“Where’s Paul?” shouted Ida toward the glass room where Vance and his team had gathered.
From the loudspeakers, he said, “Do you really think you’re in a position to ask questions?”
She studied the group, weighing her options. Something was unusual about Vance’s attire. Despite the cold, he wore a suit jacket with nothing underneath. Odd, since he was well tailored in his commercials and on the news.
What was going on with him? Half his face, both hands, and part of his chest glinted silver in the moonlight, like his droids. Gatz had mentioned the mayor had a prosthetic hand, but now most of his body?
He continued speaking through the loudspeaker, the glass room protecting him and his entourage. “I’ll ask the questions tonight. Understand?”
She nodded.
“First question. I’ve heard about your powers of healing. Is it true you can heal people’s injuries and diseases?
“Yes, it’s true. I heal people.”
“Fascinating,” he said. The loudspeaker went off, and he chatted with his companions. After a minute, he switched the loudspeaker back on. “As it turns out, I am in need of a person with your…abilities.”
She nodded. “I’ll help you. But only if you let Paul go first. And I want to see him go safely before I help you.” Ida’s voice echoed through the empty park.
He gazed at her with amusement. After a moment, he said, “He’s here. And he’s free to go as he likes.”
Suddenly, loud music flooded through the loudspeakers. It sounded like old-time marching music. A large spotlight switched on and lit the tall stone enclosure. Paul perched on top of a tall boulder. Below him, circled two large mechanical creatures that resembled lions. They were made of the same steel alloy as Vance’s police. With every turn, the machines roared and lunged at Paul. They were close to reaching him, and Paul had to dodge and kick away their giant paws.
Vance smiled from his enclosed viewing room. “I had them created for this special occasion. After all, what good is a zoo without animals?”
“Let him go!” Ida shouted toward the glass booth. She ran to the edge of what was the audience viewing platform. She could easily scale the small fence, but the deep pit below was a problem. She couldn’t scale it even if she took a running leap.
She scanned the booth for a reaction from Vance. He’s testing me. The thought flashed through her. He wants to know how much I care.
The android lions had grown bolder. They started running from a distance so they could leap higher. The one with a mane nearly knocked Paul off the top of the boulder.
Paul shouted, “Help!”
She tensed. Her gun had been confiscated by the droids and was no longer an option. She needed a rope to scale the pit. Failing that, she needed a huge distraction.
She spied a pile of trash on the ground next to an old trashcan, into which she stuffed pieces of garbage—old paper, cardboard, and small sticks. She put anything she could find inside. Then she drew a flask from her inside jacket pocket, along with a lighter.
Facing the enclosure where the lions were inches from knocking Paul off the boulder, she knocked back a giant swig from the flask, flicked her lighter over the can, and blew a mouthful of whiskey into the bin.
The trash was like dry kindle and burst into flames. After a few seconds, the fire grew. She peered at the lions and waited until one rounded the side of the boulder closest to her. She flung the burning trashcan with all her might. It landed square in the face of one of the lions, jolting it from its path. The direct hit must’ve jarred something because the creature darted into a large cage off to the side.
One down. But she needed to act fast because she knew the creature might soon return.
She spun around and spotted large rocks on the ground. She picked one up and hurled it at the second creature. The rock hit its hindquarters, knocking it slightly, but it continued to focus on Paul.
She tried again, using another rock, this time aiming for the face, but missed completely. Stomping her feet, she wiped the sweat from her face and breathed heavily from adrenaline and frustration. Running out of time.
She scrambled over to Vance’s booth with a small boulder and slammed it against the glass. It bounced off. Bulletproof. One of Vance’s men flashed his gun at her.
Vance taunted her by pointing at his biocuff and then at Paul. She bounded toward the enclosure, scanning for anything she could use as a weapon or a bridge into the lion’s den. She could try to vault across the pit and land near him, but she lacked a pole.
