Ironheart

by Allan Boroughs

  Up in the control room, Dr Cirenkov consulted the control desk with a worried frown. ‘It looks like she was trying to lock the main the doors, Mr Director, but she was unsuccessful and now the circuits have blown.’

  ‘Damn your eyes,’ he yelled, purple with rage. ‘Android! Tear the arms and legs off these troublemakers. Here –’ he shoved Clench forward – ‘start with this one.’

  The group gasped as Calculus stepped forward and pulled Clench from their midst. Clench began to make an awful, high-pitched screeching as Calculus lifted him by the arms.

  ‘Calculus, stop it, please stop it!’ shouted India. ‘This isn’t who you are! When I first knew you, you were gentle and kind. How can you have changed so much?’

  ‘It won’t do any good, young lady,’ chuckled Stone. ‘The Calculus you knew never really existed. He’s just a machine, a stone-cold killer!’

  Calculus turned his attention back to Clench, who had begun to gibber in fear.

  ‘Don’t do it, Calc,’ she pleaded. ‘You’re more than just a machine. You’ve lived for longer than anyone else here. Long enough for there to be something else inside of you that isn’t just a program, something that is just you.’

  The android looked at her blankly. ‘My programming,’ he said in a hollow voice, ‘is absolute. I am no different from any other machine.’

  India sensed she was losing him. ‘You are different, Calc,’ she said, ‘because you have friends. You have people you care about and who love you and that makes you more than just a machine. It makes you a person.’ A single tear tracked slowly down her face. ‘It means you can choose not to do this.’

  There was a breathless silence in the hall. Calculus looked at India and cocked his head to one side and, for a moment, she was struck by how sad he looked.

  ‘Stop meddling, you brat!’ thundered Stone. ‘The android works for me now, do you hear!’ He raised his pistol and pointed it at her. But as he took aim, Calculus suddenly let go of Clench and stepped in front of the gun. There was a flicker of fear in Stone’s eyes. ‘Stand back, android! Do as I say or I’ll have you crushed and fed into the furnaces.’

  ‘I have no wish to injure you, Director,’ said Calculus calmly, ‘but I cannot let you harm this girl.’ As he stared at the Director, there was the faintest suggestion of a red glow behind his visor. Stone backed away and none of the guards made a move to intervene.

  ‘Oh, Calc, my dear, dear Calc, you’ve come back to us,’ said India. She wrapped her arms tightly around him. ‘I knew you were still in there, I just knew it.’

  The sound of the blast was sudden and loud. Something snicked past India’s ear, making her flinch, and Calculus gave a quiet gasp. He moved India gently to one side and put a hand to his chest, looking curiously at the sticky blue ooze that trickled through his fingers. When he pulled his hand away there was a neat, round hole punched in the centre of the steel plate in his chest.

  Sid began to shout excitedly and wave his pistol around. ‘I got him, Pa!’ he cried. ‘That damned robot went bad and I plugged him!’ He whooped and punched the air.

  Like a toppling tree, Calculus sank slowly to his knees and crashed sideways to the floor. A horrid rattling came from his chest.

  India screamed. ‘Somebody, help him please!’ she sobbed.

  Verity was at his side at once, speaking quickly into his ear. ‘OK, Calc, you know the drill. Activate your injury protocols and switch on your back-up systems. Come on, do it now, soldier!’

  Sid was still hopping around delightedly when the first blow from Stone sent him sprawling.

  ‘You idiot child,’ yelled Stone. ‘That android is worth a fortune to us.’ He took his own pistol and began to strike Sid repeatedly around the head as the boy rolled on the floor and tried to protect himself with his hands.

  ‘No, Pa!’ he cried. ‘He was going to kill you! I saved you, Pa! I saved you!’

  ‘I’m no pa of yours!’ roared Stone. ‘I should have drowned you on the same day I drowned your treacherous ma!’

  ‘Quick,’ hissed Verity, as the guards turned their attention to the spectacle of Stone’s rage. ‘Now’s our chance. Calc, can you walk?’ He nodded weakly. ‘Good, let’s move, then. Clench, India – let’s go.’

