This Broken Wondrous World (31 page)

“If we don't put Moreau down soon,” said Montgomery, “those incidents will turn into full-scale rebellion.”

I turned to Ruthven. “So? What's the plan?”

“Plan?” he asked, his red eyes flickering to me, and then away.

“Yeah. I mean, I have some ideas, but I was wondering what you guys have come up with.”

“We have had several discussions,” he said.

“And?”

Ruthven said nothing. And for the first time I could remember, he couldn't look me in the eye.

“The discussions,” said La Perricholi, “have been about whether we should do anything at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“
Some people
,” said Liel, “think we should just stay down here until it all blows over. Let Moreau and the humans fight it out.”

“It's what they want,” said Ruthven, his tone almost defensive. “It's what they
all
want. To destroy each other. Man versus monster. Survival of the fittest. That is natural. That is the way of the world.”

“You're wrong,” I said. “That isn't the world. It's what we've tried to turn it into. We've mapped it, we've studied it, and we think we
know
it. But we don't. There are awesome things out there, and terrible things, and things that are beyond any words we could use to describe them. This world can still surprise us. If we just challenge it, it will evolve.”

“Into what?” asked my mother.

I looked at them all. Such a bizarre and amazing group of people. Monster or human or somewhere in between, they were all people.

“My father believed that it is possible for monsters and humans to live together. He died for that belief. And he was right. Look, we're doing it right here. Now we have to prove that it's possible not just for our little group, but for everyone.”

“But
how
?” asked the Dragon Lady.

“If Moreau wins, he'll kill all the humans, right? And if the
humans win, they'll kill all the monsters. Or maybe they'll destroy each other. Regardless, it's nothing but the same old cycle of fear and hatred. But what happens if
we
win? Our little group of monsters and humans could show the world that the way to come out on top is to work together. What do you say?”

“You know you can count on me, cousin,” said Henri.

“Likewise, of course,” said Claire.

“And me,” said La Perricholi.

Every phone in the room went off simultaneously.

“I'd say that's a yes from Vi,” said Henri.

“I know I screwed up, siding with Moreau,” said Liel. “I was just . . .” She glanced over at Bakru, then looked away, her face pinched with shame.

Bakru took her hand and smiled encouragingly.

Liel nodded and took a deep breath. Then she turned to me, and her diamond eyes were wet with tears. “I'm sorry. More sorry that I can possibly say. The trowe are with you.”

“Thank you,” I said. Then I looked at the rest of them. “It's going to be dangerous. Obviously. I understand if you want to stay down here. But I can't let my father's death have been for nothing.”

I noticed my mother staring hard at Ruthven. He noticed it, too. Finally, he sighed.

“For the sake of your father's memory, I cannot refuse. So tell me, what is your plan?“

“Yeah,” said Holmes. “Not to point out the obvious, but you're missing some parts.”

“I just need new parts,” I said. “Better parts.”

“Where are you going to find these better parts?” asked Liel.

“Mom, Henri, Vi, and I will take care of that,” I said. “What we need to worry about right now is how we're going to get to
Moreau.”

“He's holed up in Denver with about a thousand human hostages and an army of beast people,” said Holmes.

“But before we can even get to Denver,” said Ruthven, “we'll need to deal with the Sphinx.”

I turned to the Dragon Lady. “Right before you bit Stephen's head off, you told him that no matter how big a fish he was, there was always someone bigger. Is that true of the Sphinx, too? Is there someone bigger?”

The Dragon Lady gazed down at me for a moment with her glowing, ageless eyes. “There are three such creatures. They have slumbered far beneath the surface of the earth for thousands of years. Pray that you never see them. Moreau may be a danger to a race of people, but to awaken the Hecatoncheires would be to endanger all life on this planet.”

“Right, that's no help, then,” said Claire.

“But
I
will face the Sphinx,” said the Dragon Lady. “I cannot say it is likely that I will be victorious. But I will attempt to end his mindless rampage and lay him down to permanent rest. And if I fail, I should at least be able to buy you the time you need to get past him.”

“I will help you,” said Knossos.

“And I will personally lead a squad of helicopters in to assist you, as well,” said Montgomery.

