‘What about Calculus?’ said Bentley. ‘If he went up the main tunnel, couldn’t he run back through the forest to the control room?’
Verity shook her head. ‘He’s in no fit state,’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘He’s too badly damaged.’
‘I could get in there,’ said India quietly.
‘Maybe we could climb up the waterfall to the cavern roof and get out that way?’ said Bulldog.
‘I said I could go,’ said India. ‘I could climb up that conduit, I’m the only one small enough to get in there – look!’
She peeled off her jacket and heavy jumper. After nearly three weeks of missed meals she was as thin as a pencil.
‘It’s too dangerous,’ said Bentley. ‘You could get stuck, and even if you get through, Stone’s men might still be up there.’
‘Now’s not the time to get all fatherly on me, Dad. Look, if they’ve set a bomb to explode, they’ll be trying to get away from here, the same as us,’ said India. ‘Besides, if we do nothing we’re all going to die anyway, so what’s the difference?’
‘It might work,’ said Bulldog.
‘It won’t work, said Verity. ‘Bombs like that have fail-safe devices attached to them so it takes more than one person to turn them on or off. Usually two people have to press a button or turn keys at the same time. You can’t do it on your own.’
‘I reckon I can fit in there if she can,’ said a voice from the shadows. Sid had already removed his coat. If anything, he was even thinner and scrawnier than India.
Clench snorted. ‘There’s no way we’d trust you with this.’
‘I got the same stake in this as you,’ he said, ‘and it don’t make much difference anyhow Either we die trying or we die without trying and I reckon it’s better to die trying.’
‘Well put, my friend,’ said Bentley, patting Sid on the shoulder. He looked anxiously at India. ‘If there was any other choice, India, I wouldn’t let you go, but I think you are right. This may be our only option.’
It was settled swiftly. John Bentley would lead the rest of the group up the drainage tunnel while India and Sid made their way to the control room. Once they had shut down the bomb they would all rendezvous on the far side of the lake. Nobody spoke about what would happen if they didn’t succeed.
They made their preparations quickly. Verity packed their few belongings and Bentley returned to his quarters to collect his precious seed samples. Meanwhile India stripped down to her long underwear and a pair of thick socks and Sid removed his heavy boots and shirt but kept his pistol tucked into his trousers. India was shocked to see his body was covered in red weals and scars – the result of dozens of beatings.
Verity pulled India to one side. ‘You watch that boy,’ she said. ‘I don’t trust him any further than I can spit. He might easily decide to double-cross all of us just for the hell of it.’
‘I don’t think so,’ said India. ‘He seems pretty determined to get even with his father, and who can blame him?’
‘And that’s another thing,’ said Verity. ‘Don’t get in the way of that fight. If he goes after Stone you need to be as far away as possible. As soon as that bomb’s disarmed you get away from him and keep running.’
India went to see Calculus, who was still slumped against the wall. ‘Will you be able to manage the climb?’ she said.
‘I need to talk to you, India.’
‘I know what you’re going to say,’ she said quickly, ‘and Verity’s already warned me about Sid. Don’t worry, I can look after myself.’
‘It’s not that.’
A chill ran through her body.
‘The machine has shut itself down to protect the mind from the explosion,’ he said. ‘Before it can start up again, I will need to speak to it and tell it the bomb has been disarmed.’
India wasn’t sure why this conversation was making her so uneasy. ‘Well, that’s OK. You can do that, can’t you?’
‘To communicate with the machine I will need to make direct physical contact,’ he said. ‘It means I will have to stay here.’
‘But what about your communicator? Couldn’t you use that?’
‘My communicator does not work on the same frequency as the machine,’ he said. ‘I have thought carefully about this, India, and I have discussed it with Mrs Brown. There is no other option, I have to stay behind.’
A hot tear ran down her cheek. ‘But why you? Why should you be the one that has to stay? It’s not fair, you could still live for hundreds of years.’
‘No, I couldn’t,’ he said quietly, ‘because I am already dying. My repairs were only temporary. From the moment I was shot, I knew I only had hours to live.’
She put her hand to her mouth.
‘Don’t be sad,’ he said. ‘Now I have a chance to do something really important. It means I will be remembered for being more than just a war machine.’ He reached out and took her hand. ‘I can’t think of anything more . . . human.’
She wanted to scream at him and tell him he was wrong but the words wouldn’t come. ‘I hate the thought of you being on your own down here,’ she said in a small voice. ‘You know, after we’ve gone.’ A thought occurred to her. She scrabbled in her bag and pulled out the slim, green volume she had found earlier in the day. ‘My dad would read this to us when we were little,’ she said. ‘He used to tell me I’d have an adventure of my own one day.’ She handed it to him. ‘There’s a character in it that reminds me of you.’
He took the book and looked at it carefully.
‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ he said, reading the title. He opened the book and turned the pages, pausing at a picture of a metal man holding hands with a young girl. ‘It’s a story about an android,’ he said with surprise. ‘Thank you, India, I shall treasure it.’
India forced herself through the final preparations for the task ahead. Verity hugged her and Bulldog ruffled her hair. Then her father squeezed her tightly and clapped Sid on the back.
