Natalie felt like she was standing on the edge of a precipice. She was not even sure if this was the sort of thing she would be able to trust her new friend Jake with. Although he might be useful in the short term. After all, he was the one who discovered Dudgeon was channelling funds into companies that did not exist. And although she now knew where that money was going, it did not alleviate the shock of finding hersef in this mythological room, with a woman who was at once both the self-appointed saviour of mankind and utterly terrifying.

'Who are these people?' she said, swallowing her fear and venturing further into the room. Twenty pairs of cold, vacant eyes followed her. There was no sound.

'People?' The professor seemed surprised. 'Not any more, girl. They are your future.'

'My future?'

'Yours, ours, everybody's. This is to be our next step, once the cancer campaign has settled down.'

'You experiment on them.'

Dudgeon nodded. 'Once, you might have called it that, I suppose. But we have progressed some way, since then.'

'What did you do to them? They look -' she searched for an appropriate word, '- empty.'

'Yes. I am at a loss there. I admit we have not always been successful, but the Gallery is where we keep our best subjects. We make them better people. Improve their brain power.'

'Does that really work?'

'Sometimes. Less often than I would like.' She must have seen Natalie's look of disgust, and quickly added, 'Oh don't worry dear, they usually find themselves re-assigned to my security forces. A highly sought after career, as you know. Even the most damaged mind can be repaired to a functional enough state.'

Natalie did not know what to do with this. The Secs were certainly functional, but that was all they were. 'So what do you think happened? Why couldn't you get it right?' she said.

'Stagnetto happened,' Dudgeon said simply. 'I should have known.'

'Sabotage?'

Dudgeon nodded. 'If he can get into Unicorn, he can get at our data. Most likely syphoning information from us for years. But this? He must have known we were close, and decided to steal the glory for himself.'

'Close to what?'

'The human brain is a remarkable organ, Natalie. It is capable of amazing feats, if only we knew how to unlock its secrets.'

Natalie was getting fed up with the professor's oblique responses. 'And what secrets have you unlocked so far?' she said, a little crossly, despite herself. 'Advanced escapology? Extreme violence? Invisibility?'

'Your scepticism does you credit, my dear. But I must warn you, today is not a day for jokes.' Dudgeon said, in the same voice she used to make grown men stutter in company meetings.

'Sorry. I'm just worried about what is going to happen when this gets out. What exactly have you achieved down here, then?'

'More than you'd think, but I'm not sure you're ready for that little adventure just yet. We should focus on the current situation for now.'

'The one where your top-secret neuro-science labs are raided by some old human cyborg nemesis who hacks into the most advanced security system on the planet and seems to control a beast of your own making?'

'Yes. And making sure that it does not get out,' Dudgeon said, as if she hadn't even noticed the sarcasm. 'Don't look so shocked. It is a pity we have not made the advances we hoped for. There have been some successes, but largely we have failed. Some pretty big pieces of the jigsaw are still missing. And Stagnetto is still searching too, it seems.'

'This Omega-Five - that was one of your failures?'

'Indeed.'

Natalie was shocked. The Dragon admitted it. Just like that. She really had created a monster. In a secret lab deep under the most successful and world-changingly humane company the world had ever seen. Not only that, but this monster was now roaming about the place, possibly still in the building and possibly under the control of a maniac who was powerful enough to hack into Unicorn itself. Natalie congratulated herself. Something had been going on, alright. Except now she was not sure she wanted to know about it.

'I think I need to see the full project brief, professor,' she said with a reluctant sigh.

'I will have it sent to you. From here on in, you are in charge of keeping my secret. When you have read the brief, I hope you will be a little less disappointed in me.'

'Professor -'

'That will be all, Natalie. I will upgrade your access, so you know your way around. General?'

'Yesh ma'am.' The gravelly words never failed to send shivers down Natalie's spine. She jumped. She had forgotten the Secs were there. The General, whom Natalie supposed was female by the slightly raised pitch of her voice, was so disfigured as to render any accurate examination useless without proper equipment. In any case, she always sported full body armour, including a tightly wound black mask, which revealed nothing of her face except her cold, sharp grey eyes. Natalie usually avoided being in the same room as her, if she could help it. But not this time, apparently.

'How far has the breach gone?'

'Levelsh three, four and five are compromished. We are collecting shushpect pershonnel as we go.'

'Six?'

'Shafe ash houshes,' the General said, shrugging. Cool as you like. 'Of coursh.'

'Good. Have your men escort Miss Cunningham back to her office,' Dudgeon said. 'She does not talk to anyone until I return, understand?'

'Yesh ma'am.' Two more Secs quietly appeared at her sides like ghosts revealing themselves out of the shadows. She had not heard the General give any orders. Almost as if they could read each other's minds.

'But -' she protested, full of questions as strong hands seized her. 'You can't do this!'

'Until you know the full picture, you will speak to no-one,' Dudgeon said. 'You have a lot of reading to do, but first I need an announcement explaining what happened at the conference on my desk by six o'clock. Use your best lines, all of them. I want no-one to remember that fatuous man. No-one.'

Natalie said nothing. Great, she thought bitterly. Now she was part of the big cover-up. Jake was going to love this. If she ever made it out long enough to tell him anything. Dudgeon turned back to the General.

'Now then, General,' she said. 'It seems the subjects have been compromised. I will need a new batch as soon as possible.'

'Yesh ma'am.'

'You know what you need to do. What is the girl still doing there? Take her away!'

Natalie's feet left the floor as the Secs rushed her out of the strange white room.

They were barely a few corridors away when she heard the muffled crackle of gunfire.