It hasn’t been long, but at first there is no sign of them. They fly around the streets for a few minutes. They find a few of the others and when they turn their weapons and fire on them, Vee takes them out of it, with a swift burst of fire. It takes them about another ten minutes before they come across Joe. He has one other person with him. He is in the process of breaking into a car, when they spot him. They fly down and hover right behind him. They must hear something, because they turn as one. They are way too slow, as they bring their weapons up, to deal with Vee and Bar. Bar gives a wave goodbye to them through the front screen, as Vee depresses the trigger on the weapon. They are obliterated in front of their eyes. Now they need to see if they can find where Franz is.
Chapter 21 Mario & TZ
Mario has to admit the place they are visiting now is somewhat like he had imagined the reservation to look like, other than it being burnt to the ground that is. Maria is looking at the man, waiting for a response. She gets one, but it is not verbal. The man turns round and starts to walk away. Nothing has been said that the distance isn’t far, but on the other hand they talked about this place not being safe. On that basis they have to go a reasonable distance. Maria appears to be in two minds as to what she should be doing. She looks at Mario, asking in her look about what she should do. He nods his head indicating that she should follow the man, on foot. He moves round the front of the car and makes to get in the driver’s seat. Maria smiles at him. She then starts to walk after the man.
He isn’t walking fast and it soon becomes obvious that he expects her to accompany him on foot. Mario starts up the car and follows them at a distance. The track improves on this side of the camp, thankfully. They aren’t walking at all fast and it takes Mario a while to manage to control the speed of the car, to keep it from catching them up.
For an hour they follow this track and the next two they have turned off onto. The second one is again a rough track and Mario has to pick his way through the potholes. He is trying to work out if the two are conversing as they walk along. He finds out after a while that they must be. The man is pointing out things to Maria as they walk. If they are talking, then it must only be now and then, Mario thinks. Maria is standing tall and is keeping stride with the man. Mario can see from his position following them, that they walk in the same way, they stand in the same way and tread in the same way. Surely this man must be her father, or at least a close relative. He doesn’t think he could be her brother. He looks a little old to be that.
The reservation is well screened. It is also in a bit of a dip, which helps keep it from being seen, at least from the direction they are coming in from, until you are almost upon it. The buildings, as they come into view, are all made of wood. They are a good size and are set into the woodlands. The cabins are set apart from each other, with each one having a good sized outside area. The path they are on is better here and it twists and turns, as they descend past the first of the cabins. One or two people come out, to watch them come past. They stand in the doorways and watch them carry on down. Mario expected that they would come out and follow them down, but they don’t do this.
They follow the path for maybe half a mile, before it comes out into an open area. There is a large building there, with room for maybe fifty cars to be parked around it. There are no cars parked there today. The building is a single storey building and is obviously the meeting place for the tribe.
The man and Maria both stop, in front of the building. Mario drives up nearer to them and parks up. He gets out of the car and joins Maria.
‘We are going to look into some of the cabins and meet some of them’ she says, as he joins her at her side. ‘My father says that most of them will be out at work still. There will be a meeting later this evening, when everyone can attend.’
They walk off slowly to beyond the hall, until they start passing more cabins. Outside one or two of them, there are pristine cars standing. They aren’t old and decrepit vehicles, but brand spanking new ones. The cabins look cared for and the gardens are tidy.
The man notices Mario looking at the gardens and cars, as they pass each cabin.
‘As I said to Maria; we have a good life here. They have given us lands; they have given us compensation. They have given us jobs. They have given us education. They have given us money to live on too, a kind of pension you could call it. They have built these cabins for us and will build us more, if and when we need them. We are respected in our local communities. They do that, because we have behaved in an impeccable manner. We feel that we are part of society, we feel that we belong. I know that may sound strange me saying that, because really we should belong, because this is our home. The lands in this area are our home. For a time we were moved off most of it and treated badly, but those days are gone. We are happy with the life we have. It is a different life from the one when Maria was born. But we achieved what we achieved thru negotiation, not thru hostility. Maria’s brother was the one who led us on this path. We hope we can show Maria, that there is no need for any other approach to be taken.’
Mario is waiting for Maria to start an outburst, as this is not what she has been telling him was the situation here.
Buzz pulls the car over and winds down the window. The police officer steps forward to talk to him. TZ is ready to take immediate action, if that is what is required. Buzz eyes up the other officer, who is looking over at their car too.
‘This is Randy’s car’ is what the police officer opens with. It is not what Buzz and TZ are expecting him to say, or ask. It takes them aback. It doesn’t take them long to get a grip and answer the officer. It may be only five seconds before Buzz answers them.
‘My car is in the shop. It was supposed to be ready by now, but they are waiting for a part. It hasn’t come in yet. They say it is because there is stuff going on and the parts van can’t get across the bridge.’
