by Andy Briggs
“I said, not now!”
Dev felt a spike of anger that whatever tiff she was having with her boyfriend was now preventing them from acting like a team. He had intended to keep his tone friendly and light, but her behaviour was pushing his buttons. He snatched the phone from her hand.
“I don’t care if you’ve had an argument with that boyfriend of yours – this is mission critical. Aaron thinks there is a mole in our team.”
Lot snatched her phone back and gave Dev a strange look. “Don’t you ever touch my stuff again.” Then she composed herself and looked at Aaron, pointedly ignoring Dev. “Who is it?”
Before Aaron could explain, the Assessor drifted back out of his rickety house, his head fearfully looking around, in every direction.
“People! People! We have incoming unannounced visitors.”
Dev looked to the sky. “Helix?”
Before the Assessor could reply the nearest junk hill erupted as something shot out of it like a missile. Everybody ducked for cover as metal shrapnel rained down and the “missile” skidded in the dirt next to the Assessor. It was a large motorcycle with the widest tyres Dev had ever seen. The canopy was a glowing energy shield that arced over the rider, who almost laid flat to reach the handlebars. The nose of the bike was a glowing molten orb of plasma.
“Tunnel-Bikes!” Dev declared.
Another three bikes erupted from the ground, leaving large worm-like tunnels behind them, the dirt walls fused together as the plasma melted through them.
The lead rider flipped back his helmet and grinned at Dev. “Hey, kid. Fancy meeting you again.” Dev was stunned to recognize Lee.
With a jaunty wave, Lee reached for the box from the Assessor’s hand. The Assessor struggled, but fell off his scooter as Lee savagely booted him in the chest and plucked the box from his grasp.
Lee nodded towards Tyker. “Get him. And bring a girl too. Always good to have a hostage in case clone boy here thinks he’s gonna try and stop us.” He winked at Dev. “No offence.”
A second biker revved his engine and shot past Tyker. Like a medieval jousting knight, he stunned the German with a taser then threw him over the back of his saddle.
“See you around, kid.” Lee saluted Dev, snapped his visor down, and throttled the engine. The Tunnel-Bike nose-dived into the ground, its plasma cutter destroying the solid earth in front of it as easily as molten lead through butter.
The third bike followed and Lot screamed as the fourth rider snatched her off her feet.
“You’re coming with me,” he growled.
Lot stopped struggling and snarled bitterly at him. “Do I look like a damsel in distress?”
Lot put the Sonic-Whistle to her lips and blew it inches from his visor. The noise she heard was barely audible. However, a sonic blast beyond their range of hearing struck the visor. The tempered glass rippled like a stone unsettling a millpond – then shattered into hundreds of fragments that struck the rider point-blank in the face. With a scream he toppled from the bike.
Lot mounted the bike as Dev ran to her, pointing towards the last rider as he disappeared down the tunnel behind Lee.
“They’re getting away! Let me drive.”
Lot revved the engine. She’d ridden a cross-bike around her uncle’s farm once, and wasn’t going to let the opportunity of riding this monster slip by. She nodded behind her and smiled ruefully. “No chance. Get on.”
Dev didn’t have time to argue. He barely had time to grip Lot around the waist before she accelerated forward at a reckless speed, whooping with delight as she aimed for the tunnel in the ground.
As soon as they entered the tunnel, Dev felt a wave of air pressure clamp over his ears, almost deafening him, and the world around them went pitch black as Lot corkscrewed the bike around the tunnel.
The Tunnel-Bike’s canopy suddenly blazed to life with an opaque heads-up display that completely covered them. Their speed – a breakneck sixty miles-per-hour and rising – and depth – twenty metres and increasing – was projected at the bottom. An arthritic worm-like image that turned out to be a map showed their route behind, while the rest of the display showed a shimmering black-and-white image of the bikes ahead and, if Dev looked around, what was through the rocks around them – although all he could see was more rock. It reminded him of an expectant mother’s ultrasound scan and he guessed it was similar technology.
