"Hold on, here we go!" The Christ turned and walked toward the big door. A treadmill beneath Blake's feet kept him walking naturally; it seemed to be connected to sensors in his hips.
Outside, Kapuki and Bennett had devastated the exterior of the warehouse with a multitude of long horizontal slashes and a few vertical ones. The samurai stood a little distance off, and when the Christ figure came into view the Japanese bowed formally.
Blake switched on the exterior speakers. "Let's go!"
The samurai swung about, and the two enormous robots incongruously matched and controlled by an even more improbable group, started toward the center of San Francisco.
Chapter 32
Blake-Christ walked slowly along an avenue reserved for outgoing trucks; he had gotten used to the odd way of walking, at the cost of bumping into a few buildings. He had chosen the outgoing one-way street so that he could see the approaching vehicles. Most of the ground-car traffic pulled to the side, and the drivers stared as he went past. Occasionally Blake would make the Sign of the Cross in the air, though mostly he just kept walking. But not even a six-story Christ figure stopped some truckers, and from time to time he accidently knocked over a truck or stepped on one that had tried to get by. Luckily, the twenty-five-metric-ton weight of the mammoth robot crushed the trucks flat without causing Blake to become unsteady.
The smaller, samurai robot walked about fifty meters behind the Christ, and Kapuki was having fun waving her sword and jumping about. Blake regretted that there seemed to be no communication facilities available between them, or none that his inexperienced crew could find.
"Well, well, Lucifer Supreme," Constantine said happily. He waved the operational manual at Blake as he held on with one hand. "They have quite a few surprises built into this thing! Integrated miracles, you might call them." He pointed at a diagram. "Your right hand has a couple of nice gadgets built in. The tip of your middle finger can fire a lightning bolt, or at least a hundred-thousand-volt charge. Your index finger exudes charged gas particles that will glow, even in bright sunlight, so you can make a Sign of the Cross that just hangs there, burning, until the winds drift it away." The warlock chuckled. "You could shoot loaves of bread out your left hand, if you had any. Bless the demon, these charlatans will do anything for a laugh!"
Blake stepped over a pile of wreckage caused by the exodus of excited citizens, and kept on walking. "Can I walk on water?"
"No, but it says here you can glow in the dark. There are millions of filaments in the robe and imbedded in the outer skin."
The steel-and-concrete canyons through which Blake moved grew higher and higher around him as the buildings became forty and fifty stories high. It was like walking through a structure with narrow corridors and no ceiling. At one intersection a number of police waited, but they stared stupidly at the passing Christ figure and did nothing. They were more animated about the samurai robot, but still did nothing.
"They think we're on their side," Marta said, looking into a screen.
"We have to make a choice," Blake said. "We're coming up to where we must either go right to the Caligula or straight ahead to the city."
"Go straight," Constantine urged. "Let the others handle the Circus."
"We could head for the main Network A offices on Montgomery Street," Marta suggested.
"Marta, you and Rio come here and let me show you how this all works. When we get to the network, I'll go in," Constantine said.
Blake walked up onto a wide freeway that curved around a hill between mountain-sized arcologs. "There it is," he said.
San Francisco was a massive mound of faceted buildings that went from Pacific to the Bay and was three-fourths of a kilometer deep. It was broken only in a few places by the deep slashes of streets that separated the reinforced-concrete behemoths. But most of the streets were simply tunnels that went from building to building.
Blake was now finding it difficult to walk, and he looked at the screens that showed the ground. He stopped. "I'm too heavy for the elevated highway," he said. "We're punching holes right through."
The screens showed a freeway with long, ragged rips where the twenty-five-ton robot had punched its way through.
"Get over onto the streets, the ones on the ground," Rio said.
"I can't. There are too many wires, overpasses, bridges from building to building..." Blake said. "I'll guess I'll have to keep going on this."
