Malig Tumora

by James Moloney

  Blood! All colour drained from Malig Tumora’s face when he heard this. He became as white as a ghost.

  ‘You - must - be - very - pleased,’ the observation ball went on. ‘The - first -steps - are - already - under - way. The - cloning - of - our - suitable -subject - is - about - to - begin.’

  Berrin expected a furious explosion from the corner where Malig Tumora had retreated. Instead, he saw only mounting terror in the man’s eyes. ‘You cannot do this to me,’ the scientist groaned pathetically.

  He saw the boys staring at him. ‘Tell it! Tell the computer its mistake. Make it see the difference between me and the clones it is creating.’

  Neither boy replied. Aden turned away. Berrin simply folded his arms and returned the man’s gaze. When Malig Tumora went on pleading for their help, he cut him off. ‘You betrayed us. An hour ago, you were ready to see us both dead, just so you could reach the Obsidian.’

  ‘But you have to help me. Didn’t you hear what the computer just said? There is a special room ready for me. I’ll be strapped to a bed, I won’t be able to move my arms or my legs. They’ll feed me through tubes and every day they’ll milk me for blood, like a cow. It will go on like that until I’m dead. Horrible, horrible!’

  The boys offered no words of comfort. Faced with such unsympathetic silence, Malig Tumora threw himself down in the corner. Was that a sob of self-pity? Berrin wondered. He couldn’t find any warmth in his heart to care.

  He and Aden had begun to ponder their own fate when noises outside announced the return of the Gadges.

  ‘They’re coming for me!’ Malig Tumora cried. He backed tightly into his corner, as though this would somehow make him invisible.

  The door opened, and at the sight of the first Gadge he screamed, ‘Help me!’

  What could Berrin do? He and Aden were no match for even a single Gadge. Even so, if it had been anyone else, he might have tried. But this evil man had brought his fate upon himself. Berrin knew he should feel a touch of shame at his lack of sympathy, but he couldn’t control his feelings. He stayed where he was, beside Aden, and watched the Gadges drag Malig Tumora out of the corner.

  ‘Listen to me,’ the scientist shouted to Berrin. ‘The moth your father spoke of. It’s true!’

  He twisted and turned, trying to keep his eyes on them as he was tugged towards the door. He saw two sceptical faces hardened against him. ‘I swear it’s true. The moths attacked my flowers, almost destroyed my plans, until I found a way to poison them. I killed them off in the city but some survived. I’m sure of it. There were sightings —’

  The Gadges had him at the door. He was almost gone.

  ‘Where?’ Berrin shouted.

  ‘On a mountain, outside the city.’

  It might be another trick, but somehow Berrin doubted it. Malig Tumora had forgotten all about his evil plans. He was simply a desperate man trying to save his own skin.

  The Gadges gave him a savage shove and he was through the door. ‘Help me! Please help me!’ he shouted to anyone and anything.

  Berrin hurried to the door as it swung shut. ‘Which mountain?’ he called. ‘I can’t help you unless you give me a name.’

  Malig Tumora was already being dragged off down the street. With his last terrified breath, he shouted, ‘Windenbeck. The moth was seen on Mount Windenbeck.’

  SIXTEEN

  In Amongst the Mayhem

  BERRIN AND ADEN WERE ALONE in their enclosure. Night was falling quickly around them. The light within Berrin refused to die though.

  ‘There’s hope, don’t you think?’ he said.

  ‘The moths, you mean?’ replied Aden. ‘But even if he was telling the truth, how could we find this Mount Windenbeck?’

  Berrin shrugged. One problem at a time — he had learned that from his friends, the Rats. ‘First we have to get out of here.’

  ‘Not much chance of that,’ said Aden glumly. He looked up, drawing Berrin’s eye with him. The observation ball hovered above them. ‘I’ll bet that stays with us all the time now, spying on us in case we do find another way out. It’s probably listening to us talk about it even now.’

  If the ball was listening, it showed no signs of it. The sky turned black overhead. The darkness seemed to encourage even more restlessness among the other inhabitants of the menagerie. Only a couple of streets away, a battle started up, one savage beast against another. To the boys’ surprise, the sounds of the struggle grew closer and closer until the roars and pitiful yelps of pain were coming from outside their own door.