“Thanks, all three of you,” I said. “So while Montgomery, Knossos, and the Dragon Lady are keeping the Sphinx busy, the rest of us will continue on to Moreau.”

“What's to stop him from killing the hostages the moment we attack?” asked Holmes.

“Has anyone else noticed a pattern in the way Moreau operates?” I asked. “He didn't deploy his armies until he'd unveiled
them to us. He's broadcast to the entire world to make sure everyone knows who he is and what he's fighting for and just how clever he can be. He held off waking the Sphinx specifically because he wanted us to be there to see it.”

“He needs an audience,” said Holmes.

“He won't kill the hostages until there are people to witness it,” I said. “Otherwise, what's the point?”

“He could just broadcast like he did before,” said La Perricholi. “Show the whole world that we're calling his bluff, and then he kills the hostages.”

“What if he can't?” I asked. “Who's got a phone?”

Holmes held hers up.

“Vi,” I said. “Can you block all incoming and outgoing transmissions in Denver? Bring down a total media blackout?”

“You bet!” Holmes's phone said.

“That still leaves a mass of beast people to get through,” said Ruthven. “Individually, we are more than a match for them. But as you and Claire discovered, their strength in numbers is what makes them dangerous.”

Then I turned to the dryads. “Ladies. Uh, I know we haven't had the best relationship. And I hate to ask this of you.”

“What do you need, Boy?” asked Meadow.

“The maenads.”

“Uh, Boy . . .” said Claire.

“Seriously?” asked Liel.

“Moreau will never expect it,” I said.

“You can't control them,” said Ruthven. “They are a maelstrom of chaotic fury. They wouldn't distinguish between friend and foe.”

“There might be one person whom the maenads would listen
to,” Meadow said. She turned to Iris and Sequoia. They looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Then they all turned to Henri.

“Give him to us,” said Meadow. “And we will do what you ask.”

“Wait, what?” said Henri. “
Give?
Boy, what are they talking about?”

“I really don't know,” I said.

“We won't hurt him,” said Iris, walking over to him. She pressed her hand against his stomach.

“And we won't keep him all the time,” said Sequoia. “We will only require him in the spring. The rest of the year he is free to come or go as he chooses.”

Laurellen cleared his throat. “I think they want him for . . . pollination purposes.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Can I
do
that?” asked Henri.

Laurellen shrugged. “They seem to think so.”

“Humans can mate with dryads,” said Meadow. “Although the offspring will not be half human. There will only be more dryads.”

“We are the last three,” said Iris. “In order for our kind to survive, we must have greater numbers.”

“Well, Henri?” I asked. “It's your call.”

“No pressure or anything,” said Claire, smirking.

“I honestly don't know whether to be honored or horrified,” said Henri.

“Probably a bit of both,” said Laurellen.

“What the hell,” said Henri. “Ladies, I'm yours.”

Meadow smiled. “Thank you.” Then she turned to me. “Once
we have drunk the wine, he will be able to keep us pointed in more or less the right direction.”

“All right,” I said. “With that extra muscle, I think all of you will be more than a match for the beast people. That just leaves me to handle Moreau.”

“Moreau is clearly a formidable opponent,” said Ruthven. “If your father couldn't defeat him, how do
you
plan to do so?”

“Like I said, better parts. Mom? Henri? Vi? We've got work to do.”

The Revenge of Robot Junior

W
HEN I LOOKED
out of the helicopter window, the landscape below seemed more like some war-torn third-world country than the middle of America. We passed over grasslands churned up into piles of mud, wooded areas where the trees had been torn out by the roots, small towns that were now nothing more than smoking rubble. Cars and trucks lay abandoned, often crushed. I closed my regular eye and squinted, which engaged the zoom in my bionic eye. I scanned the inside of the vehicles for survivors but there was no one left alive.

“How's the eye working?” Henri shouted over the stutter of the helicopter blades.

“Great,” I said.

“How about the arm and leg?” my mother asked.

I held up the robotic arm and flexed my fingers.

“I still can't get a delicate grip,” I said. “I'm afraid I'm going to crush anything I try to pick up.”

“That will get better with practice,” she said.

Both my arm and leg had been constructed from parts of the helicopter. We had stripped it of everything that wasn't essential to flight. The rest of the material had come from phones and laptops.

