The taller man reached out to jab at the thrashing mutant with a stun gun, but he was knocked backward by a knobby elbow. The man with the shaven head quickly lunged from the other side, slipping his stun gun beneath the plastic wrappings covering Clank’s ribs and pressing the trigger.
The panicked mutant suddenly stiffened and gurgled, every muscle seeming to tense at once as the electric charge coursed through its body. After a couple of seconds, the creature slumped to the floor, still twitching and muttering, but unable to stand.
“Kill you all,” it groaned. “I’ll kill you all. Every…one of…you. Traitorous worms…”
Bill approached the shuddering beast, holding his own stun gun at the ready.
“I truly am sorry, Joseph,” he said quietly, even as the mutant continued to mutter and hiss. “You have a brilliant mind, but it’s been twisted by events beyond your control. I really wish I didn’t have to do this.”
The creature reached out a feeble, trembling arm, grasping toward Bill’s throat with its vicious talons. “Die…” it muttered thickly.
Bill quickly reached around the fumbling limb and placed the stun gun against Clank’s shoulder. With a final shuddering spasm, the beast fell silent. Sighing heavily, Bill turned to the others in the chamber and began shouting orders.
“Lucas, get that cord and tie him up,” he said, pointing at Clank’s prone form. “I don’t want to kill him if we don’t have to. And get a blood sample—the codes will be useless without it. Tully, get out the transmitter and send the signal. It’s sooner than we planned, but we don’t have any choice now. We’ll have to just give it our best shot.”
The men nodded and began hustling about the chamber. Bill turned and began slowly walking toward the doorway where Caleb now stood. For a moment, they just looked at each other, neither quite ready to believe what they were seeing.
“Caleb,” Bill said, his voice hoarse with emotion. “It’s really you, isn’t it?”
Caleb nodded, having some trouble finding his own voice.
Bill looked Caleb up and down, an expression of awe on his face, then he pulled him into a tight bear hug. “You’ve changed so much,” he said. “You’re taller than me, now. I don’t know how I even recognized you.”
“But you did,” Caleb finally said.
“Yeah,” Bill nodded, staring into Caleb’s eyes. “I guess I could never really forget that face, even if it is all stubbly now.”
Caleb chuckled weakly, holding back tears. He felt a gentle touch on his arm and turned to see Tess standing next to him. The other old-bloods were also moving forward out of the shadows, followed by Chuck.
“So,” Bill said, raising his eyebrows and casting a wary glance at the ceratosaurus, “Who are your friends?”
Garner stepped forward and extended a stocky, two-fingered hand. “My name is Garner. I was the leader of a caravan of old-bloods that was attacked by the Ne Shaazi. Your nephew saved us all and helped us find a secret old-blood city.”
Bill gave Caleb a brief, stunned look, then shook Garner’s hand heartily. “A pleasure to meet you.”
Garner nodded, flashing a sharp-toothed grin.
“These are my other friends,” Caleb said, pointing to the others behind Garner. “The old-bloods there are Eric, Gabe, Hank, and Rebecca. The Awaru is called Krezahu, and the Ceratosaurus is Chuck. She looks dangerous, but she’s been with me since she was a hatchling.”
Caleb turned to his left and looked at Tess, who was staring at Bill with a giddy grin. “And this is Tess,” he said, smiling.
Bill regarded her for a moment, a slightly puzzled look on his face.
“I’m sure we’ve never met,” he said, shaking his head, “but I have the strangest feeling that I know you.”
“You do,” Tess said, beaming. “The last time I saw you, you were helping Caleb and me escape from Commander Pollard in the subway tunnel. I never did get a chance to thank you.”
Bill’s eyes widened in sudden recognition. “Theresa?” he gasped. “Is it really you? This is incredible!” he said stepping forward and surprising her with a big hug. “I can’t believe you both made it!”
“Well, we got separated for a while,” she said, “but Caleb found me again eventually.”
As Bill stood shaking his head in amazement and staring at Caleb and Tess, one of Clank’s workers approached and laid a hand on Bill’s arm.
“Bill, we’ve got to get moving,” he said nervously. “We’ve sent the signal. The others will be ready soon.”
