Spring-Heeled Jack (16 page)

As they walked, McCloud made
sure to introduce Atticus to all sorts of different workers: steam
engineers, spring design directors, and plasma technicians amongst
others. Atticus was honored to meet so many Zebulon employees, but
he felt someone was looking at him from a distance. At first he
thought it was
The Jack
, but it wasn’t the same feeling.

He looked around and standing between
two large bodyguards was a man with bright blonde hair and pale
hazel eyes, wearing a gray suit with a red tie. Atticus tried not
to stare at the man, but something about him was
magnetizing.

The man and the two bodyguards then
made their way towards their visitor. As they got closer, Atticus
could see that the man had a long scar running from left eyebrow
all the way down to his chin. He had a very rugged yet handsome
face.

McCloud shifted his attention and
smiled at the man. “Good day, sir.”

“
Good afternoon, Connor.”
The man’s voice was powerful. It had a demanding boom to it. “Is
this the boy you were talking to me about?”

“
Aye, sir. He be the one.”
McCloud turned to Atticus, a smirk stuck to his face. “Atticus, my
lad, I’d like to introduce you to Peter Pipes, the president of the
Zebulon Corporation.”

Atticus tensed up in fear. Before him
stood one of the most powerful men on the planet: the president of
Zebulon. It was like he was dreaming.

“
W-Wait a minute, Peter
Pipes,” Atticus said. He looked over to McCloud and said, “I
thought you said he resigned.”

Pipes sneered. “I did resign from my
post as head of security. But, that’s because I was selected by the
last president to take his place.” The president then shifted his
attention to McCloud. “I’ve got a gift for you, Connor.”

It wasn’t until then that Atticus got
a good look at Pipes’ two bodyguards. From a distance, they just
looked like large burly dark skinned men, but up close he could see
that their skin was indeed dark, but not a natural color. It was
more like bronze. They both had a tattoo on their forehead that
read “OTO.” Atticus wasn’t sure what that meant, but then he saw
that their eyes. They were completely a dark red. It was then that
Atticus realized he wasn’t looking at two men, but two
robots.

The president held out his right hand
and snapped his fingers. Then, the robot body guard on that side’s
eyes glowed a brighter red. It began to move its arms awkwardly;
the way you’d expect a robot to. It reached behind its back and
Atticus heard a loud clank. Then, when it pulled its arms back
around, it was holding a long wooden box. The robot then
aggressively placed the box in Pipes’ hand.

Atticus was busy staring at the robot,
his eyes wide and his face pale. “W-What is that?”

McCloud laughed and said, “That is a
Zebulon Service Automaton, lad.”

Atticus couldn’t believe what he’d
seen. Automatons were something his father used to talk about all
the time. They were one of his dream creations: robots that
functioned similarly to humans. He used to always say that the core
of every good automaton was a heart of clockwork
springs.

“
Yes, yes,” Pipes said.
“They are very impressive. Now Connor, I think you’ll be rather
happy to have this back.”

President Pipes opened the box and
inside was a long curved saber. McCloud’s eyes beamed instantly
when he saw it.

“
You fixed it! You sure
did!” He took the saber from the box and held it in his hands the
same way a father holds his newborn child for the first time. There
was a sense of wonder in the detective’s eyes. He pulled the blade
from the box and carefully unsheathed it.

Atticus didn’t know much about swords,
but he could see why the Detective was so pleased to have his back.
It was beautiful. The blade wasn’t silver or chrome, but a milky
white. Along the blunt edge were elegant black swirls, and the hilt
was a wonderful black and gold.

“
I can’t thank you enough,
Mr. President,” McCloud said. “Now that my sword is back in my
hands, I feel complete again!” McCloud looked at Atticus and
brandished his newly fixed blade. “Now this, my lad, is a sword.
Absolute perfection. Nothing finer in the world.”

