Crystal Keepers

by Brandon Mull

  Sidekick climbed inside. “I may not be a handsome bot, but I don’t love squirming through filth either. Sorry. I’m under orders to protect you. Going this way will do that.”

  “I wish I knew how to breathe without smelling,” Cole muttered, sliding his head into the pipe and crawling forward on his hands and knees. The air seemed chewy with foulness. Cole fought his gag reflex. “It can’t get worse than this.”

  “There are so many different kinds of nasty beneath Zeropolis,” Sidekick said sadly. “I’ll let you be the judge.”

  As they progressed through pipes and tunnels, Cole lost track of time. Thankfully his nose became somewhat deadened to the disgusting smells.

  Sidekick was right that the underground passageways held a variety of horrors beyond the sights, smells, and textures of sewage. Oozing slime often covered the walls and floors. On occasion they slogged through sucking goo. Curtains of webs parted reluctantly as Sidekick powered through them, leaving Cole to dodge through the gaps. He saw spiders, bats, snakes, centipedes, lizards, and at one point, Sidekick’s lights illuminated squirming masses of blind, hairless rats.

  At length they reached the widest, driest tunnel Cole had seen so far. “The worst is behind us,” Sidekick announced.

  “At least we brought a lot of the smells with us,” Cole said.

  “Taking off your coveralls might help,” Sidekick suggested.

  Cole removed them.

  “Close your eyes,” Sidekick said.

  Cole did as requested, and Sidekick began to spray him. It smelled minty and vaguely like a hospital.

  “Turn around,” Sidekick ordered.

  Cole complied and the spraying continued. After some focused showering of his legs and boots, the spraying stopped. Cole stood dripping.

  “I guess I was already pretty wet,” he said. “I smell better. Kind of like toothpaste, but better.”

  “I masquerade as a cleaning bot,” Sidekick reminded him. “I need a few actual cleansing tools. That wash should also kill the germs on you.”

  “Thanks,” Cole said. “And thanks for leading us out of trouble. It stank, it was gross, but it worked. We never saw a patrolman.”

  “I could hear some searching for us at first,” Sidekick said. “Faint sounds. I didn’t want to alarm you. But I haven’t heard anybody else in some time.” The robot trundled over to a set of rails. “These are tracks from the old subway. We can follow them to Old Zeropolis.”

  “Will they expect that?” Cole asked. “What if they head us off?”

  “The subway system was needlessly complicated,” Sidekick said. “There are many routes we can take, and plenty of service tunnels. Our enemies don’t know where we’re going. We could be heading anywhere inside or outside of Zeropolis. We could have gone aboveground long ago.”

  “Old Zeropolis is dangerous too, right?” Cole asked.

  “It’s no playground,” Sidekick said. “But I’ll take you right to oldbase. You’ll be safe there. It’s our biggest stronghold.”

  “Are you still in touch with Googol?” Cole asked.

  “I was,” Sidekick said. “He asked me to shut off my comms system not long after we went underground. Forge got raided.”

  “Wait, what?” Cole exclaimed. “Just now?”

  “About the time we came down here,” Sidekick said.

  “Is Forge okay? What about Dalton? And Mir—um, Secret?”

  “I can’t be sure,” Sidekick said. “It sounded like they were on the run. Forge is slippery. Even if City Patrol found his hideout, chances are good he got away with your friends. But if patrolmen took Forge’s lair, most of our communicators will be compromised. We’ll have to make new batches.”

  “Did Jace escape?” Cole asked.

  “He got underground and met up with Roulette,” Sidekick said. “It’s the last I heard. But it bodes well.”

  “Forge had such a great hideout,” Cole said.

  “They’ve gotten too good at finding us,” Sidekick said. “Forge did a lot of hacking to set up this ambush to free Joe. Somebody must have traced him.”

  “We won’t know more until we reach oldbase?” Cole asked.

  “Looks that way,” Sidekick said. “Too bad you lost the warboard. We could have ridden there.”

  “How far is it?” Cole asked.

  “At this pace, it’ll take us into tomorrow,” Sidekick said.

