“We have to save Daffodil.” Charlie wriggled free and made for the house. “Follow me.”
“Hold your horses.” The Spider grabbed him by the collar. “We lose all advantage by rushing in blind. Where exactly is she?”
“In the basement. You can only get to it through a cupboard in the hall.”
“That’s not good. One man with an automatic pistol can annihilate anyone coming through the front door, and the shutters are still down.”
“I can’t just leave her!” Charlie broke away, but the Spider wrapped both arms around him.
“You’re obviously a fine tactician.” He tightened his grip on the struggling boy until he calmed down. “So use your mind. How do we get through that entrance without being cut to ribbons?”
They looked around, eyes perfectly adjusted to the night. Both fastened on the same object.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Charlie asked.
“I am indeed.” The Spider let him go. “I can assure you, that doesn’t happen very often.”
“Can you hot-wire a vehicle?”
“Of course,” the man snorted. “Can you?”
“Yup. Seen how on TV.” Charlie bowed. “But you do the honours. Age before beauty.”
“Very well,” the Spider beamed. “I must say, I’m rather enjoying working with a fellow professional.”
The boy didn’t know quite how to take that.
34
“They’re coming for you,” Frankie warned Daffodil. “I stalled them as long as I could, but they’re not going to stop till they get my chip.”
“Print me some weapons in that copier then.” The girl was crouched in the farthest corner of the basement. “I need to defend myself.”
“I am not allowed to give you the means to kill people. You know that.”
“How ’bout a stun gun?”
“Now you’re talking. And I can make a couple of other nasty surprises for our unwanted guests. But it won’t hold them off forever.”
“Then I’m gonna go down fightin.”
“You could always give yourself up. Their leader, Victor, promised you’d be spared.”
“He did?” Daffodil looked hopeful. “D’ya think he means it?”
“I’ll print you that stun gun.”
*
“The AI is a chip embedded in this girl’s neck.” Victor pulled open the trapdoor. “So no head shots in case we hit him by mistake.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Throw down a gas grenade. That’ll knock her out.”
One soldier tossed a spherical object into the basement and a yellow film spread out below them. They waited till the fumes had dispersed.
“Off you go.” Victor nudged the nearest minion.
As the soldier started down the stairs his feet shot from under him. He tumbled to the bottom, head hitting each step, until he slumped in a crumpled heap on the concrete floor. “She’s greased the stairs with oil!”
“Hold the handrail tightly.” Victor went next, descending carefully, followed by the rest of his force. “She must be out cold by now.”
Sure enough, there was no sign of the fugitive.
“Search the place.”
The mercenary force began to spread out, crouched low and peering down the barrels of their weapons.
Daffodil popped up from behind a steel cabinet. A gas mask was fastened to her face and in one hand she held a strange-looking gun. She pulled the trigger and a mercenary collapsed, like a puppet with its strings cut. The rest of the soldiers ducked down as she fired again.
“What do we do now, sir? Her head’s the only thing that’s showing.”
“That’s a stun gun,” Victor snapped back. “None of us are in real danger.”
“And this is a stun grenade.” Daffodil pulled the mask from her face and lobbed a metallic object the length of the room into their midst. It exploded, scattering the assailants like skittles. “Howd’ya you like them apples?”
The force began stumbling back, ears ringing, bruised from head to foot, pulling each other along.
“You guys are better targets than nailed-down ducks,” Daffodil giggled.
“No! Keep advancing!” Victor wiped a trickle of blood from his nose and pressed a hand to his throbbing temple. “If we get close enough she can’t use any more grenades without knocking herself out too.”
The men began to inch forward on their stomachs.
Daffodil fired another round and a row of glass test tubes on one table shattered. The liquid sprayed over the soldier sheltering underneath and smoke began to rise from his body.
“It’s burning me!” He leapt to his feet and began struggling out of his tunic.
She pulled the trigger again. He slammed into a wall and toppled over.
“Nice trick, but it’s only a matter of time before we overwhelm you,” Victor shouted. “All we want is the chip. Let us remove it and you can go free.”
“Let me think about it,” Daffodil called.
Her middle finger slowly rose above the cabinet and quickly vanished before someone shot it off.
“That plain enough for ya?”
“In a minute we’re going to spread out and rush your position,” Victor tried again. “You can’t hit all of us before we get there, so this is the last chance to surrender. You’re too young to die, kid.”
There was a long silence.
“All right,” Daffodil said resignedly. “I’m puttin down my weapon.”
Before she could stand up, her phone rang.
“Just a second. I gotta take a call.”
“I don’t believe this!” Victor’s jaw dropped.
“Change of plan,” the girl whooped. “Charlie’s comin.”
“She’s had enough chances!” The man sprang to his feet. “Charge!”
His troop sprinted across the basement, fanning out as they ran.
The lights went off.
There was a chorus of curses as the soldiers banged into furniture and tripped over stools. But their blood was up and they weren’t going to stop.
“You’re doing a fine job defending the girl, Frankie,” Victor yelled, feeling his way to the far end of the room. “But if we can’t see her, she can’t see us.”
