by Brandon Mull
“See our trajectory, Sidekick?” Hunter asked.
“Looks good,” Sidekick replied. “Just hold steady.”
They were pretty high above the rooftop. Maybe a hundred feet? More? Cole winced when he saw Sidekick falling and heard the clang when he landed.
The glider passed over the building and banked to come back around. Cole craned his neck to see Sidekick, but the little robot was out of view.
“I’m all right,” Sidekick said over the communicator. “Moving to the shed. Breaking in. I’m inside. I wish I could just plug in and do this the fast way. Give me a minute. I have to remove some crystals and manually shut down certain connections.”
“Brave little guy,” Blake said.
“You feeling better?” Cole asked.
He nodded. “I’ll feel best if we fly away before that dragonbot gets here.”
“The system is down,” Sidekick said. “The clock is ticking. If Roxie didn’t know already, she knows we’re here now.”
Hunter started a digital stopwatch. “We’ll be on the ground in thirty seconds.”
“Roxie is on the move,” Forge reported. “Heading your way.”
Diving a little, Hunter tightened their turn and then leveled out just in time to land on the terrace lawn. They all climbed out of the glider and dropped to the grass.
The battle suit helped Cole quickly cross the distance to the terrace. Sidekick had already broken in. The sparse modern furnishings looked expensive. Lamps of diverse forms and sizes illuminated strangely shaped couches and ottomans.
“Split up and find them,” Hunter ordered.
Aware that each passing second brought Roxie closer, Cole ran through a couple of rooms until he reached a locked door. Trusting his battle suit, Cole tried a sharp kick and broke it open.
Inside, Abram Trench sat tied to a chair, guarded by a man-size robot. The robot raised a trapgun, and Cole lunged out of the doorway just in time to avoid the quicktar that splattered against the wall behind him.
“Robot!” Cole called, reaching for a tube of freeze-foam.
The robot came out of the doorway before Cole had the tube ready, so in desperation, he sprang at the guard, aiming to kick it in the chest, hoping the battle suit would lend him enough strength to do some damage. Before Cole reached his target, quicktar splashed against him, covering him completely. He crashed against something, then fell to the ground, unable to see, his hearing muted.
Cole struggled, but even with the help of the battle suit, he remained almost completely immobile, his body stuck in the pose of a flying kick. Lukewarm and slightly elastic, the quicktar coating felt like a cocoon made of thousands of rubber bands. Cole found that with great effort, air filtered through the tar plugging his nostrils, though only a faint trickle. If he couldn’t get more air, Cole feared he would soon smother. His panic-fueled attempts to kick and flail resulted in gentle wiggles.
After several arduous, claustrophobic breaths, the quicktar smeared away from his face as warm liquid washed over him. Wherever the liquid went, the quicktar melted away. After wiping the liquid from his eyes, Cole opened them to see Sidekick hosing him down with pink mist. Beyond Sidekick, Cole saw the robot on the ground, tendrils of smoke rising from charred metal.
“Thanks so much,” Cole said, taking eager breaths. “Did you fry him?”
“It’s a talent,” Sidekick said.
Hunter walked in and crouched by Cole. “You all right?”
“Yeah,” Cole said. He was wet from the pink mist but otherwise unhurt. “I found Abram.”
Blake entered the room. Hunter helped Cole up, and they ran to Abram Trench, who remained bound to a chair and gagged.
Hunter yanked off the gag. “Where’s Constance?” he asked.
“They stuck her in my safe room,” Abram said.
“Who are they?” Hunter asked.
“I have two guardbots. Roxie took them over of course. You got one. The other stayed with Constance.”
“Where’s the safe room?” Hunter asked.
“Hidden. It’ll be faster to show you.”
Hunter produced a knife and slashed through Abram’s bindings, then hauled him to his feet. Abram led them through three rooms to a fourth, where he slid aside a false wall to reveal a door of black metal.
“To open it requires a code and a crystal,” Abram said. “I no longer have either.”
