“They’re blocking our way out,” Logan replied as he took another shot, catching a Grimbot in the chest. It crashed into the wall. “Can you find us another exit, Monti?”
“We don’t have time!” Obadiah shouted. “Everyone, through the door.” He pushed the Griffins through the open hatch and into the Brimstone Chamber. “That goes for you, too,” Saxon’s apprentice shouted, waving at Logan as the Scotsman protected their escape.
Logan took a final shot that blew the head off the nearest Grimbot, and dove through the door. Obadiah slipped in behind him. Together, they heaved the hatchway shut. Logan spun the lock. The sound of blaster fire faded to a muffled buzz.
“Even if the hatchway holds,” Logan began, “we’re trapped.”
“They’ve turned off life support,” Monti warned. “Oxygen levels are dropping.”
Logan growled. “I have a feeling that was Von Strife’s plan all along.”
“We’ll have to go on the offensive…” Strange muttered. “It’s the only way.”
Logan shook his head. “Grimbots are Class Five killing machines. We wouldn’t last two minutes. Unless Monti can upgrade my rifle remotely.”
“Ha! Not a chance!”
“I have something a little more radical in mind,” Strange countered.
60
VOLT VINES
Max’s gauntlet melted away from his arm and reconstituted itself as the Codex. With Obadiah’s help, Max’s mind guided its pages toward a section of green leaves. It came to rest on the image of spiraling vines under the glow of a silvery moon.
Obadiah nodded. “That’s the one.”
“Are you sure? I mean, I could make this a lot worse.”
“I don’t think it can get any worse!” Ernie exclaimed.
“Trust yourself, Max,” Strange maintained.
Max quickly scanned to the bottom of the page and spoke the words written there. All at once, there was an explosion of light. A tangle of green cords snaked up through the page and spilled onto the floor. The cords began to swell and stretch, turning into twisting vines that slithered across the room.
“An excellent choice.” Obadiah nodded, as the Codex returned to a ring on Max’s finger.
“Vines?” Harley asked, as he jumped over a thick trunk that slithered across the floor.
“Volt Vines,” Strange corrected. “Extremely fast growing. They feed on energy.”
Soon the vines were as thick as saplings. Natalia sidestepped one of the tendrils as it raced for the door like a dog on the scent of a rabbit. Other vines followed, and then, in unison, they ripped the massive door from its hinges. Like the arms of a sea monster, they seized the closest Grimbot. The machine tried to break free, but the vines only wrapped tighter, crushing the armor plating as they drained the machine of its life. Electric charges crackled through the vegetation as it discarded the lifeless clockwork. Two more Grimbots went down before the others realized what was happening.
“While the Volt Vines keep our friends busy—,” Logan began as he sent a volley of blasts through the open hatchway, “we’re going through, straight back to the Bell. Everyone stay together and watch your feet,” he warned. The Griffins obeyed, following Logan as he leaped over the vines and through the door. More clockworks appeared but were soon engaged with an enemy they hadn’t expected. The Griffins raced past them.
Unfortunately, as Obadiah tried to run past, a Grimbot caught him by the leg. Like a cat playing with a mouse, the machine flung Strange wall to wall, ceiling to floor, and it finally slammed him to the ground.
Natalia screamed.
“They’re killing him!” she cried.
Already, Obadiah Strange was stumbling to his knees and then to his feet, popping his neck back into place, and then his shoulder and left knee. He replaced his glasses before resuming his race. Natalia’s mouth hung open.
“He really is indestructible…”
Before the Grimbot could recapture Obadiah, Logan blew its head off with his pulse rifle. At the same time, a Volt Vine caught hold of the rest of the clockwork and began sucking it dry. The machine thrashed until it had no more life to give. The vines moved on, leaving only a dead husk behind.
Out of a nearby tunnel, more Grimbots appeared—ignoring the vines and pursuing the Griffins. They were moving too fast, and Max knew they wouldn’t have enough time to make it to the Bell. As he contemplated a final showdown, he heard a strange sound: Sqwarkkkk!
