by Isaac Hooke
"You know of the Shell?" Hoodwink said.
"Thanks to you," Skull said.
"You've shared everything with them, haven't you?" Hoodwink told Sarella. "Everything I shared with you in confidence. The stranded colonists. The Satori mothership. The Hivemind. Everything."
"Don't you think they have a right to know?" she asked.
She had a good point.
Sarella turned toward Skull. "Hear him out at the very least."
Skull merely stared at Hoodwink from behind that mask.
"You can kill me," Hoodwink said. "But the Shell can still get at my memories if it wishes, by lobotomizing my Satori body. And maybe I will simply tell the Hivemind and the AI all about my adventures with Sarella."
Skull nodded toward Sarella. "She'll be long gone by the time you return." He addressed her directly. "See, I told you he intends to betray you."
"Hoodwink wouldn't do that," Sarella insisted. "He wouldn't betray me."
"Don't be so sure," Skull said. "He may seem human, but peel back the layers of reality and you'll find an alien mind composed of four hemispheres operating a human brain of only two. His thinking is alien to our own."
Sarella smiled fleetingly and rested a finger on Hoodwink's cheek. "Not so alien."
Hoodwink scowled at her, but when he saw the tenderness in her features, all the aggression and betrayal he felt vanished.
Skull must have seen the change in his eyes, because he nodded. "Fine. Speak, Satori. Tell us of this ingenuous plan you have to fight the oppressors."
Hoodwink did so. He asked questions at key points, to gauge their actual ability to help him, and they answered him reluctantly. It was obvious they didn't yet trust him completely.
When he was done, Skull spoke. "It's a fascinating plan. Brazen and extremely crazy, but fascinating. Whether or not it's actually going to work is another thing entirely. But I have one final question to ask you. Why are you helping us? Why?"
"Let's just say I have a vested interest in humanity." He glanced at Sarella and held her hand.
"We'll get you back to your daughter, Hoodwink," Sarella told him.
Skull exhaled loudly. "I can't promise we'll help. I have to take this up with the others."
"They'll help," Sarella said.
"We'll see," Skull countered. "We'll be in touch." He rudely shoved the balaclava down over Hoodwink's face and then blindfolded him.
Everything was calm at first as they led him into the hall and into what Hoodwink assumed was the stairwell, judging from the steps and the way the sound echoed.
But then there were shouts, and the noise of some sort of pulse gun firing.
Someone screamed beside him.
23
Someone shoved Hoodwink back up out of the stairwell and into the hall.
"I told you it was a trap," Skull shouted. The hiss of a plasma rifle cut him off as someone fired back into the stairwell.
Hoodwink felt the muzzle of a rifle slam into his temple.
"Tell me why I shouldn't execute you right now!" Skull said.
"It wasn't me," Hoodwink pleaded. "I swear it. Give me a weapon and I'll fight for you, I will. I'll prove myself."
There was more shooting.
"Let him help," Sarella said. "We're going to need every one of us to get out of this."
Finally the barrel pulled away and Hoodwink's blindfold was removed. Skull stood above him. He cut his binds and tossed him a small pistol.
"Then fight," Skull said.
The other four were holed up beside the exit, where the melted remnants of the door hung from the hinges. They fired down into the stairwell. Plasma shots came in return, sweeping past and slamming into the opposite wall.
Hoodwink cozied up beside Sarella, who also had a small blaster for a weapon. He leaned past the doorway and let off a few shots. He struck a robot soldier just as it peered past the bend that led to the lower flight. Its flat head melted away and it collapsed.
Hoodwink took cover when the return fire came. He glanced down the hall toward the far side. He saw the doors to the rooms, but otherwise there didn't seem to be any other exits.
Skull pulled out a small RC radio. "Radius, can you get to us?"
"That's a negative," a voice returned a moment later. "There are too many of them. The rear guards we placed are dead. I've called for backup but they won't arrive for a while. And from the numbers I'm seeing down here, it won't matter anyway."
