Tropical Tangle

by Adrian C. Bott

  Axel’s heart nearly exploded from excitement. That explains the huge door we saw, he thought. The Plunderer is an underwater mining machine! Typical Grabbem – just ripping the world apart to get what they want. But how does the bomb fit in?

  ‘We ain’t supposed to talk about the Plunderer,’ warned the third guard, who hadn’t spoken yet.

  ‘Ah, nuts to that,’ snapped the first. ‘We’ve kept quiet this long, and anyway, who’s gonna be listening? We’re in the middle of the freakin’ ocean!’

  Axel mouthed a ‘hello’ and waved at them through the wall, knowing they wouldn’t see.

  ‘Walls have ears, that’s what they say,’ the third guard said.

  A chair scraped. One of the guards had stood up. ‘Boys, I’m going to grab a shower,’ she said. ‘The boss gets here in less than an hour. Captain Fenton and his scary first mate will be joining us then, too. If I were you, I’d tidy this place up a bit before Fenton sees it. You know what he’s like.’

  ‘Man, do I ever,’ said the first guard.

  The female guard was coming towards the door.

  Axel turned and ran. His bare feet made no noise on the thick carpets. As the door swung open behind him, Axel came up to the portrait of Gus Grabbem. With no other idea of what to do, he dashed around a corner to the left.

  Ahead was another long, marble-walled corridor, much like the first. You could get lost in here really easily, Axel thought. Through glass doors along the corridor’s length he saw the palatial rooms that lay beyond: a gym, a games room, some kind of luxury lounge.

  He sprinted down to the corridor’s end, turned the bend and found a spiral staircase. Up or down? He could hear voices from the floor below. Better head up, then, he thought, and sprinted up the stairs.

  They led up and up, through echoing galleries and past halls filled with ugly statues, until the stairs ran out. Axel pushed through the door ahead of him and – to his surprise – suddenly found himself standing on the flat roof.

  He paused to catch his breath. Nobody had seen him yet, and there was a superb view of the island from up here. The door hadn’t shut behind him, so he still had a way back down. The situation could be a lot worse.

  He craned his neck to look up and down the beach, trying to see if BEAST was still there – but the robot was nowhere to be seen. Please be okay, he thought. Then he sat down on the cool, rough roof surface and pondered his next move.

  Being all alone up here reminded him of playing as a sniper in online battles. Maybe he could use the roof as a lookout point and spy on the Grabbems as they arrived. One of them might let something slip about where the bomb was.

  He crept to the roof’s edge, lay flat on his stomach, leant over and focused on the beach.

  He touched the smart visor. MAGNIFY, he thought.

  The view zoomed in. He scanned back and forth. Perfect. All he had to do now was wait.

  The next hour passed as slowly as a wet summer. Axel found himself wishing BEAST were there so that they could make up terrible knock-knock jokes together. That always made the time fly past.

  A warm breeze blew as the sun came up. A bustle of movement began inside the house. The front courtyard filled with lined-up members of the household staff: guards, maids, butlers, cooks, all in dazzling white uniforms and looking nervous. One of them looked at his watch.

  Axel spotted a gleaming white yacht on the horizon. A helicopter took off from the yacht’s deck and flew towards the island. It passed through the drone defence grid, which flickered red as the chopper broke the beams. The chopper touched down in front of the house and people began to get out.

  Out came Gus Grabbem Senior himself, then his wife, then his son. The staff all saluted stiffly. Gus Grabbem Junior made a rude sign at them, which was also – strictly speaking – a kind of salute.

  Then came a man with muscular flesh bulging out of his uniform, like an overstuffed samosa. Captain Fenton, thought Axel. Behind him trundled a hideous robotic creature, like something off one of Gus Junior’s thrash metal album covers. Its head was a red-eyed silver skull, and six arms sprouted from its upper body.

  The sight of it made Axel’s flesh creep.

  ‘Glad BEAST isn’t here to see this,’ he whispered to himself. ‘“Scary first mate” is right.’

  The more he looked at it, the more deep-down afraid he felt. Sweat began to gather on his forehead. A drop fell and landed on the concrete far below.

  The hideous six-armed robot suddenly jerked into life. Its metal skull tilted slowly up and looked right at Axel. The tiny red dots of its eyes widened into hot crimson lenses.

  Captain Fenton glanced at it. ‘What is it, first mate? Something to report?’

  ‘Feeeeeaaaaarrrr,’ grated the robot.

