“What’s that?” Eleanor said.
“An explosive, would be my guess,” Rikki-Tikki-Tavi said before Sherlock could answer.
Sherlock nodded. “I can’t guarantee it will work. The formula I used is from an old chemistry book in the Family library. I only recently made a couple of these, and I haven’t had a chance to test them yet.”
“No time like now, brain-boy,” Crom said.
“Everyone back,” Sherlock said. He was unsure of the blast radius, so to play it safe, he had them retreat to the last bend. He went partway, and stopped. “You might want to cover your ears,” he advised them. Then, poised on the balls of his feet, he threw the glass ball at the bottom of the door. Even as the ball left his hand, he whirled and ran and dived around the corner, throwing himself down and placing his hands over his own ears.
The explosion was everything Sherlock hoped. Even with his ear covered, the blast was thunderous. He felt the floor shake as if to an earthquake. Wisps of smoke swirled over him, bringing an acrid odor.
Grabbing his cane and his BXP, Sherlock heaved to his feet. He started to turn and glanced back down the hall—-and his blood froze in his veins.
‘Things’ were shuffling rapidly to overtake them. More of the Dark Lord’s demented experiments in grafting, in blending the natural with the artificial. They filled the corridor, a phalanx of horror, looking for all the world like an unholy mix of zombie and android. They moved in jerky, uncoordinated fashion, as if whatever was left of their brains wasn’t enough for simple coordination.
The others saw them, too.
“Lord in heaven,” Eleanor said.
“Get to the door,” Rikki-Tikki-Tavi commanded.
Instead, Crom took a few steps toward the approaching undead. “I’ll hold them off.”
“You’ll do as you’re told,” Rikki said. “To the door. Now.”
Sherlock was the first to reach it. Crouching, he smiled in satisfaction. His concoction had worked, although not to the degree he had hoped. He wanted to blow the door off its hinges. Instead, the blast had crumpled the bottom half into twisted ribbons, leaving a gap wide enough for a person to squeeze through on their hands and knees.
“Eleanor, you first,” Rikki said.
She obeyed without question.
“Kanto. Crom. Then A.l.v.i.s”
“Damn,” Crom said, but he went too.
“Rilletta,” Rikki said.
Their new ally looked at the hole and down at herself. “No,” she said. “You go.”
“I’ll go last,” Rikki said. “Please. Hurry.”
“I would, gladly,” Rilletta said. “But I can’t move as fast as you. And I have trouble bending my legs.”
“Then we’ll go through and pull you after us,” Rikki said. He flicked a finger at Sherlock.
Swiftly, Sherlock scrambled to the other side. The others were on their feet. Beyond, were stairs. He slid to one side, and after Rikki came through, he held out his hands to Rilletta.
She didn’t move.
“What’s the hold up?” Rikki said.
Sadness tinged Rilletta’s voice as she said, “There’s isn’t time. They’re almost here. I’ll stand in front of the door and block it best I can.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” Rikki said.
Neither did Sherlock. “Will those things harm you?” he asked her.
“Maybe not,” Rilletta said. “I think Thanatos has them trained or conditioned or what it is so they only attack outsiders.”
“You think?” Rikki said.
“Go, before it’s too late,” Rilletta urged. “If I can’t go with you, at least I can help you get the better of that sick son of a bitch.”
From over by the stairwell, A.l.v.i.s chirped, “Might I suggest an expeditious departure? My sensors indicate other entities approaching from above and below.”
Rikki stood and went over.
Reluctantly, Sherlock followed. He dearly desired to help Rilletta. He hardly knew her, but her sorrow at being turned into a hideous caricature of anything human had touched him, deep down. Others liked to think of him as a cold fish, and perhaps he was in a certain respect. But evil brought out the same aversion in him that it would bring out in anyone, and pity for those who suffered its blight.
“What is coming after us now?” Rikki was asking.
“I am not entirely certain. They are at the limit of my scanning ability....,” A.l.v.i.s stopped.
“What?” Rikki said.
New sounds filled the stairwell, issuing from the other side of the door. Sounds of conflict, of Rilletta trying to stop the zombie-like creatures.