They were rapidly catching up with the rider ahead, who remained oblivious to the threat looming. Lot shifted in her saddle, and dug her elbows into his arms.
“You’re holding too tight!”
“I don’t want to fall off!”
“I can’t breathe!”
Dev tried to relax his grip, but Lot still wriggled.
“Now you’re tickling me!”
“I’m not tickling you!”
“Stop it! You want me to crash this thing?”
“How’re you going to crash? If you hit the wall it’ll just melt through it!”
“Dev!”
With a snort of annoyance, Dev held on to her shoulders. “Fine!”
“Good! Now work out a way to stop them.”
While pursuing Lee had seemed like a sensible thing to do at the time, actually stopping him as they followed at speed in a narrow tunnel behind posed tricky problems.
“Draw alongside that one.”
Lot frowned, uncertain. “Are you sure?”
“Uh-huh. The plasma cutter will melt through the wall.”
Lot glanced at the speedo. “If it doesn’t then we’re about to slam into the tunnel wall at eighty miles per hour!”
“Trust me!”
Lot sucked in a deep breath – then jinked the handlebars just enough to direct the bike into the wall. She braced herself for impact, but as Dev had said, the bike’s nose cone-mounted plasma cutter effortlessly sliced through the rock and they were suddenly carving their own parallel tunnel. The sonic HUD scanned their path ahead, but showed nothing but rock. Dev glanced to the side and could now see the thieves’ tunnel – and bikes – several metres away through the wall.
Lot carefully repositioned their bike bringing it alongside the other tunnel – although a narrow layer of rock still separated them.
“Ram him!” yelled Dev.
Lot gritted her teeth and accelerated forward, at the same time slewing the Tunnel-Bike into the side of her target.
The dull crump of metal shook both bikes as Lot emerged from the wall and struck. The rider looked about in alarm. Lot matched his pace alongside, both vehicles carving a dual extra-wide tunnel.
The biker must have warned the others because he peeled sharply away the same moment Lee and the second rider arced in separate directions. Lot and Dev could see their worm-tunnels snaking away like primitive fireworks portrayed on an old eight-bit computer game.
“Stick with Lee,” said Dev. “Remember, you can’t crash.”
Lot changed gear, the Tunnel-Bike’s supercharged engine growling louder as she cut through the rock, straight for Lee. No matter how much he twisted and turned ahead, Lot had the advantage of carving the straightest path towards him.
“I have you now!” she snarled as they narrowed the gap.
A sudden blast from behind made their bike shudder. Dev glanced over his shoulder and saw the last rider had circled around on them and was aiming a fat-barrelled pistol at them. Lot zigzagged, carving a series of rock columns in their wake that absorbed the next shot.
“He’s using a Sonic-Blaster,” yelled Dev, recognizing the weapon as its sound blast disintegrated a column close to them.
“Do something!”
“Do you want me to throw my trainer at him?” Their bike shook as another sonic blast slammed into the ceiling. “We have to get behind him somehow.”
Lot increased their speed – now tipping over a hundred miles per hour. She heaved back on the handlebars, spiralling the bike upwards. Dev felt his body weight increase as g-forces pushed him into the saddle. He and Lot sc
reamed as they circumscribed a perfect loop so quickly they came in behind the biker before he had time to react.
Lot squeezed the brakes, but they were travelling too fast to avoid getting hit. Lot’s plasma cutter instantly melted the rear wheel, the remainder of which exploded in a shower of liquid rubber and metal fragments.
The biker lost control and wildly fishtailed. Lot shot past as his bike shimmied – then suddenly tumbled end-over-end and, no longer able to cut through the rock, slammed to an abrupt halt at the end of its own tunnel. Dev glanced back and saw the sonic-view of the explosion tapering back along the bike’s tunnel.
“Apparently they can crash.” He squeezed Lot’s shoulder. “Drive a little more cautiously.” He searched around them, but could only spot one other tunnel. “There!”