  As Sid’s beating continued they lifted the injured Bulldog to his feet and moved quietly towards the end of the hall.

  Bulldog had been right: there was an ancient door there, made of iron-bound wood. Calculus pushed his weight against it and it groaned open. The noise echoed up the cavern, immediately drawing the attention of the guards at the other end of the hall, who started to run towards them as they squeezed through the narrow doorway. Calculus slammed the door shut and drove home the iron bolt as the guards began to pound on the wood.

  Once on the other side of the door they found themselves in darkness, clinging to a slippery ledge with the sound of rushing water filling the air. Calculus turned on his visor light, which illuminated a long cavern, studded with sharp rocks. The ledge they were standing on dropped away into a steep gorge and an underground river rushed through the narrow channel, sending foam and spray into the air.

  A heavy blow rattled the door and one of the thick timbers split and bent inward.

  ‘Now what?’ gasped Bulldog. ‘They’ll be through that door in no time.’

  ‘There’s no other choice,’ said Verity. ‘We’ll have to ride the rapids out of here.’ She stepped to the edge of the rocky gorge.

  ‘No,’ said Clench anxiously, ‘I can’t go down there, I just can’t.’

  ‘Come on, Clench,’ said Verity. ‘Now is not the time for an attack of the vapours.’

  ‘No, it’s not that.’ He wrung his hands awkwardly. ‘The thing is . . . I can’t swim,’ he blurted. They stared at him in silence and then Verity began to laugh.

  ‘Can’t swim?’ She grinned. ‘Hell, don’t worry about that. You’ll be dashed to death on the rocks before you drown.’ She looked at Calculus. ‘Calc? Are you still with us?’ All eyes turned to the android and he nodded slowly. ‘Good,’ she said, still watching him closely. ‘Then please, take hold of Mr Clench and make sure he keeps his head above water. Everyone else, follow me!’

  Without a further word she jumped into the foaming waters and was carried swiftly down the rocky black throat at the end of the cavern. Calculus grabbed hold of Clench and, before he could protest, leaped in after her.

  ‘Come on, let’s keep up,’ said Bulldog, offering his good arm to India. She took it gratefully and they stood at the edge.

  ‘Ready?’ he said.

  Before she could reply, the door came crashing inward and the guards spilled on to the ledge. Bulldog jumped into the raging torrent, pulling India after him.

  CHAPTER 24

  BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN

  India braced herself for an icy plunge but, to her surprise, the water was warm. The current immediately pulled her over the lip of the tunnel, tearing her away from Bulldog. She scrabbled to get a purchase on the smooth walls but she was swept relentlessly through the darkness.

  Without warning the tunnel floor suddenly dropped away and she found herself free-falling. She fell for three full seconds before she hit the surface of the water with a smack. The impact knocked the wind from her and she tumbled over and over in a confusion of bubbles, uncertain which way was up. A strong hand on her collar yanked her spluttering to the surface. Calculus towed her to the edge of the water, where she found the others huddled on a small shingle beach.

  ‘Is everyone in one piece?’ said Verity. Her voice echoed back at them from the darkness.

  There were various groans and grunts in reply.

  By the light of the android’s visor India could see they were in a natural cavern with a high vaulted roof that sparkled with blue-green stalactites and fragments of quartz. A lake filled part of the cavern floor and water cascaded from a hole fifty feet up in the roof India realized with a gulp that that was where she had fallen from.

 
‘Why is the water so warm?’ said Bulldog. ‘Not that I’m complaining, mind.’

  ‘Thermal springs,’ said Calculus. ‘A by-product of the geothermal power plant, luckily for us.’

  Before anyone else could speak, Lucifer Stone’s voice began to boom from the hole in the roof. ‘Damn you all!’ His words reverberated around the cave. ‘Run if you want to, but you won’t get far. I’ll see to it that this place becomes your tomb!’

  ‘What does he mean by that exactly?’ said India in a hushed voice.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Verity, ‘but he’s been talking about those weapons for days, and nothing’s going to stop him taking them now. We’d better focus on trying to get away from this place before he finds us.’

