Madame Atomos Spits Fire

by André Caroff

  “Yes, but we have to find the right lever and that could take a while! In my opinion, this is no time for dilly dalling.” He pointed his rifle at the wall and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He tried again… in vain. The deadly ray did not work in on Atomia.

  The two men stared at each other. Things had just taken a turn for the worse, unexpected and unnerving. The seconds ticked off, slowly but surely. It was already 9:52.

  Without a word Beffort went up to the computer and pulled down the first lever on the panel. A rumbling sounded and a tiny, shiny object materialized in the air, three feet off the ground. It grew bigger, turning into a marble and then a ball and finally stopped when it was about the size of a soccer ball.

  Stupefied, Beffort and Akamatsu watched the strange thing that had appeared out of nowhere. The rumbling cease and the sphere started moving. It crossed the room slowly, bounced silently off the wall and came back a little faster behind Akamatsu, who had to step aside to avoid it. The object rebounded again and came back even faster toward Beffort, who dove. It flew against the wall and bounced back at random. Akamatsu was caught off guard and nicked on his left shoulder as he threw himself to ground, moaning in pain. The ball passed by, whistled back above Beffort still on the ground and sped from one wall to another so fast that the room was criss-crossed with blazing streaks and the shrill sound of a missile.

  Now the object was flying over the two men at a terrifying speed and it was impossible to guess what direction it would take next. And Beffort noticed that the ball was slowly descending the faster it got. Soon it would be grazing the ground and pulverizing everything in its way. In the deafening noise, Beffort started crawling to the computer. Akamatsu watched him. He was in serious pain and thought that his shoulder was broken. Anyway, he could not use his left arm.

  Beffort hurried to the computer, lifted his arm and pushed the lever back up. Instantly the ball stopped its infernal ballet. It stopped roaring and howling and started shrinking until it vanished, without a sound, as if it had never been in the room…

  Beffort looked at his watch: 9:54. “How are you, Yosho?”

  “Good enough to get out of here,” the Japanese answered, getting back on his feet. “We failed, Smith. We should just get the saucer back down as fast as possible. In six minutes, the Great Brain is going to wake up. Without disintegrator rifles, we can’t do anything.”

  Beffort gritted his teeth. Madame Atomos was maybe 100 yards away from him, calmly sitting in her famous armored office and he could do absolutely nothing against her. “Okay, Yosho,” he accepted dryly. “I’ll leave it to you. When it comes to control panels, you’re better at it than me.”

  “Let’s hope so,” Akamatsu said as he approached the computer, “but notice that there aren’t any wires here to help me choose the good lever. How do I know what I’m going to unleash?”

  Beffort looked downtrodden. “Doesn’t matter. Madame Atomos will get away whatever we do.”

  Akamatsu looked at the keyboard. A little earlier, on the computer in California, he had made a number appear, but that was after the zero had shown up on board the flying saucer. Was the opposite possible, too. And it was still necessary to know the codes used for the United States. Akamatsu decided on luck: he spun the knob and let it stop at random. On the screen appeared the number 234. A second passed and then a door opened in the wall, across from the computer.

  Akamatsu looked at his watch. “9:57, Smith! We don’t have time for a second chance.”

  “Okay. So?” He was leaving it up to the Japanese because he had lived in an Organization installation for 23 hours and had got out alive.

  “I think,” Akamatsu decided, “that we should mix with the servants while waiting for the opportunity to escape. Come on, Smith.”

  Beffort followed him. The two men ran down a corridor that ended in a huge room furnished with bunks where hundreds of servants were sleeping. Akamatsu crossed the room and entered the next where civilian clothes were piled up with suitcases and uniforms of the Organization.

  “Get undressed, Smith and put on a uniform. We only have two and a half minutes left.”

  Very quickly, the two men took off their clothes, hid them in the room and slipped on a uniform and short boots.

  “Thirty seconds,” Akamatsu said. “Just enough time to lay down with the others. Then we’ll try to sneak into one of the teams of six men. Whatever happens, make sure you copy the movements of whoever is next to you.”