The loudspeakers. They were fixed atop tall metal poles. If she could get one down, she’d have a way across. Ida ran to one of the poles and rammed it with her body. It barely budged. She tried again, taking a running start, and then slamming into it. The pole shifted, but only a few inches. At this rate, it would take all night.
She spotted a small, abandoned food vending stand. She used an old trash can for leverage and hopped onto its roof. The roof of the small shack was so old, the tiling fell off in slates, but she managed to get enough solid footing beneath her that she took a running jump and landed near the top of the pole, near the speaker.
She straddled the cold steel pole and leaned, using her body weight to try to pull the pole with her and take it down. It worked. The pole bent and the force and momentum caused it to snap near its base. She fell with the pole and luckily ended up in a grassy area that padded her landing.
She grabbed the long pole and kicked off the loudspeaker, which clattered to the ground.
“That’s not playing fair,” Vance said.
Armed with her pole, she surveyed the lion viewing area. It wasn’t long enough to act as a bridge, but she could vault.
Here goes nothing. Ida jogged back thirty feet to gain momentum. She sprinted toward the lion enclosure, gripping the pole. Just before the small fence, she jammed the bottom into the ground and used the stick’s momentum to propel her body up and across the deep pit. She landed in a rolling somersault and came to her knees.
The pole was meant to be her weapon against the lions, but she’d dropped it. The metal clanged as the pole struck the bottom of the pit.
Damn.
Inside the enclosure, she faced the robo-lion.
Twenty-Nine
Gatz maneuvered through moonlit city streets. Beside him, Lucy fidgeted as a dozen thoughts ran through her mind. What would they find at the zoo? Would Paul and Ida make it out alive? She couldn’t deal with the thought of anything bad happening to them, and yet their situation seemed hopeless.
Gatz had loaded a variety of weapons in the backseat—guns, knives, and grenades, and other weapons she didn’t recognize.
“What are our chances?” she asked, eying the speedometer, which read ninety miles per hour.
Gatz focused on the road and didn’t answer right away. “I make the call whether we go in or not. Ida was a soldier and can take care of herself.”
She considered. “But we have to do something, right? To help?”
“We’ll try.”
They neared the zoo, and he slowed his car. On the road leading into the main entrance, a row of police cruisers, lights flashing, blocked any trespassers.
“It’s like a damn sheriff convention,” said Gatz. “Welcome to Spark City.” He veered off the road to avoid the bots.
“What do we do now?” asked Lucy.
He spotted an empty side road and parked, killing the lights. “We walk.”
They climbed out, and Gatz grabbed several pistols, one of which he shoved into a holster around his chest and one on his leg. “You ever used one of these?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “Ida was going to teach me, but we didn’t get to it.”
“Tonight, you learn.” He showed her how to load and unload the gun, and where the safety was. “And you just aim, point, and pull the trigger. Keep your eye on where you’re aiming. That’s key. Watch the kickback. Got it?”
“Got it.” She clutched a pist
ol.
He grabbed a rifle and stuck something else inside a coat pocket. Lucy noticed it looked like a hand-sized computer with two small antennae.
“You ready for this?” he asked.
She shivered and nodded.
The pair treaded silently toward the zoo. Gatz’s coattails flapped in the night wind.
He knew an alternate route into the zoo. Figuring Ida had surely been discovered by now, they hoped Vance’s forces were no longer on high intruder alert. However, they knew there’d be plenty of droids to make entry difficult, if not impossible.
Lucy knew he wasn’t optimistic about their chances. She could read him well by now, despite his animal characteristics. For some reason, he wanted to protect her, Ida, and Vera. Protect humans even though most people were awful to hybrids.
She’d noticed Gatz staring at Ida sometimes, then look away when she caught his glance. Did he like her? Getting to know Ida wasn’t easy. In the time living with her, Lucy had discovered how stubborn, angry, and even mean she could be.
