by A. G. Taylor
A robot limped out of the darkness and approached the bench. It was similar in shape and build to the robowolves, although slightly larger and more cumbersome. From the mismatched markings on its body and limbs, it was clear to see it had been constructed from pieces collected from various robots, along with other bits of scrap. Wires were taped to the outside of its frame, which was welded together clumsily in places. Its head was rounder than that of the other robowolves and its oversized eyes glowed green rather than red.
“Don’t mind, Laika,” Yuri reassured them. “You won’t hurt anyone, will you, girl?”
Laika sat back with a clunk and raised her forelegs in a movement that approximated a dog begging. An electronic bark escaped her mouth followed by a simulated panting sound that was oddly comical in comparison to the growling sounds of Balthus and the wolf pack.
“It’s not a robowolf,” Alex said with a laugh, “it’s a robomongrel!”
Laika’s head twisted in his direction and she let out an abrupt yelp.
“Watch your mouth,” Yuri snapped, crouching before the robodog and opening a panel by her front leg. “She’s very sensitive.”
Alex shrugged. “Sorry.”
Yuri removed a component from Laika’s leg and proceeded to fit the salvaged motor inside, connecting wires before finally slotting it home. Standing, he patted the robot on the head as if she were a real dog.
“There you go, girl,” he said with a newfound softness in his voice. “Getting around should be easier now.”
Laika rose and turned in a circle, as if testing out the new motor. Satisfied, she ran excitedly round the table, knocking into furniture and disturbing shelves in her excitement.
“Laika, easy!” Yuri protested as the robodog ran up to Sarah, panting happily. Not sure what else to do, Sarah patted the machine on the head. Laika gave a bark and sat before her.
“She likes you,” Yuri said grudgingly. “She has good instincts about people.”
“What happened to her leg?” Sarah asked.
Yuri held up the component he’d removed and threw it into a pile of scrap by the door. “Burned out in a fight with a robowolf. They come sniffing around from time to time. We wait for one of them to stray from the pack and take them down. Nobody knows this terrain like Laika and me.”
Alex looked at a series of slash marks on the robodog’s side. Clearly made by the talons of a robowolf. They approximated the scars on the side of Yuri’s face.
“Looks like you’ve both seen a bit of action,” he said. “Did you build her yourself?”
Yuri nodded. “From pieces of the others. First it was just me fighting them out here. Now the robowolves have both of us to fear. Right, Laika?”
Laika gave an approving yelp.
“You used to work for Makarov?” Alex asked Yuri, moving closer to the bench. “Is that how you know this place so well?”
Yuri winced at the mention of Makarov. “Don’t say that name around here. All the pain he’s caused, I don’t want to talk about him.”
“But what are you doing here?” Alex pressed. “Where are the others from the factory?”
Yuri sighed and looked down at the bench again. “I was the manager for Makarov’s mining operations here in Chukotka. When the meteorite was detected, the plant was evacuated fast. It was just a small fragment and landed many kilometres from here. Barely caused a rumble, but it made a crater in the ice. We thought we were okay, but then people started getting sick.”
Alex glanced at Sarah. The sleepers we saw back at the tower.
“Makarov’s science team came in and transported them to the Spire,” Yuri continued bitterly. “For their own good, they said. Now he’s keeping them there to use as he wishes.”
“He can’t do that!” Alex cried. “Why haven’t you told someone? The government? The police?”
Yuri grinned humourlessly. “Take a look around this wasteland, kid. Makarov is the law and the government for three hundred kilometres in every direction. You can walk for a week and still be standing on land owned by him.”
“How come you didn’t get infected when the meteorite hit?” Sarah asked.
“Because I was in the Spire at the time,” Yuri replied, unable to hide the guilt he felt. “Used to live there in luxury along with all of Makarov’s other executives. When the meteorite struck, Makarov was already set up for the retrieval operation – spacesuits, breathing masks, sleeper pods. I worked out pretty fast that he knew more than he was letting on.