  “Okay,” Beffort whispered. “Let’s go.”

  They shook hands, knowing very well that they might not speak together for many hours, and went to lie down on the nearest bunks. From now on, any false move would spell their death sentence.

  At exactly 10 o’clock the Atomos Organization restarted its duties under the implacable control of the Great Brain. Madame Atomos got up and went into the next room where she could watch the tallying of the Great Brain and make sure that nothing was amiss and that everything was back to normal on the TV screen.

  The island was a hive of activity. In California other fires were already breaking out far from one another, which made it hard for the Americans to fight them. Madame Atomos smiled and walked up to the central screen. In the central room on Atomia, the men were at their posts. Farther away the surgeons were operating on three black men who had been kidnapped during the night by a commando team in Los Angeles.

  All of a sudden an alarm went off. Madame Atomos crossed the room. Two tallying machines were blinking red and punch cards shot out. Madame Atomos looked at them and gritted her teeth: 102 servants had not gone back to their stations in the Bishop shelter and a flying saucer had come from there to Atomia!

  The sinister woman cried out in rage and leaned again over Atomia’s tallying machines. She saw right away that the island contained the same number of inhabitants as before the neutralization hour. So, the saucer had decided by itself to come back to base. That was impossible! But who could have discovered the code needed to work the machine? Who if not Smith Beffort?

  Madame Atomos sat in front of her keyboard and gave orders to the Great Brain to sift through the inhabitants of Atomia. It would take hours, but sooner or later the electronic machines would detect the presence of any foreign elements. Meanwhile, Madame Atomos could prepare the kidnapping of Mie Azusa-Beffort and her son Bob.

  Down below, under Madame Atomos’ feet, Beffort and Akamatsu were still lying on their bunks. They were still there because their neighbors had not moved. Half of the dormitory was emptied a little after ten but the other half would stay in bed until the Great Brain decided to relieve the teams. Nothing happened for 30 minutes and then a group of servants armed with paralyzing and disintegrator rifles entered the dormitory. Without saying a word, 50 servants got up. The guards surrounded them and left covering them with their weapons. When the door closed, Akamatsu slipped over to Beffort and whispered, “Smith, I have the feeling that they suspect we’re here.”

  Beffort nodded and whispered back, “If they’re armed with rifles, it’s not just for show, right? It must be that the weapons don’t work on Atomia during the neutralization hour. We had rotten luck!”

  “Not so loud,” Akamatsu whispered. He looked around nervously, but no one had reacted. He leaned over to Beffort again, “If we stay here, the guards will come back and probably lead us to a control station. And of course that we’ll be found out immediately.”

  Beffort grabbed his arm and got up very quietly, dragging Akamatsu with him. “We have to get back to the landing room. There’s a saucer in there and three disintegrator rifles. Come on.” His mind was made up and Yosho did not even think of discussing the issue.

  The two men snuck into the aisle between the rows of sleeping men and reached the door at the end without a problem. They went through, closed it and ran down the corridor. Now their safety depended on luck.

  Chapter X

  At the end of the corridor they got a nasty surprise. The door to the la
nding room was closed. Beffort glanced around to make sure that no camera was watching them. As long as the alarm was not given, they had a chance, but they had to find the system to open the door.

  “Here’s a keyboard,” Akamatsu said, still hurting in his left shoulder and with his arm almost paralyzed. “If the code number is the same, the door should open.”

  “What’s the number?” Beffort asked.

  “234.”

  Beffort set the cursors to 2, 3 and 4 and pressed the button. A few long seconds passed and then the door slid open. The men entered the room while the door closed behind them and they saw that the saucer had settled back down on its stand. Beffort picked up the disintegrator rifle that he had dropped when attacked by the metal sphere and then he approached the flight computer.

  “Now our backs are to the wall, Yosho, and we have to act fast. We don’t know if cameras are filming us right now.”

  “I don’t think so, Smith, otherwise Madame Atomos would already be attacking us. On the other hand, we are under surveillance by the Great Brain when we’re in the saucer.”

  Beffort grimaced. “In that case, it doesn’t matter if we act fast.”