But the two of them had conversations that excluded Lucy, and that hurt. They didn’t think she was mature enough to understand things. Well, she would prove them wrong tonight.
On the look out for guards, they happened upon their first android as soon as they entered the thick woods. Gatz ordered her to wait behind a tree as he crept toward the machine. When he was ten feet away, he pulled the small gadget from his coat pocket and pointed it at the bot. The device flashed, and Lucy heard a quick pulsing sound. The android raised its gun, but then stopped and fell forward onto the ground, where it remained inert.
Gatz stayed motionless for a minute. No other bots showed up so Lucy joined him.
“What is it?” she whispered, studying the device.
“An electromagnetic pulse. Knocks out the power on close-range machines.”
Lucy’s eyes grew wide. “Wow. For how long?”
He shrugged. “Not sure. A few hours maybe, or until someone fixes them. I didn’t get much time to test this. Come on.”
Two more droids surged through the trees. Gatz aimed the pulsifier, taking them down. Feeling braver, Lucy ventured out from behind him as he used the weapon.
After a few minutes, they made it inside the zoo’s perimeter. He motioned for her to slow down. Bright lights shone in the distance, and they hurried in that direction, careful to avoid the main path.
Spying a small building, they climbed stairs to the second floor, where they discovered a broken window. A good vantage point in case Gatz had to fire his long-range rifle.
Lucy was horrified to see Ida and Paul on top of a boulder with a machine lion circling. She could see people inside a glass room built into the fabricated stone facade. What kind of man hides behind glass, leaving a woman and teenage boy to face a lion?
“We gotta do something,” she said.
But what could they do? Vance, his men, and the droids were all heavily armed. And bots were everywhere.
Even with Gatz’s arsenal, if they hit some targets, they’d be swarmed and outnumbered.
“We can’t draw attention,” he whispered.
She breathed heavily, stressed from the ordeal her friends faced.
He raised his rifle and set his sights on the lions and then on the glass booth. If he tried to take out the lion, their position would be revealed.
“What can we do?” she asked.
“Quiet,” he said. “We’re outnumbered. Hold on, something’s happening.”
Thirty
The lion circled the boulder on which Paul crouched. The growling creature stalked toward Ida with sharp teeth bared and ruby machine eyes blazing.
Paul thrust his hand down in front of her. She grabbed it just in time. As he lifted her up, Ida kicked with all her might as the lion grabbed hold of her boot, scratching her calf.
He managed to drag her up onto the boulder where they barely had room on the rock’s surface. Below, the lion continued to circle, and the other machine had returned for round two.
Three loud claps came from the glass booth. “Bravo, well done.” Vance sighed. “Ladies and germs, thanks for the show.”
Paul held onto Ida to steady her. “You okay?”
Below, one of the mechanical creatures had her boot, which had come off in her scramble onto the boulder. “Except for my boot and a scratch, I’ll live.”
Paul smiled, despite their situation. “Thank you for coming to help me. I didn’t know…” He struggled for what to say, and had obviously been racked with guilt over what had happened. “I went to your house hoping to find you and Lucy, and I didn’t know—I tried to get away, but they caught me.”
Ida shushed him. “It’s okay. Not your fault. We need to concentrate on how to get out of this.” She grabbed one of his shoulders to steady herself. “Think, Paul. Do you have anything on you that can be used as a weapon?”
“No, they took everything I had, including my Swiss army knife.”
“Then we’re royally screwed,” she said. She turned to face the glass case. Seeing the lion robots below, she didn’t know what else to do, so she called out. “Call them off, Vance. Or do you want your precious healer to end up as kitty meat? All it takes is me jumping.”
Silence from the booth.
“If I jump and they start attacking me, run like hell,” she said to Paul. “I think you can make it up the cliff-side ledge.”
Vance’s voice crackled on again. “You are making this interesting for me. This is fun. Are you having fun?”
What an asshole. He better pray these lions kill me, because I will beat him to a bloody pulp.