  ‘Come again?’

  ‘I. Can. Smell. Feeeeeaaaaarrr.’

  Axel lay absolutely still, feeling sick with panic. There could be no doubt. The robot had smelled him, and now he was as good as dead.

  Gus Grabbem Senior gave Fenton a sidelong glance. ‘What the heck is wrong with your flipping first mate? He’s not blown a circuit, has he?’

  ‘Must just be a bit oversensitive,’ Captain Fenton said. ‘Probably smells a monkey in the trees or something. I’ll give him a tweak with the old screwdriver later on …’

  ‘I SMELL FEAR!’ bellowed the robot.

  It pushed past Fenton, knocking him aside …

  Axel scrambled to his feet and away from the ledge. Without the slightest idea where he would run to, he began running along the flat roof.

  He could hear Captain Fenton yelling below: ‘Stop right now, U-WOT-M8! There’s nothing there! Get back, I tell you!’ But the hulking robot wasn’t listening. It had Axel’s scent now and it was on the hunt.

  Waving all six of its arms, it charged straight through the lined-up Grabbem staff. They screamed and ran to the left and right, trampling the flowerbeds and dropping whatever they carried. A silver tray piled with sandwiches fell with a crash.

  The robot paused and looked up the sheer wall of the house. Then it crouched, sprang and clamped itself to the outside of the house like an ugly metal spider. Two of its six arms ended in cutlass-like blades, and it crunched them deep into the stone to hold on.

  Gus Grabbem winced. ‘That damage is coming out of your salary,’ he told Fenton.

  Meanwhile, Axel was running. He looked over his shoulder and saw U-WOT-M8 heaving itself over the edge of the roof. The glowing red eyes locked on to him.

  ‘BEAST, wherever you’ve got to, now would be a really good time to show up!’ he panted.

  This could be worse, he told himself. Yes, I’m being chased by a hideous six-armed robot-assassin thing that probably wants to carve me up like a kebab, and no, I don’t have any weapons, and BEAST is heaven knows where. But so far, the only thing that’s seen me is the robot. All the humans down there think it’s faulty. So I haven’t blown my cover yet. I still might get out of this alive.

  Without warning, Axel ran out of roof. There was nowhere left to run, just a sheer drop.

  GULP!

  Okay. It had just got worse.

  U-WOT-M8 began to scrape its blades together as it approached, just like Axel’s dad used to do when sharpening the knife before carving roast meat.

  Axel wobbled on the edge. There was no staircase or ladder down. There wasn’t even a balcony he could lower himself on to. There was just the lawn at the back of the house, and the swimming pool with deckchairs set around it.

  The pool was full. It was a chance, if he dared to take it. But he’d have to get a run-up, and that would mean …

  He moved before terror could stop him. He ran back across the roof, right into the path of the oncoming robot. Metal arms unfolded like umbrella ribs, ready to clasp him close. The skull let out a shriek of victory.

  Axel skidded to a stop, turned around and sprinted for the building’s edge. Instead of slowing down, he sped up. He launched himself off, aiming for the pool, and all the te
rror burst out of him in one long drawn-out scream as he fell.

  ‘WHOAAAA!’

  He tumbled through the air, not knowing if he would reach the water or shatter his bones on the ground.

  Next second, the water’s stinging fist smashed into him. He plunged down to the bottom, bubbles streaming from his nose and mouth.

  I did it. I’m alive.

  His whole body ached; the impact had hit him hard. But he forced himself to swim to the edge and pull himself out.

  As he lay gasping beside the pool, he saw the robot glaring down at him from the top of the house.

  ‘Yeah, follow me now if you can, you ugly piece of junk,’ he muttered, as he pulled himself to his feet.

  To his dismay, the robot latched two of its bladed arms on to the edge and then began to lower itself down, the arms telescoping out as it went. It abseiled like a spider all the way to the ground, then unhooked its arms and sucked them back to normal length.

  ‘Oh, man!’ Axel set off at a run once again. ‘Doesn’t this bleeding thing ever give up?’

  Beyond the lawns lay the untamed jungle that covered the rest of the island. Axel ran between the trunks of towering trees and felt spongy moss under his feet. Great bushy ferns brushed him as he shot past. Hopefully, all this thick vegetation would slow the oncoming robot down a little and give him time to think of a plan.

