Tropical Tangle

by Adrian C. Bott

  ‘What the hell does that mean?’ snapped Gus Junior.

  ‘He can smell fear,’ Fenton whispered down to Gus Junior, as he requested a salute from the robot pirate.

  Gus Senior put his hands on his hips and looked up approvingly at the square-jawed metal face. ‘You can tell this thing’s your baby, Fenton. He looks like you!’

  U-WOT-M8 had tiny little red eyes. Just for a second, they glowed.

  Fenton smiled.

  It was long after nightfall, and BEAST was flying through the sky in BLACKBAT form. His arms had transformed to two wide, flat wings. Tall antenna ears listened out for enemy signals.

  With its full stealth powers activated, BLACKBAT’s metal skin changed to match its environment. This meant it was completely invisible against the night sky. Axel had to make sure he steered well clear of planes, because a pilot could easily crash into him.

  Axel loved flying over cities in BLACKBAT, looking down on all the buildings filled with people who didn’t even know he was there. I’m a silent guardian, he thought. Flying over the rooftops at night. I wonder if this is what it’s like to be Santa Claus.

  But they had left the last of the cities behind long ago, and now they were flying over kilometres and kilometres of open sea. There were still wonderful things to see here: the huge flukes of a whale’s tail, the lights of small and large ships making long ocean journeys, and even an island atoll, which Axel had learnt was the coral-encrusted remains of an extinct, sunken volcano. But mostly it was just ocean, which meant Axel had plenty of time to think.

  ‘What do you think this Plunderer might be, BEAST?’

  ‘BEAST DOES NOT KNOW,’ said BEAST. ‘I AM SORRY, AXEL. BEAST IS USELESS SOMETIMES.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’ Axel decided not to bother discussing the Plunderer with BEAST anymore. BEAST had been a bit moody lately, for some reason.

  But in his private thoughts, Axel kept turning it over and over, like a scab you can’t help picking at. Maybe the Plunderer is a laser satellite. Or a flying saucer. Or a new battle suit for Gus Grabbem Junior, to replace BEAST. But how could any of those be powered by an atomic bomb?

  ‘DESTINATION AHEAD,’ BEAST announced.

  Stormhaven Island appeared before them in the moonlight, rising out of the ocean like the shell of a monstrous crab. Thick jungle covered the island’s surface, except for the long, sloped sandy beaches and the part where a small mountain broke up through the dark greenery.

  Axel spotted a white structure near one stretch of beach. That’s the Grabbem house. The rest of the base is underneath, hidden from sight.

  He slowed down their airspeed and came closer to sea level. BLACKBAT was silent, but there were other ways to give yourself away to an alert enemy – an unexpected gust of wind was one of them.

  ‘Gently does it,’ he said. ‘Let’s get a good look at that house …’

  WHOOSH!

  The next second, Axel was wrenching BLACKBAT around in the air, steering it sharply away from … what? Something had flashed up in front of him. Something red against the darkness.

  He’d acted on pure reflex. Now his heart was pounding. He felt he’d just avoided some kind of terrible disaster, but he didn’t even know why. He kept BLACKBAT hovering above the water, the length of a football field or two away from the house, and checked the readouts.

  ‘BEAST, can you detect anything out there? Anything hidden?’

  ‘SCANNING,’ BEAST replied.

  BLACKBAT’s ear-antennae wiggled back and forth as the sophisticated instruments went to work.

  It didn’t take the robot long to find what he’d been looking for. He adjusted Axel’s view screen so that he could see them too.

  Ghostly, transparent shapes appeared on the screen, hovering silently in the air. They were like metallic insects with rotors instead of wings. They hung over the whole island like a swarm of sandflies, and they shone dim red beams of laser light between themselves, forming a grid around the house. No doubt anything that broke one of those beams would trigger an alarm … or worse.

  ‘Sentry drones,’ Axel said with a shudder. ‘We nearly ran right into them.’

  ‘I AM SORRY, AXEL,’ said BEAST. ‘I SHOULD HAVE DETECTED THEM SOONER.’

  ‘Don’t sweat it. We’re both going to have to up our game for this one, huh. Come on. Let’s see if there’s a gap in those beams somewhere.’