Bill nodded and turned back to Caleb, a new look of urgency on his face.
“We’ll have to save the rest of this reunion for later,” he said. He began climbing back down to the sunken middle section of the chamber. “Come on, Caleb. Help me get the magnetic stabilizer.”
“The what?” Caleb asked, scrambling down the short ladder after him.
“Magnetic stabilizer,” Bill answered. He rushed over to the table where Clank had reactivated the old stereo. “It’s a device I helped Clank build. He never trusted the Reaver completely. He thought that if he could find a way to reverse the effect that neutralized all the old electronics, he would have an edge against the Reaver if they ever had a falling out.”
Bill proceeded to disconnect a number of delicate electronic components, wrapping them in trash bags and old bubble wrap and handing them to Caleb. As they worked, Bill hurriedly explained his situation.
“After Pollard caught me in the subway, he brought me back here with him. He kept me around like a sort of combination slave, scapegoat and punching bag. That’s how I lost the eye and got all these other scars. After a while he got bored with torturing me, but he didn’t want to kill me and let me off easy. Around that time, Joseph—the one they call Clank—was looking for someone educated to help with his projects, so he traded Pollard some other slaves in exchange for me.”
Bill handed one more bundle to Caleb, then picked up the rest of the components and began carrying them back up to the shelf-lined upper floor.
“As Joseph’s assistant, I had access to all sorts of equipment and information that none of the other slaves did. Thanks to Joseph’s erratic memory, I was able to smuggle all sorts of gadgets and information out to the other slaves. Over the past several years, we’ve been preparing a plan to overthrow the Reaver. We didn’t plan on making our move so soon, but now that Joseph knows, we’ll have to. It won’t be long before someone comes looking for him.”
Bill and Caleb stopped next to Garner and the others. Bill set the bundled parts on a small table and began rummaging through the shelves until he had retrieved a metal box and a large duffel bag. He placed the more delicate components in the box, and put it in the bag with the rest of the parts.
“Tully has already sent the signal to the other slaves,” Bill said hurriedly. “We have a plan to get them out of the factory section, and we should be able to arm most of them. I’m going to have to get to the Reaver’s chambers. There are controls there for nearly every system in this complex. From there, I can trigger all of the undersea airlocks to open, then disable the emergency lockdown system. It’ll flood this entire place. If I’m lucky, I’ll even be able to get into the Reaver’s own escape ship. He’ll be trapped here to drown with the rest of his army. While I do that, Tully is going to lead the rest of the slaves to the hangar so they can escape.”
Caleb’s mind spun as he considered his uncle’s plan. “If I’m lucky,” Caleb thought. It sounds like a suicide plan.
Caleb almost didn’t notice as Krezahu moved next to him and tugged on his vest.
“That will not be enough to stop the Shard-Mind,” Krezahu said softly. “Letting in the sea will kill all of the others, but not their master. He will survive and rebuild. He can only be stopped if you have the courage to face him, as you did with Pollard on the Destroyer.”
As Caleb pondered the Awaru’s words, the taller man with tangled hair came up to Bill and took the bag full of components. “Ready Bill?” he asked. “The trai
n’s waiting.”
“Ready as ever,” Bill answered. “Let’s go.”
“Wait a minute,” Caleb said. “You’re going into the Reaver’s chambers?”
“I’ll have to,” Bill replied. “It’ll be dangerous, but it’s the only way to trigger all of the airlocks and disable the emergency lockdown.”
Caleb nodded. “Then we’re coming with you. I have to find the Reaver.”
“What?” Bill said, shocked. “Listen, I’m not going after him, I’m going after the master controls. He’ll kill you.”
“It’s hard to explain,” Caleb said. “Krezahu has taught me how to use my gifts. Remember when Pollard and the Ne Shaazi chased us into the subway?”
Bill nodded.
“I did something, and one of the Ne Shaazi just dropped. Pollard said I was a ‘psi,’ and when he tried to read my mind, I pushed him back out.”
“Yes, I remember something like that,” Bill said. “But this is different.”
