The Iron Fist

by Andy Briggs

  Dev was silent as he processed the information. His whole world, his entire reason for being, was far different from anything he had imagined. “So Eema was never designed to guard the Inventory – she was only designed to guard me?”

  All the while Dev had felt bitter about living under Eema’s dictatorial eye when all along she had been there to protect him. And he in turn had been created to protect the Inventory, the very place he longed to be free of.

  “But now I’m outside…” Dev stopped in his tracks. He was the key. By leaving the Inventory he had unlocked the door and left it open for the Collector and his team.

  Dev suddenly felt very stupid. He had played into their hands from the very beginning. He sighed so deeply that his body shook, his shoulders sagging in defeat.

  “You win. Here, you might as well have this piece of junk back.”

  He lifted the gauntlet with one hand, his other slipping inside to bear the weight. It was an innocent motion that didn’t arouse anybody’s suspicions – just as Dev had intended.

  The moment his hand slipped into the gauntlet, he felt as if he had immersed it in warm water. His synaesthesia kicked into action and suddenly he knew what the gauntlet was. He could sense its potential.

  He knew exactly how to activate it.

  There was a gentle pressure along his forearm, and the tiny Tesla coils flared to life, powered by the tiny current running naturally through his body. Dev couldn’t help but smile when he saw the look of horror creeping over Lee’s face as the metallic plates along the relic rapidly expanded out across his arm with a clicking noise, reminiscent of a camera snapping photos.

  “Oops,” he said. “I think I have just activated it. Why don’t we see what this piece of rubbish is really capable of?”

  The transformation was so fluid that it was difficult to follow what was happening. Dev glimpsed tiny hexagonal plates, no bigger than his thumbnail, spread up his arm and across his body. Within seconds he felt them slide up his throat like a layer of mud, then tickle his face before covering his eyes, plunging him into blackness.

  The claustrophobia would have panicked most people, but Dev kept his wits. He reasoned that an artefact of this importance wouldn’t try to kill him. The darkness tuned his other senses. He was still able to breathe through the metallic plates and, as they spread, the gauntlet’s weight on his arm decreased until it was perfectly distributed across his body and felt no heavier than a thick winter coat.

  His sixth-sense synaesthesia was chiming too. Pleasant pastel colours swirled before his eyes, assuring him all was right and the machine was operating exactly as an advanced suit of mechanized battle armour should. No wonder Wade had been nervous about him activating it. It was a lot more than a piece of salvaged junk.

  Then light appeared – real light, not the swirling colour of his synaesthesia – and he could suddenly see the farm.

  His first observation, looking at the objects around him, was that he appeared taller, as if standing on a rooftop.

  He imagined just how cool he must be looking right now.

  Lee and the Collector reeled backwards as the gauntlet enveloped Dev’s arm and spread across his body in a series of small metal plates.

  “Wow,” said Lee, rooted to the spot.

  Following the rough contours of Dev’s body, the mech swelled in size until it was the height of the barn, yet inside he couldn’t judge if he remained the same size or had grown with it. Mechanical muscles flexed. He twisted his hand and twigged his fingers – the suit mirroring his actions perfectly. This was a suit built for one purpose: war.

  The Collector warily retreated. He hadn’t been expecting this. His fingers accessed the control panel built into his glove and the stasis bomb folded with a loud pop. The figures who had been held in its grip were suddenly galvanized into motion.

  Sergeant Wade looked around in confusion. Dev had gone and a giant mech had appeared in his place.

  Gunfire erupted from the soldiers, equally confused. Bullets pinged from the metal giant, and Dev could feel the impact of each as if he had been punched. The impacts jolted him into action and he spun around, arm raised. The movements were smooth, as if he wasn’t wearing a giant suit.

  Dev screamed for them to stop shooting, but the suit didn’t amplify his voice; rather, it came out muffled and drowned in the automatic gunfire. He realized he was as much a target as the Collector.