Sherlock ran to the hole and peered through. She was down, and the things were holding her fast. Her arms and legs were pinned. But she wasn’t looking at them. She was looking at the hole in the door.
“Run!” she yelled. “Don’t waste your chance!”
A hand fell on Sherlock’s collar and clamped tight.
“Do as she says!” Rikki said, and pushed him toward the stairs.
* * *
Kanto started up, Eleanor and Crom close behind. Things were going south and threatened to become a lot worse if they didn’t move their butts.
A.l.v.i.s came flying up beside him. “I urge greater speed,” the synthezoid chirped. “I have been monitoring the Needle’s frequencies and a Destructo is en route to head us off.”
“A what?” Rikki said.
“A special android,” A.l.v.i.s said. “Constructed to be indestructible. My Master’s ultimate soldiers, you might say. Against one of them, even I would be hard pressed to maintain my sentience.”
“You mean it can kill you?” Kanto said.
“Is that not what I just told you?” A.l.v.i.s responded.
Kanto never much liked their A.I. guide, and he liked it less as time went by. First, it had showed up out of the blue. Then it bailed on them. Now the thing claimed to be working on their side all along and wanted them to trust it to lead them to safety. Not on Kanto’s life.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi caught up. “Stay frosty. These Destructo’s sound tough.”
“You have no idea, sir,” A.l.v.i.s chirped.
“How are you holding up?” Rikki asked Kanto.
“Never better.”
“Do you still want to be a Warrior?” Rikki asked with a grin.
“What else would I do? Be a Baker or a Weaver?” Kanto joked.
“Might I suggest a candlestick maker?” A.l.v.i.s said.
“Huh?” Kanto said.They came to the eleventh floor landing, and stopped. A.l.v.i.s moved to the bottom of the next section of stairs, its lights blinking rapidly.
“Something?” Rikki-Tikki-Tavi said.
“The Destructo,” A.l.v.i.s said.
Kanto expected maybe a synthezoid similar to A.l.v.i.s. or a mishmash of human and other parts like Rilletta.
The creature descending toward them was entirely new. It was humanoid in that it had a head and wide shoulders and a torso and arms and legs. About seven feet tall, it was entirely grey from head to feet, and also, from head to feet, as smooth as plastic. There were no features of any kind. No hair, no eyes, no nose, no mouth. No wrinkles. Or sex organ. Which was easy to tell because it wasn’t wearing clothes. It came to a stop above them.
“How can it see us ?” Eleanor said. “How can it even breathe?”
“Who cares?” Crom growled.
Kanto agreed. Whether the being had eyes or lungs was irrelevant. There was only one thing that mattered. That thing stood between them and their return to the Home.
He shot it.
The three-round burst caught the Destructo in the chest. Everyone saw the slugs hit. Everyone saw holes blossom—-and everyone saw the holes close up again as quickly as they formed.
“Uh-oh,” Eleanor said.
Kanto took aim at the thing’s head. It was do or die time again, and he intended to live.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Crom charged up the stairs. He wasn’t about to
let the thing tear into his friends. A Destructo, Thanatos called it. Yet another example of the Dark Lord coming up with stupid names for his creatures. It didn’t look all that dangerous.
Uttering a battle cry, Crom swung his war axe at the thing’s leg. He figured that would bring it crashing down and he could dispatch it with ease. He barely registered the flash of its arm but he definitely felt the excruciating blow that smashed into his chest and sent him tumbling back to the landing.
Guns exploded in sound, and Crom looked up to see everyone pouring lead into the android. Even Eleanor, who rarely used her TEC-9. He stayed down to keep out of their line of fire.
The slugs found their mark. Holes stitched the Destructo’s torso—-but had no effect. The thing absorbed the punishment like a sponge. Anything else would have been blasted to pieces but no sooner did a hole appear than it closed again and the spot where the slug had struck was as smooth and undamaged as it had been before impact.
Their magazines went empty and they grabbed for new ones, Kanto bellowing, “How the hell?”
“It should be dead!” Eleanor marveled.