  BLACKBAT swept through the air, graceful and invisible, while the drones hummed and flickered their sinister beams. Axel soon realised there wasn’t a single spot where you could fit anything bigger than a basketball through the grid.

  Axel racked his brains to think of a way in. Those drones were screening off the house from the air. Okay, that meant they couldn’t fly in. But what about under the ocean surface? Were there drones there too?

  ‘Change of plan, BEAST. Shift to MANTA form!’

  BEAST morphed and changed in mid-air. His body became broad and flat. A long, jointed tail made from metal plates extended from his back.

  They ploughed into the dark water. Axel had expected a splash, but there was nothing but the softest of slopping sounds, like an otter slipping into a stream.

  ‘Wow. That was smooth.’

  MANTA felt completely different to SHARKOS. Driving SHARKOS was like being at the wheel of a powerful speedboat that tore through the water with power and attitude. But MANTA just slipped through the water like a blade through silk, meeting no resistance at all. MANTA seemed so stealthy that not even the sea noticed it passing through.

  Axel cautiously circled the entire island, scanning for enemies the whole time. Fish darted away from them as they approached. Coral glistened in the undersea moonlight.

  ‘Looks like we’re clear. No bad guys here. Whoa, what’s that?’

  Off the main beach, hidden deep under the waves, was a gigantic opening in the rocky island edge. Metal panels sealed it off.

  ‘IT IS A DOOR,’ said BEAST.

  ‘Yeah, but look at the size of it! It must lead straight into the Grabbem base. That means it’s something to do with the Plunderer. It has to be!’ Axel looked thoughtfully at his smart visor. ‘Too bad it doesn’t have a terminal I could hack.’

  Lights flashed inside BEAST’s cockpit. ‘IF WE TRANSMITTED THE CORRECT CODE, THE DOOR WOULD OPEN. I AM SORRY, AXEL. I DO NOT KNOW THE CODE.’

  ‘Well, we’re not getting in that way. Let’s head for the beach and then come up inside the drones’ field. They’re all facing outwards, so they won’t see us.’

  MANTA slid as silently as a shadow from the deeper waters towards the shallows. Axel held his breath as they drew closer to their goal. This was going to work. Once they were past that funny rock formation, BEAST could just wade out of the water in his regular form …

  That’s no rock formation!

  Axel quickly braked, jabbing MANTA’s tail into the seabed like an emergency anchor. MANTA jerked to a stop. Axel’s head whacked against BEAST’s safety padding.

  They had stopped just in time. A many-legged shape heaved itself up from the sand right in front of them. Clouds of sand and sediment swirled up around it. Axel saw massive pincers the colour of rusty iron, eyes like spotlights on long stalks, and a segmented body that was plated with armour as thick as a battleship.

  Drones above the water, Axel thought, and beneath, whatever this thing is. I should have known Grabbem would make this tricky.

  ‘Grabbem use robot lobsters as guards now?’ he said.

  ‘IT IS THE LOBSTRON 6.3. AN OLD MODEL,’ said BEAST. ‘BUT STILL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.’

  The Lobstron glanced side to side through the clouds of silt, looking for what had disturbed it. It seemed grumpy somehow. It clashed its pincers, as if it was trying to warn anything lurking out in the deep that it wasn’t to be messed with.

  ‘I don’t think it’s very bright,’ Axel whispered.

  ‘THE LOBSTRON BRAIN IS ABOUT EQUAL TO A RABBIT,’ said BEAST.

  Now the Lobstron was
scuttling back and forth across its area of seabed, like a crotchety old castle guard who has been woken up and forced to do a patrol when all he really wants to do is sleep.

  ‘It hasn’t seen us,’ said Axel. ‘But it’s bound to if we go any closer. Hold on. I’ve got an idea.’

  He brought MANTA down to the seabed and then kept going, driving its smooth, flat form into the soft sand, just like a flatfish camouflaging itself. Once MANTA was completely buried and he was sure they wouldn’t be seen, he whipped up the tail and waggled it.

  The Lobstron noticed. It squinted into the murk. Something was out there, but its aged eyes couldn’t quite make it out. It scuttled down the sandy slope on its many metal legs, occasionally snapping its pincers menacingly.