‘Good luck, young man,’ he said. ‘I’m trusting you to take care of my daughter. When we all get out of here we should talk about your future.’
Sid looked at him as though he was speaking a different language.
Then India put her arms around Calculus for the last time. His metal skin felt warm and sticky from the clotted, black ooze which mingled with her tears.
‘When you have shut down the bomb,’ he was saying, ‘use the wrist communicator to let me know straight away.’
She blinked at him. ‘I have to go now,’ she said.
‘Will you be all right?’
‘Sure,’ she said, wiping her eyes. ‘But I think my anticipatory sub-routines might register your absence from my immediate environment.’
‘I’ll miss you too, India,’ he said.
She hugged him tightly again as he rested a hand gently on her hair. No one spoke and the silence was broken only by the sound of Bulldog blowing his nose into a large red hanky.
She took one last look at Calculus, now holding hands with Verity, and then turned away quickly. She accepted a boost up from Sid to get to the tiny space in the wall, then squeezed her head into the hole and began to drag her body forward over the pipes, crawling, inch by inch, away from the chamber.
CHAPTER 29
THE CONDUITS
The climb was incredibly hard going. The narrow space was so tight that India could not lift her head or turn it around and the roof scratched her back as she dragged herself along. Only the pencil-thin beam from Verity’s pocket torch showed the tunnel ahead. Sid grunted and cursed behind her.
‘You OK back there?’ she called, after they had gone some distance.
‘Don’t worry none about me,’ he replied from the darkness. ‘Just watch out for yourself. I don’t want to find no corpse blocking my way.’
‘Charming,’ she replied.
They crawled on in silence through the freezing water. India struggled to keep out the thought that a sudden surge might drown them both in th
e narrow space. After fifty yards or so they came to a junction box where the tunnel met several others. A single shaft rose vertically from the junction and more freezing water cascaded down it. India crawled from the narrow pipe and stood beneath the deluge.
‘Looks like this shaft goes all the way to the next level,’ said Sid. ‘Let’s start climbing, that lake must be melting good and fast and I don’t reckon much on getting drowned like a rat in a pipe.’
No sooner had he spoken than there was a rumble from somewhere deep within the tunnels. White water began to gush from the pipe around Sid’s feet.
‘Get up there quick!’ he shouted above the roar.
India scrambled up the pipes, trying to stay ahead of the foaming waters, with Sid close behind. The shaft seemed to be never-ending, her lungs burned and her arms trembled as she tried to pull herself up.
Just when she thought she could climb no further, the torch picked out a reflective surface above them. She pulled herself quickly up the last few feet but her elation turned to despair. A heavy steel grille was fastened across the top of the shaft and secured with a padlock. She rattled desperately at the metal. Sid bobbed up beside her but even with both of them pulling, the grille wouldn’t move an inch. The water rose around their shoulders; in a moment, it would be over their heads.
‘What are we going to do?’ she said, her voice cracking with fear.
Sid kept clinging to the grille with one hand and pulled out his pistol with the other. ‘Better hope the cartridges aren’t wet,’ he said, pressing the barrel of the gun against the padlock. The gun clicked and nothing happened. ‘Damn thing’s soaked through,’ he said. He pulled the trigger again.
A deafening blast filled the tiny space and the padlock snicked away with a singing noise. Sid pushed open the grille and they dragged themselves on to a concrete floor where they lay spluttering as the water bubbled out of the shaft around them.
‘That was quick thinking,’ said India between coughs.
‘Slow thinking gets you dead,’ he grunted.
‘What I meant,’ she said, sitting up, ‘was thank you for saving my life.’
He glanced at her and gave the briefest of nods. ‘Weren’t nothing.’
The shaft had brought them to a narrow service corridor, filled with pipes and multicoloured cables. The corridor was too low to stand up in but it felt spacious compared to the conduit.
‘Which way to the control room, d’you reckon?’ he said.
She shrugged. ‘My guess would be the one with the most cables. Let’s try that way.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ he said, squinting into the darkness.
‘No. I’m just making an educated guess. For all I know it leads to the Commanding Officer’s personal toilet!’
Sid looked at her for a moment, then unexpectedly his frown evaporated and he broke into a huge grin. ‘Damn!’ he laughed. ‘Wouldn’t that be a bummer?’
‘You should do that more often,’ she said, laughing too. ‘You wouldn’t be half as scary if you did.’
They followed the tunnel until they found a glimmer of light from a ventilation grille near the floor. It was rotten with rust and India kicked it out easily. She squeezed through the vent and lowered herself gently to the floor. Sid followed her and collapsed into an undignified pile, cursing and spitting.
They had landed in a small storeroom. The door was locked but a single kick from Sid sent it bursting from its hinges. Once outside, they made their way along an anonymous-looking corridor and through a final set of doors to find themselves standing again in the great turbine hall. They stared at the vast space for a moment, then India whooped for joy.
‘We did it, Sid! We made it!’ she cried.
They hugged each other ecstatically, then realized what they were doing and jumped apart with embarrassed smiles.
