A Toaster on Mars (18 page)

‘Which is where…exactly?'

‘Based on the departure and minimum return times of the vehicles, I estimate the tunnel ends directly under the GADO facility.'

What?

This didn't make any sense. Badde had sent her father to GADO to steal that computer program—Maria. Why was Badde also tunnelling under it?

More trucks rolled past Lisa as she started down the tunnel. The Xebian drivers ignored her. Apparently they weren't paid to do anything about trespassers.

‘How far till I reach the end?' she asked.

There was no answer. Obviously Panty's programming didn't reach this far.

At last the ground gently curved up, opening out to a gloomy chamber the size of a circus tent. Half a dozen trucks were waiting to collect rubble from a conveyor belt. At the other end of the belt was a drill boring a hole in the roof.

A figure rounded one of the trucks.

Badde!

His mouth fell open. ‘You!' he yelled. ‘Stop!'

Lisa ran. She thought about going back down the tunnel, then realised she would never get away in time. As a passing truck roared by, she grabbed the handhold by the door and for a few terrifying seconds was dragged along the ground. Then she pulled herself into the cabin and collapsed onto the seat.

The Xebian driver looked at her in surprise—or what passed for surprise.

‘Hey, doll,' he said. ‘Going my way?'

Before she could reply, a hand grabbed her hair, yanking her backwards. Badde had managed to reach through the window.

‘You ungrateful brat!' he seethed. ‘And after I got you that chicken—'

Lisa drew back a fist and hit him in the nose as hard as possible. He fell off the truck. She locked the door and rolled the window up. They were away.

The Xebian was wearing a name badge that identified him as Filby.

‘I need to get out of here,' Lisa told him.

‘I can only do what's in my contract,' Filby said. ‘I can take you as far as the delivery point. Then I turn around and go back.'

‘But I need help! I need you to call the police!'

‘Not in my contract. But if you have money…'

Unfortunately Lisa didn't have any. But she did have an idea. ‘Do you have a phone?' she asked.

‘Yes.' He produced a phone the size of a brick. ‘But it's a dedicated line to Xebia.'

That's no help!
She didn't know anyone on Xebia.

Wait a minute!

She took the phone, accessed the Xebian directory and placed a call. Minutes later, the vehicle reached its destination and stopped.

Lisa jumped from the cabin just as Badde caught up. He looked remarkably refreshed considering how far he'd just run, and how fast.

‘You…' he said, hatred in his eyes. ‘You…'

‘Sorry,' she said. ‘I ran out of Hypergo and needed another bottle.'

Badde pulled out a stun gun and Lisa saw a white haze.

‘No more Mr Nice Guy,' Badde said, as Lisa passed out.

27

Blake woke in darkness, his eyes struggling to focus. Glancing around, he realised he was in what appeared to be an ancient underground drain with a thin stream of putrid water running down the middle.

How did I get here? What's happening?

‘Blake?'

He looked up into Nicki's face.

‘What…where are we?' he asked.

‘What's the last thing you remember?'

The memories came back. ‘Holy sprot,' he said. ‘You saved my life.' He stretched a hand out to her. ‘Thanks.'

‘It was nothing,' Nicki said.

‘Well, if you say so…'

‘No, no,' she said hurriedly. ‘I mean, it was really good. Very heroic.'

Blake looked around. ‘Where's Astrid?'

‘I'd better fill you in.'

Nicki explained how, after the crash, she and Astrid had carried him away from the GADO vault. They had gone about half a mile when they heard guards approaching. Astrid suggested splitting up so she could create a diversion to lead the guards away. Nicki, in the meantime, had found an underground tunnel to hide Blake. Later, she had picked up a signal saying that Astrid had been captured.

‘You never should have left her!' Blake snapped.

‘They were closing in on all sides.'

‘She needed you!'

‘Astrid wanted you to save Lisa.'

‘Do you know what the sentence is for breaking into a top-secret government installation?'

‘Two hundred years of hard labour followed by—'

‘No need to tell me. I already know.'

Blake fell silent. He shouldn't yell at Nicki, but Lisa would never forgive him if her mother ended up behind bars for life. There was little he could do right now. First he had to focus on Lisa.

At that moment, the clattering of metal reverberated down the ancient tunnel. Blake pulled out his blaster. ‘Who is it?' he demanded into the gloom. ‘Who's there?'

‘Just cleaning up,' came a voice.

An old droid dressed in overalls and pushing a mop appeared. His joints squealed as he pushed back his cap.

‘Who are you?' Blake demanded.

‘Just the cleaner,' he said. ‘I'm an Alpha 9001 cleaning droid. You can call me Al.'

Nicki introduced herself and Blake. ‘My partner and I are criminals,' she said. ‘We've just successfully broken into this complex—'

‘Ignore her,' Blake cut her off. ‘She needs a reboot.'

‘Don't tell me about reboots.' The old droid leant on his mop. ‘Do you know the last time I had an upgrade? Thirty-two years ago.'

Blake started looking for an exit. ‘We were on the tour and got a little lost. We're trying to get out of here.'

The old droid scratched his chin. ‘Do I look like tourist information?'

‘No, but you've been here a long time and—'

‘The exits are on the upper levels,' he said. ‘They don't allow me on the
upper levels
. I'm not good enough for the
upper levels
. You've got to be special to go to the
upper levels
.'

Blake was wondering what the sentence was for shooting a cleaning droid. ‘I get the idea,' he said. ‘Do you know another way out of here?'

‘I know a hundred ways out of here.'

‘Really?'

‘No.' Al thought for a moment. ‘Probably only about four. And for three of them, you'd need to be dismembered and mailed home in pieces.'