  Akamatsu nodded. “That’s what I’m trying to make you understand. We really have to worry about escaping the head count that’s taking place on Atomia Island. By hiding under the saucer we can hold out for an hour or two and then take advantage of the calm…”

  “What kind of calm?”

  Akamatsu sat down and put his elbow on his knee. His arm weighed a ton. “Madame Atomos won’t be able to concentrate all her living forces of Atomia for a long time. Here is where the electronic machines are run by the members of the Atomos Organization. They have to continue the battle against the United States and the Great Brain needs all its stations to control the Organization. So, right now, all the personnel on Atomia are mobilized for the census, which means that their work is not being done.”

  “So?”

  “We know that it takes six men to work a station since Madame Atomos has luckily not been able to mechanize everything. She still needs men, their movements and agility, even if they’re just robots. And the Great Brain can give orders to only around 50% of the workforce right now. This can’t continue. In a little while the identity checks will be finished and they’ll stop searching Atomia and then everyone will go back to their stations. But patrols will still be checking Atomia from the top to bottom, if I can say that, and one of them will inevitably come here.”

  “Okay, I guess your plan will come into effect at that moment. Because you do have a plan, don’t you?”

  Akamatsu smiled. “With a shot from the rifle, you’ll wipe out the two servants and we’ll take their place in the patrol.”

  “All right, but we’re still going to be stuck on Atomia Island.” Beffort sat down next to his partner. “Listen, Yosho, I admit that your idea’s good and I understand that if we’re patient we can get on board the saucer sooner or later and head for California or Texas, wherever, but you’re forgetting that my wife and son are in danger.”

  Akamatsu did not answer. He was very careful in laying out his plan in order to convince Beffort not to take any immediate action. He had failed. And knew that his friend’s blood was too hot to think about saving his life when his wife and son were risking theirs.

  Beffort looked at his watch. “It’s 10:35. If I followed my impulses, I would open up a passage with this rifle all the way to Madame Atomos, hold her prisoner and force her to give up.”

  “Ridiculous. You’d be disintegrated long before reaching her office.”

  “That remains to be seen.”

  “Besides, you don’t even know if Madame Atomos is on Atomia.”

  Beffort grinned. “You’re right, as I said before. And it’s all logical, but I can’t be logical. At 11 o’clock I’m leaving this room and attacking the Atomos Organization. I’ll destroy the Great Brain and…”

  “Okay!” Akamatsu cut him off. “You want to kill yourself at 11 o’clock and your family can wrap a black ribbon around your photo. In the meantime, let’s get under the stand, okay?”

  Beffort nodded and helped his friend get up.

  The stand looked like a hollow plate resting on a pedestal made of 20 concrete pillars. The two men sat in the middle of the cage and Beffort aimed his rifle at the door. Ten minutes passed in total silence.

  “15 minutes left,” Beffort whispered.

  Akamatsu nodded. His shoulder was heavy. He changed positions, lay on his back and his eyes widened in surprise: the bottom of the stand had an accurate map of the United States drawn on it. It was marked with numbered crosses corresponding to the saucer’s control panel. In one corner, written in Japanese, a plate explained how the machine and its defenses worked. Everything could be done from the stand, which was, in fact, hooked up to the flight computer.

  “Smith, look at this.”

  Beffort looked up and was dumbfounded. He could not read Japanese and did not really know what it was all about. “What is this, Yosho?”

  “Just operating instructions for a flying saucer,” Akamatsu snickered. “Madame Atomos has a brain that can learn and retain many things, but she still worries about an eventual memory loss. Like all scientists she has a directory, notes and formulas…”

  “Okay,” Beffort was impatient, “what does it say?”

  “This machine can fly on its own. We just have to cut the contact to free it from the control of the Great Brain. I guess Madame Atomos made provisions for a quick escape in case the machines on Atomia were destroyed.”

  “That’s what she did when we sank Atomos City. Say, if I understand rightly, we can get away on the saucer without being intercepted by the Great Brain?”

  “Exactly. Plus, we can choose where we want to land. It’s marvelous. Come on, let’s get out of this hole.”