Groundcars and trucks leaving the besieged city were piling up as the first vehicles stopped at the ragged edges of the footsteps. This quickly became too dangerous for Blake, so he stepped over onto the incoming lanes and walked along next to the lines of outgoing staring, frightened citizens. Then he and the samurai came onto a section of freeway that was supported more strongly, and he found they could walk much more quickly.
"Oh-oh!" Rio said, looking into a screen. "Police air-car on the right."
A large black aircar with the San Francisco Police logo flew slowly along, pacing them. Blake raised his hand and made a glowing Sign of the Cross, then left it hanging there as he strode steadily onward.
"They're still following, but they're not doing anything," Rio reported.
"Keep an eye on them. If they look like they have figured us out, tell me," Blake said. "What are Kapuki and Bennett doing?"
"Still behind, but they had a much rougher time getting over to this lane. They're about a kilometer behind us."
"Watch them, too."
Blake simply stepped over several police barricades, and none of them did anything. Marta guided him through the narrow canyons until they could go no further.
"It's through there," she said, pointing at the enormous barricade formed by the joined lower sections of several arcological structures.
Blake looked at the great wall, rising up more than three hundred meters before it separated into the different tavers that rose another four or five hundred. "Strap yourself in," he said. "We're going up."
He turned, looked back at the samurai figure, which was catching up. He pointed at himself, then up the arcolog wall. He pointed at Kapuki's robot and signaled that they should raise what hell they could.
Even before Blake could start up the wall, a troop of police came down a side street. They pointed at the figure of Christ and started toward it. Blake made ready to defend himself, then he saw the samurai robot come up behind the black-clad police and start in on them with its huge sword.
Lasers flashed, but they were no match for the big armored robot, which crushed under its feet what was not destroyed by the swift sword. Over its shoulder, Kapuki gestured for Blake to start climbing. Then she turned to wait for the next danger.
Climbing the cliff-like face of the man-made mountain was difficult. It was no question of power or strength – they had plenty of that. But climbing was vastly different than walking: the robot was in a different position entirely, and Blake had to be careful about each hand and foothold, grasping and placing the hands and feet carefully. His progress was slow, but luckily there were open-air malls at different levels, or enclosed malls where he could break the windows and use the frames as handholds. Many of the malls broke under his weight, and several times he almost lost control and fell backward into the street.
Constantine muttered spells constantly, but it was Rio who watched the screens and warned of dangers and Marta who helped monitor the functions of the huge robot.
The side of the arcowall was in ruins by the time Blake got to the top. He stood at last on the roof, knee-deep in broken floors. His legs, the cameras reported, were in tatters, the synthetic flesh ripped away and some of the metal plates dented and gashed.
"Carefully," Rio said. "We don't want to hurt people."
Blake grunted, and very slowly began to walk across the roof, shattering hundreds of solar-energy panels as he waded. His feet caught on unseen girders and parts of his tunic and robe were torn away. When he reached the far edge of the structure, Marta pointed across the narrow canyon.
<
br /> "There, where that big 'A' sign is!"
Constantine stopped mumbling spells and looked at the screen. "You can't jump, you'd go right through it. Climbing down and up again would take too long." He unbuckled his safety belt and rose from his bucket seat. "I'm going up. There's a hatch at the back of the neck, too, under the hair. Reach over, punch a hole through the wall, then reach back and I'll climb on your hand and you can put me across. With you looking in their window they will probably not want to argue." He flashed a wicked smile at Blake. "Ingrained superstitious nonsense has its uses."
Constantine vanished up the ladder to the head, and Blake moved ponderously into position.
Suddenly Rio cried a warning, and Blake turned just in time to see two police aircars coming straight at him. His skin sensors told him of laser beams making jiggly lines across his chest, and his response was swift. He pointed his right hand at one of the aircars and hit it with a hundred-thousand-volt blast. The other aircar veered off; Blake hit it, too, but on the second try.
"That will bring them!" Blake said.
