Beast Machine (47 page)

“
Ja!” chimed in Owlbert.
“Burn, burn, burn! Burn it down!”

Owlbert flapped his wings
violently and Hitbear awkwardly imitated explosions
again.

Gora laughed, “Well, I’m
more assured now than I was five minutes ago. But we can’t burn
that mine down – that’s not how we should ever operate.”

Hitbear and Owlbert let out
a collective, “Aww!” in their disappointment.

“
Gora’s right,” said
Tubman. “Now, let’s find our way into the mines and scope them out.
Take out Silva – if he’s in there – and then get out of there. In
and out, just like we normally do things.”

“
Thank you, Tubman,” said
Gora as she gently grasped the hare’s shoulder. “Let’s try to stick
to the plan this time, okay, everyone?”

Chapter 40
Mine All Mine

Thane returned to his
duties of inspecting the mine for any defects after placing the
damaged Carda Implant in the mailroom. He had grown accustomed to
working around Silva, and Silva’s electronic light-based wife, but
still did not feel the same comfort as he felt when working with
Chairman Obelis.

Chairman Obelis often would
give Thane advice and guidance: on life, on business, on politics –
on any topic imaginable. Thane rarely heeded, or needed, the advice
on the extraneous topics Chairman Obelis often talked about, but he
still loved to feel the love from Chairman Obelis.

Chairman Obelis and Jeffrey
were working on the campaign for governor, as Thane was stuck
toiling in the mines with Silva, Chelsey, and hundreds of miners
that were autonomous robots during work hours. It was a boring and
tedious job for Thane. His skin refused to glow as he worked at the
mine; a once minor concern that had grown into a severe dilemma for
Thane.

“
Did you put the package in
the mailroom?” said Silva over the radio.

“
I did,” replied Thane on
his radio after removing it from the holster. “Is there anything
else you need? I am about to begin my maintenance
walkthrough.”

“
Maybe a pizza!” joked
Silva. Thane put his radio back on his holster. “Oh, come on Thane!
I’m just trying to be funny!”

Thane walked into a room
that served as his office. It was a room that was previously
reserved for security guards before the renovation. In this room
there were several monitors displaying live feeds from differing
angles from around the mining facility – rarely did these live
feeds provide any excitement. Bright red buttons that were used to
set off emergency protocols sat behind glass on the nearby wall and
an intercom that could be used to speak to the entire mine was
found on the wall next to the bright red buttons. Rarely were these
used by Thane, or anyone.

The only use Thane had for
the objects in the office had been when he did maintenance late at
night. He had to shut down the security systems because he often
would be tinkering with the mining tools or elevators for the mine
shafts and the security alarms would activate. The mining tools,
and elevators, were not to be accessed after the workday had ended
to prevent any miner from purposefully corrupting the tool to cause
harm to others. It was a redundant measure considering the miners
were unlikely to corrupt a tool once they received the Carda
Implant. Nonetheless, Thane had to turn off the security system in
the entire mine to begin maintenance.

-----

“
Is this the mine?” said
Gora quietly. The group had parked their vehicle up the road
roughly a mile away and made their way to where they believed the
mine to be located.

“
Seems like it is,” said
Tubman. Gora handed Tubman binoculars. Tubman placed the binoculars
on incorrectly before being helped by Gora. “The lights are all
still on in that place, seems weird.”

“
Some mines are known to be
used even at night,” said Hitbear. “It doesn’t seem like the case
here, however, because it’s too quiet. We would be able to
hear
something
even
if they were deep underground.”

“
Well,” said Gora, still
surveying the area, “are you ready to use your new wings outside,
Owlbert?”

“
Ja wohl!” Owlbert cheeped
loudly.

“
Quiet!” said Hitbear. He
raised a metal finger to his mouth.

“
Oops,” said Owlbert. In a
much quieter tone, “I am ready for flight, Frau Gora!”

“
Good, you remember what to
look for, correct?” said Gora. “We can’t have any mess ups,
again.”