“When the virus victims were brought into the Spire,” Yuri continued, “Makarov started shipping the managers out of Chukotka. Relocating us to operations in other parts of the world.”
“He didn’t want anyone to know what was going on here,” Alex said.
Yuri nodded. “But I wasn’t going anywhere. I’m from this part of the world. Those miners are my people. I refused to leave and that’s when Makarov set his dogs on me.” He brushed a hand through his hair, briefly revealing the scars beneath. “Somehow I made it out of the Spire and crawled to the factory. Makarov assumed I would just die out here in the snow. He was wrong.”
Sarah placed her hands on the bench and leaned towards Yuri. “You have to help us. Makarov is holding those miners and their families prisoner, using them as a power source for a meteor beacon. He’s in communication with an alien force—”
Yuri held up a hand to silence her. “Please. There’s nothing you can tell me about Nikolai Makarov I don’t already know. Before I was thrown out of the Spire I had a good snoop around in his restricted level…” His voice fell silent.
“Go on,” Alex prompted, but Yuri picked up a tool and continued working on the robot carcass.
“Enough. I’ve spoken enough about it.”
Alex looked at Sarah and shrugged, but she wasn’t about to leave it at that. She projected her mind towards Yuri, peeling back defensive layers to reach the things he wasn’t telling them about. In the act of suppressing them he had brought them to the surface – his thoughts were an open book to her. She saw the meteorite chamber in Makarov’s tower. Yuri had been there. Seen everything.
“What are you doing?” Yuri snapped, backing away from the workbench and clenching his eyes shut. “Get out of my head!”
The man’s mind snapped shut like a trap, blocking Sarah out.
“You saw the meteorite fragment,” she said harshly. “You know what’s going on here. What have you been doing for the last six months?”
Yuri picked up a cutting tool and pointed it at her accusingly. “I’ve been surviving! And you…you’re like Makarov. A mind-controller. Well, you won’t get inside my head!”
Alex stepped between them, trying to cool things down. “Okay, okay. We’re sorry, Yuri. We’re just trying to work out what’s going on here.” He cast a look at Sarah. Take it easy. We don’t need to be thrown out into the storm just yet.
Yuri seemed to calm down a little. He threw the tool down in disgust and slumped into one of the chairs. “There’s nothing I can do for those miners.”
Sarah spoke more softly. “We just want to know what’s going on here. Makarov has our friends as well. We need to get help from outside. The world has to find out what’s going on here.”
“There’s no working telephone in the factory,” Yuri replied with defeat in his voice. “There used to be a communications set-up at the village, but—”
“Then that’s where we’re going,” Sarah interrupted with determination. “You have to take us. We need a guide—”
Yuri rose from his seat abruptly, anger flashing in his eyes again. “Have to? I don’t have to do anything other than stay here and protect the last bit of this land that Makarov doesn’t control, girl. I’m not going anywhere near that village. There’s nothing left there. You’ll see.”
Beside Alex, Laika lay down on the floor and covered her nose with her forelegs. She emitted a noise that sounded very much like a whimper. Yuri waved a dismissive hand at his dog and turned to the
monitors. The storm had passed.
“Good,” he said. “Get out and leave Laika and me to what we do best.”
Alex shook his head in disgust. “What? Hide underground? Pick fights with Makarov’s machines for spare parts?”
Yuri moved swiftly towards Alex, towering over him. His fists clenched and unclenched, but when he spoke his voice was low and even.
“I’ll point you to the village, but only so you can see there’s nothing left there,” he said. “I can spare you some food and more thermal clothing. If you set out now, you’ll make it by nightfall. Trust me, you don’t want to be caught on the snow plains after dark.” He tapped the side of his head with a grimy finger. “Makarov showed me the future. A vision in my mind. Soon the whole world will be like this. Just Makarov and his slaves.”