"Roger that," Skull said. He stuffed the radio back into his harness. "Looks like we're on our own. We have to get to the fire escape."
"I'll buy you some time," Phantom said from his position beside the open stairwell door.
Skull rested a hand on his shoulder. "You will feast with the martyrs tonight in eden, Rick."
"Go!" Phantom said. Rick.
Hoodwink and the others retreated. They chose one of the unlocked doors and hurried inside the apartment.
Staying low, Hoodwink gazed out the living room window. It faced the street, which crawled with mechanical activity. It seemed like all the robots in the city were converging on the building: there were the bigger, mech-like soldiers, and the tank-like patrol robots on their treads.
Hoodwink quickly ducked out of view. "Shit."
Blue glanced outside and recoiled in obvious shock. "Forget the fire escape! We're completely and utterly screwed. We got all the robots in the city out there."
Skull took a look. "Damn it."
"You brought me here on an underground pedway system connected to the sewers, right?" Hoodwink asked Skull.
"We did," the man answered.
"Does the pedway connect to this building?"
"Yes," Skull told him. "But not via the main stairwell. Even so, we'll never reach it with all those robots on the stairs."
"How many floors is this building?" Hoodwink asked.
"Three."
Maniac-Mask was watching the peephole at the main door. "Rick is gone. The robots are clearing the rooms one by one. They're two doors away from us."
"Everyone," Hoodwink said. "Concentrate fire on the floor. This spot." He pressed the heels of his boots repeatedly into the carpet, forming a small depression. "We need to drill our way through to the floor below, we do."
Every plasma weapon aimed at the floor.
"Set noise dampeners to full," Hoodwink said.
The group did so and then opened fire. The silencers masked the noise, and a small, manhole-sized gap melted in the carpet to the room below.
Hoodwink helped each man down in turn, followed by Sarella, who flinched as she passed through. When his turn came, he gripped the edges and lowered himself. The surrounding flooring was still fairly hot from the blast, and he understood why Sarella had flinched.
He dropped down into the apartment below.
The group directed their weapons at the floor once more and opened another gap. They proceeded to lower themselves in the same way. When Hoodwink's turn arrived, he heard the sound of the door being kicked in just above. He hurled himself through the hole and struck the carpet of the below apartment rather hard. He yelped quietly upon impact.
"You okay?" Sarella said.
He moved with a very slight limp. "Tweaked my ankle slightly. Nothing I can't handle. We have to move. They're here."
They hurried through the apartment toward the entrance. Behind him, Hoodwink heard a loud metallic clank. When he glanced that way he saw a combat robot had dropped down through the hole.
Maniac, who was bringing up the rear, immediately blasted the robot.
Sarella paused at the entrance to peer through the spy-hole. She opened the door, and carefully surveyed both directions.
She beckoned toward the rifle that Skull held and he gave it to her. She aimed it down the hall outside and fired off two quick shots.
"It's clear," she said softly, returning the weapon.
The group hurried out the exit. Hoodwink heard another muted clank behind him and he knew a second robot
had dropped down. Maniac fired once again and laughed like a madman.
Sarella led the way down the hallway toward the rear set of stairs that was supposed to lead to the pedway. As Skull had predicted, two robot soldiers had guarded the place. Sarella had eliminated them with her earlier marksmanship.
Sarella pushed open the door to the stairs and Skull followed her inside.
Without warning a shot came from behind Hoodwink. Maniac collapsed. Hoodwink and Phantom dragged the fallen man onto the stairs.
Sarella and Skull took up guard positions and fired into the hall as Hoodwink and Phantom hoisted Maniac between them.
"No," Maniac said. He was panting loudly. Blood dripped from his lips. "I'm done. Leave me a grenade."
Hoodwink glanced at Skull, who nodded. Hoodwink and Phantom lowered the man to the floor by the entrance. Maniac traded his rifle to Sarella in exchange for her smaller blaster, and then accepted a grenade from Skull.
"You will dine with the martyrs tonight, my friend," Skull said.