  A wheezy, bubbly voice came through BEAST’s internal speakers: ‘WHO GOES THERE?’

  No wonder BEAST said it was dangerous, Axel thought, as he waited in the heart-thumping dark. Those pincers could slice a tank’s gun barrel off.

  He heard a nerve-jangling scraping noise as the Lobstron’s legs scrabbled over the rocks and onto MANTA’s back.

  Then it stopped.

  Right on top of them.

  The Lobstron squatted on top of BEAST, as he lay in the sand in his flat MANTA form. It looked around, squinting into the murky darkness.

  Axel held his breath, hovering his hand over the control that moved MANTA’s tail. He might be able to get in one solid hit before the Lobstron went on the attack. It wasn’t much of a chance, but it was better than nothing.

  He touched the control – and then he hesitated.

  The sound of grinding metal was back. The Lobstron was moving again, stalking further down into the deeper sea. It was still looking for the mysterious thing it had seen.

  When the dreadful sound of the scraping legs had faded away completely, Axel breathed out all at once.

  ‘Brain of a rabbit,’ he gasped. ‘Some rabbit.’

  ‘BEAST IS GLAD WE DID NOT HAVE TO FIGHT.’

  ‘Yeah. If you’d been in SHARKOS form, it would have been another story. Let’s get out of here before it comes back.’

  In his regular robot form, BEAST began striding up out of the sea. Water ran off him and flowed away down the sand. A starfish was clinging to his bottom. Through the transparent canopy in his chest, Axel watched the water level go down and down.

  There, at the top of the sandy rise, was the Grabbem mansion. Somewhere inside were the secrets of the Plunderer.

  Spotlights shone down from towers all around the house. They were bright as the lights on a soccer pitch, but they moved slowly back and forth.

  Axel kept BEAST away from the lights, safe in the outer shadows where they wouldn’t be seen. Once he’d come as close as he dared, he stopped. ‘That’s as far as we can go together.’

  ‘BUT WE NEED TO GET INSIDE.’

  Axel sighed. ‘No.’

  ‘… BEAST DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. YOU HAVE ANOTHER PLAN?’

  ‘We aren’t going in there, BEAST. I am. Alone.’

  ‘BUT AXEL AND BEAST ARE A TEAM.’

  Axel laughed. ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll do fine on my own.’

  ‘FINE ON YOUR OWN?’ echoed BEAST.

  Axel tried again. ‘BEAST, this is a stealth mission, remember? I have to get inside without being seen. And you’re a big robot. A fantastic, awesome robot, yeah. But definitely a big one. Do you understand what I’m saying?’

  BEAST was silent.

  ‘I’ll be super careful. I promise.’

  ‘WHAT IS BEAST MEANT TO DO WITHOUT YOU?’

  ‘Just hide. Stay away from any patrols. Don’t get into fights with any strange robots or anything.’

  ‘OKAY,’ BEAST said, not sounding okay.

  ‘I won’t be gone long.’

  Axel punched the canopy release and went to open it. It was stuck, yet again. He thumped it until it opened, climbed out of BEAST and took a deep breath. The air out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was cool and clean, and salty from the sea. It shook him awake, after having been cooped up inside BEAST for so long.

  He put on the new visor that Agent Omega had given him.

  Instantly he could see as clearly as day, even though it was night. Invisible features of the Grabbem house stood out as brightly as fireworks – secret pressure-pad traps, crisscrossing alarm beams, even some sort of snake-like thing lurking under the house’s front lawn.

  He relaxed a little. Now he didn’t feel quite so much like a hapless newbie blundering into a deadly labyrinth. He felt like a trusted agent.

  He turned to wave goodbye to BEAST. The robot was sitting in a huddle on the sand, hugging his knees.

  Is he trying to disguise himself as a rock? Axel thought. That’s weird.

  Axel had never had any secret agent training – very few kids of his age ever get the chance, though some are lucky enough to – but he was a gamer through and through. He’d played enough stealth games to know the sort of thing he should be doing right now.

  He went through the checklist in his mind:

  Stay out of the light.

  Use cover.

  Plan ahead.

  Move only when you have to, and always know where you’re going next.