“Sidekick?” Hunter prompted.
“I can’t plug in and attack the system directly or Roxie will own me,” the little robot said. “I have an energy knife.”
“How long?” Hunter asked.
“A minute or two,” Sidekick replied.
“Do it,” Hunter said. “Blake, go keep watch. Let us know when Roxie is in sight.”
After shooting Cole a worried glance, Blake ran from the room. A long, slender arm with several joints extended from Sidekick. At the end of the arm, a blinding white laser cut into the door, shedding bright showers of sparks.
“We should go,” Abram said. “Leave the girl. Roxie won’t hurt her. The rest of us are a different matter.”
“We’re here for Constance,” Hunter said.
“When Roxie gets back, nobody leaves,” Abram said.
“She’s not back yet,” Hunter said. He checked his stopwatch. “Over four minutes. How much longer, Sidekick?”
“It’s a thick door,” Sidekick replied. “At least a minute.”
Cole flexed his fingers and stomped in place. He willed the energy knife to cut faster.
“I see her,” Blake said from the communicator, a tremor in his voice. “She’s coming fast.”
“How long?” Hunter asked.
“Less than a minute,” Blake replied. “Maybe thirty seconds.”
Hunter turned to Cole. “I’m going to get the glider ready. Come as soon as you can.”
He ran out of the room. Abram ran off too.
“Nearly there,” Sidekick announced.
“She’s almost to the bottom of the building,” Blake reported, terror creeping into his voice.
Cole held down the button on his communicator. “You’ve got this. Feel her power crystals. Shut them down as fast as you can.”
“Got it,” Sidekick said, trundling aside as the door tipped outward and fell flat against the floor.
Sidekick fired a disk attached to a slender wire that clicked against the robot guard. Electric flashes of energy made the robot twitch and smoke until it toppled over sideways. The sharp tang of burned metal invaded Cole’s nostrils. Constance sat tied to a chair.
“She’s coming up,” Blake said. “Oh, man, she’s enormous!”
Skittering forward, Sidekick cut through Constance’s bindings with the energy knife. “I’m shutting down,” Sidekick said. “I don’t want her turning me against you.”
The little robot sat down hard and didn’t move.
“We have to run,” Cole said, taking Constance’s hand and leading her to the terrace.
Cole and Constance stopped in the doorway leading outside.
A pair of huge claws reached over the edge of the terrace, followed by the mechanical head of a dragon atop a serpentine neck. “Who is doing that?” Roxie bellowed. “Stop it at once! How dare you? How dare you?”
The dragon heaved her mechanized bulk up onto the terrace, her body covering more than a quarter of the spacious garden. Her eyes blazed like molten rock. Below her metal neck, a dozen whiplike tentacles flailed.
Her sheer size paralyzed Cole, robbing him of all hope of fighting her. It would be like trying to take on a battleship with his bare hands.
Turning toward Cole, the glider started to take off, then crashed to the grass.
“No you don’t,” Roxie said.
Cole scooped Constance into his arms, stepped out of the doorway, and jum
ped, trying to get on top of the highest floor. But before he landed, Roxie’s tentacles lashed out and wrapped him up, binding Constance to him. A second tentacle snaked into a hedge and dragged Blake out from under it.
“Hello, Constance,” Roxie said with syrupy delight. “Where did you think you were going?”
The tentacle set Cole and Constance on the lawn. Another tentacle placed Blake beside them.
“Stop it, Roxie!” Constance called. “Don’t hurt these people!”
“They were trying to hurt me,” Roxie said.
“They were trying to help me,” Constance replied.
“Stop it, boy!” Roxie snapped. “I can keep changing them back all night, but you’re wearing out my patience.”
“How many power crystals?” Cole asked.
“Ten,” Blake replied. “I can’t change more than three before she undoes it.”
“Is this what you dreamed of becoming?” Constance shouted. “A horrible monster?”
“I’m only a monster to my enemies,” Roxie said.