  U-WOT-M8 powered after him, spinning its blades like some barbarian war chariot from ancient times. It reached the jungle and plunged in. Instead of swerving around the palm trees, it just lashed out with its bladed arms. The blades whipped through the thick trunks as if they were only mist. They fell with a groan and a crash, showing white, moist wood inside.

  ‘HALT, INTRUDER,’ it rasped. ‘YOU ARE NOT AUTHORISED TO BE HERE. YOU MUST BE QUESTIONED.’

  ‘I’m the pool boy!’ Axel yelled.

  ‘INCORRECT.’

  ‘Worth a try,’ gasped Axel. He bounded up the edge of a rocky slope. As he climbed further, he realised it was the beginnings of the crumbling hill that rose up and out of the greenery. Maybe if he kept going, the ground would be too uneven for the robot to stand.

  The horrible chase went on, with Axel reaching higher and higher ground and the seemingly unstoppable robot clambering after him. Soon he found he was right at the top of the rocky outcrop, on a ledge that jutted out over the jungle, with the robot closing in.

  ‘DO NOT MOVE,’ warned the robot.

  Axel doubled over, spluttering, hoping the robot would think he was finished. As his hands dangled near the ground, he quickly snatched up a fist-sized lump of rock. One good throw should do it.

  He flung the rock right into the crimson-eyed metal skull.

  It spanged off, not even leaving a dent.

  The robot reared up. ‘CRIMINAL DAMAGE ATTEMPT DETECTED. LETHAL FORCE AUTHORISED. NASTY LITTLE HUMAN IS GOING TO GET KEBABBED NOW.’

  It shot towards him – and something swept down out of the sky, moving too fast to see. It caught U-WOT-M8 in two mechanical claws and lifted the struggling robot up into the air, like a hawk making off with a rabbit.

  Axel watched in awe as it soared overhead: a black and green robot with powerful wings, huge talons … and sad-looking little blue eyes.

  ‘BEAST!’ Axel said, with a half-laugh and half-sob. ‘And you went into HARPY form all by yourself! Oh, man, are you a welcome sight right now.’

  ‘I ORDER YOU TO LET ME GO!’ U-WOT-M8 roared, struggling in BEAST’s grip.

  ‘VERY WELL. I OBEY,’ said BEAST, and dropped it.

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Axel with relish. ‘I don’t think he really thought that through, did he?’

  U-WOT-M8 was too busy plummeting through the air to answer him. The robot bellowed as it fell – not that this made any difference. It waved its arms menacingly, as if it hoped to scare the ground into not hitting it. This did not make any difference either.

  There was a colossal SMASH.

  Axel looked down at the smouldering wreckage. An idea occurred to him.

  ‘ARE WE GOING HOME NOW?’ BEAST asked.

  ‘Not yet. BEAST, can you scan what’s left of that thing’s memory?’

  ‘… DO I HAVE TO?’ BEAST sounded squeamish.

  ‘If you can. And we need to hurry. Grabbem will be here any moment.’

  Some time later, BEAST was back in MANTA form, lurking outside the huge underwater door they’d seen earlier.

  The Lobstron squatted on a rock nearby, looking grumpier than ever. It hadn’t seen them yet.

  ‘Okay. Transmit the codes,’ said Axel.

  BEAST sent the door the security codes he had found in U-WOT-M8’s robot brain. The sight of BEAST sticking his fingers into the robot’s silver skull, which had still been fizzling, had been a grim one. But hopefully it would all have been worthwhile.

  The door opened with a slow rumble.

  The Lobstron came stalking around the corner to see what was going on. Axel drove BEAST into the open door at maximum speed, sending up a cloud of sand, shell and sediment so thick that the Lobstron could barely see at all. ‘WHO GOES THERE?’ it croaked.

  ‘IT’S ME, OF COURSE!’ yelled Axel, trying to sound as much like U-WOT-M8 as he could.

  ‘FIRST MATE? IS THAT YOU?’

  ‘WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE? GET BACK ON DUTY, YOU SCAB.’ Axel’s throat was getting sore from TALKING LIKE THIS.

  ‘YES, SIR,’ squeaked the Lobstron. ‘SORRY, SIR. DIDN’T SEE IT WAS YOU, SIR.’

  ‘I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR,’ Axel added menacingly.

  The door slid shut again, to the Lobstron’s great relief.

  Axel and BEAST were now in a water-filled tunnel so wide you couldn’t see the sides. They followed it until it opened into an even wider cavern. Something gigantic was partly submerged in the water ahead of them. A great greyish shape like a sea monster – but it was human-made. At its front end were massive toothed wheels like circular-saw blades.