  He ran barefoot across the sand, keeping to the dark areas between the moving spotlights. Halfway across, as the spotlights swung back, he dived behind a rock and waited for their blinding glare to pass. When he was in darkness once again he moved on.

  He leapt over a trip-wire that would have caught any normal human, but it stood out in his vision like a red-hot sparkler. A quick dash over cold paving stones, and he was up to the front wall of the house. The wall was made from smooth marble blocks, no doubt costing a fortune.

  This is amazing, he thought. He felt more alive than ever before. His blood seemed to sing with energy.

  Where now? Could he just walk up to the front door and expect to get in? There didn’t seem to be any guards here, neither human nor robot. Best to make sure, though. He tapped the smart visor and switched it to its most sensitive heat-detection setting.

  There. Like human figures made from purple flame, the heat signatures of three people were clear in his view. They were in a room just inside the house, and they were sitting down. So they must be awake, then, and alert.

  Probably guards on night duty having a casual chat, Axel figured. Chatting about what, though? The Plunderer, maybe?

  He had to know.

  He just had to get inside this island fortress of a mansion somehow. He stayed completely still, letting his gaze rove over the front of the house. He looked at the hundreds of dark windows; none were open. There were no drainpipes to climb. The sheer marble walls offered no inviting ledges to pull himself up onto. If this had been a movie about a kid secret agent, he could have unscrewed an air vent and climbed inside it. But the only air vents he could see were on the roof, and only about fifteen centimetres across.

  Well, he thought, there’s always the front door.

  He looked carefully at the riveted metal door, which looked like it belonged on a warship. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the little box alongside the door.

  A keypad.

  ‘What did Agent Omega say about the smart visor hacking Grabbem terminals?’ he whispered to himself. ‘I hope keypads count …’

  He sidled over to the door. The keypad box glowed in the dark like a charging smartphone. He reached up to it and held his fingers out.

  The visor whirred with wild colours for a full minute as it made its calculations. Then four of the keypad buttons lit up in order. Axel tapped them quickly, his hands shaking.

  A soft click, a hiss of pressurised air, and the door swung open.

  I did it. I’m in …

  Once, when Axel was a little boy, he’d visited a friend’s house. They had played hide and seek. Axel’s first hiding place – the cupboard under the stairs – had been way too obvious, and so he had been determined to do something special for the next one.
/>   He had ended up wandering into a part of the house he hadn’t ever seen before. It was where his friend’s granny lived, but he hadn’t known that at the time. He hid under the old woman’s bed. He lay there among the dust bunnies and dropped tissues as the minutes ticked by. His friend’s searching shouts became even more desperate.

  Then his friend’s granny came into the room and lay down on the bed for a rest. Axel lay paralysed underneath her, hardly daring to breathe. He knew that if he tried to escape she would see him, and probably scream her head off.

  He had felt terrified, and yet thrilled at the same time.

  That long-ago moment came back to him now as he slipped through the metal door and into the hallway of the Grabbem mansion.

  The hallway was long and wide and featureless, apart from a huge painting of Gus Grabbem Senior that hung at the end. The portrait scowled at Axel. He looked like a toad in a business suit. Axel watched his eyes to see if they moved, but they didn’t.

  From behind a nearby door came the sound of voices.

  Axel crept up to the door, which was open a crack, and peeked in.

  It was a security room, with dozens of screens on the wall. Two men and a woman sat around a table with their sleeves rolled up, drinking coffee. Grabbem guards.

  ‘… we’re gonna get a raise, no question,’ said the one nearest the door.

  ‘We won’t get a raise. They’ll just give us company credits or something, to spend on more Grabbem merchandise,’ the woman said. ‘Costs ’em less that way.’

  ‘But this is different,’ insisted the first guard. ‘And I’m gonna tell you why it’s different.’

  Wow, this is dynamite stuff, Axel thought wearily. I don’t know what I expected. These are just working people talking about work.

  ‘This here island is going to become Grabbem Central, because it’s the Plunderer’s base of operations,’ explained the guard. ‘That thing’s going to tear through the ocean floor like a hog goin’ after truffles, rakin’ up all sorts of goodies. Gold, rare minerals, diamonds even! Anything gets in its way – coral reefs or whatever – it’ll just chew right through ’em. I tell you, guys, we’re in the right place!’