Lot swooped towards it, trying to keep behind it so the rider couldn’t see them coming. As they drew nearer, they could see Tyker slumped over the back, still unconscious, and noticed that the bike was not forming its own tunnel, but had resumed following Lee who led the way a couple of hundred metres ahead.
“I have an idea,” said Dev. He moved closer to Lot so she could see his hands as he mimed. He tried to ignore the fact he could feel her warm cheek against his. “Move above him. Then drop down in front.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to jump on board.”
“Dev … that’s a really stupid idea. You’ll be vaporized!”
Despite the obvious fatal danger, Dev couldn’t help but notice that she still accelerated – melting thorough the wall and corkscrewing through the rock until they were traveling directly over the bike. They saw the rider glance behind, but luckily he didn’t look up.
“Are you ready?”
With shaking arms, Dev let go of Lot and pivoted around on the narrow saddle so he was now facing backwards.
“Do it!”
Lot didn’t hesitate. She nosed the bike into the floor. The plasma cutter melted the rock and they dropped into the tunnel below. The bike’s suspension rocked on impact – tossing Dev from the saddle before he could properly prepare himself.
They were travelling so fast there was little he could do so he tensed, ready for impact. He could feel the tunnel roof passing millimetres from his skull. Impact at this speed would mean certain death.
He passed over the tip of the plasma orb, and even though it was heavily shielded and focused on a spot between the two bikes, he still felt the intense heat from it and could smell the cotton in his T-shirt scorching. In less than a second he shot through the holographic canopy and slammed into the rider so hard the man didn’t have time to scream as he reeled back in his saddle.
If Tyker’s body wasn’t slumped behind him, the rider would have probably managed to stay on-board – but instead he flipped over the unconscious man and went sprawling in the darkness of the tunnel, kilometres underground.
Dev slammed into Tyker, which prevented him from rolling off the bike. The only thing now keeping them upright were the super-wide tyres. Dev spun around on the saddle and seized control of the bike.
He saw Lot glance behind him and he gave her the thumbs up. They’d rescued Tyker. Now all they had to do was recover the mechanism.
Lot accelerated towards Lee, and he drew into her tunnel to follow. He had to admit she was a much better rider than he was and they quickly caught the thief up. He saw Lee double-take as he glanced behind – then the crook pulled his bike into a steep climb and headed for the surface.
The scavengers followed in his wake. Dev wondered what Lee’s plan was on the surface, surely he had better chances of escape deep underground?
A warning light on his HUD indicated the surface was rapidly approaching, and still Lee made no attempt to slow down.
Dev watched as Lee’s bike pierced the surface and then vanished. He frowned as the image on his sonar display became a rippling haze, obscuring the rock beyond. Something was wrong.
Lot slammed on her brakes, forcing Dev to do the same. He veered aside, melting through the tunnel wall so he could stop alongside her.
“Why have you stopped?” he shouted over the idling engines.
“Listen!”
Then, above the engines, he could hear a thunderous rumble. Their view ahead indicated a finger of rippling haze was approaching them fast. They both exchanged a look of horror as they realized what Lee had done.
He’d surfaced through the seabed and the ocean was pouring into his tunnel.
“Head back!” yelled Dev.
Lot didn’t need telling. She accelerated through the wall one way, Dev the other as they both traced their map back the way they came, while behind them the ocean poured down the tunnels at a tremendous pressure, pushed by the weight of the ocean above it.
Dev and Lot rode side-by-side – separated only by a metre of rock. Behind, Dev could just make out the image of the water as it flooded into both tunnels without diminishing speed. It was slowly gaining on them. If they didn’t reach the surface first, they would drown.
The Tunnel-Bikes’ engines screamed as every last drop of horsepower was squeezed from them. Another glance behind showed the wall of water was only metres away.
Dev’s spirits rose as the map indicated they were back where they started. His hand hurt from squeezing the throttle tightly.
Then they both broke the surface.