  The Collector himself had dashed towards the barn for cover. Gunfire rained down on Dev’s arm and thigh. In desperation, he reached for the Chinook as it took off. The mech’s super-sized arms were easily able to pluck it from the air. The terrified pilot tried to accelerate his ascent – and Dev felt his feet skid on the ice. He quickly caught his balance and, with a grunt of effort, swung the helicopter around to block the hail of bullets.

  The Consortium soldiers ceased fire as soon as their first bullets clipped the Chinook. Dev gave a karate chop – and the mech suit followed his actions. With a tortured squeal of metal, the mech’s hands severed the forward set of rotors.

  Dev rolled the stricken Chinook across the ground, the second set of rotors tearing apart as they struck the frozen ground. The fuselage tumbled towards the Consortium troops – forcing them to flee out of its path.

  That was the distraction Dev needed to focus his attention on the Collector. He ran after the villain, who was following Lee towards one of the few barns left standing. The Collector held Lot by the collar. Lee dragged Mason, his pistol aimed at the boy’s ribs.

  The Collector stopped as the mech loomed over them. Dev could sense the mech’s controls; he knew the machine’s secret. With a simple motion he activated the weapons. A pair of rocket launchers unfolded from the mech’s shoulders, recessed guns elevating from the wrists. He had no time to marvel at the incredible miniaturization process that had packed everything into a single gauntlet. He had his friends to save.

  “This needs to end,” said the Collector. “Deactivate or…” He let the threat hang in the air.

  Dev considered unleashing the mighty firepower at his disposal. It would probably turn the Collector into a smoking crater. It would almost definitely kill Lot too.

  “I never bluff, Devon,” said the Collector. He indicated to his glove. “This is called a dimensionalizer. Watch.”

  A stream of nanoparticles rose from his glove and circled Lot’s head. Dev had no idea what the threat was, but the swarm couldn’t be good news. He glanced around and noticed Wade had regrouped her soldiers, who silently formed a semicircle behind the mech. At least she now knew Dev was inside the machine.

  With a flick of his wrist, the Collector guided his swarm to the nearest soldier. The cloud whipped out so fast the man didn’t see it coming. He was suddenly flattened into a two-dimensional image. His colleagues around him quickly backed away as the man shattered into countless particles.

  The Collector placed his gloved hand at the back of Lot’s neck. “Her life is in your hands.”

  Lot refused to whimper or cry, but even she couldn’t stop her lip trembling with fright.

  Dev snarled, but he had no choice. With a surge of clicking plates, he deactivated the mech. It folded rapidly away into the heavy gauntlet – leaving Dev standing before the Collector, his hand half out of the device.

  “OK,” said Dev. “Here’s what will happen. Release Lot and Mason. Put them in the barn. Once they’re safe, you can have this … and me.”

  “NO!” screamed Lot. “Don’t do it, Dev!”

  The Collector tightened his grip on her collar, choking her to silence. “A fair exchange. Lee.” He nodded towards the barn.

  Lee was wary. “You sure about this?”

  The Collector’s gaze never left Dev. “He may be many things, but a liar … no. You’re a man of your word, aren’t you, Devon? Just like me.”

  Dev felt sick to stomach. He didn’t want to be reminded that he and this fiend were the same. Is this what he would grow up to be?

  “Dev
, don’t…” pleaded Lot.

  “It’s the only way, Lot. Remember what your dad told you: keep flying high.”

  He saw the puzzled expression on Lot’s face before the Collector shoved her into the barn and Lee dragged the door closed.

  The Collector extended his hand. “As you can see, I am a man of my word.”

  Dev regarded the gauntlet. “This is a powerful weapon. I got a sense that it can do so much more.”

  “Indeed. Lee was mistaken that it was mere scrap. The gauntlet is an omega-class device. Otherwise it wouldn’t have been stored in the Red Zone.”

  “So I have unlocked the Inventory for you,” said Dev. “What are you going to do with it?”

  The Collector made an odd hawking sound, the closest he had come to a laugh. “Devon, your thinking is so one-dimensional. I have already done what I needed.” He indicated to the battlefield around them. “Smoke and mirrors, Dev. While you and the Consortium have been wasting time up here, my task force below has been looting the collection.”