In the flash of an eye, McCloud swung
his blade and sliced right through one of President Pipes’
automatons. The robot crumbled to the ground. The poor thing didn’t
even stand a chance.

McCloud let out a delightful sigh and
said, “Just like I remember.”

Atticus was in shock. One, because of
how fast the detective cut through the automaton. Two, because the
blade was actually able to slice right through metal. And three,
because the sword didn’t have a scratch on it.

“
What’s that made of,”
Atticus asked.

“
Prime Exitium, boy,” said
President Pipes. “It’s the Zebulon Corporation’s custom alloy.
We’ve been developing it for years. Lighter than steel; stronger
than diamond. We use it on all of our armed weapons.”

“
But on a sword?”

“
Aye, that was my request.”
McCloud sheathed his blade and began tying it to his belt as he
spoke: “I asked the president here if he could fix my sword and
make it stronger than any other. Said he’d do his best, and he most
definitely delivered.”

Atticus marveled at the blade for a
minute. It was hypnotizing just how beautiful it was. Never had a
weapon tranced him so.

“
Anyways, I best be going,”
Pipes said. “Business to attend to as usual.” He snapped his
fingers and the working automaton began picking up the halves of
its destroyed companion. Pipes and his bodyguards then vanished
into the heart of the building.

McCloud continued to give Atticus his
private tour of the building. He showed him all of the engineering
stations, the plasma department, and the spring and steam
workshops. He showed him around the department of theoretics where
scientists and mechanics would spend the day planning and
theorizing new projects and experiments. He showed him all of the
laboratories where mechanics and artificers were tinkering and
experimenting. And then he showed him the boring stuff where all
the paper work was done, as well as his own office.

As the tour went on, Atticus
continuously saw a portrait of a man. He had pale blonde hair and
dark violet eyes. He wore a dark charcoal suit with a purple
undershirt and a black vest and tie. He had a very powerful aura
about him. The portrait was labeled: “Yliaster Zebulon, Founder of
the Zebulon Corporation.” Atticus had seen his pictures before in
newspapers and in his school history text books. He could only
imagine what it was like to stand within his presence; the man who
changed the whole world. It must’ve been very intimidating, Atticus
thought to himself.

Everything was great, Atticus thought.
Whenever he had a question, McCloud was quick to answer.

“
Detective, could you show
me where my parents used to work?”

McCloud stopped in his tracks. “Your
parents’ offices you say? Well, we’ve done a bit of redecorating
since they worked here, but it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The detective lead Atticus down to the
building’s basement and down a long corridor. At first, Atticus
though the was being tricked. But, McCloud assured him that his
parents used to work together down a bit further.

The two arrived at a large metal door.
McCloud pressed a button, and after several loud gear clinks and
clanks, the door opened to the biggest room Atticus had ever laid
eyes on.

“
Welcome lad, to the Zebulon
Automaton Machinarium,” McCloud said. “Your parents used to call
this place the Big Z.A.M. for short.”

“
M-My parents used to work
on automatons down here? But, my father used to say that his
automatons were just a pipe dream.”

McCloud shook his head. “No lad, your
father’s ideas about automatons are what propelled this industry
forward. Those automatons we saw upstairs wouldn’t have been
possible without your father’s work down here.”

“
R-Really?” Atticus felt so
proud.

“
Of course! Now, why don’t I
show you around.”

McCloud lead Atticus deep into the
machinarium, walking him past broken down prototypes of automatons
as well as ones that looked perfectly fine. He explained as much as
he could about the machines and how they worked, but he admitted to
being a bit slow on the mechanical department.

Different automatons had different
labels on them: ACA, OTO, DES, BES, EMI, and so on. According to
McCloud, those were ways to identify what job the automaton was
designed to do and how it was designed. But, he couldn’t go into
much detail about what the letters meant or what the different
designs were. Most of the techno mumbo jumbo was lost to him. But
that didn’t matter. Atticus was so happy to be in a place where his
parents had influenced so much.