“What about our friends?” Alex demanded.
A sad smile crept across Yuri’s face. “Forget them. You can’t fight Makarov.”
Alex was about to say something else, but Sarah laid a hand on his shoulder. “Leave it, Alex,” she said. “He’s given up already.”
She turned to Yuri. “Give us food and water and show us the way to the village. We’ve wasted enough time here.”
27
Ten minutes later, Yuri led them down another corridor that ended in a steel door. Now supplied with a backpack filled with bottled water and some very tough-looking dried beef, Alex and Sarah followed silently behind while Laika brought up the rear. Throwing a heavy bolt on the door, Yuri heaved it open and sunlight flooded the corridor. As they walked through after him, they were surprised to find themselves standing on the other side of the factory complex, some way outside the perimeter fence. The storm had gone as quickly as it had come and now the sky was brilliant blue.
“That way,” Yuri announced, pointing directly ahead across a flat plain of snow that stretched for kilometres into the distance. On the horizon, mountains rose. “The village is beyond those hills. It should take you until sunset to reach it, which is about three p.m. in these parts.”
“Thanks for everything,” Sarah said harshly and started walking away.
Alex hesitated and turned back to Yuri. “Are you sure you won’t come with us?”
Yuri shook his head. “No. The robowolves will catch you before you get there.”
“We have to try to contact the outside world. We have to warn them.”
“Even if you find the communications gear hasn’t been destroyed, there’s no one who wants to hear about what’s happening here anyway.”
“We have to try,” Alex replied.
By the door, Laika cocked her head to one side and made a whimpering noise.
“Alex!” Sarah yelled from thirty metres ahead. “Stop wasting time!”
Alex nodded and started after her, but was surprised as Yuri called out for him to wait. The man ran back to the door and produced an item from a hook by the entrance. It was a steel tube about forty centimetres long with a nozzle at one end and a red cylinder at the other.
“It’s a portable gas axe,” Yuri explained, pulling a trigger at the base of the tool. Immediately a yellow flame leaped from the nozzle. Yuri adjusted the gas flow with a knob and the flame went an intense blue. “If you come up against one of the robowolves use this to blind it. Their visual components are highly sensitive to light.”
Yuri killed the flame and handed the tool to Alex, who took it gratefully. He opened his mouth say thanks, but Yuri waved at hand at him impatiently.
“Get going!”
Alex turned and ran to catch up with Sarah, who was already making good progress. Laika let out a bark as he left.
Yuri turned to the door, but was surprised when his dog did not follow.
“Come on, girl,” he snapped. “They’ll be back. Maybe.”
The robodog hesitated before moving after its master.
In the distance, hidden in the shadows of the factory, a robowolf watched as the man pulled the hidden entrance to the basement closed. The wolf knew Balthus, its master, would be pleased they had found the location of the outcast’s hideout, but that would have to wait for another day. The children were the priority.
It turned its gaze towards the two tiny figures setting off into the wilderness and sent a command burst to the remaining robowolves scattered around the area:
COMMAND: WOLF PACK > ASSEMBLE > TARGETS ACQUIRED
One by one, the members of the pack pinged back acknowledgement of the message. From kilometres away they began to converge on the signal.
Keeping low to the ground, the wolf began to stalk its prey.
Robert screamed in agony. Five hundred volts of energy surged through the electrified metal floor of the cage, making his body jerk uncontrollably. With effort, he teleported halfway across the room to a cage with flooring illuminated green. He sank to his knees.
“No, no, no,” Makarov’s sing-song voice echoed from speakers in the ceiling. “You’re not paying enough attention to the pattern! I know you don’t believe this, Robert, but I’m giving you every chance not to get hurt here. You just have to concentrate.”