  They took stock of their injuries. By the light of her torch, Verity prepared a makeshift sling for Bulldog’s arm while India watched Calculus carefully. She noticed that the blue ooze had stopped leaking from his chest and she wondered if that meant he had managed to repair himself. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked in a small voice.

  ‘My emergency systems have made temporary repairs,’ he said. ‘I am functioning adequately.’

  ‘I mean, are you all right? Are you . . . you again?’

  There was a long silence before he answered. ‘Something incredible has happened to me, India,’ he said distantly. ‘When Dr Cirenkov changed my base codes I still knew who you were but I cared nothing for any of you. But then, as you talked to me in the turbine hall, I felt something change inside.’ He stared across the cavern. ‘The incident has somehow corrupted my base codes. I no longer seem to be following my own programming: I seem to have developed a free will. This has never happened to an android before.’

  India smiled. ‘Well, maybe you’ve lived so long that you’ve become something new; something wonderful that no one has ever seen before,’ she said. ‘Who knows what you could do now.’

  Verity motioned everyone to be silent. Further along the shingle beach they could hear someone splashing and choking in the shallow waters.

  The group picked their way along the beach as Verity trained the torch along the water’s edge. The beam picked out a huddled figure by the edge of the lake with knees drawn up under its chin. Black eyes stared back at them from a deathly pale face.

  ‘Sid!’ cried India.

  ‘Don’t look at me!’ he said, holding up his arms. ‘This is all your fault, India Bentley!’

  ‘What is?’ she said. ‘I never did anything to you.’

  He dragged the sleeve of his coat across his bleeding nose and India could see he’d been crying. ‘I wanted to show my pa I was tough like him but you ruined all that! Since you came along, nothing I’ve done for him has been right. Then he said I weren’t no son of his and he threw me down this damned hole to die with the rest of you.’

  ‘He threw you down the hole? His own son?’ India exchanged glances with Verity. ‘The man’s a monster!’

  ‘Don’t you dare say that!’ Anger flashed in his eyes. ‘He’s a great man, my pa!’ Then his face crumpled and he began crying again.

  ‘What are we going to do with him?’ said India.

  ‘We don’t need to do anything with him,’ said Verity coldly. ‘He’s not our problem.’

  ‘I’ll second that,’ said Clench, peering over Verity’s shoulder.

  ‘I don’t know,’ said India. ‘He seems so alone.’

  ‘He can die of loneliness for all I care,’ said Verity. ‘He put a bullet in my friend’s chest or had you forgotten that? Come on, let’s start trying to find a way out of here.’

  Verity and Calculus helped Bulldog to his feet and they prepared to move off.

  Sid wiped his eyes and stood up. ‘Maybe I can help you.’ Everyone turned to look at him. ‘I just want to get out of here, same as you,’ he said. His eyes flicked back and forth across the faces of the group like a nervous animal.

  ‘And what help do we need from you, son?’ asked Bulldog, sticking out his chin.

  ‘Well, it seems to me you’re all in pretty bad shape,’ he replied. ‘And it looks like I’m the only one here with a gun.’ He rested a hand on his long-barrelled pistol. ‘You don’t need to worry. I don’t want nothing from you. I just want to get out of here and find my pa, is all.’ He spat on the floor. ‘Then I’m going to shoot that worthless dog stone dead.’

  ‘Well that’s just super,’ said Clench under his breath. ‘Not only are we buried alive but now we’ve got a psychopath for company. How much worse can this get?’

  ‘There’s no point moaning,’ said Verity wearily. ‘It looks like we’re stuck with him for now. Come on, let’s get moving.’

  They set off through the cavern with Sid trailing in their wake like a dark comet. In the wavering light of the torch, giant stalagmites cast twisted shadows across the walls.

  ‘Calc,’ whispered India as they walked along. ‘I’ve been thinking about what Nentu said to us when we met her. She said there was an Elder Spirit living under this mountain. She said it wouldn’t be pleased to see us but that we had to speak to it before two days were up or something terrible would happen.’

  ‘And did you believe her?’ said Calculus.

  ‘It sounded real when she said it. Clench was there, he’ll tell you. It was as if she could really see and hear things that nobody else could. And, now that we’re here, I can really feel something too.’ She struggled to put a name to what she was feeling. It was like a low oscillation that vibrated within her bones. But there was something else too, something old beyond measure, something intelligent.

