Ironheart

by Allan Boroughs

  Bentley nodded. ‘Siberia is a hard place and I’ve lost a lot of good friends out here.’ He looked at Clench, who was counting a stack of coins. ‘And some of them I’ve lost because of that miserable creature over there. When we get back I’m going to see to it that he gets brought to justice.’ He rubbed his palms over his face. ‘If we ever get back.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said Verity. ‘If anyone can shut down that bomb it’s India. She’s as tough as old boots!’ She laughed. ‘I guess she takes after her old man.’

  ‘That’s what I’m most worried about.’ Bentley smiled. He turned and sniffed the air. ‘Can you smell that? It smells like . . . pine needles.’

  ‘It must be the end of the tunnel,’ said Verity. ‘Come on, we’ll be out of here in no time.’

  On the other side of the lake, India ran down the hill towards the two rigs, cursing at Sid as she went. A low cliff ran along one side of the track and Sid sprinted along the top of it, looking down on the rigs for an opportunity to leap.

  A door opened on the upper deck and a crewman looked out. Without a moment’s hesitation, Sid leaped from the rocks and crashed down on top of the man, pinning him to the deck. Seconds later, India arrived at the edge, but pulled up sharply. It was a fifteen-foot drop on to the icy deck and the rig was rolling past steadily. In another few moments it would be out of reach.

  Taking a deep breath she leaped into the darkness and crashed into the deck, crying out as a white-hot pain spiked through her twisted knee. She climbed to her feet and limped down the walkway to where Sid sat astride the helpless crewman, holding the gun to his head.

  ‘How many?’ said Sid through gritted teeth. ‘How many are in there?’

  ‘At least fifteen down below and another twelve on the Ice Queen,’ sneered the grizzled old veteran. ‘Plenty enough to kill you, boy. Though when your pa finds out you’re still alive I reckon he’ll want to take care of you personally, just like he did that ma of yours.’

  Sid’s eyes bulged and before India could stop him, he brought his pistol down on the man’s skull with a dull crack. He climbed from the man’s unconscious body and made for the open door.

  ‘Sid, wait,’ said India, struggling to catch up with him. ‘You have to give me the bracelet.’ He ignored her and disappeared inside the rig. Once again, she had no choice but to follow him.

  Verity Brown and John Bentley helped a haggard-looking Captain Bulldog from the tunnel. They found themselves on the far side of the lake, at the edge of a forest.

  Verity laughed out loud for sheer joy. ‘It’s so good to be out of that damned hole,’ she said. ‘Remind me never to go in any abandoned treasure caves ever again.’

  Bentley was making Bulldog comfortable against a rock. ‘Don’t celebrate just yet,’ he said. ‘We’ve got company.’

  Several dark, ghostly figures were moving through the trees, trailing wisps of greyness.

  Bentley picked up a fallen branch. ‘Get moving,’ he said. ‘I’ll hold them off as best I can.’

  ‘I don’t think we need to,’ said Verity. ‘Look.’

  The Valleymen were moving erratically through the trees. Their dark bodies seemed paler and more transparent than before, and they shrank back from the humans like timid animals. In a few moments the last of them had melted back into the trees.

  ‘What was that all about?’ said Verity.

  ‘Perhaps that’s the answer,’ said Bentley, pointing at the brilliant sight of Nibiru in the skies above them.

  ‘The asteroid,’ said Verity under her breath. ‘Is that why the Valleymen are retreating?’

  ‘Who knows?’ said Bentley. ‘But I think we should get moving in case they decide to come back again.’

  ‘Good idea,’ she said. ‘Mr Clench, will you give us a hand to—’

  She stopped abruptly. Thaddeus Clench was standing ten feet away, holding a small, silver pistol. ‘Just how dumb did you think old Thaddeus was, eh?’ he sneered. ‘You didn’t think I was just going to let you to turn me in, did you? I’ve got very good hearing, you know, and I never go anywhere without this trinket in my boot.’

  ‘You won’t get far,’ said Bentley. ‘Sooner or later they’ll find you.’