“
Ja,” replied Owlbert.
“Look for zee main controls, open zee front door und we kill Silva!
In und out.”

“
Be careful and quiet too,”
added Tubman. “I know how you get excited easily.”

“
Ja, ja,” said Owlbert.
“Mein mind ist focused on zee plan. Do not fret.” He smiled and
began to stretch out his body.

Tubman was still looking
through the binoculars. She saw something that caught her eye.
“Looks like there are several options for you to enter from above,
Owlbert. But I’d advise you to take the short, silver tube. It
doesn’t appear to have any chemicals or smoke shooting out of it
like the others.”

“
Ja, okay!” replied
Owlbert, still stretching and flapping his wings.

“
What do you know about
smoke stacks or tubes like that?” asked Hitbear. He was trying to
eye the silver tube she was speaking about but his eyesight wasn’t
the best.

“
I know a thing or two
about chimneys, bear,” she said gruffly. “Saving my people took
much planning and tenacity – we didn’t just enter the front door,
you know.”

“
Intriguing,” said Hitbear.
“My previous self may have hated your kind, but I find the
resilience you emit remarkable.”

Tubman swallowed awkwardly,
“Well, uh, thanks.” She handed the binoculars to Gora. “Do you have
your knife ready? We’ll give you all the space you need to take
down Silva.”

Gora took the binoculars
and placed them in her back left-pocket. “I do.” Gora sighed. “I’m
ready to end Silva and to end all of the pain he has caused me.
This one will feel good the moment I cut into him.”

“
Will you be ready to do
it?” asked Hitbear. “Tubman or I can always step in to do
it.”

Gora brushed him off, “No.
I’m ready. His life ends tonight.” Gora turned to Owlbert. “Start
flying toward the facility now, Owlbert.”

Owlbert nodded at Gora and
after one last stretch he rose from the Earth with several mighty
flaps.
Floop, flup, thwack
went his wings loudly. He quickly made his way to
the facility and dropped down the silver tube Tubman had
suggested.

The silver tube was no more
than two feet across, so Owlbert had difficulty holding his body up
in the tube. Any little slip from his new wings against the tube
could send him spiraling downward into the unknown, not to mention
the likelihood of a broken body part would be high. Nevertheless,
Owlbert shimmied his way down the long tube and fell into an
incredibly bright and humid room.

“
Vas ist this place?” said
Owlbert as he looked around. There were plants scattered all about
the room. The room was exceptionally tight due to the sheer amount
of plants that inhabited it. “Intriguing, but I am not here for ein
plants!” Owlbert did his best to wade through the
plants.

A few tomato plants were
jostled causing several tomatoes to hit the floor.
Ploomp.
Owlbert turned
around to inspect that sound caused by the falling tomatoes. He
looked down and noticed the tomatoes were of a large stature –
almost the size of a cantaloupe. “So plump.” He gingerly tapped the
fallen tomatoes under a nearby plant. One of the tomatoes had split
open. The seeds were bluish and the size of an American
dime.

Owlbert made it through the
mini-greenhouse and didn’t give the blue tomato seeds any
thought.

He was now in a hallway. It
was a clean and horribly sleek looking hallway. Steel walls and
stiff concrete floors could be seen down the hall. Owlbert thought
this might be part of an office created within the facility. He
scurried down the hall, hugging the wall, looking for a way to open
the front door, or any door, to let his friends in.

At the end of the hallway,
a large sign on the wall stated ‘FRONT’ and had an arrow pointing
to the left. There wasn’t a sign indicating what was to the right,
but Owlbert decided to stick with going left as he wanted to prove
to Gora he could abide by the original plan.

There were few doors in any
of the hallways leading to the front of the facility. Of those few
doors, there were no signs indicating their purpose. There were no
numbers. No pictures. Nothing – just plain doors with generic round
door handles. Owlbert found it peculiar but still trudged forward,
hugging the wall the best he could with his body. The artificial
wings often clung to the wall and wouldn’t slide properly, causing
the owl beast to readjust his position.