  ‘What’s happening? How did those poor things get out of their cages?’ Aden asked in a quivering voice.

  The battle moved on down the street. Not long after, Berrin heard the unmistakable bark of a Gadge. A terrible thought came to him that might explain the chaos overtaking the menagerie. He didn’t speak his suspicions aloud. In fact, he wished he hadn’t imagined it himself. He went to sit with Aden under the lean-to, though there was no question of sleep.

  An hour passed. The dreadful sounds increased. Suddenly the door of their enclosure burst open and an ominous silhouette loomed over them. ‘Where are you?’ Gadger Red growled.

  Berrin wanted to shout at him to close the door before something horrible charged in. Instead, he stood up and walked into the open. ‘What’s happening outside?’ he dared to ask.

  In the little light offered by the moon, he could see blood on Gadger Red’s fur. But he wasn’t limping and didn’t appear to be in any pain. The blood must be from some other poor animal.

  ‘Malig Tumora has no further use for this menagerie,’ Gadger Red announced. The observation ball hovered close by his head.

  Malig Tumora, thought Berrin. The man of that name was as good as dead. His name now belonged to a machine of his own making and even the Gadges obeyed it. ‘What is to happen with all the animals then?’ he asked.

  ‘Nothing,’ came the reply. ‘The cloning is about to begin. It will produce only the creatures that Malig Tumora needs. These failed experiments are no longer needed for their DNA. They are obsolete.’

  Obsolete. Berrin knew what that meant now: no longer needed. And in Malig Tumora’s world, when an animal was no longer needed, it no longer lived.

  ‘The computer wants us all dead, doesn’t it? Even Aden and me.’

  Gadger Red’s snout tightened into a smile, baring his vicious teeth. ‘He has given the job to us, his killing machines.’

  Seeing those teeth glint in the moonlight, Berrin worried his legs would give way. He had faced this fate twice before. He discovered that he wasn’t immune to the fear of death after all. Was this the place? Was he going to die right here in this enclosure?

  To his surprise, Gadger Red stepped back and showed them the open door. ‘We’ve decided to have a little fun,’ he sneered. ‘Why kill everything in the menagerie ourselves when so many of the creatures are keen to do the work for us? Out, both of you, into the street. You’re going to be part of the fun too, like all the rest.’

  BERRIN WAS RUNNING. DESPITE the darkness, he could see Aden in front of him. In fact, he was sprinting as fast as he could to catch the other boy and calm him down.

  Aden hadn’t wanted to leave the enclosure, but Gadger Red had soon fixed that. He leaped forward, destroyed the lean-to with a single swipe of his foreleg and hooked Aden’s shirt in his claws. Screaming, poor Aden was dragged into the dangerous street. Then, with his snout only centimetres from Aden’s ear, Gadger Red began to snarl, a hungry, rumbling sound from deep in his throat.

  That was enough for Aden. He took to his heels in fright. Now Berrin was trying to reach him before he ran into even worse trouble.

  He caught up with him at the corner. ‘Slow down. He was just trying to scare you.’

  ‘Scare me! Well, he did a great job of that. Look at me, I’m shaking all over.’

  Berrin took a gentle grip on his friend’s arm, just above the elbow. ‘It’s all right. We’ll get through this. We just have to keep our heads.
’

  ‘There are other parts of my body I’m just as worried about,’ Aden managed to say through chattering teeth. ‘Like my legs and my arms!’

  ‘Yeah, okay, I get the message. Stick with me and I’ll try to keep us both in one piece.’

  They rounded a corner and found a battle raging. There had been no warning noises because one of the creatures was a huge turtle and the other was a kind of octopus bred to live on dry land. Before the boys could back away, the octopus grabbed Aden’s ankle with one of its tentacles.

  Aden screamed. Berrin launched himself onto the tentacle, trying to prise it away. The turtle was in no mood to remain a spectator. It stretched its rubbery neck and took a bite at the octopus.

  Aden was pulled off his feet and held upside down, a metre from the ground. If only I had my sword, thought Berrin. He jumped up again and grabbed Aden’s feet, managing to stop the giant octopus from lifting the boy any higher.