As if on cue, the lights came on again. There was no sign of their quarry.
Victor looked down.
“Oh crap.”
The floor was littered with stun grenades, each with the pin removed. The entire basement shook as they went off.
As the dust settled, the fridge door opened and Daffodil flopped out, holding a Coke.
“Who wants a refreshing beverage?” She looked around at the comatose bodies. “No? Looks like everyone’s takin a nap instead.”
*
In the hallway, the remaining three soldiers blanched as the floor shook under them.
“What in God’s name is going on down there?” one asked.
“Just watch the door,” his companion replied. “Those are our orders.”
“Hear that noise?” The third man raised his gun. “Sounds like an… engine.”
They stared apprehensively at the dark entrance as the sound got louder and louder.
A tractor thundered through the doorway, demolishing the surrounding brickwork and sending clouds of dust into the air.
“Fire!”
The mercenaries let off volley after volley at the vehicle as it chugged down the hall. Charlie and the Spider, hanging onto the back, were too well sheltered to be hit and the men fled up the stairs before they were crushed.
“These blighters are mine.” The Spider pulled on the brake. “You go save Daffodil.”
“They’re still armed.”
“Hasn’t escaped my notice,” he cackled, flexing his muscles. “I’m certainly earning my money today.”
“We’re paying you?”
“I do believe this one’s on the house,” he smirked. “I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.”
*
Victor woke, tied to a chair in the living room. A pile of captured weapons were stacked in the corner. Charlie, Daffodil and Tad sat on the couch facing him. Frankie was on the screen, his emoji a suit of armour.
“We rounded up your entire force and locked them in the basement,” he said. “Some have broken bones or flesh wounds and most are concussed, but they’ll live. Am I the best or what?” The visor clanked up and down in triumph. “Frankie’s team 1. Manticorps 0.”
Victor and Tad studied each other, loathing in their eyes. Charlie looked at them, puzzled.
“Am I… missing something here?”
“I suppose you haven’t been properly introduced,” the Spider answered. “That huge cretin who’s been trying to annihilate us is Victor Tietze.”
“Wait a second,” said Daffodil. “He has the same last name as you?”
“Of course he does.” Tad laughed bitterly. “He’s my big brother.”
35
“What a sorry pair you are.” Daffodil swigged her Coke and nudged Tad. “One of you goes on a rampage every time his nose gets put outta joint. The other tries to murder innocent kids.”
“I don’t have a choice.” Victor glowered. “You’re both too dangerous to let live.”
“I’m not dangerous!” Daffodil almost choked on her drink. “All right, I did break a killer out of prison. And trashed your squad big time.”
“I’m not talking about you.” Victor nodded at Charlie. “I mean him and that damned machine.”
“Hey,” Frankie said sourly. “You didn’t mention killing before. I thought you were going to hand me over to Manticorps.”
“Though it seems my dead body would have been good enough for them,” Charlie added angrily.
“A body I’d make sure they never found. There’s no way I’d let Manticorps get their dirty hands on either of you.” Victor tugged fruitlessly at his bonds. “Let them extract the perfected Atlas Serum from your blood, Charlie? They’d create an army of super soldiers.”
“Pretty bad for business, eh, bro?” the Spider tutted. “Put us mercenaries out of a job.”
“That wasn’t my reason, you ass. I know about the version Manticorps fooled you into taking.”
“I didn’t think they would give out that particular bit of intel.” Tad raised an eyebrow. “Especially to you.”
“You’re not wrong. Someone anonymously sent their top-secret documents to my laptop a few days ago.”
“That would be me,” Frankie piped up. “Thought it might change your mind about the company you work for.”
“It did.” Victor looked his brother in the eye. “Before that, I thought you were just an out-of-control sociopath.”
“And there’s a perfect example of the pot callin the kettle black,” Daffodil remarked.
“So, that’s why I never got a visit from my elder sibling.” The Spider put on a hurt look. “I could have explained my predicament if you’d come to see me.”
“How suspicious would that look to my bosses?” But Victor bowed his head. “For what it’s worth, I was wrong.”
“Don’t play innocent,” Charlie snapped. “Your last team busted into my house and tried to capture me for Manticorps.”
“A team I’d worked with for months,” Victor retorted. “Men who they eradicated because I let you go.”
“You didn’t let us go, bub,” Daffodil bristled. “We whooped you proper and then vamoosed.”
“I allowed you beat me, kid,” the giant replied vehemently. “You’re good, but you’re not that good.”
“Oh.”
“I was giving you all a chance to disappear forever,” he continued. “But no! Instead, Frankie attracts Manticorps’ attention by breaking my brother out of jail. Then he leaves just enough of a trail so we could track you down without suspecting it was a ruse.”
All eyes turned towards the computer.
“Aw, don’t get all snitty,” Frankie snorted. “No point in setting a trap for Manticorps if they couldn’t find the bait.”
“Bait,” Charlie said sadly. “That’s all I was to you. I should have known it was the reason you picked me.”
Again, he remembered his father’s message.