  Yet again Dev felt as if the rug had been pulled from under his feet. “You used me as a decoy.”

  The Collector tilted his head. “Clones. Your design flaw is your predictability.”

  Dev opened his mouth to speak, but at that moment the side of the barn exploded in a rain of rotting wood as an aircraft burst out and hovered behind Lee and the Collector.

  The vehicle was no bigger than a family car; wires and piping hung from its belly, and a pair of hemispheres bolted to the side to provide an electromagnetic lift. It was the very machine Dev had stopped Lot from uncovering when they’d found Mason in the barn – a next-generation HoverCar.

  The craft purred as it hovered. Through the bubble canopy, Dev could see Lot and Mason seated inside. Lot was at the controls. She had understood the hidden meaning in his words – keep flying high, her father’s motto. Now she was gracefully demonstrating the skills she had learned with him – well, almost. The aircraft wobbled as she fought the cyclic control stick and simultaneously balanced the collective lever to keep them steady in the air. Mason controlled a joystick that moved a cannon bolted on to the aircraft’s nose.

  “You need to learn when to give up!” snapped Lee as he shot at the aircraft, bullets ricocheting from the reinforced canopy. “You’re becoming tedious.”

  Mason returned fire. A pulse of energy somersaulted Lee against a pile of wreckage.

  The Collector fired his dimensionalizer.

  Lot managed to jink the aircraft to the side as the cloud of nanoparticles shot past and smothered the remains of the barn. With an ear-piercing crack, the entire structure snapped from three dimensions to two – before toppling down and shattering into countless pieces.

  The Collector turned to flee – but ran straight into a giant fist.

  Literally.

  Dev had used the distraction to activate the mech suit. The massive fist struck the Collector, knocking him out.

  He spun to follow Lee, who had sprinted off the moment the barn had shattered. Dev was just in time to see Lee unfold what looked like a rubber disc and toss it on the floor. Dev recognized it as a portable hole.

  Lee flicked a casual salute – and jumped into the hole. The hole sucked in on itself and vanished with a loud pop.

  At Sergeant Wade’s signal, the Consortium troops sprang into action. They cuffed the Collector, taking care to remove his dimensionalizer glove. Even unconscious, the Collector was a lethal weapon.

  Dev deactivated the mech and watched Lot make a bumpy landing, although his mind was reeling with the cascade of revelations and the fact they had stopped the Collector.

  Mason and Lot climbed out of the craft and ran to Dev, who was surprised when Lot tightly hugged him.

  “You OK?” she asked, finally letting go. Dev nodded.

  Mason watched the Collector being dragged off. “Where did Lee go?”

  “He scored a hole in one,” muttered Dev. He could see Mason didn’t get it, but couldn’t summon the energy to explain. The sight of his smouldering home depressed him just as much as the wicked truths he had uncovered.

  Sergeant Wade patted him on the shoulder. “Dev, you have done some amazing things here. You should feel proud.”

  Dev shook his head. Pride was the last emotion he was feeling. “I need to go back and find my uncle.”

  “Your uncle will be OK.”

  “I hope so. Some of the thieves are still down there. We need to get them before they have a chance to escape.”

  The numbing truth was dawning on Dev. After seeing how easily Lee had slipped away, he wondered if there really was anybody left down there. Since the Collector had lured him out to deactivate the Iron First security, they could come and go as they pleased.

  The Collector had said it himself: they were exceptional thieves.

  Charles Parker looked shell-shocked as he gazed at the empty shelves in the Yellow Zone. From the moment Dev and his friends had escaped the Red Zone, Charles had felt a blow to his head and lost consciousness – only to awake to see Dev and Sergeant Wade kneeling over him with concern. His head had been bandaged, but he’d refused to be airlifted to a Consortium base for further medical attention. His first priority was the Inventory.