As Ida and Paul waited, a loud metal clanging sounded. A police droid signaled the creatures. They ran into their cages and metal doors crashed down, securing them.
Ida had a momentary flood of relief, but then hardened at the fear of what might come next. She whispered to Paul, “I’ll try to distract them. If you see an opportunity to run, take it.”
“But the droids, they’re everywhere.”
She looked around. Machines lurked in every direction, several dozen in the sky above.
With the lion machines safely in their cages, Vance and his entourage emerged from the booth toward Ida and Paul.
“You can come down now,” said Vance. “The kittens are locked away.”
First Ida, then Paul slowly lowered themselves off the boulder. Paul knelt on the ground, his legs too wobbly to stand.
Ida kept him behind her and said, “You got what you wanted. Take me away, but let him go. He hasn’t done anything to you. He’s just a kid.”
“True. He is a young fellow, and he has served a purpose.” Vance glanced behind her at Paul. “Come out, young man. Let me see you. Then you can go.”
Ida turned and bent down to Paul, whispering, “Do as he says and leave here as fast as you can.”
Paul nodded as she helped him to his feet.
“There you are,” said Vance with a smile. Ida could see that half his face, and all of his neck and chest, were covered with steel like his androids. What was happening to him?
Vance turned and gazed at his female companion. “What do you think, Nancy? Can we trust the boy to make it safely home on his own, or does he require a police escort?”
“No,” said Ida quickly. “The deal is I only help you if he walks out of here alive.”
“Hmm,” said Vance. “I choose the opposite.” He pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Paul in the chest.
“No!” she screamed and stepped in front of Paul, trying to act as a shield against more shots from Vance.
Vance flinched, surprised at the intensity of her voice. He slid the gun into its holster.
She glared at him, fury in her eyes. “How could you? He’s only seventeen.” She scrambled to Paul’s side. He was still conscious—barely. He bled profusely from a chest wound. “Monster.” Her voice echoed in the still night.
Vance peered down at them. “Let me see the healing begin.” He
nudged Nancy and said, “We’ll see if she can pull this off.”
“Bastard,” Ida muttered under her breath. She pulled off her gloves, and her fingers found their way to Paul’s bullet wound.
“It hurts,” mumbled Paul.
“I know it does. Hang in there. I’m going to make you better.” She closed her eyes and focused her energy on his chest.
She became very small and seemed to travel from her core down to her fingertips, then jumped into his body. Small, powerful bursts of energy radiated, and she was inside his chest.
Finding the bullet, she drew it toward her until it disintegrated into pieces of dust.
Tiny beads of light wrapped up the place in Paul’s chest where the bullet had entered. She was a stream of light, everywhere inside his chest, repairing him and leaving him stronger.
Above her, Vance observed. For the first time since he was a child, his mouth hung open in wonder. “Incredible,” he murmured.
Beside him, J-Man, Singlet, and Nancy wore dazed expressions. As they watched, a small glowing light shone from beneath Ida’s hands. Paul’s pallor transformed from ghost-like to rosy.
Ida pulled away suddenly and rested her on her knees to check for a pulse.
“What you’re witnessing here is history,” said Vance, breaking the silence. “With her by my side, I’ll be unstoppable.”
When Vance shot Paul, Gatz had to restrain Lucy from screaming. With his hand clamped across her mouth, he said, “She’ll help Paul. She already saved his life once. She’ll do it again.”
His words seemed to calm her, and he slowly released her.
As the scene unfolded, she saw he was right. Vance and his entourage stood nearby as Ida healed Paul.
The minutes crawled by like the last drops of molasses from an overturned jar. Lucy bit at her fingernails.
Paul looked to be alive. Two men carried him away by the shoulders. Ida followed, forced into a waiting sky cruiser.
“They’re getting away,” a desperate Lucy stated the obvious.
“Now we follow,” said Gatz.
The Rogue Spark series Box Set Page 23