Max spun to see several Volt Vines reach around the corner and fall upon two of his pursuers. The vines were growing faster than the Grimbots could run. After each meal, they seemed to become more powerful, swelling to gigantic proportions.
With single-minded focus, the Grimbots continued their pursuit, heedless of their falling brothers. Logan continued his cover fire, but by now the Grimbots were beginning to adapt to his weapon. Soon, his pulse blasts were ricocheting off their armor.
“Seriously, Monti!” Logan shouted into his comlink. “What do I pay you for?”
“How was I to know they were programmed for regen and electrostatic field convergence?” Monti complained. “I’m an engineer, not a fortune-teller. Besides, you said this mission was a piece of cake!”
The Grimbots continued to gain, even as they neared their destination. Ernie was the only one who could have outrun the machines. He refused to leave his friends behind.
“We have a problem,” Strange called to Logan.
“You think?” Several more energy bolts smashed into the wall above Logan’s head.
“I’ve done the calculations in my head. At the rate the Volt Vines are growing, they’ll burst through the walls soon.”
“Burying us under a mile of water,” Logan growled. “We have to get to the Bell!”
“If I could get one of their transponders, I could reprogram the Grimbots—like I did at the library,” Harley offered, ducking under an incoming plasma blast.
“Wait!” Natalia shouted. “Harley, you’re brilliant.” She signaled for the others to go on ahead while she took position at the intersection of three corridors.
“Are you crazy?” Harley shouted, as she said something to Monti through her comlink. “We have to get out of here!”
“Give me a second,” she cried, pushing him away. “This will work!”
“She’s right!” Logan shouted, grabbing Harley by the arm and pulling him toward the waiting Bell.
Pulling a device from her pack, Natalia flicked a toggle switch and secured it to the wall. She punched in a sequence of codes, as Monti read them off to her. Suddenly she was surrounded by three-dimensional copies of herself and the other three Griffins.
Harley watched in awe as the holograms ran to meet the oncoming Grimbots, screaming and waving their arm. At the last minute, they ducked down a corridor.
Harley held his breath in hope.
The Grimbots took the bait and disappeared down the hall. The Volt Vines followed after them.
The Griffins cheered as they raced aboard the Bell. Even as they did, they could see the glass walls of the underground facility begin to fracture. Pipes started to shake, and an ominous rumble ran through the facility.
“It’s gonna implode!” Logan shouted, as he hit the call button. The Bell rumbled to life and began to slowly climb. “Everybody take your seats. This is gonna be a bumpy ride!”
“Wait! Natalia’s still outside!” Max cried. She had tripped and fallen, and she was only just getting back to her feet. With a desperate cry, she sprang to her feet, her eyes locked on the rising Bell.
“She’s too far away!” Harley exclaimed. “We’re rising too fast!”
Logan pushed Harley away from the door and leaned out. “Natalia! Use your jump boots!”
Natalia nodded as she rushed along the fractured passage. Water was beginning to pool at her feet. She pushed a button on her glove and suddenly her jump boots fired up. Silvery fire blasted out from the bottom of her shoes and with a shout, she was launched into the air
like a rocket. She hadn’t had time to gauge the distance, and Max watched in horror as she shot up the tunnel past the Bell. Then, with a dreadful sputter, the boots cut out and she fell.
At the last minute, Logan grabbed her around the waist and pulled her inside. With a bang, Strange sealed the door shut.
“We did it!” Harley laughed in relief. Then the Bell shuddered to a stop.
“The security system was activated,” Logan explained grimly. “We have to override it or we’ll drown.”
Monti’s comlink roared with static as his voice came through in pieces. “…need to… bots… the Bell… be ready!”
“What?” Max yelled. There was a massive explosion down below, followed by the eerie sound of twisting metal. Then he watched as a wave of icy water rolled up and over the viewing window.
“The Volt Vines have outgrown the facility,” Obadiah observed.