The Destructo hadn’t moved. In the momentary lull, A.l.v.i.s. chirped, “My Master told me they are invulnerable to small arms fire. You could shoot it a thousand times and it would continue to function.”
“Let’s see how cold steel does,” Rikki-Tikki-Tavi said, and whipping out his katana, he bounded up the stairs.
Crom pushed to his feet to help.
The Destructo blocked Rikki’s swing with its forearm. To Crom’s astonishment and disbelief, there was a loud clang and the katana was deflected. By rights, it should have shorn clean through.
Rikki drew back and looked at his weapon in consternation.
The Destructo just stood there.
Over by the wall A.l.v.i.s chirped, “I should warn you. These particular androids are capable of transmuting themselves.”
“What the hell does that even mean?” Crom snapped.
“They can alter their physical density,” A.l.v.i.s explained, “so that parts of them becomes as hard as, say, a diamond. As you just witnessed.”
“How quickly?” Sherlock asked.
“I never observed that put to a test,” A.l.v.i.s said.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi shot Sherlock a glance and must have picked up on something Crom missed because the next instant Rikki tore into the Destructo as if possessed. His katana was everywhere, flashing high, low, left, right. The Destructo became a blur, blocking the swings with the same ringing sound as before.
Rikki stopped and moved back out of reach, saying over his shoulder to Sherlock, “No good.”
The android straightened.
“How do we stop that thing?” Kanto said.
Eleanor pointed and exclaimed, “Look!”
On the android’s right thigh a large cut was slowly closing.
Crom smiled. So Rkki had connected! “The thing can be hurt!”
“Now we know what to do,” Sherlock said.
“We do?” Kanto said.
Sherlock motioned at Crom, at his war axe. “If one blade can damage it, think of what two can accomplish.”
In a rush of insight, Crom sprang up the stairs to Rikki-Tikki-Tavi’s side.
“Together,” Rikki said. “You go high. I’ll go low.”
“Suits me,” Crom said.
“Lookout!” Eleanor shouted. “It’s doing something!”
The smooth surface of the Destructo’s right arm and hand were rippling and shifting. It’s fingers melted into a giant fist, which in turn became a large mace from which long spikes began to extrude.
Rikki fell into a crouch. “On me,” he said, and attacked.
Crom drove in. He swung at the android’s chest and felt the jar of metal striking diamond. Ducking under its mace, he swung at its midriff. Again metal rang. He shifted, going high, for the thing’s neck.
Simultaneously, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi arced his katana at the Destructo’s legs. Once more metal pinged.
“Keep at him!” Rikki yelled.
Crom did.
War axe and katana were in ceaseless motion. So was the android. Exhibiting incredible reflexes, the thing countered their blows. Its mace swept at Crom’s face and Crom brought his axe up, saving himself. So immense was the creature’s strength, though, that his axe was slammed broadside against his forehead, and he almost lost his footing.
Out of nowhere, Sherlock’s sword cane streaked between Crom and Rikki. Thrown like a spear, it struck the android in the center of its chest—-and sank in to the hilt.
The Destructo swayed, and a heartbeat later a stiletto imbedded itself in the thing’s head.
Out of the corner of his eye, Crom caught movement. It was Eleanor, moving in a crouch along the rail. Before he could guess her intent, she thrust Wrathbringer into the android’s crotch—-or where a crotch would be if it had one—-and with a grunt, drove the long double-edged blade up and in.
Some sort of green goo spurted from the wound onto her head and shoulders, and she recoiled.
The android gave a violent lurch and froze in place. Its smooth surfaced rippled. But instead of hardening, it seemed to soften. So much so, in several places its ‘skin’ drooped.
“What now?” Kanto said. “Did we hurt it?”
“We did more than that,” Sherlock said.
Warily, Rikki pressed the tip of his katana to the thing’s neck. There was no reaction. His sword sank in a couple of inches, but still nothing.
“I detect no evidence of internal functions,” A.l.v.i.s chirped. “I believe you have, as human parlance would phrase it, put the Destructo out of commission. A remarkable feat.”
“Of interest to me,” Sherlock said, “is why it didn’t try harder to harm us.”