  ‘I feel it too,’ said Calculus. ‘The caverns are filled with an infrasonic field, out of range of human hearing. You must be sensitive to it.’

  ‘But something here is alive, Calc. I know it is. What if there really is something down here with us?’

  By way of an answer, a gust of air passed through the cavern, raising goose bumps on India’s skin. Then she heard the familiar hissing voices gathering in the darkness. Valleymen.

  ‘Everyone, get together,’ said Verity urgently.

  Several indistinct shapes glided back and forth, just beyond the reach of the wavering torch beam.

  ‘You were warned to s-s-stay away from here, short-lives-s,’ they whispered in ghastly unison.

  ‘Sid,’ whispered Verity from the corner of her mouth. ‘How many bullets have you got in that gun?’

  ‘Why?’ he drawled. ‘You want me to shoot you now?’

  Like a flash from a nightmare, two of the shadowy forms rushed from the darkness and India caught a glimpse of hard black claws and teeth. A brief image of the white reindeer, terrified and bleating, flashed before her eyes, then Sid’s gun blasted once. The creatures shrank back to hover at the edge of the light. As they started to close in for a second time, a burning firebrand dropped to the ground in front of them, followed by another.

  ‘Hey, you fools, get up here quickly,’ called a voice behind them. ‘Those devils won’t hold off much longer.’

  They turned to see an open doorway high up in the rock wall behind them. A lean man, silhouetted against a bright light, was reaching out his hand. Clench’s instincts for self-preservation kicked in and he was the first to grasp the man’s hand and haul himself out of danger. The others followed quickly and Calculus pulled himself up last.

  ‘Good grief, you were lucky,’ said the man as he slammed the door shut. ‘Those devils can turn a man into a soulless shell in moments.’

  They stared at him. He had wild hair and a thick, knotted beard, and his clothes were in shreds. Sid reached for his revolver but Verity pushed his hand down. ‘Damn it, Sid, put that away,’ she said. ‘You start shooting like other people start sneezing.’ She turned warily to the man. ‘Who are you exactly?’

  But India knew who he was. From the moment she had heard his voice, she had known it. She pushed forward and looked up into his strong, blue eyes.

  ‘Dad?’ she said tentatively. ‘Dad, it’s me, India.’ />
  CHAPTER 25

  JOHN BENTLEY’S TALE

  He looked at her for several long seconds, his blue eyes gradually filling with tears of disbelief. ‘India?’ he said. ‘India, is that really you?’ He threw his arms around her, lifting her clean off the floor and squeezing her until she gasped for breath. ‘It really is you!’ He laughed. ‘How is this possible? I thought you were in London.’

  ‘I thought you were dead,’ she said, her voice catching in her throat.

  He held her at arm’s length. ‘I know, and I’m so sorry, India. There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t thought about you and Bella.’

  ‘Then why didn’t you come home to us?’ she snapped.

  ‘I understand how you must feel, India. Staying here was the hardest decision I ever made in my life but I had good reasons, believe me. I think when you hear my story you’ll understand why.’ He hugged her again and she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest.

  The others watched awkwardly, not knowing quite where to look. But at that moment, for India, there was only John Bentley.

  ‘Is Bella all right?’ he said, suddenly concerned. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

  ‘She’s fine, Dad,’ said India. ‘We’ve been looking out for each other since you . . . well, for a while now.’

  ‘That’s my girl,’ he said proudly. ‘I should have known if anyone was going to come after me it would have been you. You take after your mother. But damn it, how have you got here?’

  ‘Well, that’s a long story,’ she said, looking at the others. ‘A really long story.’

  Bentley turned to survey the group. There was a flicker of recognition when he saw Clench and his eyes narrowed. Clench shuffled his way to the back of the group.

  ‘I am John Bentley,’ he said. ‘I apologize if I took you by surprise back there but the Valleymen are evil creatures that can send a man to the afterlife without the company of his soul. I had to wait until you were close enough to one of the service tunnels before I could risk opening a door to let you in.’