Otto Malpense

Otto Malpense is the main character of the H.I.V.E. series of books by Mark Walden.

Fictional Character Biography

Otto is the main character of the series H.I.V.E. In the beginning of the series he is 13 years old. Hailing from England, he was orphaned at birth and left at the doorstep of an orphanage called St. Sebastian's. As a toddler he would pick up books and would stare at the words and absorb the information. By the time he was barely in his preteens, Otto smoothly ran St. Sebastian's as the official leader of St. Sebastian's was very weak minded and due to him knowing what they were studying in school and acting arrogantly towards the teachers he had the leader of St. Sebastian's "tutor him". In reality he was free to do what he wanted and the leader could use the money she was given to tutor him however she wanted.

Soon after he found out that the Prime Minister wanted to cut funding for many orphanages throughout Great Britain, mostly in the slum areas which is where St. Sebastian was. Otto, in an attempt to ruin the PM's credibility and keep the money flowing, builds a robotic mind control device. On the 13th anniversary that he was left at the orphanage (which he celebrates as his birthday) he uses the robotic device and publicly shames the British Prime Minister by forcing him to insult himself and his minsters. Also he forces him to moon the audience. Immediately after the PM mooned everyone during what would be his last press conference, Otto is knocked out by Nero's most trusted Agent, Raven, and is taken to HIVE. On the helicopter he meets Wing who would later be his roommate and best friend. Not wanting to stay at H.I.V.E. for the required six years, he immediately begins forming a plot to escape. Wing goes on board with the idea along with two other friends, Laura and Shelby.

Otto has displayed an odd ability near the end of the Overlord Protocol where his conscious mind is subdued and his unconscious commands his hands to type a series of commands in the H.I.V.E.Mind that would have normally taken three hours to put in. He gets kidnapped in Dreadnought and is controlled throughout Rogue by an organic substance (Animus) that allows him to be programed by H.O.P.E and attempts to kill his friends on several occasions but blacks out before he can kill them. In Escape Velocity, he finds out that he has the ability to interface with any digital technology and control it, and that he is a clone of Number One (explaining his white hair and his ability to absorb information). In Dreadnought he further develops his abilities and eventually saves the president of America. This gets him captured by H.O.P.E., a brutal security force who are actually evil, who use him as a slave in Rogue by pumping him full of Animus fluid.

There are strong hints that Otto may have a romantic interest in his friend Laura Brand at the school. At the beginning of Zero Hour he starts a romantic relationship with Lucy Dexter, although she is shot at the end.

Otto's name comes from his experiment number 0110 given to him by Overlord.

Besides mentioning that Otto's name came from his friend's cat, Mark Walden has made no announcements on the origin of Otto's characteristics.

External links

• HIVE series, Bloomsbury Publishing official website