The hall was silent, except for the humming of the turbine and the giant steel doors that stood open to the bitter night. The missile racks were empty and the warheads were gone, save for one that sat like a sarcophagus in the middle of the floor. A cable attached to its nose ran across the floor. They followed it up the steps to the control room where it disappeared into one of the metal cabinets.
‘Can’t we jus’ pull it out?’ said Sid, scratching his head.
‘Verity said it didn’t work like that. We need to find the fail-safe to switch it off There should be two buttons or switches, some distance apart.’
‘Like them?’
He pointed to two small panels at opposite ends of the control desk, painted with red and yellow warning stripes. There was an empty silver keyhole in the centre of each one.
‘Yes!’ said India. She looked around the room. ‘The keys have to be in here somewhere.’
They scoured the control room with increasing urgency. India was just about ready to sit down and cry when Sid upended a waste basket in frustration and two silver keys on short lengths of chain clattered across the floor. He tossed one to India and they stood ready at each end of the control desk.
‘They need to be turned at the exact same time,’ said India. ‘Ready? Go!’
The keys would not turn.
Sid let out a cry of anguish and drew his gun. ‘A pox on this, I’m going out there to put a bullet through that damned bomb.’
‘Calm down, Sid,’ she said. ‘We’ve just got the wrong keys. Here, take this one.’
The keys crossed in the air and they tried them again. This time they both turned with a click. They looked at each other expectantly. A buzzer sounded, making them both jump, and a green light glowed on the control desk. Sid broke into a grin. ‘Hot damn, we did it!’ He punched the air. ‘We shut that damn thing off!’
India was busy unfastening Calculus’s bracelet. ‘I need to speak to Calc,’ she said. ‘I have to tell him it’s safe.’ She pressed the little button on the side of the bracelet but all she got was static hiss. ‘I guess all this electrical stuff is interfering with it. Let’s try outside.’
They clambered back down the steps to the turbine hall and skirted around the dead missile as though it might bite them. The body of the guard shot by Stone was still lying on the floor.
Sid pulled the blood-soaked jacket from the body and offered it to India. ‘You want this?’ he said. ‘It could be pretty cold out there.’
She shuddered and shook her head. Sid shrugged and put it on himself. Then they walked out through the hangar doors to stand on the hillside overlooking the lake. The night air stung like sharpened steel and a billion stars glittered and whirled above their heads. But when she looked up, the night sky struck terror into India’s heart. High above them was the brightest star she had ever seen, larger than the moon and shining with an intense white light, shot through with streaks of red and blue.
‘It’s Nibiru,’ she said breathlessly. ‘The asteroid is here already.’ They watched the gleaming apparition hanging silently above them like a sword, neither of them speaking. With shaking fingers she tried the bracelet again but it returned only more hissing. ‘I need to get further away from the turbine hall,’ she said.
But Sid was not listening to her. He was staring out over the lake and the look of cold hatred had returned to his hard, bony features.
A short way down the hill were the unmistakable shapes of two rigs, black and gleaming in the starlight, rolling carefully down the slope. Now India could hear the sound of their engines carrying faintly on the breeze.
‘It’s the Ice Queen . . . and the Prince of Darkness: he said between clenched teeth. ‘My pa’s rig.’ His whole body quivered with anger as he watched the rigs roll away.
India touched his arm gently. ‘Forget about him, Sid,’ she said. ‘He can’t hurt you any more. Why don’t you just let him go?’
He shook her arm away. ‘I’m not letting that dog get away,’ he said spitting on the ground. ‘He murdered my ma, the sweetest woman that ever lived, and he told me it was pirates that done it.’ He pulled out his pistol. ‘Well, now I
’m going to get him if it’s the last thing I ever do.’
‘We’ve got more important things to do, Sid. The asteroid is nearly here and I need to get Calc to tell the machine.’
‘No!’ He turned on her. ‘If that ancient machine goes off now it’ll blast everything on this mountain, including him!’ He pointed to the receding rigs. ‘Then I won’t never get a chance to get even. You’re not taking that away from me, India Bentley. Do you hear? Never!’
As quick as a snake his hand darted out and he snatched the bracelet from her grasp. Then he was off and running down the slope towards the rig, leaving her gasping in horror.
‘Sid!’ she called after him. ‘Come back, we need that bracelet!’
In desperation she looked up at the asteroid, and then at the receding figure of Sid. Before she had time to think about what she was doing, she began to run down the slope after him.
CHAPTER 30
OUTSIDE
Verity leaned against the tunnel wall and closed her eyes. They had been crawling on their hands and knees for over an hour now and the effort had taken its toll on all of them. John Bentley crouched beside her and offered her some water, which she drank gratefully.
‘How are you doing?’ he said.
‘I’m about done for after the last few days. Stone’s men aren’t exactly the best of hosts but it’s the Captain I’m worried about.’
Bulldog sat a short way off with his eyes closed. His breath came in rattling gasps.
‘He’s too heavy to carry,’ said Bentley. ‘We could really use your android about now.’ Verity turned away. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, noting the pain on her face. ‘That was insensitive of me.’
‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘Calculus knew what he was doing. I think staying behind with the machine was what he wanted more than anything else. I’ll miss him though. We were together for a long time.’
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