Ironheart (23 page)

Silas and Cripps stood gormlessly, looking first at the junction box and then at Verity Brown. They might have stood there for some time had another guard not pushed them aside and pointed his
pistol at Verity.

Reacting quickly, Bulldog pounced on the man and they wrestled for the gun. Without hesitating, Stone pulled out his own long-barrelled pistol and fired two shots in quick succession. The guard
collapsed to the floor and lay still. Stone fired for a third time and Bulldog staggered and sat down abruptly. His breath escaped like steam from a pressure pipe and the colour drained from his
face before he keeled over backwards.

‘Bulldog!’ cried India.

She ran to his side. His face was twisted in pain and his breath came in short gasps. ‘I’m hit!’ he gasped. ‘It’s me shoulder!’

Lucifer Stone dragged Verity from the shadows at gunpoint and bellowed at Silas and Cripps, who clung terrified to each other. ‘Can’t you imbeciles even guard four people? Cirenkov!
What did she do?’

Up in the control room, Dr Cirenkov consulted the control desk with a worried frown. ‘It looks like she was trying to lock the main the doors, Mr Director, but she was unsuccessful and now
the circuits have blown.’

‘Damn your eyes,’ he yelled, purple with rage. ‘Android! Tear the arms and legs off these troublemakers. Here –’ he shoved Clench forward – ‘start with
this one.’

The group gasped as Calculus stepped forward and pulled Clench from their midst. Clench began to make an awful, high-pitched screeching as Calculus lifted him by the arms.

‘Calculus, stop it, please stop it!’ shouted India. ‘This isn’t who you are! When I first knew you, you were gentle and kind. How can you have changed so much?’

‘It won’t do any good, young lady,’ chuckled Stone. ‘The Calculus you knew never really existed. He’s just a machine, a stone-cold killer!’

Calculus turned his attention back to Clench, who had begun to gibber in fear.

‘Don’t do it, Calc,’ she pleaded. ‘You’re more than just a machine. You’ve lived for longer than anyone else here. Long enough for there to be something else
inside of you that isn’t just a program, something that is
just you
.’

The android looked at her blankly. ‘My programming,’ he said in a hollow voice, ‘is absolute. I am no different from any other machine.’

India sensed she was losing him. ‘You are different, Calc,’ she said, ‘because you have friends. You have people you care about and who love you and that makes you more than just a
machine. It makes you a person.’ A single tear tracked slowly down her face. ‘It means you can
choose
not to do this.’

There was a breathless silence in the hall. Calculus looked at India and cocked his head to one side and, for a moment, she was struck by how sad he looked.

‘Stop meddling, you brat!’ thundered Stone. ‘The android works for me now, do you hear!’ He raised his pistol and pointed it at her. But as he took aim, Calculus suddenly
let go of Clench and stepped in front of the gun. There was a flicker of fear in Stone’s eyes. ‘Stand back, android! Do as I say or I’ll have you crushed and fed into the
furnaces.’

‘I have no wish to injure you, Director,’ said Calculus calmly, ‘but I cannot let you harm this girl.’ As he stared at the Director, there was the faintest suggestion of
a red glow behind his visor. Stone backed away and none of the guards made a move to intervene.

‘Oh, Calc, my dear, dear Calc, you’ve come back to us,’ said India. She wrapped her arms tightly around him. ‘I knew you were still in there, I just knew it.’

The sound of the blast was sudden and loud. Something snicked past India’s ear, making her flinch, and Calculus gave a quiet gasp. He moved India gently to one side and put a hand to his
chest, looking curiously at the sticky blue ooze that trickled through his fingers. When he pulled his hand away there was a neat, round hole punched in the centre of the steel plate in his
chest.

Sid began to shout excitedly and wave his pistol around. ‘I got him, Pa!’ he cried. ‘That damned robot went bad and I plugged him!’ He whooped and punched the air.

Like a toppling tree, Calculus sank slowly to his knees and crashed sideways to the floor. A horrid rattling came from his chest.

India screamed. ‘Somebody, help him please!’ she sobbed.