  Clench laughed again. ‘You were good enough to tell me where you kept your snow vehicle.’ He chuckled. ‘So I might get further than you think. Now then, Mr Bentley, I’ll have those seeds of yours before I go, please.’

  Bentley clutched the bag closer. ‘For God’s sake, man!’ he said. ‘These seeds are for the benefit of humanity. You’ve already got your gold, what could you possibly want these for?’

  ‘Profit, Mr Bentley,’ he said, holding out his hand for the bag. ‘Food is scarce and I know people who will pay top money to have control of the world’s food supplies. So hand them over or Mrs Brown gets it.’

  John Bentley paused, then held up his hands. ‘Wait, Thaddeus, don’t do this. Hasn’t there been enough destruction and violence? These seeds could mean an end to years of misery. And think about it. Whoever brings them back will be a hero.’

  Clench looked at him suspiciously. ‘What you saying?’

  ‘I’m saying if you help me to bring them back to London I’ll see you get the credit for it. You can live out your days as “The Man Who Saved the World from Starvation”. Isn’t that better, Thaddeus? Wouldn’t you rather be loved than be rich?’

  Clench looked confused. He licked his lips and long seconds ticked by. ‘People would love me?’

  Yes,’ said Bentley. ‘They’d be eternally grateful to you for what you’d done. These seeds are more important than any amount of gold.’

  Clench snapped back to attention. ‘Of course, the gold! That’s what this is really about,’ he hissed, his eyes narrowing. ‘You want my gold! You nearly had me believing you there with all your talk of “being loved”. But I’m not buying any of it, see! Money is the only certainty in life, Bentley if you don’t have that then you’ve got nothing. So I’m going to take those seeds and I’m going to sell them to the highest bidder. I’ll die a rich man while you starve in your mud hole.’

  He darted forward and snatched the bag from Bentley’s shoulder and then, with a triumphant cackle, fled through the trees at a sprint. Bentley started after him but Verity grabbed his arm. ‘Let him go. I need your help with the Captain.’

  ‘But I have to go after him,’ he said desperately. ‘Those seeds could save millions of lives.’

  ‘And who’s going to save us?’ she snapped. ‘Maybe you haven’t been keeping up with current events but this whole area is about to become toast. Our priorities are to find India and then get out of here.’

  ‘And how are we going to get away if Clench takes the snow vehicle?’ said Bentley. ‘Do you really want to walk through five hundred miles of wilderness?’

  ‘Shut up, both of you and listen to me!’ Bulldog had hauled himself painfully up on one elbow. ‘The Beautiful Game is on its way here, but Tashar won’t wait around for long. We need to build a fire so they can spot us.’

  ‘A pirate rig?’ said Verity. ‘You don’t really expect them to keep their word, do you?’

  ‘There’s honour among riggers, Mrs Brown,’ said Bulldog solemnly. ‘Our word is our bond. And besides,’ he added, ‘I told them if they came I’d make ’em rich.’

  CHAPTER 31

  THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS

  The engine room of the Prince of Darkness was larger than the one on The Beautiful Game. The floor was clean, the pistons gleamed under a slick layer of oil and the polished brass gauges flickered obediently in the half-light.

  Sid stood by the door checking his pistol. He looked up as India came in.

  ‘Give me that bracelet,’ she said impatiently.

  ‘Not until I’ve taken care of my pa,’ he said, baring his teeth.

  ‘What are you planning to do?’

  He looked at her blankly as though he had not thought this far ahead. ‘He’ll be up on the main deck,’ he said. ‘I’ll
run in there and put a bullet between his eyes before they can stop me. I reckon I can take two or three of them with me besides.’

  ‘And then what? They’ll just shoot you down where you stand.’ She looked around the engine room until she found what she was looking for. ‘There’s a better way to stop him, Sid. Look!’ She went to the instrument panel on the opposite wall where a row of brass dials showed readings for engine temperature and oil pressure. Underneath were four large valves. ‘Pieter once told me these valves would shut off the coolant system. He said any rig would blow sky high if you turned them off. I don’t want anyone to get killed if I can help it but then again, millions of people could die if your father takes those missiles back to Angel Town.’

  Sid looked thoughtful and then nodded. ‘OK, as long as it takes out my pa, then do it!’ he said.