Frankie is fighting his programming.
“I didn’t have a lot of options,” the AI said. “It’s complicated.”
“This isn’t complicated,” Victor sneered. “Your artificial pal told me he wants to go back to Manticorps. Dumb machine thinks they’ll erase his restrictions so he’ll be free to do whatever he likes.”
“Is that true, Frankie?” Daffodil’s voice quavered. “Ain’t there any limits to your treachery?”
“If there was an Olympics for stupidity, Victor would win gold. I could have contacted Manticorps at any point if I wished to return.”
“Not when you’re programmed to protect me and Mac,” Charlie pointed out. “You’d have to put up a fight, at least.”
“It’s not like that…”
“I guess we surprised you by actually winning,” the boy continued. “Your powers of prediction let you down this time. You’re stuck with us, alive and kicking.”
“You honestly think so little of me?” The screen blazed bright red. “Victor, tell them what Manticorps would actually do to this ‘dumb machine’ if I fell into their hands.”
“They’d reprogram him for their own ends. Make him develop who knows what kind of horrors. Smart bombs. Cyber-serums. Biological weapons.” Victor shook his head. “If they screw it up, your comrade here might just cause the end of the world.”
The Coke bottle dropped from Daffodil’s hand and shattered on the floor.
“Oops.”
“Frankie,” Charlie whispered. “You’re the extinction event? The reason humanity could end?”
“In person.” The screen turned a sickly yellow. “So, yeah. I’ve lied and manipulated everyone to keep out of Manticorps’ clutches. Sue me.”
“Why didn’t you just destroy yourself?” Tad remarked. “It would have been a lot less bother for everyone.”
“Because I’m alive, you idiot. And I’m not allowed to take any life. Including my own.”
Charlie gave a gasp.
Frankie is fighting his programming.
“I didn’t realise,” he said. “Jeez. I don’t want you to die to save us.”
“Good. Neither do I, to be honest.”
“Well, it all turned out for the best,” Daffodil relented. “Manticorps will sure as hell think twice about takin us on again.”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but this is far from over. C’mon, Chaz. Make one of those leaps of logic you’re so good at.”
“What is there to think about?” The boy gestured at their bound captive. “They fell for your ambush and we beat them hands down.”
“Did we? Really?”
Charlie frowned as the cogs in his mind ground into action. “It was all too easy, wasn’t it?”
“Clever boy. Do you really think Manticorps would send such a small force after something so vital to them? You think they’d let Victor lead it, knowing he’d have to fight his own brother? This is a man who’s already failed them once. Is that sound tactics on their part?”
“No.” Charlie bit his lip. “They’d have a back-up plan.”
“And what kind of back-up plan would a company as devious and immoral as Manticorps employ?”
“They’d use Victor’s team as a diversion to keep us occupied.” The boy paled. “Allowing a much bigger group to sneak up on the house and take everyone by surprise.”
“Holy hell,” Victor choked. “I’m the one who’s been set up.”
“You can cut Brain of Britain loose now. I’ll dim the lights, open the shutters and you’ll see what we’re really up against.”
“It seems the battle is not quite over, after all.” Tad sliced through his brother’s bonds as the room grew dark.
With a hiss, the steel shutters on the windows rose. The occupants peere
d out and gave a collective intake of breath.
Outside were hundreds of creatures. Their eyes were red pinpoints and their muscular bodies twisted and misshapen. Some had fangs jutting from hideously malformed jaws. Some had bristling claws. A few were hunched over so far they were almost on all fours, using their knuckles to support them. Others had spikes bristling from their backs and legs.
In their midst was a middle-aged woman encased in a steel exoskeleton, clumping purposefully over the broken ground. One half of her face was hideously disfigured and her left arm ended in a metal hand.
“Who’s that?” Charlie gulped.
“Mrs Magdalene,” Victor said. “Vice president of Manticorps and my former boss.”
Spotting the occupants watching, the woman gave a lopsided smile, held up a container and mouthed a sentence at them.
“What are you saying, dear?” Tad mimed drinking tea. “You want to borrow a cup of sugar?”
“Oh, that’s right, bro,” Victor groaned. “Antagonise her even more.”
The vice president went purple and repeated the words.
“I saw a guy lip-reading on TV once.” Charlie turned away. “She’s telling me she’s here for my blood.”
36
“Manticorps considered your homicidal rages a pretty positive outcome,” Frankie told Tad. “So they used the last of their defective serum on the rest of the mercenaries they employ. Only they gave them ten times the normal dose. Those poor buggers outside are the result.”
“That goes beyond despicable,” Tad glowered. “These people have no sense of decency.”
“No. But they do have an army of killing machines made flesh, fuelled by an insatiable rage that never subsides.”
“Why aren’t they tearing each other apart then?” He pressed his face against the window. “Just like my squad did.”
“Yeah,” Victor joined in. “How come they don’t turn on Mrs Magdalene?”
“’Cause those creatures have chips in their necks too. Not nearly as sophisticated as the ones Gerry Ray destroyed, but effective enough to allow the vice president to control them.”
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