Verity was at his side at once, speaking quickly into his ear. ‘OK, Calc, you know the drill. Activate your injury protocols and switch on your back-up systems. Come on, do it
now
, soldier!’

Sid was still hopping around delightedly when the first blow from Stone sent him sprawling.

‘You idiot child,’ yelled Stone. ‘That android is worth a fortune to us.’ He took his own pistol and began to strike Sid repeatedly around the head as the boy rolled on
the floor and tried to protect himself with his hands.

‘No, Pa!’ he cried. ‘He was going to kill you! I saved you, Pa!
I saved you
!’

‘I’m no pa of yours!’ roared Stone. ‘I should have drowned you on the same day I drowned your treacherous ma!’

‘Quick,’ hissed Verity, as the guards turned their attention to the spectacle of Stone’s rage. ‘Now’s our chance. Calc, can you walk?’ He nodded weakly.
‘Good, let’s move, then. Clench, India – let’s go.’

As Sid’s beating continued they lifted the injured Bulldog to his feet and moved quietly towards the end of the hall.

Bulldog had been right: there was an ancient door there, made of iron-bound wood. Calculus pushed his weight against it and it groaned open. The noise echoed up the cavern, immediately drawing
the attention of the guards at the other end of the hall, who started to run towards them as they squeezed through the narrow doorway. Calculus slammed the door shut and drove home the iron bolt as
the guards began to pound on the wood.

Once on the other side of the door they found themselves in darkness, clinging to a slippery ledge with the sound of rushing water filling the air. Calculus turned on his visor light, which
illuminated a long cavern, studded with sharp rocks. The ledge they were standing on dropped away into a steep gorge and an underground river rushed through the narrow channel, sending foam and
spray into the air.

A heavy blow rattled the door and one of the thick timbers split and bent inward.

‘Now what?’ gasped Bulldog. ‘They’ll be through that door in no time.’

‘There’s no other choice,’ said Verity. ‘We’ll have to ride the rapids out of here.’ She stepped to the edge of the rocky gorge.

‘No,’ said Clench anxiously, ‘I can’t go down there, I just can’t.’

‘Come on, Clench,’ said Verity. ‘Now is not the time for an attack of the vapours.’

‘No, it’s not that.’ He wrung his hands awkwardly. ‘The thing is . . . I can’t swim,’ he blurted. They stared at him in silence and then Verity began to
laugh.

‘Can’t swim?’ She grinned. ‘Hell, don’t worry about that. You’ll be dashed to death on the rocks before you drown.’ She looked at Calculus. ‘Calc?
Are you still with us?’ All eyes turned to the android and he nodded slowly. ‘Good,’ she said, still watching him closely. ‘Then please, take hold of Mr Clench and make sure
he keeps his head above water. Everyone else, follow me!’

Without a further word she jumped into the foaming waters and was carried swiftly down the rocky black throat at the end of the cavern. Calculus grabbed hold of Clench and, before he could
protest, leaped in after her.

‘Come on, let’s keep up,’ said Bulldog, offering his good arm to India. She took it gratefully and they stood at the edge.

‘Ready?’ he said.

Before she could reply, the door came crashing inward and the guards spilled on to the ledge. Bulldog jumped into the raging torrent, pulling India after him.

India braced herself for an icy plunge but, to her surprise, the water was warm. The current immediately pulled her over the lip of the tunnel, tearing her away from Bulldog.
She scrabbled to get a purchase on the smooth walls but she was swept relentlessly through the darkness.

Without warning the tunnel floor suddenly dropped away and she found herself free-falling. She fell for three full seconds before she hit the surface of the water with a smack. The impact
knocked the wind from her and she tumbled over and over in a confusion of bubbles, uncertain which way was up. A strong hand on her collar yanked her spluttering to the surface. Calculus towed her
to the edge of the water, where she found the others huddled on a small shingle beach.

‘Is everyone in one piece?’ said Verity. Her voice echoed back at them from the darkness.

There were various groans and grunts in reply.

By the light of the android’s visor India could see they were in a natural cavern with a high vaulted roof that sparkled with blue-green stalactites and fragments of quartz. A lake filled
part of the cavern floor and water cascaded from a hole fifty feet up in the roof India realized with a gulp that that was where she had fallen from.