The Bell began to shudder against the intense water pressure. Then, just as Max was certain that they were going to be crushed like an egg in a vise, the Bell launched upward like a bullet in a barrel, pinning its occupants to the ground. There was another tremendous explosion and the lights went out. Something heavy smashed into Max’s head and he lost consciousness.
When Max opened his eyes, he was lying on the pier in Durban as seagulls flew overhead. At first he thought he could hear Iver’s voice, but it was just Obadiah Strange warning Ernie to get away from the water before he fell in.
Max looked up to see Monti’s airship hovering nearby. Connected to it by a towrope lay the battered Bell. The heroes had been plucked out of the facility by the Graf just in time.
“Iron Silk,” Monti explained over the radio. “I made the towrope myself. My boys here on the Zeppelin were the real heroes, though, spelunking into the shaft and attaching the cable. Gnomes are many things, but timid and slow swimmers they are not.”
“We can fill the Baron in later,” Logan said, before turning to the rest of the Griffins. “Everyone back on board. We’re heading north, engines at full.” As he helped Max up the gangplank, they could see the surface of the sea. It was alive with white froth and steaming bubbles: the final, dying breath of the Brimstone Facility.
61
A SECRET REVEALED
As evening approached, Monti set the Graf Zeppelin on automatic pilot and retired to his bunk, leaving Max and Logan alone on the bridge. Their road lay toward the Inferno Prison, where the Gateway to the Shadowlands had been kept under strict Templar military control in the frozen north. They expected Von Strife to strike there next, using the Brimstone Key to march through the Gateway with his clockwork army, where he would reclaim his daughter.
“Do we really have a chance of beating Von Strife to the Gateway?” asked Max.
“It’s hard to say,” Logan replied. “Either way, we shouldn’t have to get our hands dirty. The forces at the Inferno Prison have been alerted, and the cavalry is on the way. All we’ll do is observe and report.
“We’re sending in a team of my best demolitions men to blow the Inferno Prison sky-high,” Logan continued. “The Brimstone Key may be indestructible, but the Gateway isn’t.”
Max thought about Logan’s role as a commanding officer of the Templar THOR division. Hardly a day went by when someone from his team didn’t risk his or her life. “Do you ever feel guilty when you send people into dangerous situations?”
Logan leaned against the railing, staring into the sky. “Everything is for the greater good.”
“Even when someone dies?”
“Everybody dies, Max. Even me. But what we do, the decisions we make, can live forever. And that’s the real name of the game.”
Max sighed. “I guess.”
“I lost my parents when I was about your age,” Logan said after several moments of silence. “Did I ever tell you that?”
Max shook his head. Logan had never talked much about his past.
“My father was a diplomat in the Cape Colony, and on a trip to Johannesburg, he stopped to help a man out of a burning car that had rolled into a ditch. There was an explosion, and neither one of them survived.” Logan paused, then continued. “A few months later, my mum found out she had cancer. Within the year, she was gone, too.”
Max looked up, astonished at how casually Logan spoke about the tragedies.
“Dealing with what happened to my father was hard enough, but when my mum passed away… well, that shook me up something terrible,” Logan said.
“I had no idea.”
“I guess, after that, I began to understand how brutal this world could be. People can walk into your life, and the next moment, you’ll never see them again.”
“You aren’t going to leave me, are you?” Max whispered slowly.
Logan’s eyes were tired and his face lined with concern. He regarded Max for several moments, gauging the boy’s thoughts. “No,” he offered finally. “At least not if I can help it. One day you won’t need me anymore. Until then, you’re stuck with me.”
62
THE SECRET TO LIVING FOREVER
Ernie found himself wandering through the luxurious gondola, searching for Obadiah Strange. The dragon dung tea was flowing through his veins, and though he didn’t feel any different, he was hoping that it would stunt his metamorphosis into a faerie. Either way, his super speed was still intact. He still had questions, though, and Strange was the only man who might know the answers.