  The turtle took another snap at the octopus, drawing blood this time from one of the other thrashing tentacles. It had very powerful jaws, Berrin realised. He pulled on Aden’s legs with all his might, dragging the tentacle that held him towards the turtle. The octopus tried to draw its limb closer to its body, but it was too late. The turtle snapped again, this time clean through the gelatinous flesh of the octopus.

  Aden fell to earth with a thud as the severed end of the tentacle gave up its grip. With Berrin’s help, he scrambled up and moments later the pair were on the run again.

  ‘WE CAN’T KEEP GOING AIMLESSLY in circles,’ Aden complained when they stopped for a rest.

  ‘You’re right. Something will kill us sooner or later. Our only chance is to get through the gates to the outside,’ Berrin gasped. ‘Do you remember the way Malig Tumora took us? Maybe we could find that hidden switch.’

  ‘What about the electric beam?’

  ‘I can’t think of everything!’ Berrin exploded.

  ‘All right, all right,’ Aden conceded, holding his hand up against Berrin’s sudden anger. ‘And Berrin,’ he added, ‘thanks for saving me from that octopus.’

  Aden’s experience in Malig Tumora’s mazes came to their rescue. ‘Easy,’ he said as he guided them both round corner after corner. Each street looked no different from any other to Berrin. Then Aden stopped.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘This is the street,’ Aden muttered.

  ‘Which street?’

  ‘Snake street.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Berrin, understanding immediately. ‘Can you see that line on the ground?’

  ‘Not yet.’

  They inched forward cautiously, wishing it was the sun above them and not the moon. Then Aden called Berrin’s name softly.

  ‘Have you found it?’

  ‘Berrin,’ Aden said again, and finally Berrin looked up from the sandy surface of the street. Twenty metres away stood a Gadge, watching them.

  ‘It’s not Gadger Red, is it?’ Aden said fearfully.

  Berrin’s mouth had gone too dry to say it wasn’t. He knew this Gadge. He recognised the dark fur around his neck. Black Throat.

  ‘Well, well,’ sneered the Gadge. ‘It’s that little human Gadger Red took from me. He didn’t eat you after all. That’s a mistake I’m going to fix soon enough.’ He started towards them.

  Neither boy could help himself. They both backed away. ‘Stop,’ Aden called just in time. ‘I can see the line. Your heels are touching it.’

  One more step and Berrin was dead. But if he didn’t move at all, he was just as dead.

  Great, I get to choose my own death again, Berrin thought bitterly.

  Black Throat had almost reached Berrin. He was in no hurry, it seemed. He was enjoying the fear he could see on the face of his prey. Standing on his hind legs, he let the claws protrude from his paw, as he had done when Berrin first encountered him.

  A flurry of dust distracted him. Looking across, he saw that Aden had kicked sand towards him. ‘Oh, you would prefer to be first, would you? Don’t think I haven’t seen you. You will share the same fate as your friend.’

  ‘You’ll have to catch me first.’

  ‘No, Aden!’ Berrin shouted in horror. Aden had half-turned towards the sand and the snake. Another step and he would be across the deadly line.

  Aden smiled and continued his steady turn, making a great show of getting ready to run.

  ‘Is this some kind of trick?’ laughed Black Throat. ‘You hint that you’re going to run, but you’re still here. Go on, make a move and we’ll see who’s the fastest.’

  ‘Don’t do it, Aden,’ Berrin called. He had guessed what was in the boy’s mind and now he was playing the game too. ‘Don’t do it. He’ll catch you before you’ve taken three steps.’

  The Gadge was flattered to hear such admiration. He tensed the muscles in his legs, ready for the challenge. He would show these two boys just how fast he was.

  Aden stepped across the line. Instantly, the Gadge moved to intercept him, three quick strides carrying him well onto the sand. They were the last steps he ever took.

  The sand erupted, just as the boys had expected. Before Black Throat knew what was happening, the snake was upon him. The chain snapped tight around its tail just as its jaw caught the Gadge by the leg. With a mighty heave, it pulled him off his feet and dragged him closer until it could encircle his entire body with its own. Black Throat’s front legs were pinned against his body. His vicious claws were no use now. The snake’s powerful body wrapped round and round the helpless Gadge, who gave out a terrified scream, then a half-scream as the coils tightened around him — and then no noise at all.