‘He’s right there’ the officer says, smiling at them ‘the bridges are closed and so are the tunnels. There is something going on, that’s for sure, but I believe we have it almost under control now.’
‘What was it?’ Buzz keeps the officer talking, as he thinks that is better than turning the conversation onto what they are doing out of the streets.
‘It was a terrorist attack on the financial district. It spread over some too. But we got the ones who were doing it. It is amazing how quickly there is a response to this kind of attack these days. They started up in Boston, from what I heard, and then tried to get the airport here. But we had that covered, so they came into the city. The army didn’t take any chances and just blasted them away. So Randy has let you use his car, while yours is being done. He won’t get the part today I’m guessing. I hope you’ll be taking it back to him later, so he can get home.’
‘Yes we only need to get to Harlem.’
‘You’ll probably come across a few checks as you go. It didn’t affect up there, directly by the terrorists, but there has been a bit of unrest. If I was you, I’d turn round and take the car back and leave it to another day.’
‘I thought you said they got them all.’
‘They say they think they got them all, but you have the usual thing, of people jumping on the bandwagon. There are groups of people out in some areas, stirring up trouble.’
‘Well thanks officer. We will take your advice and go back to Randy’s. What we were doing can wait another day. It wasn’t a life and death thing anyway.’
The officer steps back, to allow them to move off. They don’t speak to each other, until they are a good distance away. Buzz takes a turn at the next junction. He doesn’t want to raise their suspicions any more than he has to. He is still thinking about what the officer said. The others have all been killed. They had been so lucky to find somewhere to dive into; otherwise they would most likely have been caught and killed too.
‘Are we going to go back there?’ TZ asks, as soon as they have taken a turn.
‘Well, we need to hole up somewhere, that’s for sure.
The car will be safe in there too, with what we have in the trunk, we need it to be.’
‘What will we do if folks come for their vehicles?’
‘I reckon we will lock the doors and put a notice on it, saying we have been told to close the doors for the day. It is not as if there are loads of people out on the streets. I’m guessing it will be all over the news by now.’
‘I think you are right. We need to let things calm down a bit. We then need to get off the island as soon after that as we can. I am sure they will work out in a matter of hours; that they haven’t got everyone. They will keep up the patrols and probably keep the bridges and tunnels closed too, for that matter. So I don’t know how we are going to get off.’
‘We’ll just have to find somewhere that we can stay. We might be alright here for today, but after that, it will get too hot to stay here. Maybe we can find somewhere close by we can use. We’ll go back and park up, then go hunt for somewhere we can use for a day, or two, or three.
Chapter 22 Spirit
Spirit takes his time drinking the water. It is nice and cool. The robot has moved out of the cell and is now standing beside the one which is still pointing the weapon at him. He notes that they have left the cell door open. He reckons that they believe he won’t try anything, because he knows they will use the weapon against him if he does.
‘I don’t suppose there is any chance I could have some food now?’ he asks, when he is half way down the glass of water.
Now that they have seen him drink the water, they are not so disbelieving of him. The cell door gets closed, while one of the robots leaves the control room. Spirit continues to drink his water. He asks, just before he finishes it, whether it would be possible for him to have another glass, to have with his food. That is always assuming the one robot has gone to make him some food. The second robot leaves the room.
Spirit is alone for about half an hour, before one of them returns with another drink. He doesn’t bring it over, but puts it down on the control desk. It is another fifteen minutes before the other robot returns, with a bowl of food. When they open the door and put it in front of him, he sees that they have made him a bowl of pasta with sauce. One robot brings the food, while the other brings the drink. Interestingly enough, the weapon has been put down on the desk while they do this. Spirit dives into his food, making out that he is really hungry. In the meantime, the robots retreat out of the cell and back to the place by the desk. One of the robots picks up the weapon and points it at Spirit. He is not doing anything other than that.
Spirit decides that he has had enough testing of them for one day, well maybe this time. He finishes his food and drinks the second glass of water. He already knows what his next request is going to be. It is quite a natural thing he is going to ask; well it is for a human.
The robots collect the plate and the glass. While one of them takes them away, the other one closes the cell door and stays by the control desk. They have not put the body clamp back on him. The second robot does not return, in the hour that follows. Spirit remains where he is, sitting down, with his back leaning against the cell wall. He judges that now is about the right time, to put in his next request.
‘Excuse me’ he asks, just after the hour has passed.
‘Do you want something?’ the robot responds straight away.
‘It is more a need than a want. I need to go to use the bathroom.’
‘Oh’ is all the robot says in response.
The robot does not do anything for a couple of minutes, before it leaves the control room. Spirit is hoping that it is not going to bring back something for him to use. With the plan he has in his head, he needs to go to the bathroom. That way, they will have to remove the leg clamps too. He hasn’t actually got a complete plan worked out, but he does know that he needs to be more mobile. The robots may well stand there with his weapon aimed at him, but they have weapons of their own, which they can use against him at any moment. What he needs to happen, when the time is right, is for the robot to try to use his weapon, and of course for it not to work. He knows it won’t work, so that bit is not an issue. What might be an issue; is where the robot is standing when it tries to use it.