Robert gritted his teeth and looked round at the window set high in the wall. Makarov stood, silhouetted against the light of the observation room. Concentrate. Easier said than done when you’d been teleporting non-stop for an hour. The room in which he was being held was made up of forty caged sections, each with a metal floor that could be electrified at any time. Those cages illuminated green were okay. Some were yellow, which meant they were imminently about to turn red – meaning the floor was electrified. The colours changed every twenty seconds.
Robert knew there was a pattern to it, but just as he thought he was getting it, he’d land in a red cage and he would lose it. He shook his head and tried to clear his head. Okay, he thought. I’m standing on a green square, so the cage three to my left and one forward will be green next turn. Like a knight move on a chessboard. As the floor under his feet went yellow he teleported into the other cage. The floor was green. He breathed another sigh of relief. He was okay for the next twenty seconds.
“So, what do you think of my little game?” Makarov asked. “It’s designed especially for teleporters like yourself.”
Robert jerked his head up at the observation window. “I think it stinks.” The cage next to him went yellow. That meant the adjacent cells for four blocks were about to turn red, he thought. He teleported five cells to the left and landed in another green.
“Oh, well done,” Makarov said patronizingly. “Of course, all this can end right now if you just give me what I want.”
Robert teleported into another safe cell and looked up at the window. “No way.”
“Come on, Robert,” Makarov cajoled. “Your sister never should have been on the lower levels. She knew the consequences of turning against me, but she ran away rather than face them. She left that to you and the others.”
Robert wiped his eyes and teleported again – this time into a red cell. The electric shock threw him against the bars of the cage and he barely had time to jump to an adjoining cell before he got caught in the hold of the electricity.
“You’re lying,” he hissed, kneeling to catch his breath. “She’ll be back for us.”
Makarov chuckled. “Oh, I don’t think so. Nothing survives out there without my permission. Computer, pause the game.” Immediately the colours under the cells went out, leaving only grey floor. Makarov moved closer to the window so that his face was visible.
“All I ask is that you acknowledge me as your leader,” he told Robert. “Kneel before the Entity and everything will become a lot easier. For you…and for your friends.” Makarov pushed a button and the sound of Nestor screaming above a howling wind was piped through the speakers from the adjoining room. After a few seconds, he killed the sound. “Help me persuade them that cooperation with the Entity is the only way forward.”
“And what type of cooperation do you want?” Robert asked.
“Bow before my mast
er,” Makarov explained. “The Entity regards your type as an anomaly – an unwanted side-effect of the virus it uses to spread its consciousness. If it were up to it, you would all be dead already.”
“You’re one of us,” Robert replied with a shake of his head. “Why are you doing this?”
“When you’ve lived as long as I have, perhaps you’ll understand, boy,” Makarov said brutally. “There are only two things worth having in this world: money and power. I already have all the money I could ever need, but there’s never enough power. The Entity is going to make me ruler of the world.”
“You’ll never rule us.” Robert turned away from the window and folded his arms by way of ending the conversation.
Makarov sighed in frustration. “Computer, resume.”
The game began again.
It was just past noon when they saw the robowolf following them. Sarah noticed it first when she stopped to take a sip of water from one of the bottles Yuri had provided. Far in the distance, at least a kilometre away, the wolf was a black speck against the endless white of the plain. It was making little effort to hide itself and appeared not to be moving.
What’s it doing? Alex asked with a shake of his head.
I don’t know, Sarah replied. Maybe waiting for backup from the others. Is it Balthus?
Alex removed the gas axe from his pack and turned it over in his hands nervously. I can’t tell from this distance. Let’s keep moving.
Sarah nodded and they set off at a faster pace. They seemed to be making good ground towards the mountains, but she judged there were still several kilometres to cover. Most disturbing of all was the sun, which was already starting to hang low in the western sky, bringing the threat of night with it. This far north during the winter, the days were short and the nights were long. She glanced over her shoulder as they walked and saw that the wolf was keeping pace with them, neither gaining nor losing ground. It was clearly in no hurry to catch up with them, but it wasn’t going anywhere either.