  “Wait a second. What’s the number of Scotts Bluff?”

  “31. That’s what I checked first. I knew where you would want to go.”

  Mie Azusa-Beffort and little Bob were living in Scotts Bluff… in Nevada.

  The two men left their hiding place. Akamatsu went to the flight computer and without hesitating chose a knob and turned until the number 31 appeared. Then he cut the contact. The door of the saucer opened up immediately.

  “Damn,” Beffort shouted, “If you keep on like this, I think we’ll be able to pull through.”

  “Climb on board, Smith, and enter 31 on the keyboard. I want to see if the dome will open like it should.”

  Beffort ran into the saucer and a minute later the top of the huge tube opened and let in the sun, revealing an ageless blue sky. Akamatsu cut all contacts with the computer, climbed on board the flying saucer and joined Beffort who was watching the ball turn in its glass jar.

  “You were talking about weapons, Yosho?”

  “Two disintegrator cannons.”

  “We can wipe out Atomia Island!”

  Akamatsu shook his head. “The saucer’s armed, but its eye belongs to the Great Brain. Be happy with escaping and that’s all, Smith. It’s not so bad. In ten minutes or so you’ll be in Scotts Bluff with Mie and Bob. Then we’ll be able to lay a trap for Madame Atomos.”

  Beffort wanted to respond, but the saucer shot off like a cannonball. The force of the takeoff threw the men to the ground and then the speed stabilized at around 18,000 miles per hour.

  Beffort said, “No doubt about it, Yosho, you’re the hero of this affair!”

  A relayed registered the breakdown of the flight computer and the opening of the launch ramp and sent the information to the Great Brain, which spit out a punch card and instantly mobilized two other saucers to destroy the one that had just escaped its control. Madame Atomos decoded the card and swore profusely before running to her personal saucer. She climbed in with a handful of servants, left the driving to the Great Brain and saw that she was headed straight for Scotts Bluff. Whatever happened, the Beffort family and Akamatsu would not get out of
this alive. The sinister woman swore to it!

  At 11 o’clock, the saucer carrying Beffort and Akamatsu landed safely in a field to the south of Scotts Bluff, escaping the machines sent after it. But it was still only a matter seconds. Beffort and Akamatsu waited for the door to open automatically and then left with the three disintegrator rifles. The field was deserted, silent, surrounded by trees on three sides and bordered by a side road on the fourth. The sun was shining brightly. In the distance, on another hill, cows were peacefully chewing their cuds.

  Beffort took a deep breath. “Better here than on Atomia, right, Yosho?”

  Akamatsu smiled weakly. His shoulder felt like lead. “To tell you the truth,” he admitted, “I didn’t think we’d get out of there. For once…”

  A whistling sound coming from the sky cut him short. The two men were 40 feet from the saucer—a circumstance that saved their lives. A silver streak came out of the sky, a short flash and then the saucer disappeared in the grass. The mission given by the Great Brain to the two machines had been accomplished. Everything happened automatically. The objective was destroyed but not the men who were inside a few seconds earlier. That was the fault of automation that wants a program to be entirely finished before undertaking a new one.

  Two other machines passed by, higher up, out of range of the rifles (whose power of destruction was limited to 500 yards) and leaving behind them a long trail in the sky. Smith Beffort immediately realized the danger. The Great Brain was going to notice its mistake and relaunch its death machines at the two men isolated in the middle of the field.

  “To the trees, Yosho!”

  The supersonic speed of the flying saucers was becoming a handicap for Madame Atomos. At 18,000 miles per hour, the simple act of returning needed a slew of relatively long maneuvers so that Beffort and Akamatsu had reached the forest when the three saucers swooped down on them. Strange as it may seem and without Madame Atomos having the least suspicion, the forces at play were remarkably even in spite of their apparent imbalance. But on both sides, the disintegrator ray did not reach over 500 yards. So, victory would belong to whoever shot first. In estimating distances, the computer could not be beat. The Great Brain never missed and opened fire when the two front machines were at the right distance. Except that between giving the order and its execution, a few fractions of a second inevitably passed.