  “I’m already hungry,” Cole said.

  “I have some provisions,” Sidekick said. “You won’t starve.”

  “For a little robot, you have a lot of surprises,” Cole said.

  “Makes me a good sidekick.”

  That night Cole slept on a panel of bonded crystal they found beside the tracks. Sidekick lashed him in place with some cord he produced, and while Cole slept, the robot dragged him forward.

  At first Cole kept waking with a start, but every time he saw basically the same scene—a large, bare tunnel sliding by, illuminated by Sidekick’s lights. Each time he woke, he worried about Dalton and Mira. Had they been captured? Did they need him? Eventually he settled down, grew accustomed to the motion of the crystal sled, and sank into a deep sleep.

  Cole awoke with Sidekick shaking him.

  “Time to get up,” Sidekick encouraged. “We’re nearing Old Zeropolis.”

  Cole found he was no longer lashed to the crystal panel. He rubbed his eyes. “Did I sleep long?”

  “Almost ten hours, if you count your fitful dozing at the start,” Sidekick said. “You deserve it. Even with the battle suit, we walked a lot yesterday.”

  “Do you ever sleep?” Cole asked.

  “Sometimes I shut down temporarily,” Sidekick said. “Does me some good to rest my systems on occasion. But I don’t really sleep. Must be nice.”

  Cole stretched. “Feels great sometimes. I guess we don’t have any word from the Unseen?”

  “I would have wakened you,” Sidekick said. “Getting up now is a practical matter. The tunnels under Old Zeropolis are more populated than those under the new city. We’ll want to be on the lookout and ready to hide.”

  “Old Zeropolis has lots of criminals?” Cole asked.

  “Yes,” Sidekick agreed. “People who want to get lost. Thieves, smugglers, hackers, mercenaries, hermits, tramps, escaped slaves, rebels, idealists—quite a mix.”

  They left the crystal panel behind. Cole felt good walking again. His body was a little stiff but soon loosened up. He didn’t like that he had gone to sleep with a set of problems and had woken up to the same set. It kind of negated the rest.

  About fifteen minutes later, Cole heard angry voices shouting up ahead. “Trouble?” he asked.

  “Let’s not find out,” Sidekick suggested, diverting them away from the subway track into a smaller, parallel tunnel.

  From that point they moved through a series of lesser tunnels and rooms. In some places the ground was damp or muddy, but Cole was relieved that they encountered no sewers or oozy masses of slime.

  When they heard voices talking loudly and laughing in the distance, Sidekick adjusted their route again. Tunnels and rooms came and went.

  While moving down a long, straight, dark hall, they came to a stop when a lean, ragged man stepped out of hiding into Sidekick’s light. Cole reached for his last freeze-foam tube as he tried to recover from the fright.

  “What brings you two wanderers to my hall?” the ragged man asked, the words a little mushy. “Didn’t ask permission or nothing!”

  Cole heard a hiss, and a small dart appeared in the man’s neck. He staggered, swayed, and fell.

  “Tranquilizer,” Sidekick said. “He didn’t seem reasonable, and we can’t waste time.”

  “He surprised me,” Cole said. “I almost had a heart attack.”

  “My fault,” Sidekick apologized. “Maybe he was
sleeping. Maybe he was lying in wait. Either way, he stayed low and kept still, and I failed to sense him.”

  “You were great,” Cole said. “That was an awesome shot.”

  “The day a single grumpy vagrant can take me is the day I retire,” Sidekick said. “I’m a sidekick, not incompetent.”

  They continued through halls and rooms until Sidekick slowed, came close to Cole, and whispered, “We’re almost to oldbase. There is supposed to be a checkpoint here, but it’s unmanned. Kind of strange. Wait here. Let me go check alone, just in case.”

  “Should I just wait in the open?” Cole asked.

  “Go duck behind those crates,” Sidekick said. “I’m sure it’s no big deal. This is just a lookout station for an unofficial entrance. The actual entrance is still a ways ahead. With all that’s been going on, they’re probably just shorthanded. I’ll be right back.”