He found Obadiah on the rear observation deck. It was open to the arctic elements, an environment so bitterly cold that only changelings and faeries could even hope to take pleasure in it. Standing there with no walls or windows, a person could almost imagine he or she was flying.
“I can’t believe how you survived that clockwork down in the Brimstone Facility,” Ernie began as he joined the man.
“Thank you,” Strange replied, before sipping at a steaming cup of tea. Then he coughed, his lung rattling. “It wasn’t something I’d want to do again.”
“But you’re indestructible. Doesn’t that mean you’re going to live forever?”
“In a manner of speaking, I suppose that is correct,” Strange said. “What you saw today was only part of my condition. If my body is not entirely destroyed, it can rebuild itself. However, in the event of something more destructive happening—such as the time that I was caught in the Krakatoa lava flow in 1883—my life force is transported backward to a previous point in my life, forcing me to live it all over again so as to regather my strength.”
“That’s amazing!” Ernie exclaimed. “Think of all the things you could do.”
Obadiah raised his hand to cut Ernie off. “One of the conditions is that I must be very selective in what I change. Radical adjustments to the space-time continuum can alter history. It’s difficult to understand. In fact, after a thousand lifetimes, I am not sure I do. That, my friend, is the secret to my indestructibility. Whatever it takes, my power ensures that I can never die.”
“Supersonic,” Ernie sighed in awe.
“It’s a curse, I assure you,” Obadiah returned after a moment of consideration, his eyes following the rising mist from his teacup. “I can only go backward, never forward. If I do go back, I must stay there until time catches up with me. I’ve watched my friends and loved ones die more times than I care to remember, unable to help.”
“You also get to fix your mistakes, right?” Ernie pointed out.
Obadiah Strange sighed in exhaustion. “Each time it is the same colorless world, the same tired house, in the company of the same tedious people. Nothing is novel. Food no longer has taste. Memories move sideways rather than backward. I have no destiny. Nothing to look forward to. I merely exist to continue existing.”
Ernie sighed wistfully as he looked out over the sea of ice. “Life isn’t easy for heroes, is it, Mr. Strange?”
“No, Agent Thunderbolt, it most certainly is not.”
63
VISIONS
The next night, Max was alone in his sleep
ing quarters. After checking his DE Tablet for any messages from Brooke, he decided to read a comic book. His eyes scanned the words on the page, but they weren’t registering. He was tired and just about to turn off the light when a flash sparked, then faded. Max sat bolt upright.
“Sprig?” he whispered, barely able to contain his excitement. “I know it’s you.”
There was no answer, but Max heard something shuffling across the floor. He got up to investigate. His eyes were immediately drawn to the dressing mirror, where, staring back at him from the other side, was his Bounder. Max got down on his hands and knees and knocked at the glass. “Sprig, are you all right? I was so worried about you!”
“Sprig has escaped…” Her voice wavered.
Max sighed in relief, but his smile faded as he noticed that something wasn’t quite right. She looked hurt, and Max could sense her pain across the reflection.
“Sprig, what did Von Strife do to you?” Max nearly shouted.
“Sprig will recover…” she breathed. “But the changeling boy. Robert. Sprig couldn’t free him or the others…. There were so many.”
“I have to get you some help.” Max’s eyes moved over her, taking in the wounds and the exhaustion in her eyes.
“The Clockwork King will take his soul and put it in a mechanical monster,” Sprig told him. “He will make Robert do things he doesn’t want to do. Max must remember this. When it happens, there is no going back. Robert will be gone.”
The spriggan waved a shaky paw across the reflection, and the image rippled like water. As it calmed, Max could see through the mirror like a magic window. There was a laboratory of steel tables where people were bound and hidden under blue sheets. Max watched with rising fear as the doors to the lab opened. Two men entered in white coats. Their faces were obscured by masks. They worked wordlessly as their gloved hands took hold of one of the tables, wheeling it through the double doors.
Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key Page 22