Mason and the others had run back to the Avro the moment Lot and Dev had given chase, but there was little they could do except wait. After several uneventful minutes, Mason felt the ground tremble and then saw Lot’s Tunnel-Bike shoot from the ground at speed.
There was a shudder from the Assessor’s house as Dev emerged under the ramshackle building and shot through all three floors – before smashing through the roof.
The Assessor threw his hands on his head in despair. “My house!”
Seconds later a column of high-pressure water shot from Lot’s tunnel and geysered fifty metres in the air. It was joined moments later by another blast of water from Dev’s tunnel which demolished the Assessor’s home.
“No!” he whimpered as the building collapsed on itself.
They all felt a fine rain of seawater as the two Tunnel-Bikes arced through the air like porpoises, nosediving towards the ground.
“They’ll be killed!” yelled Riya.
But instead of impacting into the dirt, both bikes simply submerged back underground only to resurface seconds later at the Avro.
It was still raining seawater – and a couple of wriggling fish – when Lot and Dev turned their engines off. Dev checked on Tyker. The German murmured as water splashed him awake.
“What did I miss?”
He was answered by a large fish landing on his face.
After the incident with the Tunnel-Bikes, Dev had fully expected them to be ordered back to the Inventory, so he was surprised when his uncle had ordered them to stay put until they received further instructions.
The Assessor’s attitude became somewhat muted after losing his house and his mood was not helped when the others chuckled at the sight of the remains of the mansion shack crumpling apart under a shower of falling fish that had been hoovered from the ocean.
After cleaning up as much of the mess as they were able, the Assessor told them they could bunk down in one of the many ships strewn across the beach. Some had entire cabins that were still equipped with beds and other home comforts. After Aaron’s warnings about a mole within the group, Dev felt he should be cautious. He pointed out they would be safer in the Avro, but the others agreed to take the cabins so they had somewhere to stretch out.
As he settled on the Avro’s hard floor, he appreciated being alone so he could marshal his thoughts. He knew he should be thinking about Lee and the importance the mechanism held, but instead his mind kept drifting to places he didn’t want to go. Like Lot’s phone.
When he had snatched it out of her hand, his synaesthesia had involuntarily kicked in. Flashes of circuitry g
ave way to a stream of text messages. In his mind’s eye the fonts and emojis were the size of tower blocks. He hadn’t wanted to read her private texts, but his subconscious sure did.
Luckily she grabbed it away before he’d absorbed too much, but what he had seen bothered him – and as he recalled the look on her face as she took her phone back, she obviously suspected that he’d read the contents.
Dev rolled to his side and tried to put that out of his mind. He focused on the Scrapyard. He remembered this place … sort of. It was one of Professor Liu’s hazy recollections, but if he had been here then surely that was proof the Scrapyard was a legitimate Consortium property, and that in turn indicated that it was his uncle who had told them to land here. However, it didn’t explain why they were being kept away from the Inventory, which was doubly annoying as Dev was eager to go back to the Blue Zone and finally open that mystery door.
Another thought occurred to him. Charles had said he they couldn’t risk Klaus Tyker stepping into the Inventory. After all, he was a certified conspiracy nut and allowing him peek into the secrets of the Inventory was probably a very bad idea.
He remembered something else – something he had overlooked when they arrived at the Scrapyard. He had been so fascinated by what lay around him that he almost hadn’t registered the odd look the Assessor had given Tyker.
Dev replayed the scene in his mind, and there was no mistaking the look of recognition flashing across the Assessor’s face. He knew Tyker … so why hadn’t he said anything?
Dev sat upright, unable to get comfortable on the floor. He moved to the pilot’s seat and put his feet up on the control panel to get comfortable. His mind was racing. With all this talk of a mole … could it be the Assessor?
For a moment, Dev felt himself agreeing – then tutted. Now he was suspecting everybody. Visiting the Assessor had been his uncle’s idea, so surely that placed him above suspicion?
He turned the cabin lights down and wiggled in the chair to get comfortable, which was an almost impossible feat. He began to wish he’d gone with the others to the ship.