  The little robot trundled off, taking the light with him. Cole was surprised how dark the tunnel became once Sidekick moved out of view. The blackness made him feel both very hidden and very alone.

  Every minute that passed made Cole grow antsier. Water dripped somewhere at a slow, random pace. Off in the distance something clanged, the echo repeating softly. From not too far off came the sound of dry leaves rattling faintly. Or was it an old piece of crumpled paper being dragged?

  Cole knew he had a couple of lights somewhere on his battle suit, but he couldn’t remember how to activate them. He also wasn’t sure he wanted to make himself stand out. He reminded himself that with the battle suit, he should be able to outrun and outfight any crazy tramp who came along. But what about a gang of smugglers? Or another drone piloted by the Hunter?

  Finally Cole saw light returning, and Sidekick skittered into view, his six legs hurrying. Cole came out from behind the crates.

  “Anything interesting?” he asked.

  “Oldbase is gone,” Sidekick said. “Not compromised. Completely destroyed.”

  CHAPTER

  18

  DATAPOINT

  “The whole base was destroyed?” Cole exclaimed. “How long ago?”

  “Some of the fires are still burning,” Sidekick said. “It must have happened between breaking Joe out and coming here. Googol would have warned us if oldbase was under attack. We were all supposed to meet there.”

  “Did you see any patrolmen?” Cole asked.

  “There are some on the surface,” Sidekick said. “A few underground. I didn’t actually enter the base. I accessed the system from outside. It shouldn’t have still been running. Good craftsmanship. It’s over eighty percent down, but there were enough camera feeds still up and recordings I could access to piece together what happened. They hit oldbase hard. Blew the place apart. We can’t get through this entrance, and if we did, you couldn’t do much more than warm your hands over the smoldering rubble.”

  Cole rubbed his eyes. Everything was going wrong. When would they catch a break? “No word from anybody?”

  “Nothing,” Sidekick said. “This is disastrous. City Patrol has never come to Old Zeropolis in force. We all began to feel like it was out of bounds. Our one safe zone. Apparently not.”

  “This is about Secret,” Cole said. “The High King would burn down all of Zeropolis to find her.”

  “I might believe you after this,” Sidekick said. “With oldbase gone, I’m not sure what our next play should be. The resistance was already reeling. This might be the killing stroke. Who knows what else got hit? What are your goals?”

  Cole took a deep breath and thought about the question. “Well, I want to find my friends—Dalton, Jace, and Secret. And Joe.”

  “We definitely need to reconnect with the surviving members of the Unseen,” Sidekick agreed. “Anything else?”

  Cole stared at the little robot. Right now Sidekick seemed like his only friend in the universe. He was a secret weapon designed by the leader of the Unseen in Zeropolis. Cole decided to trust him with everything.

  “I’m looking for friends who were kidnapped with me from Outside,” Cole said. “And we’re trying to find Constance Pemberton.”

  “Wait a minute,” Sidekick said. “As in the Constance Pemberton who died in an accident decades ago? One of the High Shaper’s daughters?”

  Cole nodded.

  “Hold on,” Sidekick said, his six legs fluttering so quickly it looked like he was trying to tap dance. “No way. If Constance is actually alive . . . that means . . . it can’t be.”

  “What?” Cole asked.

  “Secret is another of Stafford’s daughters,” Sidekick said. “I couldn’t figure out what target could mean so much to the High Shaper. She’s just a young girl. But now I get it. Their deaths were a sham, maybe all five, but at least two. Judging from Secret’s appearance, the girls have barely aged. And now the resistance is rounding them up.”

  Cole was astonished by his accuracy. “You got all that by knowing we’re looking for Constance?”

  “Reconnaissance is one of my primary duties,” Sidekick said. “I piece things together. Secret is too young to be Honor or Elegance. So she must be Miracle or Destiny. You slipped earlier, and started to say Secret’s real name, which began with ‘Mir.’ The resistance knows that these daughters have a real claim to the throne, and have been wronged by their father. A powerful revolution could take shape by rallying the populace around them. These girls could be the key ingredient the resistance has lacked all along. And Stafford knows this. You’re right. Under the present circumstances, he would burn down all of Zeropolis to find his daughters.”

