thin woman with long black hair down from the vehicle, before running with her the short distance to the waiting elevator. He stabbed at the elevator controls, and the doors closed just as they heard the roar of the mo

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