“Are you nuts? It tried to take my head off,” Crom reminded him.
Rikki was pulling his katana out. “We’re wasting time. More of those things could show up. Collect your weapons and fall in behind me.”
Kanto yanked on his stiletto and it came right out. The same with Sherlock’s cane. But when Eleanor tugged on her longsword, it wouldn’t budge.
“Something is wrong. Wrathbringer is stuck.”
Squatting, Rikki added his strength to hers. The longsword came out another inch or so but then wouldn’t slide any further. “Again,” Rikki said, and together they strained until they were red in the face.
“It’s stuck fast,” Rikki said.
“We have to get it out!” Eleanor said. “I refuse to leave Wrathbringer behind.”
Crom moved next to them. “Allow me, swordwoman.” With all the power in his shoulders, he sank his war axe deep into the android. More green goo spewed. Twisting, he extracted his axe and leaned it against the rail. “Step back,” he said.
Thrusting both hands into the cleft he had made, Crom pushed outward to either side. Whatever substance the thing was made of, resisted. He pressed harder, the muscles on his arms and neck bulging. Beads of sweat broke out on his brow. Sucking in deep breaths, he slowly but surely began to force the android’s body apart.
“Dear Spirit, you’re strong!” Kanto said.
“He reminds me of Blade or Samson,” Eleanor said, and she wasn’t being sarcastic.
Crom kept pushing. His arms ached but he refused to give up. The gap spread until finally her sword was visible, the blade wedged between components that must serve as the equivalent of bodily organs. Holding the body wide, Crom said, “Get it out! Quick! I don’t know how long I can hold this!”
Quickly, Eleanor and Rikki twisted Wrathbringer free. Hugging it, heedless of the slimy goo, Eleanor beamed and said, “You saved my sword, Crom! I can never thank you enough.”
Stepping back, Crom swiped at his brow and grunted. “Glad to help. Next time, try not to wedge your precious blade so far up your enemy’s ass.”
Eleanor’s eyes flashed. “I’ll thank you to....,” she said, and stopped.
“What?” Crom said.
&nb
sp; “Nothing.”
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi scooped up his katana. “Once again, people, focus. Remember Thanatos? The Tower? The chemicals?” He resumed climbing the stairs. “A.l.v.i.s, I want you on point. Use those sensors of yours. Any nasty surprises, let us know in advance.”
“I will strive my utmost,” the synthezoid said, and floated ahead.
Crom fell in. He glanced over as Sherlock passed him to join Rikki, and listened with interest.
“Another observation,” the brainy-boy said.
“I’m listening.”
“Something wasn’t right back there,” Sherlock said. “The Destructo hardly lived up to its name.”
“It matched us blow for blow.”
“That’s just it,” Sherlock said. “I had the impression it was holding back.”
“Why?”
“I’m unsure,” Sherlock said. “There is more at play here than I initially surmised. It could be that Thanatos has something special in mind for us. Something I can’t predict.”
“Maybe so,” Rikki said. “The best we can do is try to be ready for whatever he throws at us.”
“I’ve never been a big fan of fingers crossed,” Sherlock said.
“Worrywarts,” Crom said, and laughed. “Me, I can’t wait to tangle with Mr. Genius one-on-one.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” Sherlock said.
CHAPTER THIRTY
They reached the tenth floor. Eleanor emerged from the stairwell last and saw that everyone else—-including A.l.v.i.s—-had frozen. Kanto and Sherlock had cocked their heads as if listening. “What?” she whispered.
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi signaled to enjoin silence, then said quietly to the synthezoid. “What do your sensors show?”
Eleanor realized the entire floor was ominously still.
“My sensors aren’t detecting any forms besides our own,” A.l.v.i.s reported.
“The entire floor can’t be deserted,” Rikki said.
“Perhaps they are shielded,” A.l.v.i.s chirped.
“Shielded?” Eleanor said.
“Electronically,” Sherlock said. “Before the Big Blast, they could shield aircraft and even entire ships.”
“My Master always shields himself,” A.l.v.i.s said. “He can also shield his creations when he wants to.”
Synthezoids Endworld 30 Page 16