  SEVENTEEN

  Underground Again

  WHILE THE SNAKE WAS BUSY with its prey, the boys ran for the next corner, careful to stay outside the faded line. For Berrin, it barely felt like an escape at all. In every street, another danger would be waiting. Nevertheless, he caught Aden by the elbow again.

  ‘That was very clever what you did back there. And very brave. You’ll make a Doomsday Rat yet.’

  Aden looked pleased at the prospect. But both boys knew they would have to stay alive for that happy promise to come true.

  Was it luck or caution that helped them avoid any more traps? Berrin and Aden didn’t care. Only minutes after fleeing the snake and the unfortunate Black Throat, they reached the gates.

  ‘What now?’

  ‘We open them,’ said Berrin.

  ‘Great, go right ahead,’ said Aden with a sneer.

  ‘We have to find the switch Malig Tumora talked about. He went off that way,’ said Berrin, pointing.

  ‘But the electricity. It’s no good opening the gates if we end up zapped by that beam. The computer isn’t going to turn it off this time.’

  Berrin had no answer to that, and moments later they had more pressing problems to deal with. The ground began to shake beneath them. A hideous roar erupted from around the corner. It was answered by a similar roar from the opposite direction.

  The boys saw a huge beast lumber into view. They had seen something like it before — it had legs like an elephant but with a tiger’s stripes, and a tiger’s temper too.

  The second beast appeared. The strange animals eyed each other for a moment, then charged. Luckily, they paid no attention to the tiny humans caught between them. Even so, it was all Berrin and Aden could do to stay out of their way. The beasts thundered into one another, each giving out a mighty bellow on impact.

  The force of the collision drove the massive creatures sideways and the boys had just enough time to dart out of the way before they smashed into the wall. It shuddered and a handful of bricks fell free. Berrin pulled Aden clear, but the animals were so huge it was difficult to get far enough away for safety. Again they pounded into the wall. More bricks came free.

  One of the creatures was injured now and backed against the wall to steady itself. The other drove in, its tusk-like teeth flashing dangerously. The wounded beast tried to evade the scything tu
sks, kicking back against the bricks with its powerful feet. There was a scream as tusk met flesh and blood started to flow. The wounded beast tried to retreat, and gradually the battle moved further along the wall.

  Where the battle had been most furious, Berrin spotted a different colour low down on the wall. Black in the centre of the reddish brown. He ran to investigate. It was a hole. Those crazed beasts had kicked a hole through the wall — just large enough for a Rat like Berrin to wriggle though.

  ADEN WAS A LITTLE thicker round the middle than Berrin. It was a tight fit, and a few painful scratches could not be avoided, but finally the boys were free.

  ‘Where shall we go?’ Aden asked, dusting himself off, being especially careful of the grazes on his stomach.

  Berrin had already taken a good look around. There were no signs of any Gadges or Dfx. They would all be inside the walls, enjoying the show. ‘There’s only one place we can go — the tunnels below ground. Come on,’ he urged.

  ‘Will there be anything to eat?’ Aden asked.

  ‘Not unless you’re keen on cockroaches,’ Berrin teased. He was hungry too, but the first priority was safety. Quietly, he was wondering what they would find in the storm-water drains. Would they have the whole system to themselves? He didn’t want to think about what that meant for his friends.

  They ran for almost an hour. Berrin tried each access hole cover they came to, but none would open. Malig Tumora had ordered them all to be sealed before he flooded the pipes.

  At last they reached a place Berrin recognised. It was the creek where Wendell had shown him how to get into the tunnels. He remembered how he had felt then — alone and terrified of the darkness. He saw that Aden was experiencing the same feelings.

  Without a helmet lamp, they couldn’t see a thing and after only fifty metres of stumbling blindly through the pitch-black tunnel, Berrin called a halt. ‘We’ll wait here for a while, until we get our breath back,’ he told Aden.

  In fact, he was hoping for an idea. What could they do? They had no light, no food. Most important of all, they had no companions.