Ironheart (20 page)

The map had fallen over a small ledge on to a pile of rocks heaped in front of a narrow cave. She peered into the dark space and her heart jumped when she spied something gleaming blackly in its
recesses.

‘Thaddeus, there’s something here,’ she called. ‘Help me move these rocks out of the way.’

When the last stone was finally rolled away they found themselves looking at a fissure in the rock about the height of a man. India scrabbled for the torch in Verity’s bag and shone it
down the hole. A few feet inside the cave was a tall, featureless rectangle of iron set into the stone.

‘It’s a door,’ she breathed.

‘Stand aside,’ said Clench. ‘This is a man’s job, I think.’

He stepped up to the door and began tapping it and feeling for cracks in the ironwork with his fingers while India watched impatiently from the cave entrance.

‘What are you doing, exactly?’ she asked. ‘It’s getting dark out here.’

‘It ain’t my fault,’ he grumbled. ‘I don’t know how this damned door’s supposed to open. There’s no handles on it. Perhaps this pendant can get us
in.’

As Clench fumbled she glanced around anxiously at the deep shadows that had encroached up the mountainside. But when she shone the torch out into the darkness her blood chilled. Just outside the
circle of light, a dozen wispy shapes floated like scraps of cobweb, gathering ominously around the cave entrance.

Clench turned to see what she was doing and caught sight of the creatures. ‘Oh my life!’ he wailed. ‘It’s them! It’s the
Valleymen
.’

India’s heart began to beat like a rig piston. While Clench whined and trembled, she tried to keep the creatures at bay with the torch. The image of the white reindeer flashed momentarily
before her eyes, terrified and bleating. The Valleymen’s soft, hissing breath was only feet away now.

But then a different sound cut through the night air. A bright light bounced up the icy slope and the shadows scattered like paper as a ski machine burst through their ranks, pulling up sharply
in front of the cave. The rider pointed the machine’s powerful beams at the creatures and drove them back into the shadows. Then he turned to India and pulled the scarf from his face.

‘Bulldog!’ she cried. She had never been so relieved to see anyone in her life. ‘How did you find us?’

‘No time for explanations now,’ he barked. ‘Whatever you were going to do, do it now. Those things are pouring out of the forest in their hundreds!’

Calculus lay still while his damage assessment programs reviewed the state of his body. Some of his critical circuits had been badly burned and would take several hours to
repair. Other, less vital systems had been destroyed completely and he would have to make do without them. Only when he had completed his checks did he activate his motor functions and turn on his
vision.

A bright light was shining in his eyes, blotting out the rest of the room. He switched to infra-red vision but that too was drowned out by the light. He was lying on his back on a steel table,
arms and legs secured by heavy shackles that, to his surprise, resisted any attempt to break them.

‘I’m sorry, my friend. This little set-up was designed specifically to neutralize your capabilities. Here, let me help you.’ The bright light moved to one side and the face of
Dr Cirenkov came into view above him. ‘Welcome on board the
Prince of Darkness,’
she said, looking him up and down greedily. ‘It’s a real pleasure to meet such a
fine example of old-tech. I’m looking forward to learning everything I can from you.’

‘I am sure there is nothing much you can learn from an old robot like me,’ said Calculus. His voice sounded distant and strangled.

‘Oh, but you’re so much more than that,’ breathed the doctor as she slid closer. ‘You are the last of the androids, Calculus. It’s a very different thing
altogether.’ Dr Cirenkov’s lips stretched into a thin smile as she snapped on a pair of rubber gloves.

‘One moment, Doctor.’ Lucifer Stone appeared in Calculus’s line of vision. He sized up the android and nodded approvingly. ‘Good, almost completely undamaged. Your
electrical weapons worked well, Doctor. Now sit him up so we can talk.’

The doctor cranked a handle to raise Calculus to a seated position. He caught sight of two men standing by the door holding electric lances, and Sid, lounging in a corner, radiating menace.

‘Let’s make this easy on everyone, shall we?’ said Stone. ‘Tell me, tin man. I want to know where your friends on
The Beautiful Game
are heading. Where do they
expect to find Ironheart?’

‘Let me persuade him, Pa!’ said Sid, moving away from the wall. He pulled the pistol from his belt and pointed it at the android’s chest. ‘I reckon a bullet through that
old metal plate will kill him stone dead if he don’t cooperate.’

Stone placed a restraining hand on Sid’s shoulder. ‘You know, boy,’ he said affectionately, ‘you are my only son and I love you dearly but you are without doubt the
biggest moron in Angel Town, I swear it!’ He struck Sid with the back of his hand, sending the boy reeling. ‘Why do you think we went to all this trouble to capture him alive?’ he
shouted. ‘A job like this requires more finesse than you can provide, boy.’ He turned back to Calculus and pulled up a stool. ‘Now then, tin man,’ he said. ‘The
eastern valleys will become impassable within days and I have no time to waste on asking you politely. Tell me what I need to know or I will allow Dr Cirenkov to carry out some . . .
experiments
.’

Calculus noticed that the doctor was connecting some electric wires to a heavy steel probe. ‘I would have thought that your spy would have already told you everything you wanted to
know,’ he said.

Stone chuckled. ‘Ah yes, poor Pieter, one of my best operatives. May he rest in peace. It’s good to see you can still be a creature of violence when you want to be, tin man. That
will serve us very well.’