  “You’re a scary-smart machine,” Cole said.

  “Don’t spread that around too much,” Sidekick said. “Thinking machines make Zeropolites twitchy.”

  “Because they think you’ll try to take over?”

  “It’s happened before. I’m a lot safer when I pretend to be a simple cleaning bot. If City Patrol knew half of my abilities, they would dismantle me immediately.”

  “Should people be worried?” Cole asked.

  “People could have all the same worries about one another,” Sidekick said. “Bots aren’t the only beings to have gone bad and run wild. People have done that since the beginning. Any person who gains too much power can become very dangerous. Look at Stafford Pemberton, or Abram Trench. The same can be true for some bots. It was true for Aeronomatron when he devastated Old Zeropolis.

  “But I was carefully designed by a good person. I operate within clearly established parameters. I know who I am, what I want, and who I should protect. I can adapt and learn. I can make leaps of logic. But although my neural processors can reach out to sort vast amounts of data, the thinking part of me is clearly defined. I like who I am, and that identity is more firmly established than the personalities of any people I have observed. If people understood me, they’d know I exist to help, not to cause harm.”

  “Except to robotic drones,” Cole said.

  “Robotic drones attacking my friends,” Sidekick clarified, remaining serious. “I’d harm an enemy to the causes I defend. So would many good people. I want to protect the common good. But try getting Zeropolites to understand that. Thanks to Aero, all thinking robots are considered rampaging terrors spawned by madmen.”

  “I’m on your side,” Cole assured him.

  “That puts you in the minority,” Sidekick said. “But I appreciate the support. Let’s return to the problem at hand. We want to find Googol and the rest of the Unseen, you want to find some enslaved friends, and we all want to find Princess Constance. Finding is the theme. We should probably try Datapoint.”

  “What’s datapoint?” Cole asked.

  “Datapoint is a person,” Sidekick explained. “A woman.”

  “A member of the Unseen?”

  “No, though she has worked with the Unseen a lot. Datapoint contracts with anyone but the government. She’
s better at finding people than anybody in Zeropolis. Chances are good she can tell us which Unseen hideouts have been raided. If they took out Forge’s place and oldbase, who knows where else they might have targeted?”

  “Would they have targeted her?” Cole asked.

  “Possibly,” Sidekick said. “But since she’s not a formal member of the resistance, she’s probably safer to visit than one of the other Unseen hideouts.”

  “Lead the way,” Cole said.

  A short cord with a little grapnel on the end shot out from Sidekick’s body and draped over Cole’s arm. “Hold on,” Sidekick said. “I’m going to douse my lights in case we have patrolmen in the area.”

  “Are any nearby?” Cole asked.

  “I saw a few on the oldbase video feed,” Sidekick said. “They’re stationed near some of the entrances. Be glad I used one of the most secret entryways. They don’t seem to have discovered it yet. Makes sense. The emphasis was apparently on blowing up the place.”

  “Can we get around the patrolmen?” Cole whispered.

  “Here near oldbase? Should be easy. There are lots of hidden tunnels nearby. Stay quiet and keep close.”

  Sidekick led Cole through the blackness. Cole felt like he was holding a leash, but it was definitely Sidekick taking him for a walk. He concentrated on not making noise and not tripping as he shuffled forward through the darkness. Now and then he could tell from the acoustics that they had entered a narrower place, or a more open place, but he seldom passed over uneven ground, and he never bumped into anything. Sidekick was an excellent guide.

  The strange sounds in the darkness bothered Cole less now that the robot was with him. He trusted Sidekick to track anything dangerous.

  Without sight, it was difficult to tell how far they had gone, but Cole knew he had taken thousands of blind steps. After a long while, he whispered, “You can see without light?”

  “At several other wavelengths and with alternatives like sonar,” Sidekick whispered back. “We can probably turn the lights on soon.”

  When Sidekick switched his lights back on, they stood in a long, broad room with a low ceiling. It felt like a sprawling basement.