The robot returns with another one. It might well be the same two robots that keep coming, but he can’t be sure about that. He is pretty certain that it doesn’t matter, as they are probably communicating silently between themselves when they want to. What he does note when the two robots return, is that they aren’t carrying anything with them. That is indeed good news. What isn’t such good news, is that the two robots are soon followed in by another two robots. They position themselves in two of the corners of the control room. Spirit makes a note of their position.
The cell door opens and one of the robots comes in and releases the leg clamps. Spirit does not move immediately after this has been done. He wants to get the feeling back in his legs, before he tries to get up. The robots are having none of this. The one by the desk picks up his weapon and aims it towards Spirit’s head. Spirit is not ready for them to find out it won’t work for them, so he starts to make as if he is going to get up. In fact he is perfectly fine to get up, but he isn’t going to let them know that. He gets onto his hands and knees, before he unsteadily makes it to his feet, gripping the cell bars as he does so. All four robots are watching him intensely. He does not push his luck too far, as he makes his way to the cell door. He makes his way through it and then straight towards the door of the control room, which is still shut. As he nears the control desk, he puts out his hand, as if to get some support. The robot holding the weapon just lifts its arm and makes as if it is going to open fire on him, but it doesn’t. Spirit just rests his hand on the desk for a few seconds and stops. He chooses not to look at the robot as he is doing this. He is trying not to be threatening, but he is trying to gather information.
The door in front of him is still shut. He notes, out of the corner of his eye, that the robot holding his weapon has moved back a pace, so as not to be too close. One of the other robots comes over and presses a button on the control panel. This opens the door. This robot then walks ahead of Spirit and stands in the doorway. Spirit moves off to follow him.
He is lead down a corridor. There are several doors leading off this, but they don’t go into any of these. Spirit has no idea what may lie behind any of them. It is quite a long walk, before he is led into the bathroom. There is obviously only one way in and one way out, as both of the robots who have accompanied him, remain at the door while he does his business.
What he has to decide is whether now is the time, when he returns to the control room, to try to change his situation. He reckons that if he has to go to the bathroom again, then there will be four robots, so now may well be as good a time as any. The other factor to consider; is that he has no idea how long it might be before GM3 returns here. It would be a mistake to not try something, if he thinks he has a reasonable chance of success. He will only know that when he starts what he is going to try.
They lead him back to the control room. While one goes into the room ahead of him, he notices that the other one does not come in with him. The one that has come into the control room lets him walk past him. He then turns and stands in front of the now shut door.
Spirit walks towards the control desk. It is on his way back to the cell. As he gets level with it, he notices that the robot holding the weapon is much more relaxed about it, than on his way out. He doesn’t even think about what he is going to do. He makes a grab for it. He catches the robot totally off guard. Rather than just try to grab the weapon, he bowls the robot over. The robot flies to the floor, losing the grip on the weapon as it hits it. Spirit is landing on top of it. The other two robots are still not reacting yet, to his attempt at escape.
The weapon bounces about four feet away. It is behind the control desk. The good news is that he is now out of sight of the robot in the far corner. The bad news is that the robot by the door is starting to raise his arm towards him.
Chapter 23 The Grand Master
There is little doubt that something has changed within him. The Grand Master can feel that as he turns and walks away from the entrance to the base. He thinks he knew that when the button did not work, but that was so strange, because the button had worked the first time he walked up to the door. The door to the base had opened and he was just about to walk in, and then it had closed on him. What could have caused that to happen? At first he had no idea. The base has not been used for ages, so at first he had thought it was just a malfunction. On reflection, as he is walking away from the base back towards the craft, he has another thought. It is something he has been trying to avoid thinking about. That is, when will the powers and other things he had enjoyed, when he was a Guiding Master, be taken away from him. The answer to that question is, he thinks, now. By now, he thinks it is literarily happening, now this second. Maybe that is why he had turned away from his three prisoners. He did not want to give them the opportunity to see him change. The change is bound to be detrimental to him.
He walks away from the base, with one of the androids in tow. He assumes that the other android will follow him at a distance, with the three prisoners. On the other hand, it might think he has gone back to the craft, to communicate with the androids and robots in the base, to get them to open the doors for him. Either way it doesn’t really matter. They are secure with the android on guard. He will deal with them later. Before he can do that, he has other things that are more of a priority, namely he needs to find out exactly what has changed, now he is becoming mortal again. There won’t be just the physical things, like how he will look, feel and be older. He had chosen a relative young age to live his life as a Guiding Master. He was considerably older than that when he first became one. He will revert to that, not that he can really remember what he looked like then.
The Watcher Page 10