Maniac nodded. The red blood stood out on his lips against that deathly pale face. His skin was steeped in perspiration, though he was shivering.
The survivors hurried down the stairs and reached the glass door of the underground pedway. Beyond it, the passage branched off to the left and right. Sarella opened the door cautiously and swept her rifle in both directions.
"Clear," she said.
The party dashed into the steel corridor.
Hoodwink heard a muted explosion behind him as he ran and he realized Maniac had detonated the grenade.
Hoodwink knew it was only a matter of time before the Shell or whoever was hunting them started sending robots down there from other entrances to head them off. He had no idea how far they had to go. No idea if they would ever make it to the sewers.
And then Sarella burst into a side door labeled "mechanical." He and the others followed her inside. Large machines grumbled and hummed around him. He passed pipes, conduits, flashing panels. It seemed a colossal waste of energy to keep all of that running, given the scant populace, but that was the Satori way: they wanted their playpens ready to go at a moment's notice.
Sarella paused beside a manhole cover. "Here it is."
The vague scent of sewage reached his nostrils.
She grabbed a nearby crowbar and popped the lid. The stench of fecal matter promptly increased. A tunnel descended into darkness.
Sarella went down, with Skull and Phantom going next.
Sarella shouted up: "Hood, replace the cover when you come in."
Hoodwink lowered himself inside; when his shoulders were level with the floor, he dutifully grabbed the heavy cover and shifted it toward him.
It was at that point he heard several loud thuds echoing in the room. He glanced between the machines and spotted a man wearing boots and holding a blaster. He was accompanied by two combat robots. Hoodwink didn't recognize the individual, who wasn't looking his way, his face in profile.
"The manhole should be right here," the pursuer complained to the robots. "I marked it on my map!"
Hoodwink ducked and lowered the cover into place as silently as he could. All light immediately faded, and he descended the ladder by touch in the absolute darkness.
"Sarella, are you here?" he asked quietly when his boots touched a hard surface, probably concrete. The terrible stench was nauseatingly strong.
"I'm here," Sarella answered. "Put this on." She shoved something into his hands.
He explored the item, which seemed to be some kind of eye-wear. He slid it over his face and immediately a concrete tunnel appeared in black and white around him. The device likely utilized the same sonar tech that was built into aReals, which allowed the wearer to see by bouncing sound waves off the surrounding surfaces. Those waves came in the form of very soft clicks that wouldn't travel more than ten feet from the wearer. From what he knew of the stealth tech, the robots could only detect the sonar at very close range.
Hoodwink stood on a narrow catwalk that bordered a sewage tract. Only a tiny trickle of sludge flowed down its length: the sewer system was obviously designed to handle the waste products of a population far larger than what currently resided in the city.
Skull and Phantom walked along the catwalk ahead, almost out of sight of the stealth goggles.
He heard a clank above. The pursuers had found the manhole cover.
"They're up there," Hoodwink said. "A surrogate is helping them. He knows about the sewers."
"Let's go then!" Sarella hurried after Skull and Phantom.
They joined up with the other two and the party quickly reached a fork. They proceeded to take the rightmost branch.
They advanced a short distance and then took a left.
As they reached another fork, Hoodwink heard clanks coming from around the bend ahead. At least he thought the noise was coming from there: it was hard to tell because of the echo effect the tunnel caused.
Skull immediately raised a fist and spun the index finger in a circle, a gesture that Hoodwink interpreted as "retreat."
They backtracked.
They reached the previous fork and jumped across the tract to another catwalk, taking the leftmost corridor instead.
They hurried forward and turned right at the next branch that presented itself. Again they heard those mechanical clanks. The robots sounded closer that time.
The group quickly retreated.
"Damn it," Skull said when they rounded the bend of the previous fork. "These sewers are swarming with robots. We'll never get out of here."
He led the retreat, passing a small alcove where some kind of monitoring equipment was placed. The party approached another fork.
Up ahead, two combat robots abruptly stepped into view.
Skull immediately took them out.
Another robot peered around the bend.
