Ironheart

by Allan Boroughs

  This had not occurred to India, and it was a chilling thought. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said after a pause. ‘But I’m still getting on this train, so you’d better leave me here.’

  The android made a noise like a sigh. ‘I can’t do that,’ he said.

  ‘Well, why not? I’m fed up with being treated like a child. Give me one good reason why you can’t let me go.’

  ‘Because, after what happened this afternoon, Mrs Brown gave me orders to look after you. It was the last thing she told me to do before she disappeared. So now I have to make sure you’re safe; it would go against my programming to do anything else.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, taken aback. They were both silent for a moment.

  ‘We’ll find Verity again, I know we will,’ she said. ‘But I made a promise too. I promised my dad that if he ever got lost I would come and find him and I promised Bella I was going to bring him back so we could be a family again.’ She went to the edge of the platform and paused. ‘You coming?’

  He shrugged his shoulders. ‘If I get on the platform with you I will be noticed immediately,’ he said. ‘I’ll travel underneath the train.’

  ‘Whatever works for you, Calc,’ she said with a grin.

  ‘Here,’ he said. ‘If we are going to be separated I want you to have this.’ He touched a panel on his arm and a thin strip of metal peeled away from his wrist like a sliver of steel skin. ‘It’s a communication device. If you need me, just press the button on the side and as long I am functioning I’ll be able to hear you.’

  She placed the band over her wrist. It curled naturally around her arm and fastened itself with a small click. ‘My very own bodyguard,’ she said. ‘I feel safer already.’

  She hopped up from the tracks, wincing at the pain in her knee. On the platform, well-heeled passengers shared drinking flasks and breathed clouds of steam into the night air while busy porters ferried boxes. A station official checked his pocket watch and held a green flag in readiness.

  Shouldering her bag, India started down the platform – then stopped in her tracks.

  Silas and Cripps stood at the station entrance. The one with the lazy eye held a bloody handkerchief to his face. They were scanning the passengers as they arrived and no one dared to meet their gaze. India knew they were looking for her.

  She turned away and focused on getting on the train. No sooner had she placed her foot on the bottom step when a hand fell on her shoulder and a red-faced ticket inspector barked something incomprehensible at her.

  ‘He wants to see your ticket,’ whispered Calculus from the dark space beneath the train. ‘He said if you don’t have one he’ll have to take you to the office.’

  The inspector called over the guard, who checked his pocket watch and frowned. ‘Ticket,’ he said.

  India swallowed. ‘Er, it’s with my dad,’ she said, her mind racing. ‘He’s already on board.’ She gave them a broad smile.

  ‘No ticket, no train,’ said the guard. ‘Give ticket or come with me.’ Some of the passengers were looking and tutting at India and the exchange had attracted the attention of Silas, who was now peering gormlessly in their direction.

  She looked around for an escape and was about to run when her eyes alighted on a familiar, barrel-shaped figure rolling up the platform. It was Captain Bulldog, deeply engrossed in a meat pie. She seized her chance.

  ‘Dad!’ she cried out. ‘There you are, I’ve been looking all over for you.’ Bulldog stopped in mid-chew, looking startled as India ran up to him and took his arm. ‘This man wants to see my ticket, he really is being very tiresome.’

  Bulldog’s face remained locked in surprise and his eyes flicked between India and the ticket inspector. He quickly swallowed his mouthful of pie. ‘Er, hello, dear,’ he said tentatively. ‘I was just getting something to eat.’

  India laughed lightly. ‘Thinking of your stomach again, Dad? I bet you forgot to buy my ticket as well, didn’t you? You really are becoming very absent-minded.’

  ‘Yeah,’ he said, forcing a tight smile, ‘I’ll be forgetting I’ve got a daughter next.’

  The ticket inspector looked unimpressed. ‘No ticket, no train,’ he repeated.

  At the end of the platform, Silas and Cripps were now both peering in their direction. India hid her face and Bulldog seemed suddenly to grasp the gravity of the situation. He exchanged some words in Russian with the inspector and they laughed loudly together. ‘Let me thank you for your trouble,’ he said, taking out a roll of notes and peeling some off The inspector and the guard grunted and touched their caps. As Bulldog returned the roll to his pocket, India noticed that, like Verity, he also wore a pistol in his belt.