  Dev had noticed his first priority wasn’t his nephew. While that would have hurt him in the past, now he accepted the bitter pill that he was essentially just another item in the Inventory. He was an artificial clone. Did that mean he wasn’t really a person? Dev didn’t want to think about the consequences of that.

  Sergeant Wade had greeted Charles Parker as an old friend, but as soon as the extent of the theft became apparent, they both lapsed into shocked silence.

  A few items remained, but the majority of the exhibits – some the size of aircraft carriers – had simply vanished, and the surviving thieves with them. The sight of row after row of empty spaces made Dev feel sick. The Collector had toyed with him by trying to barter for the gauntlet, when he was in fact stalling for time while the surviving members of his team below cleaned out the inventions they really coveted.

  The real Eema was discovered in a partitioned section of the network. Lee had cleverly replaced her with a simple AI system that acted like Eema and insisted that Dev leave the complex.

  Dev found no satisfaction when the real Eema stated that her priority would have been to stop Dev leaving via the teleporter … at any cost.

  Charles Parker confirmed that the moment Dev had been through the teleporter, the security surrounding the objects in the Inventory had been deactivated. Dev was indeed the key to that. Without the security offered by him, the objects could now be moved out or destroyed. It was the Achilles heel in the security, the one that had been only uncovered in the journal the Collector had obtained. Some boffin in the World Consortium had pointed out that, in times of crisis, Inventory stock might have to be removed so it could be used. No matter how good security was, once it was deactivated, it was useless.

  How so many objects were moved in such a short space of time, nobody knew, but Charles suspected they had employed the range of teleporting devices that had once filled an entire shelf. With those they could have easily inserted a whole platoon of men to help take the gadgets. Dev pointed out a stasis bomb could have been used on them all, and they would never have known. The truth was there were many ways to plunder the unsecure Inventory.

  The pressing matter now was to trace where they had been taken. Charles was confident the team of Consortium forensic scientists would find out. But for now there was little to do other than mop up the mess.

  Dev dropped the gauntlet back on to its plinth in the Red Zone and sighed. “I feel so stupid.”

  Lot patted him on the arm. She didn’t know what to say. Mason looked away. He had been feeling guilty for the part he had played in letting the thieves in. He was so repentant that he kept apologizing to everybody he spoke to.

  Charles Parker placed his hand on Dev’s shoulder. It was supposed to be a co
mforting gesture, but coming from Dev’s uncle it just felt weird. “There’s no way you could have known.”

  There were still many questions burning in Dev’s brain. “So all of this was conducted for Shadow Helix? What is it?” His uncle hesitated. “And I’d better warn you,” Dev added, “if I ever hear the phrase you don’t need to know, then things are going to get violent.”

  “The truth is we don’t know. For many years Shadow Helix has been off the radar. Oh, we know it’s around, orchestrating things from afar, but we only see their lackeys – like the Collector.”

  Dev sighed. “So all those lethal gadgets are now loose out there. What’s going to happen to them?”

  Charles Parker was silent.

  “What’s going to happen?”

  Charles cleared his throat. “You’ve got to get them back.”

  “Me?” said Dev. “I thought that was the Consortium’s job?”

  “Devon, you were … created for a specific reason.” Charles Parker ignored the pained look on Dev’s face. “You can control and speak to each and every one of those devices. We need you out there.” He pointed upwards. “In the real world, where you can hunt them down and bring them back.”

  Dev couldn’t find the words to answer.

  Charles’s voice softened. “Devon … Dev … don’t be fooled. Whether you were created in a tube or any other way, it doesn’t make you less of a human. You’ll always be my nephew.”

  The thaw in his uncle’s cold demeanour took Dev by surprise. It reminded him of better days when his uncle hadn’t seemed so distant and lost in his work.

  Charles continued. “After all, that’s what you were made for.”

  The warmth Dev had been feeling vanished instantly. Dev shucked his uncle’s hand away and turned to Mason and Lot. Lot gave a smile, that infectious one he’d always admired. “We’ll help you,” she said.

  “Like it or not, as of now, you are both working for the World Consortium,” said Charles Parker.