“You should probably have Vi run one more full diagnostic before we land,” said Henri.

“Probably right,” I said. “Vi, can you run a systems check?”

“Yes, Boy!” her voice rang inside my head.

“Ouch,” I said. “You do realize that you're vibrating my entire skull at that volume level.”

“Sorry.” Her avatar appeared as an overlay on my bionic eye, looking sheepish.

“It's okay. We're both still getting used to this,” I said.

It was a little weird to have Vi basically living in my head. But some of the functionality, like the guidance and targeting systems, just didn't have a direct neurological parallel. Having her on board was key to getting those more complex operations to work effectively. She was like JARVIS to my Tony Stark.

I turned back to the window and looked out over the land, but it was just more of the same. I wondered how much of it had been done by the Sphinx. They hadn't managed to capture any of the other creatures from The Commune, so some of it could have been them, too.

“Vi, pull up some international news feeds,” I said. “I want to see what else is going on.”

A couple of windows popped up in my eye. In Cairo, a frightened old mummy was begging local monsters not to antagonize the government. In Berlin, a small group of gnomes were being attacked by a gang of humans. In Beijing, monsters were simply disappearing in the middle of the night. The whole world was watching what was happening to America and nobody wanted to be next. And maybe they were right to be frightened. If Moreau had his way, we'd
all
burn.

“Boy.”

I turned to Claire. She looked worried.

“I know this has to look kind of creepy,” I said, touching my bionic eye.

“It's not that,” she said. “I can feel the anger rolling off you.”

“Claire. He has killed so many people. My father, Mozart, even Kemp didn't deserve that. And who knows how many humans.”

“You're right,” she said, putting her hand on my shoulder. “I get it. You
know
I do, right?”

I nodded.

“Just promise me that, when we get out there, you'll remember what we talked about. Don't become like them. Don't give up your integrity.”

“I'm going to do whatever it takes to end this,” I said.

She reached up and touched her cool fingertips on my cheek. Then she bit her lip and nodded.

“I think you look incredibly formidable,” said La Perricholi from where she sat cleaning her guns. “I would not want to face you in combat.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“What was it Shaun and those guys used to call you when we were kids?” asked Liel. “Robot Junior?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking down at my metal hand.

“They'd be eating those words if they saw you now. Not to mention shitting their pants in terror.”

“It's quite impressive,” said Ruthven.

“
Madame la Mariée
's construction of the arm and leg was masterful,” said Henri.

“You did a good job on the eye, Henri,” said my mother.

“You really think so?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“Madame, I . . .” He hesitated. “I know you hate me and my family, and with good reason. I only hope—”

“No.” She put her long-fingered hand over his mouth. “No. I am sorry I treated you so poorly. It all seems so small to me now. So . . .
trivial
is the word. We . . .” Her smooth, unmoving face vibrated with tension as she put her hands on his shoulders. “We are family. Okay? Okay.” Then she pulled him into a rough embrace.

“Boy.” Vi sounded in my ear. “Be careful. We didn't have time to properly insulate all your wiring. Too much moisture could short something out.”

“Yeah, sorry,” I said, wiping my eye.

HENRI AND THE
dryads retreated to a corner of the helicopter with a case of wine while the rest of us quietly prepared ourselves. It was about ten minutes later that Vi sounded in my head again.

“Boy, they've spotted the Sphinx. You should be able to see him from the cockpit.”

I nudged Claire. “You want to see the Dragon Lady take on the Sphinx?”

“Do you even need to ask?” she said.

We made our way up to the cockpit where Holmes was piloting.

“Where is he?” I asked.

“Still on the ground,” she said, pointing.

We were flying over the mountains now. He was still a mile or more ahead of us, crouched low in a valley, his head rising just above the peaks. I couldn't quite make out what he was doing,
so I zoomed in a little. He was snarling at something.

“I think he's about to attack a mountaintop,” I said.

“Moreau really did fry his brain,” said Claire.

“Tragic,” said Maria from the copilot seat. “To think how much knowledge has been lost. And that one of the world's most magnificent creations should be brought to such an ignoble end.”

“Let's just hope it doesn't become
our
ignoble end, too,” said Holmes. “Looks like he's spotted us.”