  Bulldog ushered India on to the train and waved cheerily to the porters as he closed the door. Silas and Cripps were both peering at them now. They attempted to push through the turnstile, only to be stopped by the red-faced inspector. ‘No ticket, no train!’ he barked, holding out an expectant hand.

  While they fumbled for change, Bulldog quickly dragged India into the carriage. ‘What the hell’s going on, India?’ he said. ‘Sid’s gang are all over town looking for a girl and a metal man. They must have stopped me six times on the way here.’

  She blurted out her story in a disjointed, adrenalin-fuelled way, falling over herself and stammering, so that he made her take a deep breath and repeat it again more slowly. When she had finished he asked her several questions, mostly about their meeting with Stone.

  ‘Well?’ said India after a pause. ‘What do you think?

  ‘What do I think? This is a non-stop train to Salekhard. I think we need to get you off now before you get into any further trouble, that’s what I think.’ She started to protest but Bulldog was already leaning out of the window on the track side of the train. He was shocked to see Calculus’s head appear beneath the wheels. ‘Streuth!’ he spluttered. ‘What’s he doing down there? I’m not supposed to be his dad too, am I?’

  ‘I would advise against trying to leave the train on this side, Captain,’ said Calculus. ‘The alleyways are swarming with Sid’s men and India would certainly be seen.’

  India was becoming agitated. ‘I’m not leaving the train on either side. I’ve told you both, I’m staying here, and nothing you say is going to stop me.’

  ‘Is that so?’ said Bulldog, folding his big arms. ‘Well, believe it or not, young lady, yours is not the only opinion that matters around here. All I want to do is get back to The Beautiful Game and now I’m stuck with a runaway girl and an enormous android!’ Any further conversation was silenced by a blast from the guard’s whistle. ‘Oh, that’s just great,’ said Bulldog, throwing up his arms in despair.

  The engine snorted like an awakening horse and the train took up the slack along its length with a clanking jolt. Calculus ducked quickly beneath the carriage. The steam heart of the beast began to shunt them forward and thick coils of vapour enveloped the station.

  But as the train picked up speed, the lumbering figure of Cripps appeared at the window, puffing to keep pace with the carriage and peering in through the glass. He caught sight of India and opened his mouth to shout out but failed to notice the signal post that stood at the end of the platform and ran headlong into it with a resounding smack.

  Bulldog winced as he pulled down the blind and their carriage passed the end of the platform. He blew out a long breath and slumped heavily into one of the worn plush seats. ‘Well,’ he said with a sigh, ‘we might as well get comfortable. We’re here for the ride now.’

  CHAPTER 10

  A BOX OF FROGS

  With her head pounding, Verity Brown awoke on a bed of fresh linen in a comfortable room furnished with antiques and expensive fixtures. She reached instinctively for her gun but her holster was empty. When she tried to sit up she found her other wrist was handcuffed to the bed.

  The earlier part of the evening came back hazily. Stone had been on his best behaviour over drinks, but then what had happened? She remembered feeling dizzy and get
ting up to leave and then, blackness. Drugged, she guessed, but why?

  She turned her attention to the handcuffs. They were slightly loose. She worked her wrist around in the steel bracelet, trying to twist it over the malleable bones of her hand. This would not be a painless escape, she thought. She was still twisting her hand when the door rattled and swung open. An armed guard loomed briefly in the doorway and then Stone rolled into the room like a great troll.

  ‘I trust you’re feeling refreshed after your sleep, Mrs Brown,’ he said. He sat down on a delicate antique chair that looked like it would burst under his weight and leaned forward on his heavy walking stick.

  ‘I feel like hell,’ said Verity. ‘What did you do to me?’

  ‘I’m sorry about that. I know it’s bad manners to drug a dinner guest but I was never much good at manners.’ He paused to pick his nose. ‘Besides,’ he said, examining the end of his finger, ‘I couldn’t take the chance you would really go to the Chinese.’

  Verity struggled to work her hand free behind her back.

  ‘Are you all right, Mrs Brown? You look like you’re in pain.’