“Don’t you get it?” Constance cried. “We’re all your enemies! You’re destroying Zeropolis! You’re killing people!”
“I’m stopping oppressors,” Roxie said forcefully. “I will rule a city where man and machine live together respectfully.”
“How does—” Constance began.
“Enough!” Roxie roared. “Tonight involves some ugliness, yes. I don’t like employing brutal tactics. You’ll understand in time, when you see what rises from the ashes. I can’t have dissenters. As a token of goodwill, I will give your rescuers a choice.”
A tentacle wrapped around Cole from his neck to his feet and gave just enough of a squeeze to temporarily force the wind out of him. Another tentacle wrapped up Blake. The head of the dragon came close to Cole, eyes glaring.
“I recognize your voice,” Roxie said. “You piloted one of the drones.”
“That’s right,” Cole said.
The head moved over to Blake. “And this one was changing the harmonics of my crystals. I wondered if you’d turn up. I noticed some of your confidential files. It appears you’re one of a kind.”
“I guess so,” Blake said.
“Which means you could be uncommonly useful to me . . . or uncommonly dangerous.”
“Maybe,” Blake said.
“Lots of people have tried to harm me tonight,” Roxie said. “You were the only one who made me nervous. Just for a moment, but you got to me. You almost cut my power. Care to try again?”
“No,” Blake said. “I tried enough. You’re too fast.”
“That’s right,” Roxie said vehemently. “Nobody is a match for me. The sooner you all acknowledge it, the sooner my peaceful rule can begin.”
Her head snaked over to the glider. “Please come out,” she said. “I don’t want to damage this fine machine unnecessarily.”
The door opened.
“Here I come,” Hunter said.
Cole’s mind was stuck on what Roxie had said. She was a mind-blowingly powerful supercomputer. Nobody was a match for her.
Was that true?
There might be one.
It would be risky. There wasn’t time to think it through.
“Hunter?” Roxie asked. “Is that you? How nice to meet you in the flesh.”
Cole glanced over at Blake while Roxie talked to Hunter. Blake looked back at him, eyes full of fear.
“Do you remember Aero’s harmonics?” Cole whispered.
Blake blinked. “Yeah.”
Cole glanced at Roxie. “Do it.”
“Huh?”
“One of her comms crystals,” Cole said.
Understanding dawned in Blake’s eyes.
“Are you sure?” Blake whispered back.
“No,” Cole said. “But do it.”
A tentacle brought Hunter over by them, and the dragon’s head returned. “What are we whispering about?” Roxie asked.
“Let us go,” Cole said. “Where are we going to run?”
The tentacles released them. “If you want me to treat you with respect, then you have to . . . wait. What’s this? Oh my!”
Cole glanced at Blake, who squinted up at the dragonbot, determination in his stare.
Roxie reared up. “Oh no. Oh my.”
Constance tackled Cole and Blake, her arms around both of them. Hunter jumped away, back toward the penthouse roof.
The dragonbot began to move in jerky spasms. “Oh no you don’t,” Roxie snarled, her words a little slurred. She lurched to one side, then steadied herself.
“Stop opening channels!” Roxie cried. “Don’t you know what he’ll do to us?”
Some tentacles reached toward Cole, Blake, and Constance, then fell short and started wriggling. Huge tremors shook the dragonbot, and she staggered off the edge of the building. Cole heard metal grinding and tearing as she fell, followed by the colossal crash of her impact.
Cole, Blake, Constance, and Hunter raced to the brink of the terrace. Roxie was running away from the building.
“Is she going toward Old Zeropolis?” Cole asked.
“Yeah, actually,” Hunter said. “What happened?”
“I connected her to Aero,” Blake said.
“Aero!” Hunter exclaimed. “How?”
“I know the harmonics of a crystal that can reach him,” Blake said. “I started shaping Roxie’s comms crystals to those harmonics. At first she changed some back, but then she stopped. He must have interfered somehow.”