The detective tended to be a few steps
ahead of him, and at one point, Atticus fell a bit behind after
getting distracted by an EMI unit. It seemed a bit out of place.
Most of the other EMIs looked beaten up and ruined, but the one
Atticus looked at was just a bit too clean. Atticus didn’t really
care, he just thought it was odd.

He called to ask the detective why,
but that’s when he realized he’d gotten completely separated from
McCloud.

“
Detective?” He hollered. No
response.

Then, he began to hear the clicking of
gears and twine of spring. He wasn’t quite sure where it was coming
from, but Atticus got a terrible feeling in his gut. He thought
maybe he was in another nightmare, like he’d never actually woken
up, but he knew that couldn’t be true.

The clanging got louder, and
as Atticus looked around he realized it was coming from the EMI
unit he was staring at. The robot was coming to life. The EMI
stared at him with its bright red eyes, and Atticus felt
like
The Jack
was
staring at him. He was petrified.

The automaton began to step forward,
slowly and clumsily. Twenty feet. Fifteen feet. Ten feet. Then, the
robot buckled its legs and lunged at him.

Atticus felt is heart stop.
He thought he was going to die; crushed by hundreds of pounds of
metal, but he felt his locket and the
Queen of Spades
blaze on his
hand.

In just the nick of time, Atticus dove
out of the way, the metal automaton crashing into the ground with a
loud thunk.

Atticus quickly bolted to his feet and
began to make a mad dash through the machinarium, calling out for
detective McCloud. He looked over his shoulder to see that the
automaton had regained its balance and started chasing him down
again. He’d no idea how it knew to chase him or why, but Atticus
got the terrible feeling that it wasn’t going to stop until it got
him or was dismantled. But who would’ve programmed the machine to
do that?

The Jack
, Atticus thought. It’d followed him and knew he’d come down
to his parents’ old workplace. It would be the perfect time to
attack.

Atticus tried to shake the
fear out of himself and keep running. He had to think of some way
to get the robot off of him and find McCloud. But, what if
The Jack
found McCloud
already? It wasn’t possible, Atticus thought. McCloud wouldn’t let
that happen.

The EMI unit was fast for a
hundred-pound chunk of spring and gears. No matter how fast Atticus
ran, the automaton was constantly gaining on him. Atticus thought
about all of his options. He wasn’t the best at coming up with
plans on the spot, but now that his life was on the line, he had to
try something. Then, he remembered his
Queen of Spades
.

Atticus ran up to one of the broken
automatons labeled OTO and placed his hands on the machine. He
wasn’t sure if his plan would work, but it was worth a shot. He
willed the Queen to repair the broken machine as the EMI quickly
gained on him.

He felt his hands begin to
burn, but that meant it was working. The automaton was coming to
life. Its arms wiggled and it began to stagger up to its feet. Just
as it stood up straight, Atticus collapsed to the ground,
exhausted. He’d never used his
Queen of
Spades
to repair something so big
before.

The OTO unit took a few steps forward
and Atticus tried his best to crawl behind it. OTO was what Pipes’
bodyguards were labeled as. He’d hoped that meant it was programed
to fight off hostile attackers. Luckily, his hunch was correct. The
OTO unit clashed with the attacking EMI, protecting Atticus.
However, it was very obvious that the EMI unit was designed to tear
things down. Despite the OTO’s best efforts, it was slowly getting
torn apart.

Atticus tried his best to get to his
feet and stagger away, hoping that his friendly robot friend would
be able to slow down his attacker. As he trudged away, he could
hear the hard crushing blows of metal against metal. He took a peak
over his shoulder and saw that the OTO was completely dismantled,
and the EMI still in peak condition.

The rogue robot continued its pursuit,
and Atticus was completely out of energy. He tried to pick up the
pace, but in doing so, he collapsed to the ground. He was too
exhausted. He could barely move. The automaton approached him and
Atticus closed his eyes.