Quickly he reached across the deep canyon and stuck his left index finger through the wall right next to the big "A," then rotated it to make a bigger hole. Then he reached back and plucked Constantine from his neck and put him into .the opening. With the skin sensors he had a keen sense of touch or he might have crushed the black man. Then he looked around for more aircars.
"I think I'm getting the commercial channel on this little screen here," Rio told him.
Blake looked and saw himself from an odd angle, standing in the wreckage of the top of the arcolog. Peering around at the angle, he saw a crimson Network A aircar hanging nearby and made another fiery Sign of the Cross, even as he noticed the wreckage of the two zapped police vehicles.
"You know," he said to Rio, "I feel a little like Goliath waiting for David and his slingshot. I feel vulnerable!"
"You don't look vulnerable, though, and that is important."
The screen suddenly changed to a montage of scenes around the Caligula Arena, then more shots throughout the city. Constantine's image came onto the screen.
"Citizens of San Francisco! Citizens of the World! Rise up! Throw off the chains of religious oppression! The day has come! Fight for your liberty! Fight for freedom! No longer must the decadent heel of oppression grind into the neck of the common man! Rise up! Smite the evil minions of repression!"
"Turn him down," Blake said. "I feel as if I've heard all that before."
"Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God!" Marta cried.
"What's wrong?"
Marta was pointing into a side screen, and Blake turned in the same direction so that what she saw went onto the big screen.
A crimson-skinned Devil was floating through the air at them. Its forked tail switched back and forth and its taloned hands clenched and unclenched. The figure was the archetypal Satan, horned and forked-bearded, bright scarlet and naked, but neuter. It sailed through the air straight toward them.
Blake looked above the swiftly approaching Lucifer and saw that the figure was born on cables by four huge aircars with the logos of one of the churches. The air-cars lowered the crimson robot onto the ark roof and it, too, plunged knee-deep into the structure. The cables dropped away, the aircars lifted, and the furiously scowling devil started stalking toward Blake.
"What is it?" Marta said.
"Another religious metaphor," Blake said.
He saw that combat was inevitable and, as Sergeant White had taught him, he began to size up his opponent. They appeared to be about the same height and probably were similar in weight. But the demon had claws, and Blake's Christ had only normal human shaped hands.
That forked tail may be more of a liability than an asset, he thought. Probably a separate person is controlling it.
"This looks like the classic confrontation," Blake said, "but I wish I weren't here right now."
Blake pointed his right hand at the demon-figure, who ducked at once. He knows my capabilities! Instead of firing his electrical charge, Blake made another fiery Sign of the Cross. This caused the Devil to snarl and start forward. A part of the roof collapsed and the crimson robot sank to his hips, but he quickly pulled himself out. Made to be very agile, probably to ape the scamperings of an imp, Blake thought.
"Strap yourself in," he said to the women, glancing at the commercial channel to see Constantine still talking. Then he gave his full attention to the coming battle.
Lucifer charged, confidently flexing his taloned hands, his wide-toothed mouth grinning widely.
Blake did not move until the scarlet robot was within arm's reach. He ducked under the thrust, grabbing the demon's wrist and elbow and throwing the monster robot in a clean hip toss. He whirled to see the robotic image of the Prince of Darkness rupture a wide section of the roof.
Swiftly the red-skinned adversary climbed from the wreckage and came at Blake's robot with a great roar. His taloned feet punched raw holes through two floors as he lunged at the Christ.
Blake aimed his lightning bolt and fired, but Mephisto dodged. Before he could correct, Blake was seized and flung to the roof. The balanced sphere kept Blake level, but the big screen was now far over his head. He rolled around but it only made it worse. Now the screen was behind him .and upside down.
Blake struck out blindly, hit something, missed with the other fist, then grappled with something that felt like a leg. Something began whipping at his face, and Blake ducked and clutched at the Devil's tail. The two figures rolled over twice, and all at once Blake got his orientation as the big screen appeared before him again.
"What was the matter with those designers? Why didn't they put the screens in the sphere?"