  The valves were made of heavy brass and terminated in a red wheel the size of India’s hand. Sid watched the door while she shut off the first one. The needle on the gauge began to drop.

  ‘Get on with it!’ he hissed. ‘Shut ’em all down.’

  She closed the second and the third valves but the last one was stiff and caked with grease. He tutted impatiently and crossed the room to help her.

  ‘Get a lever,’ he said, pointing to a rack of engineer’s spanners on the wall behind her.

  She reached for a spanner and turned back just in time to see the door swing open and the bulky figure of Lucifer Stone step into the room. He took in the scene and let out a howl of rage.

  Sid’s reactions were fast. He reached for his gun but a massive hand dealt him a crushing blow and he collapsed into a corner like a wet shirt. India tried to heft the spanner at Stone’s head but he swatted it away and a blow across her cheek made her teeth rattle. Before she could regain her senses, Stone had grabbed her by the throat with both hands. She struggled to get away, but his meaty fingers were clamped tightly around her neck. A sound like rushing water grew in her ears and her vision began to go black around the edges. Suddenly the relentless pressure around her neck stopped and India fell choking to the floor.

  Stone had dropped to his knees, clutching the back of his head, and Sid was standing behind him, holding the engineer’s spanner. Stone looked up in surprise but, as he opened his mouth to speak, Sid brought the spanner crashing down for a second time on his father’s temple and his head hit the deck with a metallic clang.

  They stood over the slumped figure, watching a thick, crimson puddle form on the deck-plates.

  ‘I think you killed him, Sid,’ said India in a hushed voice.

  Sid said nothing; he just clutched the spanner tightly and stared down at the body with wide eyes. They were jolted back to life by a sharp explosion as one of the pressure gauges burst, releasing a rush of steam and sending shards of glass across the room.

  ‘Sid!’ she croaked, shaking him out of his daze. ‘This engine could blow up at any moment. Come on, we have to get off.’

  Sid tore his gaze away from the body and crossed to the cabin door, jamming the spanner in the locking wheel. They left the engine room together and stood outside on the main deck, where India gasped at the bitterness of the wind. The Prince of Darkness had reached the lake and was picking up speed as it rumbled across the ice in tandem with the Ice Queen. Sid led India to a small gantry that stuck out beyond the thundering caterpillar tracks and allowed for a clear jump to the ice fifteen feet below He turned to her with a strange look in his eyes and thrust the bracelet into her hands.

  ‘When you get down there, you start running,’ he shouted over the engines. ‘You find your friends and you get the hell away from this place.’

  ‘Sid, what are you talking about?’ she said. ‘We can both get off this rig.’

  He shook his head. ‘There ain’t no place for me now my pa’s dead. There’s nothing I know how to do except his killing and now he’s dead I’m no use to no one. I’ll just stay here until it’s over.’

  ‘That’s crazy! You don’t need to die. Captain Bulldog, Verity, my dad, they could all help you.’

  He shook his head. Your Mrs Brown was right,’ he said. You don’t want nothing to do with me. I’m just a stone-cold killer and I’m never going to change.’

  ‘Everyone can change, Sid,’ she said. ‘Look at Calculus. It doesn’t matter what anyone expects of you, you can always change yourself. But you’ve got to want to make it happen.’

  He looked at her strangely, as though unable to find the right words, and for a moment she saw the lost boy again. ‘Do you think I really could?’ he said. ‘Do you think I could change things?’

  She opened her mouth to answer but the words froze on her lips. The grotesque figure of Lucifer Stone loomed from the engine room behind them. His face was a mask of blood, his ear was torn away and his hair stuck out in clotted streaks. He looked like a creature escaped from hell.

  Stone grasped Sid by his collar and jerked him off his feet. Sid wriggled out of the jacket and scrambled across the deck towards India. ‘India, get away from here!’ he shouted. ‘Get away and run as fast as you can.’

  Before she could react he shoved her in the chest with both hands and she sailed backwards off the gantry. She landed with a blow that knocked all the air from her body, and struck the back of her head on the ice.