‘I will not serve you at all,’ said Calculus. ‘I am a military droid and I am programmed to resist enemy questioning. My systems are secured with a quantum cryptograph and you
will never be able to change them.’

Dr Cirenkov smiled and puffed out her chest. ‘Ordinarily that would be true. If we tried to crack your programs we would still be at it a hundred years from now.’ She gave a nasty
chuckle. ‘But not if we had access to your base codes.’

‘My base codes?’ he said, trying to keep his voice neutral.

Dr Cirenkov sounded very pleased with herself. ‘The key to your root programs,’ she said. ‘The ones that govern your concepts of right and wrong. If we had access to them,
anything would be possible.’

‘But how could you get access to my base codes?’ he said, fearing he already knew the answer.

Stone leaned in close to the android’s visor and spoke in a low growl. ‘You might think nothing can touch you, tin man. But I can take it away, I can take it all away.’ He
nodded to one of the men at the door who slipped out and returned with a dishevelled and dirt-caked figure.

Calculus felt a small surge of what he supposed was joy in his circuits when he saw her, but it was immediately tinged with regret. ‘Hello, Mrs Brown,’ he said, ‘it’s
very good to see you again.’

‘Hello, soldier,’ said Verity, managing to raise a smile. ‘I’m sorry about this, I really am.’

India ran her fingers lightly over the surface of the iron door. It was almost completely featureless save for two brass pins in the centre that stood proud of the surface.
‘Jumper pins,’ she murmured to herself. ‘That’s what Verity called them. Quick, Thaddeus, let me see that pendant.’

She snatched up the pendant from Clench’s trembling fingers and located two identical brass points on its upper edge. Then she placed Verity’s bag on the ground and fumbled around
inside, pulling out the little black meter and several lengths of wire. Struggling to remember how Verity had done it in Mrs Chang’s dining room, she used the wires to connect the pendant to
the meter and then to the pins on the door.

Nothing happened.

‘We’re nearly out of time here,’ called Bulldog from the mouth of the cave, where he was keeping the torch trained on the advancing Valleymen.

India stared down at the pendant in her hands. She could feel the panic beginning to rise in her chest. ‘A spark,’ she said suddenly. ‘That’s what it needs, a
spark!’ She fumbled through her pockets and pulled out the shock stick. Clench winced visibly when he saw it. Trying not to touch the exposed metal, she pressed the end of the stick lightly
against the pendant. There was a brief
snap
and a curl of blue smoke rose from the metal. For a moment there was nothing, then came a clattering of relays inside the door as the ancient
locking mechanism kicked into life. There was a hiss like escaping steam and a series of hidden bolts released their hold.

India whooped with delight and she and Clench heaved on the door, pulling it just wide enough to allow a person in.

‘Both of you get in there, now!’ shouted Bulldog.

India squeezed through the gap, with Clench following gingerly behind. Then Bulldog abandoned the entrance of the cave and charged after them, shoving Clench roughly out of the way and hauling
the door firmly shut behind him.

There was much cursing and fumbling around in the pitch darkness of the tunnel. Bulldog struck a match and then inspected the door in its flickering light to make sure it was properly closed. A
faint scratching could be heard on the other side of the metal. ‘Well, we can’t go back that way in a hurry,’ he said.

‘What are you doing here?’ said Clench, jabbing him with a finger. ‘Me and India have got a deal. See? Anything valuable in here is mine, you understand?’

‘Steady on, Archie,’ said Bulldog, lighting up another match. ‘You may not have noticed but I just saved your miserable pelt!’

‘Shut up, both of you!’ shouted India, snapping on the torch. ‘You’re like a pair of kids.’ She took a deep breath and turned to Bulldog. ‘Captain, thank you
for saving our lives.’ He nodded graciously. ‘But what
are
you doing here? And how did you find us?’

He leaned back against the wall. ‘After you disappeared I took the snow bike and followed your tracks. I lost the trail and was about to give up when I met the hunters that had brought you
here, high-tailing it in the opposite direction. My Yakut is a bit rusty but I could understand a few words and they told me how to get here.’

‘Well hurrah for your rusty,’ Yakut,’ muttered Clench.

‘I left markers for
The Beautiful Game
so they could follow on. I’m hopeful that they will get here by tomorrow.’

‘Tashar agreed to come and rescue us?’ said India incredulously.

‘Well, not
exactly
,’ said Bulldog, scratching his head. ‘I had to do a deal with her. But don’t worry about that now, I still have high hopes that this little jaunt is
going to pay off big time.’

India shone the torch along a dim concrete corridor that descended towards the heart of the mountain. ‘Do you think this is really the way into Ironheart?’ she said uncertainly.

‘Only one way to find out,’ said Bulldog, hoisting his bag on to his shoulder.

They followed the downward slope of the corridor until they emerged into a wider space, shrouded in darkness. Bulldog flicked a heavy switch on the wall and the ancient circuits crackled before
the harsh white lights snapped on and a stale breeze began to blow from the air vents.

They stood in a large dining hall, carved from the solid rock. There were long wooden tables and chairs for a hundred people. At one end of the hall, a pair of swing doors led to an empty
kitchen with rows of gas cookers and stone sinks. A dusty dormitory was filled with rotting bunk beds and old mattresses with the springs sticking out.

‘It looks like there were dozens of people living down here,’ said India in a whisper as they picked their way through the broken furniture. ‘What do you suppose they all
did?’

Bulldog shook his head. ‘I dunno,’ he said, ‘but let’s stay close together, this place gives me the creeps.’