"They probably didn't expect a wrestling match," Marta said.
Satan was on his knees, rising fast, looming over Blake, his fist swinging down to crush. Blake blocked the blow, striking at the legs of the devilish figure. They broke apart and Blake rose shakily to his feet. But something somewhere in the bowels of the big Christ robot was broken and made an increasing screeching sound.
The crimson Lucifer was charging again, when an abrupt collapse of a section of roof made him falter. He stopped, raised his talons high above his head, and uttered a fierce scream. Blake aimed his lightning bolt finger and fired ... but nothing happened.
"Something is wrong with the goddamn lightning-bolt mechanism," he yelled angrily. He covered by making another glowing Sign of the Cross.
The figure of Beelzebub gave another mad scream and charged again.
Blake ducked under the outstretched arms and flipped Satan over on his back once again. This time an even larger section of roof fell in and the crimson Devil's scramble out was slower. Blake saw him reach into the wreckage with his claws, tug, tug harder, and then pull loose a large bent girder. Bits of metal and other objects were still attached to it as the Prince of Darkness came up swinging the huge steel club.
Blake jumped back to avoid a blow and the girder scarified a section of solar panels, collapsing a large energy collector in a great clatter and crash.
The Devil swung again and missed, but caught Blake on the return swing. The Christ was knocked back and only kept from falling by coming up against a geodesic dome.
Old Nick swung again, shattering the dome as Blake dodged away.
"Look out, we're at the edge!" Rio cried.
Satan charged, swinging his titanic weapon viciously. Blake ducked under the blow, seized an arm and a leg, and used the momentum of the robot's charge to flip him over.
Marta screamed, and Blake whirled to see the crimson robot go over the edge of the arcolog. They heard the bellowing cry echoing in the concrete canyon.
Blake carefully peered over the edge. His crimson adversary was still falling, bouncing off the arcolog walls and disintegrating raggedly. It was a long fall, and Blake turned away before the figure smashed into the street. But he heard the massive crunch.
Sickened, Blake looked at his
various television screens. An airborne camera was zooming in on the shattered wreckage of the demon robot far down in the street, and he looked away.
"I smell something burning," Marta said.
"I think we'd better get out of here. The sensor overloads have cut in twice. I'm hurting someplace, but I'm not certain where." Blake moved to stand conspicuously near the edge of the arcolog, raised his right hand in a gesture of blessing, and ordered Marta to cut power.
He stripped off the sensors and they scrambled down the ladders to the feet. Breathing heavily, they paused by the hatch.
"I hope it isn't blocked by wreckage," Rio said. "We're almost knee-deep in this stuff."
A girder had fallen nearby, but the door could be opened. Blake and the women scrambled out and down over the pulverized remains of a once fashionable complex of condominiums: Marta seized Blake's hand and said, "This way!"
"Wait!" Blake pulled some clothing from a ruined condo closet. "Get rid of those Arena things and put some of these on."
Blake watched nervously as Marta changed. In a couple of minutes, they were running down an unruined corridor toward the elevators. A disheveled couple staggered from a door and the woman cried out, "What's going on?"
"Revolution," Rio answered.
Chapter 33
The samurai robot was still standing in the street where they had left it. Laser cuts were all over the armored body, but the pile of bodies and equipment that littered the street was impressive.
Blake shouted up to Kapuki and Bennett, and after a few moments the ponderous robot put a foot down near them. Blake opened the hatch and shoved Rio and Marta inside.
When the three stuck their heads up into the control room in the chest cavity, Bennett gave them a shout of glee.
"Constantine is all over the net! Someone hooked him into the satellite system and he's broadcasting all over the world! They played an old tape of you in that ape machine and they have just finished sending out a repeat on your fight with Satan!" Bennett clapped Blake on the back. "Hey, you were paying attention in training, after all!"
To THE LAND OF THE ELECTRIC ANGEL: Hugo and Nebula Award Finalist Author (The Frontiers Saga) Page 30