“Aero can’t shape,” Cole said.
“But he could have messed with the part of her programming that does the shaping,” Hunter said. “Or maybe she’s like me, and can’t shape as well when she’s distracted. Guys, if Aero wins, this is so bad. And if Roxie wins, she gets so much stronger.”
“She’s going after him,” Constance said. “She told us Aero’s biggest weakness is his lack of mobility. She’ll try to fight off his attack long enough to physically destroy him.”
“This is it!” Cole said. “Harmony bomb.”
Hunter grabbed Cole’s shoulders roughly. “You’re right!” Then he looked over at the glider. “But she shut down the glider.”
“Guys,” Blake said. “This is what I do.”
“You can fix it?” Hunter asked.
“Already done,” Blake said. “I memorized the harmonics of all of our important crystals just in case.”
“Fix our communicators,” Cole said. “We have to find out how to wake up Sidekick.”
CHAPTER
38
SECTOR 20
Forge explained that Cole could turn Sidekick back on by lifting a little hatch near the robot’s base and pressing a button. It wasn’t hard to find.
“Is she gone?” Sidekick asked.
“She’s going to fight Aero,” Cole said.
“What?”
“Blake connected her to Aero,” Cole said. “It was my idea. Don’t blame him if it goes wrong. We were beaten. It was all I could think to do. But it might be working. It seemed like she was really struggling against whatever he was doing to her.”
“If he beats her, Cole, that’s it. Everyone dies.”
“Which is why we need to get you to the glider,” Cole said.
“Blaze of glory?” Sidekick asked hopefully.
“That’s the idea. Come on.”
Cole and Sidekick ran out to the terrace and onto the lawn. The glider’s cargo door was open. Hunter waited in the pilot’s seat.
Sidekick scurried to the cargo door. Cole ran to get inside but found the door locked.
“Hey!” Cole protested.
“Sorry, little bro,” Hunter said. “No need to risk both our necks on this one.”
“You’re not leaving me,” Cole said.
Hunter made a confused face and tapped his ear. I can’t hear you, he mouthed.
Cole pulled out his communicator and hopped onto the wing. “I’m coming. I’ll sit here if you make me.”
“Get down!” Hunter replied from the communicator. “This is an emergency!”
“Then bring me!” Cole demanded.
“If you drop me from high enough, you both should be fine,” Sidekick said. “And if Aero wins, the safest place would be a glider.”
“Just get in,” Hunter said.
Cole hopped down and glanced at Blake and Constance. “We don’t know where Abram went. Might be smart for you to come too.”
They all piled inside. Hunter started taking off before the door was closed. The glider zoomed away from the city administration building, following the trail the dragon had taken.
“Is the glider faster than Roxie?” Cole asked.
“I think so,” Hunter said. “We’ll see how much faster. We need to gain altitude too.”
Hunter pulled back on the controls, and the glider started climbing, filling the windshield with stars. Cole got on the communicator and reported what had happened.
“I’m standing by,” Nova said. “Ready when Sidekick is ready.”
“If the dragon stops charging Sector 20, you still need to bomb it,” Googol said. “No matter where it goes. We can’t have Aero controlling it.”
“I see Roxie,” Hunter said. “I won’t get too far ahead of her, just in case we need to drop Sidekick early.”
“She has to make it to Sector 20,” Sidekick said. “It’s what I was designed for. A fail-safe in case Aero broke out of his confinement.”
“It’s an interesting contest,” Constance observed. “Aeronomatron was made by some of the most brilliant minds of Old Zeropolis, and has acquired information for a long time. Roxie has existed for much less time, but has the most modern equipment, made elaborate modifications to herself, and of course has shaping power.”
“I just care that she keeps heading toward Old Zeropolis,” Hunter said.
They fell silent. Cole looked down as the lights of Zeropolis finally ended. Far below, not much more than a speck, the dragonbot moved across a sea of darkness, heading toward the more sporadic lights in the distance.