  ‘Just the company I have to keep,’ she said sweetly.

  Stone laughed. ‘You remind me of my fourth wife, Mrs Brown. She never knew when to keep her mouth shut either!’

  ‘So would that have been Sid’s mother?’

  He raised his eyebrow in surprise. ‘Ah! Very good. She was my true love, Mrs Brown. It damn near broke my heart when I had to kill her. The least I could do under the circumstances was bring up the boy.’ He gave her a nasty smile. ‘You, however, I couldn’t care less about, so you can only imagine what I will to do to you if you don’t give me what I want.’

  ‘I would have sold you the information about Ironheart. There was no need to kidnap me.’

  ‘Unfortunately, Mrs Brown, I couldn’t wait any longer for this particular nugget of information. If my rigs don’t leave for Ironheart immediately then the hard winter snows will block the eastern valleys and we will not reach it before next spring. My rigs are fully fuelled and ready to leave at first light. I need that information, Mrs Brown and I need it now!’

  ‘What’s at Ironheart that you want so desperately?’ Her wrist was almost free now. ‘It can’t be the money; you already have more of that than you could ever spend.’

  ‘Power, Mrs Brown,’ he said. ‘Enough power to make the Trans-Siberian Company the dominant force over half the globe! When I first heard the legend of Ironheart I dismissed it as a fairy tale. But then my spies discovered something that made me change my mind. The original government records of Ironheart from before the rains, documenting everything that had been stored there. It made fascinating reading.’ His eyes glittered. ‘Ironheart is everything you think it is, Mrs Brown. There is enough treasure to satisfy the greediest pirate, but there is much more. The men who built it chose it as the place to store their greatest achievements. I’m talking about weapons, Mrs Brown, old-world weapons of horrific purity. Missiles that can lay waste to entire cities, chemicals that will shroud the land in poison gas and diseases for which the cure would only be available to the highest bidder. All of these toys lie hidden at Ironheart – can you imagine what fun I will have with them?’

  Verity swallowed. Looking into the crazed features of Lucifer Stone, she could imagine it very well. ‘I’d love to help, Mr Director, really I would,’ she said as her hand slipped suddenly free of the cuff. ‘But I make it a policy not to do business with anyone who is madder than a box of frogs.’

  She lunged across the bed at Stone. Ordinarily she would have overpowered him in seconds but, weakened by the drugs, she stumbled. Stone swiftly recovered his wits and struck her hard on the temple with his stick. Pain and lights exploded behind her eyes as she crashed to the floor.

  The guard was in the room in an instant, hauling her to her feet and applying a second pair of handcuffs tightly behind her back. Her injured hand screamed in protest.

  ‘Now, tell me!’ yelled Stone, his face only inches from hers. ‘What was in John Bentley’s message?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Verity between gritted teeth.

  Stone made a noise like a wild animal in pain. ‘Clearly you don’t appreciate how serious I am, Mrs Brown, so let me make you my final offer. Tell me the location of Ironheart and I promise not to feed you into my furnaces, feet first.’

  ‘You can yell all you want,’ said Verity defiantly, ‘but that information is encrypted and I don’t know what it says.’

  Stone narrowed his eyes and stroked his beard thoughtfully. ‘Well, if you don’t have it then it must be with the girl and your metal man. Yes, that’s it, isn’t it? The girl has the message and now she and that metal man have gone to try and find Ironheart themselves.’

  There was silence for a moment, then Verity began to laugh. Stone looked appalled. ‘What? Why are you laughing?’

  ‘You mean they’ve escaped?’ said Verity, still grinning. ‘I’d say that was pretty careless of you. Calculus is a military droid with full stealth capabilities. Once they get out of the city you’ll never track them down.’

  Stone glowered at her. The veins stood out on his forehead and there were flecks of spittle on his lips. ‘Don’t underestimate me, Mrs Brown. I have spies everywhere. Miss Bentley and that rusty machine won’t stop my plans. Things will just take a little longer, that’s all.’ He turned to the guard. ‘Mrs Brown is unable to assist us further. Please take her up to the roof and use the catapult to fling her body into the city streets. If she survives the fall, then drag her back to the roof and keep doing it until the job is done!’