  ‘There it is,’ Axel said. ‘The Plunderer. BEAST, look at the size of that thing. Think what it could do to a coral reef.’

  ‘THERE WOULD BE NOTHING LEFT.’

  Plunderer, thought Axel. At least they were honest when they named the thing. How are we supposed to stop them now?

  ‘We need a closer look,’ Axel said. ‘The Plunderer is scary, but it still needs the atomic bomb or it won’t work. And we need to figure out why.’

  He steered BEAST closer to the Plunderer. BEAST’s smart-glass canopy picked out features on the craft: caterpillar tracks, rotary gougers, rock drill, geothermal probe. He frowned.

  ‘What’s a geothermal probe?’

  ‘A DEVICE FOR CONVERTING HEAT FROM MAGMA INTO ENERGY.’

  ‘So it uses magma to charge its batteries. I see. But what’s that got to do with an atomic bomb?’

  ‘BEAST DOES NOT KNOW. SORRY. BEAST IS USELESS AGAIN.’

  ‘Stop saying that, BEAST! You’re great. Let’s see if we can get inside.’

  Axel brought BEAST up to the water’s surface, alongside a jetty.

  They were in a cavern like something out of a James Bond film. The top half of the Plunderer took up most of it. The rest was filled with walkways, consoles, cranes, equipment, pipelines and stacks of supply crates.

  Axel couldn’t see any guards. He guessed they were all up above, meeting Gus Grabbem Senior now that he’d arrived at the island.

  The Plunderer was almost completely submerged, but he could see a sort of turret in the top, with an opening in it. He would be able to fit through, but BEAST wouldn’t.

  ‘BEAST, can you wait for me underwater? Stay cloaked. I don’t want anyone seeing you.’

  ‘PLEASE DO NOT GO INTO THE PLUNDERER, AXEL.’

  ‘I’ve got to!’

  ‘I SENSE GREAT DANGER.’

  ‘I promise I’ll be careful.’ Axel looked across at the jetty a few feet away, and pressed the canopy in BEAST’s chest, trying to open it. It was stuck. Again.

  ‘Arrr!’ he yelled. ‘What’s with
this flipping thing? Every time I try to climb out of you, the canopy gets … stuck …’

  He stopped.

  He seemed to hear his own voice inside his head, explaining things to him in a calm, detached manner: It’s funny, isn’t it, how the canopy only ever gets stuck when you’re trying to leave BEAST? When you’re climbing back into his cockpit, it always opens first time. It’s as if he was trying to keep you from leaving him.

  ‘BEAST,’ he said slowly, ‘I need to talk to you.’

  ‘WE CAN TALK LATER, AXEL.’ BEAST sounded nervous.

  ‘I don’t think so.’ Axel was seriously angry now.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with your canopy lock at all, is there? You’ve been keeping it shut on purpose. You’ve been trying to keep me locked in!’

  BEAST said nothing.

  ‘Answer me. It’s true, isn’t it?’

  ‘… yes,’ said BEAST, in a very small voice indeed.

  ‘But why?’ Axel shouted. ‘We’re meant to be a team. That means being honest with each other!’

  ‘I WAS SCARED YOU WOULD LEAVE ME!’ BEAST bawled so loudly it hurt Axel’s ears. ‘YOU KEEP NEEDING TO GO AND DO THINGS THAT BEAST CANNOT DO WITH YOU. ONE DAY YOU WILL GROW UP AND LEAVE AND BEAST WILL NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN. BEAST CANNOT BLAME YOU. BEAST IS JUST SLOWING YOU DOWN.’

  ‘Whoa. Whoa. Steady. Slowing me down? But … why would you ever think that?’

  ‘WHEN WE WERE TRAINING IN THE JUNKYARD, YOU ONLY WON BECAUSE YOU CLIMBED OUT OF ME,’ said BEAST gloomily. ‘AND NOW YOU HAVE YOUR SMART VISOR AND YOU CAN SEE AND YOU DO NOT EVEN NEED BEAST’S HELP WITH THAT ANYMORE. YOU ARE YOUNG AND AGILE AND CLEVER AND BEAST IS BIG AND CLUMSY AND STUPID.’

  ‘We don’t have time for this. Let me out, now.’

  The canopy opened. Axel scrambled onto the jetty and ran towards the Plunderer, not even looking back. BEAST had lied to him. That hurt, but right now he had a mission to focus on.