Once at the front, or at
least what was deemed the front, Owlbert found an open door into a
room. The room was apparently for security guards; there were
several monitors displaying live feeds from differing angles from
around the mining facility, bright red buttons that sat behind an
open glass case on the nearby wall, and an intercom.

Owlbert walked up to the
monitors in search of a way to open any door, preferably the one in
front. He examined the monitors first. There didn’t appear to be
much happening on them or they were malfunctioning because the
screens were full of static or were blue. Owlbert didn’t understand
why nor did he care – he just wanted to open the front door. His
eyes veered across the room. There was a chair right under the
monitors, a large panel of buttons, knobs, and sliders were
positioned on a desk under the monitors as well.

He walked over and somehow
pulled himself onto the chair. His eyes skittered across the large
panel full of buttons, knobs, and sliders looking for any word
above a button, knob, or slider that would indicate it would open
the front gates. ‘Volume’, ‘aspect’, ‘lighting’, and ‘power’ were
found all over the panel. Some knobs had ‘volume’ above them, as
did some sliders. It left Owlbert bewildered and anxious. He needed
to get a door open pronto, but none of these buttons, knobs, or
sliders appeared to be helpful to his cause.

His eyes veered across the
room again. There was a desk with a small amount of paper resting
atop it. A stapler, three-hole punch, and scissors accompanied the
paper. An outdated wired phone sat next to the papers and other
office supplies. Two average paintings of blue flowers and green
flowers hung on the wall behind the desk. It looked like every
office in the world. Owlbert’s eyes shifted to the left.

It was the open glass case,
but, more importantly, it was the bright red buttons that caught
the eye of Owlbert. He made his way to the open glass case and red
buttons. The desk, which sat close to the wall of the glass case,
was used by Owlbert as a way to reach the buttons.

There were seven buttons in
total. Each the same shade of bright fire red. From left to right
the buttons read: ‘Security Off’, ‘Fire Emergency’, ‘Machine
Shutdown’, ‘Trapped Miners’, ‘Open Front Gates’, ‘Airborne
Contamination’, and ‘Clogged Toilets.’ The ‘Security Off’ button
was curiously pushed already, but Owlbert used his beak to press
the ‘Open Front Gates’ button. A loud
KA-CHUNK
could be heard, a noise from
the locks of the front gates. More
ka-chunk
s could be heard, albeit
quieter.

“
Ja,” said Owlbert, “I did
it! Gora vill be proud of mein job here!” He glided gently off the
table and into the hallway. Then he briskly walked in the direction
of the sound of every lock unlocking on the front gate. He waited
near the opening, but cautiously sat near the wall by some broken
equipment. There was no signal to be made from Owlbert to the
group, as the door opening should be signal enough, but Owlbert sat
near the wall for what felt like an eternity before Gora, Tubman,
and Hitbear quietly entered the facility.

“
Vas took so long?” asked
Owlbert, coming out from hiding.

“
Hitbear passed out again,”
said Tubman. She patted Hitbear on the back of his thigh. Hitbear
grabbed his head woozily. “He’ll be okay, though.”

“
What about all these
cameras,” said Gora. She pointed at three just in the front of the
facility. “They know we’re here, don’t they?”

“
Nein!” said Owlbert. “I
saw ein monitors for zee cameras – all broke. All the screens ein
blue or scratchy looking. Nein alarms activated either!”

Gora breathed a sigh of
relief. “Good, now let’s make our way around this
place.”

The group made their way
down a large corridor instead of travelling down the side hallways
Owlbert had used. The large corridor was the throughway used by the
miners every day to enter and exit the mine. Six elevators were
found at the end of the large corridor.

“
Does it matter which we
take?” Gora asked.

“
I don’t even know what
these things do,” said Tubman. “I don’t think these two know
either.” She pointed at Hitbear and Owlbert.