  The guard yanked brutally on the cuffs, causing Verity to cry out.

  ‘Wait!’ she said as they reached the door. She took a deep breath. ‘There may be something I can help you with after all.’

  CHAPTER 11

  THE FREE-RIGGER’S CONTRACT

  The Tolstoy picked up a gallop and plunged into the night, leaving the lights of Angel Town behind. There was a small wood stove in the compartment that didn’t quite take the dry chill from the air and Bulldog stoked it hopefully, sending sparks and resin smells into the carriage.

  ‘Well,’ he said when India had finished her story. ‘Sid’s friends are a dangerous bunch and now they’re very interested in you. So what are you going to do now?’

  India hesitated. Her plans had not extended much further than getting on the train, but now she thought about it, she was clear on the first priority. ‘We have to find Ironheart,’ she said. ‘If we can get to it before Stone we can find my dad and maybe even use the treasure to bargain for Verity’s life.’

  ‘Whoa, whoa!’ Bulldog raised his hands. ‘What do you mean, “we”? Don’t include me in your plans. The Beautiful Game leaves for the southern oil fields tomorrow. The water’s lovely and warm down there and the crew are looking forward to it.’ He caught India’s pained expression. ‘Look,’ he said kindly, ‘you have no idea where Ironheart is, so why don’t you forget all about it and focus on how you’re going to get back to London? Mrs Brown is a resourceful woman, she can take care of herself.’

  ‘But I know the region where my dad was looking for Ironheart. Verity said it was called Uliu-something-or-other. And when Calculus deciphers the message on my pendant then I bet it’ll tell us exactly where to find it. Most probably.’

  Bulldog reached in his satchel and fished out two huge sandwiches, handing one to India. ‘It’s called Uliuiu Cherchekh,’ he said. ‘It means “The Valley of Death” and it’s over fifteen hundred miles from here. How exactly do you think you’re going to travel that distance, on your own, in winter?’ He took a bite from his sandwich that would have choked a horse.

  ‘You’re a pirate rigger, aren’t you?’ she said matter-of-factly. ‘You could take me.’

  Bulldog spluttered breadcrumbs across the carriage. ‘Take you? Fifteen hundred miles is the maximum range of my rig with a full fuel load. We’d get there all right, but then we�
�d be stuck on the ice until we froze to death or until Stone caught up with us. Forget it, India.’

  She wasn’t about to give up. ‘But you could get us there and back. There are pirate oil refineries out on the tundra where you can buy fuel if you know where to find them. It’s called “long rigging”, Mrs Chang told me all about it.’

  ‘Oh, did she now? And did Mrs Chang tell you what it’s like to be down to your last hundred litres of diesel with a blizzard closing in? Or how to stay on the trail during a white-out or any one of a thousand other things that can go wrong when you take liberties with the Siberian winter?’

  ‘No, she didn’t,’ said India. ‘But you know how to do those things and I know how to find Ironheart. So I know you’ll do it because that’s what pirates do, isn’t it? They look for treasure!’ She took a bite of her sandwich.

  Bulldog squinted at her, impressed by the raw passion that came spilling out of this girl. However crazy this journey might sound she certainly seemed to have enough steel in her backbone to survive it. He weighed the risks involved. If they ran into one of the heavily armed Company rigs in the ice forests, that would almost certainly be fatal. But Bulldog knew all about risk and how it often went arm in arm with its more attractive sister, profit. If Stone wanted something this badly then you could be sure there was money in it. Then, of course, there was the girl’s pendant. That might just be the thing that tipped the balance in their favour.

  His ears began to feel warm, as they always did when a money-making opportunity presented itself. Perhaps, he thought, a journey to the eastern mountains might be a worthwhile investment after all. ‘Well now,’ he said. ‘If you’re determined to ignore what I say, I reckon I may as well profit from the deal.’ He stroked his bristly chin. ‘I’ll have me own expenses to think about, not to mention my crew, who’ll want a cut of whatever we find. So here’s what I’ll do. Give me the pendant and I’ll take you to find Ironheart. But once you’ve got what you need to bargain for Mrs Brown’s life, I get to keep whatever else we find there.’