“I’m a lot stronger now,” Caleb said. “When I saved Garner and the others from the Ne Shaazi, Pollard was there. He tried to fight me with his mind, but I won, and we killed him.”
Bill blinked. “Pollard’s dead?” he asked in a stunned voice.
“Yes.”
“And you killed him?”
“I helped. So did the others. Tess, Garner, Chuck—we all did it together. We can do this. Krezahu showed me that it’s what I have to do. If I can defeat the Reaver, the Ne Shaazi and the Commanders won’t matter anymore.”
Bill took a deep breath, then nodded. “Okay. Fine. We’ll go together. Come on.”
With that, he led Caleb and the others down to the lower level and opened the door that Clank had entered through. Lucas handed each of them a stun gun as they passed.
The tunnel was dark and stuffy despite its large size. Here and there, tiny lights broke the darkness, casting just enough light to avoid stumbling against the walls.
After about a hundred feet, the tunnel opened up into another subway station. Unlike Clank’s laboratory, this station was still in use. An empty train was waiting at the platform with its doors open. Tully led the others aboard, while Lucas vanished into the driver’s compartment at the front of the train. The taller old-bloods grumbled a bit as they seated themselves in the cramped car. Eric actually had to sit on the floor to make himself comfortable, and it took some strong coaxing to convince Chuck to enter the vehicle. Soon enough, however, they were rushing down the tracks through the inky darkness.
As the train rattled and rumbled along the tracks, Bill turned to Caleb. For a moment, he only looked at him, though Caleb could sense the coming question.
“Caleb,” Bill asked quietly. “What about Carol? Did you ever…”
Caleb found himself unable to look Bill in the eye. “No,” he whispered. “She still might have made it—I don’t know. But I never saw her, or found any sign of her. I tried to go back to San Francisco once, years later, but the sea had come in by then. There was nothing but a few deserted islands left. If she did survive, there was no telling where she might have gone.”
Bill nodded, his eyes closed tightly.
“I’m sorry. Maybe if I had gone to look for her sooner,” Caleb said, his voice cracking.
“No, no,” Bill said. He patted Caleb on the shoulder and forced a smile. “It’s okay. I know you did what you could—more than I ever would have asked. I resigned myself a long time ago to the thought that I would never see either of you again. It feels like a miracle that you’re actually here.”
Caleb smiled weakly and stared out the window at the shadowy blur of passing walls. After a few more minutes, the train began to slow. Up ahead, Caleb could just make out the dim lights of a station with another train parked at the platform. The doors hissed open as they came to a stop behind the other train. Caleb stood and prodded Chuck out of the door, making way for the others.
Bill led them to a broad staircase and gestured for them to follow quietly. The smell of metal, sweat and steam filled the air as they crept downward. The air grew progressively hotter as they went, and Caleb could hear some sort of heavy machinery rumbling and clanking, mixed with the sounds of human and Ne Shaazi voices.
They followed Bill around a corner at the bottom of the stairs, moving stealthily down a dark corridor. The passage was filled with steam and the scents of machinery, with diffused light shining through a tall doorway at the far end. With the hot, thick steam billowing past, Caleb couldn’t see past the edge of the doorway until they were almost through it. When he was finally able to see the chamber beyond, his eyes widened in surprise.
The chamber was immense—a huge, cavern-like hollow carved out of the surrounding bedrock. The doorway opened out onto a narrow metal balcony hanging more than fifty feet above the cavern’s crowded floor. The entire space was filled with a tangled web-work of steel catwalks and stairways connecting a dizzying jumble of broad metal platforms that hung from the ceiling or stood balanced on massive metal pillars. Almost every available space was filled with machinery. Endless chains of conveyer belts ran from complex workstations to huge presses and rows of automated assembly robots. On the fringes of the chamber, huge forges and smelting furnaces blazed with a searing orange glow. All around, armed Ne Shaazi guards strutted up and down the metal catwalks, grumbling and snarling at the crowds of ragged human slaves. It looked to Caleb like a nightmarish blend of several different kinds of medieval foundries and modern automated factories.
As Caleb stared down into the cavern, Bill stepped forward and pulled him back away from the door.