Blake gritted his teeth and counted to ten before asking, ‘What's the fourth option?'

‘There's a way out. I can take you, but you'll have to do the last bit yourself.'

‘That'll do,' Blake said. ‘Lead the way.'

‘Oh, but I'm busy,' Al said. ‘After all, I'm the
cleaner
. I have to keep
cleaning
. That's what
cleaners
do. If I weren't a
cleaner
…'

Blake started counting again.

‘I know what it's like to be unappreciated,' Nicki said, laying a hand on Al's arm. ‘Tell me about it while we walk.'

They followed the sewer pipe. Occasionally the ground shook.
GADO must be weapons testing
, Blake thought. It was rumoured they did all sorts of strange things down here.

‘Are you sure we're heading for an exit?' Blake asked after a while. ‘We seem to be going really deep.'

‘GADO reaches three miles under the earth,' Al said. ‘The more important the invention, the deeper they store it. The most secret device of all is kept in a vault at the very bottom.'

‘It must be super secret,' Nicki said.

‘Oh, it is,' Al said. ‘It's a phasing device, a suit you can wear to walk through anything—concrete, steel, even a sun.'

‘If it's so secret, how do you know about it?'

‘It's still got to be
cleaned
.'

‘And it's the most valuable weapon in GADO?' Blake asked.

‘Absolutely. I probably shouldn't even be telling you about it, but I'm just the
cleaner
,' Al grumbled. ‘And who—'

‘—listens to the cleaner?' Blake said. ‘I know.'

They encountered another junction that led to a
concrete-lined water channel, wide enough for a car to drive down. Unexpected pieces of rubbish littered the edges.

Blake peered into the grime. ‘What are all these yellow stubs?'

‘Cigarette butts,' Nicki said.

‘Cigarettes? What're they?'

‘I believe they were part of a strange 20th-century custom,' Nicki explained. ‘Millions of people would place a chemical pipe bomb in their mouths and set it alight.'

‘Holy sprot,' Blake said. ‘That's insane.'

‘It was probably a kind of ritual suicide. Standing outside city buildings, they would light up and see who would explode first.'

‘Sort of a death wish?'

‘Exactly.'

The ancients were very strange
, Blake thought.

They walked another fifty feet before Al stopped. ‘This is as far as I go,' he said.

Blake looked around. This part of the tunnel looked the same as the rest of it.

‘So how do we get out?' he asked.

Al pointed at the floor. ‘Right here.'

Blake looked down. ‘We're supposed to go through the floor?' he said.

‘I said I could only take you most of the way,' Al said. ‘From here you've got to dig through the rock yourself.'

Blake was about to retort when the ground shuddered again. ‘What the sprot is that? Weapons testing?'

‘No,' Al said. ‘Someone's digging under the complex.'

It took a moment for this to sink in. ‘Let me get this straight,' Blake said. ‘You're saying someone is digging under GADO.'

‘That's right.'

‘How long has this been going on?'

‘Oh, a couple of months.'

‘And you didn't think to tell anyone?'

‘I'm only the
cleaner
. Who's gonna listen—'

Blake's wristcomm rang. He peered at the screen. The call was coming from the planet Xebia.

I don't know anyone on Xebia. Who'd be calling me?

The caller had a foreign accent. ‘Hello, sir. My name is Bob. How are you today?'

‘What's this about?'

‘Just returning your call,' Bob said. ‘We have a fine range of holidays available from only 10,000 credits—'

‘I didn't inquire about a holiday,' Blake said, ‘and I'm not interested.'

‘But we were told to call and ask for you directly.'

‘Who were you after?'

‘I'm not sure I can get the pronunciation correct,' Bob said. ‘Is that Mr Help-I'm-Being-Held-Captive-In-ThePye-Building-Across-The-Road-From-GADO-Love-Lisa?'

It took Blake all of five seconds to understand the message.

Help! I'm being held captive in the Pye building across the road from GADO! Love Lisa!

‘What is it, Blake?' Nicki asked.

His mind had already kicked into overdrive: Lisa's kidnapping, Badde wanting the Maria virus, the tunnel beneath GADO, the theft of the Super-EMP.

He hung up. ‘We've been played for dummies,' Blake said to Nicki. ‘We need to get out of here.'

‘You mean through the floor?' Nicki asked.

‘No.' He turned to Al. ‘This is your lucky day, old droid. Today we're heading for the
upper levels
.'

28

Astrid was afraid, but she wasn't going to let the GADO operatives know it. They had already tried to intimidate her by handcuffing her, and dragging her into an interrogation room.

And they had broken one of her nails.

Since then, she had slept through the night with only the broken nail to keep her company. The interrogation room was sterile. Three walls were made of white plastic. The fourth was darkened glass—obviously a one-way mirror. The table and chairs were steel and bolted to the floor. The whole place smelt of disinfectant.

She was stuck in here. GADO security was probably watching her from behind the glass. Even with the best
lawyer on Earth, the case was clear-cut. She was guilty. A judge would sentence her to a long jail term. She would probably see the light of day in…oh…about 10,000 years.

This was not exactly how she'd planned her week.

Astrid was also worried for Blake and Nicki. The virus would never be delivered to Badde if they were also captured. And then what would happen to Lisa?

But if Astrid thought about that too much she'd go crazy.

She had to throw the GADO agents off the scent. But how…?

On the other side of the darkened glass, Sam Feldspar, the GADO director, ran a hand through his cropped grey hair. He wasn't often rattled—he had been a military officer for twenty years—but he felt uneasy about the woman. She didn't look afraid, yet she should have been. The woman had been caught red-handed breaking into one of the most secure facilities on Earth.

The door slid open behind him, and Agent Krodo and Agent Smelk entered.