Sure enough, his head was craned up toward us. Our massive cargo helicopter was hard to miss, especially with Montgomery's entire squad of combat choppers escorting us. The Sphinx's lips peeled back to show his massive lion teeth as he unfurled his wings and launched himself into the air.

“He's moving really fast,” I said.

“Approximately five hundred miles per hour,” said Vi.

“I hope that dragon of yours comes through,” said Holmes.

“Of course she will,” I said. Although no one had seen her since we'd departed from the cave entrance.

We watched as the Sphinx grew closer and closer. He pumped his massive wings, his wild eyes focused on us.

“Getting really close,” said Claire.

“Yeah,” said Holmes.

The Sphinx gnashed his teeth and stretched out his lion body, his front paws extended so that the claws appeared.

Then a blast of fire shot up from the mountains, hitting him full in the stomach. I could see now that the Dragon Lady had been shadowing us from below this whole time, weaving between the mountaintops, just out of view. Now she launched herself up into the sky. The Sphinx roared with pain, pounding his belly with his paws to put out the burning fur.

The Dragon Lady blew past him, clipping one of his wings and tearing out a sizable chunk of feathers. She circled around to make a pass at the other wing, but right before she hit, he spun himself and nailed her with one gigantic paw right in the face. Blood sprayed as the Dragon Lady flipped backward.

The Sphinx went in for the kill, but Knossos streaked past, slicing his face with razor talons. The Sphinx roared so loud the helicopter shook. It looked like Knossos had managed to get out of range, but then the Sphinx whipped his long lion tail around and the sheer size of it was enough to send the gryphon spinning.

The Sphinx turned back toward the Dragon Lady, but the back of his head bloomed with explosions as Montgomery's choppers advanced on him with short-range missiles. He turned and swatted at them, hooking one chopper by its landing skids and smashing it into the one next to it. By then the Dragon Lady had latched on to his back with her claws, right between his shoulder blades. He spun around and around, trying to reach her as she coiled herself around his neck and bit into his spine. Blood fell like rain over the mountains as the helicopters continued to hammer him with machine-gun fire. His roars began to sound more like animal howls of pain as he tried desperately to remove the Dragon Lady from his neck.

They spiraled lower and lower until at last they crashed into the mountains below. The earth visibly shook and the trees shuddered as they wrestled on the ground. The Sphinx tried to scrape the Dragon Lady off him with the sides of mountains, but she suddenly released him and shot up into the sky. A moment later the helicopters dropped a payload of napalm on top of him. His shrieks of pain echoed through the valley as the wisest and most majestic creature on earth was burned alive.

Moreau had turned him into a savage beast that had killed my father. And then he made us destroy him. I could almost hear him laughing about it now. It was all part of his sick, twisted machinations. But that would all stop today.

“We're past them,” said Holmes tersely. “We have to keep moving.”

“I know,” I said. “What's our ETA?”

“Five minutes,” she said.

“Good. I hope the maenads are about ready.”

THE MAENADS WERE
more than ready. After demolishing the case of wine, they'd shredded their own clothes and it looked like they'd poured wine over their heads so that their hair was in sticky clumps.

“Ladies, please,” Henri said, lurching to one side to block Meadow from diving at Bakru. “Just a few more minutes!”

“Now!” hissed Iris.

“Tired of waiting!” snarled Sequoia.

“Boy?” said Henri. “I don't know how much longer I can keep them back.”

“I'll talk to Holmes,” I said, and headed back to the cockpit.

“The maenads are about to blow,” I said to Holmes. “How soon can we land in an area with lots of beast people for them to attack?”

“We can set down right now if you want,” she said, “but that'll mean farther for us to go on foot.”

“All right. Let's hold off a bit longer, but maybe get closer to the ground so we can land fast if they completely lose it.”

“Okay, I'm dropping altitude and—wait, we've got incoming.”

“Who?” I asked, looking out the windows.

“You've got to be kidding me,” she said. “Are those . . .”

In front of us was a flock of brown-and-tan capuchin monkeys with broad, feathered wings.

“Of
course
Moreau would make winged monkeys,” I said. “But what can they do? They don't even look armed.”