“You’re going to want to stay away from that balcony,” he whispered.
“What? Why—did someone spot us?” Caleb asked, stepping back and scanning the cavern nervously.
“No, we’re okay for now,” Bill answered. “Just take my word for it. You’ll see.”
As Caleb stepped farther back, Lucas moved forward, carrying a ragged sack full of thick electrical cords. Caleb noted that he had slipped on a pair of rough moccasins made out of pieces of rubber tire and strips of blue tarp.
“Wish me luck,” he said, smiling grimly.
Bill nodded and patted him on the back, then watched as he stepped out onto the balcony and headed over to the long row of metal stairs leading down to the lower floor. Caleb leaned forward a little to watch. He could just make out Lucas's bald head as the man moved swiftly across the crowded floor toward a massive generator. A few times, he passed rather close to some of the Ne Shaazi guards, but by ducking his head and assuming a hunched, cowering shuffle like the other slaves, he was able to pass without notice.
“See the shoes?” Bill asked in a whisper.
“Yeah…” Caleb answered.
“Everybody in there is wearing them,” Bill continued. “The metal walkways and platforms are hot from the furnaces. The Ne Shaazi’s feet are really thick-skinned so it doesn’t hurt them, but most slaves don’t have shoes, just cloth wrappings. After a while, the hot metal will blister their feet without protection. The guards let them make shoes out of old tires and other thick rubber scraps to keep them from burning their feet. It makes them more productive.”
“So…” Caleb said, already forming an idea.
“So, it also makes a great electrical insulator.”
Caleb looked at the tangled clutter of metal walkways, metal platforms, metal pillars. He turned to Bill, suddenly realizing the plan.
“They’re going to electrocute the guards!” he whispered.
“Watch,” Bill said, nodding and pointing down to the large generator.
Caleb could see Lucas crouching in the shadow of the machine. He had removed a large access panel and was connecting the electrical cables to it with alligator clamps. He quickly dragged the cables to several support pillars and connected the other ends to the large metal bolts, then returned to the generator. He paused to take a deep breath, then stood up and pointed to a large series of metal tanks along the far wall, shout
ing at the top of his lungs.
“Gas leak! Gas leak!”
Suddenly, in unison, the workers fell completely silent as the Ne Shaazi guards stared nervously at the row of tanks.
“That was the signal—watch now,” Bill said excitedly.
As one, the slaves raised their hands in the air, releasing any controls or metal tools. Those Ne Shaazi that weren’t still staring at the tanks gawked at the slaves in confusion. As the first guards started to bark orders to get back to work, Lucas pulled a large lever on the generator.
The chamber was suddenly filled with flaring sparks as a massive electrical current surged through the entire system of metal walkways. Caleb watched in horrified fascination as the Ne Shaazi guards began shrieking and convulsing. He quickly realized that while the metal was affected by the same magnetic destabilization that ruined delicate electronics, it would still conduct a charge, albeit an unstable one. Rather than being quickly killed by a steady current, the Ne Shaazi were being slow-fried by a rapid series of random electrical pulses.
In moments, the screams of the dying Ne Shaazi faded into muffled gurgles and rasps, and the thick scent of burning flesh flooded the chamber. Caleb could see Lucas reverse the lever and bolt back toward the metal staircase. Before the remaining Ne Shaazi on the lower concrete floor could figure out what had happened, the slaves on the upper levels had grabbed the fallen guards’ guns and unleashed a hail of bullets. The surviving guards only managed a few wild shots before they were mowed down by the angry slaves.
Lucas reached the top of the stairs, then turned to face the crowd of former slaves.
“It’s time!” he shouted, and the crowd fell silent. “We can’t fight them all, but let’s take out as many as we can on the way out!”
The crowd roared with excitement and began grabbing the remaining guns from the dead Ne Shaazi as they rushed toward the balcony.
Krezahu slipped quietly beside Caleb, patting his arm happily. “And you thought that this quest was doomed to fail,” he whispered.
Caleb looked down at the small Awaru for a moment. “Did you know that all this would happen? That they would already have a plan—that Bill would be here?”
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