‘Why is the water so warm?’ said Bulldog. ‘Not that I’m complaining, mind.’

‘Thermal springs,’ said Calculus. ‘A by-product of the geothermal power plant, luckily for us.’

Before anyone else could speak, Lucifer Stone’s voice began to boom from the hole in the roof. ‘Damn you all!’ His words reverberated around the cave. ‘Run if you want
to, but you won’t get far. I’ll see to it that this place becomes your tomb!’

‘What does he mean by that exactly?’ said India in a hushed voice.

‘I don’t know,’ said Verity, ‘but he’s been talking about those weapons for days, and nothing’s going to stop him taking them now. We’d better focus on
trying to get away from this place before he finds us.’

They took stock of their injuries. By the light of her torch, Verity prepared a makeshift sling for Bulldog’s arm while India watched Calculus carefully. She noticed that the blue ooze had
stopped leaking from his chest and she wondered if that meant he had managed to repair himself. ‘Are you all right?’ she asked in a small voice.

‘My emergency systems have made temporary repairs,’ he said. ‘I am functioning adequately.’

‘I mean, are you
all right
? Are you . . .
you
again?’

There was a long silence before he answered. ‘Something incredible has happened to me, India,’ he said distantly. ‘When Dr Cirenkov changed my base codes I still knew who you
were but I cared nothing for any of you. But then, as you talked to me in the turbine hall, I felt something change inside.’ He stared across the cavern. ‘The incident has somehow
corrupted my base codes. I no longer seem to be following my own programming: I seem to have developed
a free will.
This has never happened to an android before.’

India smiled. ‘Well, maybe you’ve lived so long that you’ve become something new; something wonderful that no one has ever seen before,’ she said. ‘Who knows what
you could do now.’

Verity motioned everyone to be silent. Further along the shingle beach they could hear someone splashing and choking in the shallow waters.

The group picked their way along the beach as Verity trained the torch along the water’s edge. The beam picked out a huddled figure by the edge of the lake with knees drawn up under its
chin. Black eyes stared back at them from a deathly pale face.

‘Sid!’ cried India.

‘Don’t look at me!’ he said, holding up his arms. ‘This is all your fault, India Bentley!’

‘What is?’ she said. ‘I never did anything to you.’

He dragged the sleeve of his coat across his bleeding nose and India could see he’d been crying. ‘I wanted to show my pa I was tough like him but you ruined all that! Since you came
along, nothing I’ve done for him has been right. Then he said I weren’t no son of his and he threw me down this damned hole to die with the rest of you.’

‘He threw you down the hole? His own son?’ India exchanged glances with Verity. ‘The man’s a monster!’

‘Don’t you dare say that!’ Anger flashed in his eyes. ‘He’s a great man, my pa!’ Then his face crumpled and he began crying again.

‘What are we going to do with him?’ said India.

‘We don’t need to do anything with him,’ said Verity coldly. ‘He’s not our problem.’

‘I’ll second that,’ said Clench, peering over Verity’s shoulder.

‘I don’t know,’ said India. ‘He seems so
alone
.’

‘He can die of loneliness for all I care,’ said Verity. ‘He put a bullet in my friend’s chest or had you forgotten that? Come on, let’s start trying to find a way
out of here.’

Verity and Calculus helped Bulldog to his feet and they prepared to move off.

Sid wiped his eyes and stood up. ‘Maybe I can help you.’ Everyone turned to look at him. ‘I just want to get out of here, same as you,’ he said. His eyes flicked back and
forth across the faces of the group like a nervous animal.

‘And what help do we need from you, son?’ asked Bulldog, sticking out his chin.

‘Well, it seems to me you’re all in pretty bad shape,’ he replied. ‘And it looks like I’m the only one here with a gun.’ He rested a hand on his
long-barrelled pistol. ‘You don’t need to worry. I don’t want nothing from you. I just want to get out of here and find my pa, is all.’ He spat on the floor. ‘Then
I’m going to shoot that worthless dog stone dead.’