"Watch out!" Skull flattened himself against the wall.
Phantom moved too late and was struck down. He toppled from the catwalk, landing lifelessly in the tract.
Skull fired at the bend as the group retreated. "The alcove! Take cover in the alcove!"
Hoodwink reached the alcove that housed the monitoring equipment and ducked inside. He assumed a guard position on the rear edge, aiming his rifle down the corridor. Sarella and Skull did the same on the opposite side, and they fired nearly constantly into the oncoming enemy. So far Hoodwink hadn't released a single shot, as no robots had come at them from the rear. But he knew it wouldn't be long.
From the periphery of his vision, Hoodwink saw Skull retreat from the edge to fetch the small RC radio from his belt.
"Radius," Skull said into the radio. "Flood the storm drains."
No answer came.
"Damn it," Skull said. "Too much interference." He tried again. "Radius, can you read? Flush the storm drains."
"You can do that?" Hoodwink asked Sarella.
"Like I said, Hood, the aliens made a mistake in relying on human technology to keep their conquered vassals in check." She fired off two shots.
"It's too bad you couldn't have hacked the robots themselves," Hoodwink muttered. He finally spotted a group of robots rushing at them from the rear, and he unleashed several shots from his blaster.
Behind him, he heard Sarella talking to Skull. "You do know if we flood those drains, the robots won't be the only ones flushed out to sea, don't you? And the ocean is basically acid... not the best for human skin."
"I know," Skull said. "But I have no plan of ever reaching the sea." He produced a pair of flexicuffs and tried the radio again. "Radius, flush the storm drains."
"Roger that," returned the digitally garbled voice.
"Finally," Skull said. He tossed the cuffs to Hoodwink and Sarella. "Tie yourselves in."
Skull retrieved another set of flexicuffs from his utility belt to obey his own instructions.
"I hope you two can hold your breaths for at least forty-five seconds," Skull said.
Hoodwink secured o
ne of the cuffs to his wrist and tied the other to a small pipe connected to the monitoring equipment.
When that was done, he leaned past the edge and opened fire at the next batch of troops coming at them from the rear.
He heard a subtle rumbling in the distance. The floor shook, promising the approach of a massive amount of water.
"It's funny," Skull said as the rumble grew. "I remember reading in the history books about how all the modern cities in the world had finally separated out their storm drains from the sewage systems. Every city except ours. And now it's that very storm drain that's going to save our lives. I told Radius in the moments after we figured out how to control the drains that someday we'd find a use for them. Looks like I was right."
Hoodwink and the others continued to fire at the robots, but the incoming stream of mechanical bodies proved endless. It was a wasteful, almost crazy strategy on the part of the enemy, and yet there was method to it, because the weapons of Hoodwink and the defenders would eventually begin to overheat and become useless.
"The rainwater in those storm drains isn't acidic like the seas, is it?" Hoodwink asked.
"A little bit," Skull replied. "But not as bad. It's treated, you see. So you'll survive. Just don't open your eyes."
The rumble grew to an all-consuming roar and then the waves smashed down the tunnel.
Hoodwink was engulfed by water. He held his breath and shut his eyes just in time. The blaster was ripped from his grasp and he was pulled sideways.
He floated there, helpless in the current, his body tugging against the cuffs that held him by the wrist. He could feel the plastic digging into his flesh, drawing blood. He fought the current to bring his other arm forward, and grabbed the pipe in attempt to alleviate the pressure on his wrist.
He hadn't been able to take enough air into his lungs before he held his breath, and he struggled in that moment, wanting nothing more than to open his mouth and inhale deeply. While his mind knew that there was no air out there to breathe, still it took an effort to restrain his body. He fought every moment to keep his mouth closed and his nostrils still, preferring to black out rather than to have to suffer the painful death of water asphyxiation. He remembered how much it hurt to cough up all that amniotic fluid when he had first emerged from his pod into the real world for the first time. He had no doubt the pain would be even worse when the current liquid was inhaled, especially if it was slightly acidic.