  The two rigs continued on their way, rolling relentlessly across the ice. High up on the deck of the Prince of Darkness she could see two figures locked in a mortal struggle in the moonlight: the huge frame of Stone and the slight figure of Sid, flailing and clawing at his father as though all the rage in the world were pouring out of him.

  She called out to Sid, but her words were carried away on the wind. The battling figures stumbled through the open hatchway and disappeared from view She scrambled to her feet and began to hobble after the rig but she had not gone more than ten paces when the Prince of Darkness exploded in a ball of flame.

  A blast of heat and air knocked her off her feet once again. Then came the noise. A great, roaring, metallic explosion that sent tongues of flame high into the air and hurled pieces of burning wreckage across the ice. One of the giant caterpillar tracks broke and unravelled, bringing the big rig to a shuddering halt.

  There was a moment of complete stillness before the ice splintered into huge triangular shards and the Prince of Darkness pitched violently into the lake in a cloud of steam and foaming water. The Ice Queen revved her engines and tried desperately to reverse away but there was no escape from the shattered surface and it too plunged into the icy depths after its sister, carrying its deadly cargo to the bottom of the lake.

  India’s ears rang in the silence and she stared at the great hole in the ice for a long time before her body began to shiver uncontrollably. Her long underwear was frozen to her skin and she felt more intensely cold than she had ever felt in her life.

  There was something she was meant to do now, she felt sure of it, but she could not quite remember what it was. It was getting difficult to make her legs obey and she weaved a ragged line across the ice towards the shore. She threw back her head to gulp the night air and it made her feel better. She didn’t feel so cold now; in fact she felt pleasantly warm and sleepy. It would be just perfect, she thought, if she could lay down here and watch that beautiful star overhead while she waited for sleep.

  ‘ Remember your duty, soul voyager!’

  She opened her eyes again. Nibiru hung in the sky above her like a giant locomotive bearing down on the world, filling the night with its deadly brilliance. Then she saw the bracelet in her hand and remembered her friend who was waiting for a message from her. She held the communicator and pressed the button with fingers that were numb and lifeless. There was a brief crackle of static and then a familiar rich tone sounded over the speaker.

  ‘India?’

  ‘Hello, Calc,’ she said in a whisper. ‘It’s good news. We stopped the bomb, you can tell the machine that it’s safe.’

  There was a brief pause before he replied. �
��I knew you could do it.’

  He sounded vague and distant.

  ‘Calc, I don’t want you to die,’ she said.

  There was a long pause at the other end.

  ‘I am not afraid of dying, India,’ he said. ‘Because now I have a heart. Thanks to you.’

  She gave a faint smile. ‘Just like the Tin Man,’ she said.

  The pause grew longer.

  ‘I’ll never forget you, Calc,’ she said.

  ‘Then once again, I have become immortal.’

  ‘Goodbye, Calc.’

  ‘Goodbye, India.’

  The line went dead. The tiredness was overwhelming and she closed her eyes, feeling the silence wash over her.

  She didn’t notice the movement in the trees or the spindly figure that dashed across the ice towards her.

  Clench smiled thinly to himself as he approached the girl lying on the ice and grasped her by the arm.

  ‘Got you, you little witch!’ he said.

  CHAPTER 32

  THE PILLAR OF FLAME

  Clench dragged India across the ice towards a paint-blistered boathouse on the beach. She tried to put up a struggle but the intense cold had penetrated her bones and her limbs would not work properly.

  ‘Thought you’d get the better of old Thaddeus,’ he muttered, half to himself ‘You’d all have given me up the moment we got back to Angel Town, wouldn’t you? Well I’ve got news for you, missy. You and me are taking that snow vehicle across the border to China where I intend to live very well indeed.’ He patted his shoulder bags, which made a dull chinking noise.

  ‘Wh-why are you doing th-this?’ she stammered. ‘Why don’t you just take the gold and go?’

  ‘Why?’ He stopped dragging her for a moment. ‘Payback of course, for all the time I spent running and hiding and having to be pleasant to that revolting old trollop Roshanne. Not to mention being humiliated by a spoilt brat like you.’

  As he spoke there was another earth tremor, a strong one that shook the mountains and dislodged large rocks from the cliff face.