The Armoured Ghost (13 page)

With one sweep of its blade, the Armournaut cut a chunk off the shield and knocked the helmet from Salt’s head. The robot reached down to him, taking a grip of the old knight’s chestplate and ripping it off. Salt screamed as his armour came apart. The Armournaut still had Salt’s sword stuck in its own chestplate. It pulled the plate off and tossed it away. It replaced it with Salt’s, fitting the piece of armour into the sockets in its chest. Salt’s power totem gleamed in the setting on the chestplate. The old knight stared hard at it.

‘GIVE IN TO YOUR DEATH,’ the monster said.

‘Hah! I’m not dead yet,’ Salt gasped through gritted teeth.

Hearing those words, Rake looked over at Oddball and Tea-Leaf, who were nearest the door. They nodded and hurried out. The other cadets crept closer, ready to help their master, but he waved them back.

‘YOUR TIME IS PAST, OLD MAN,’ the monster said. ‘YOU GROW WEAKER WITH AGE, AS I GROW STRONGER.’

‘Maybe,’ Salt muttered, looking once more at his power totem. ‘But you’re not getting any
smarter
. And now you’re plugged in.’

The Armournaut raised its sword one last time. The blade came down with awesome power. Rake barely got his sword there in time, blocking the robot’s strike. The impact nearly knocked his weapon from his hands. He grabbed the Armournaut’s wrist to stop the robot swinging its sword back at him. The machine raised its left arm to slam its shield into Rake’s head, but Hoax got the chain of his nunchaku round the robot’s arm, stopping the blow. The two boys couldn’t hold its arms for long, but then Snow was there. She threw all her weight against the backs of its knees. The Armournaut toppled over backwards.

It let out a roar, smashing the young knights out of its way as it rose to its feet.

‘PERHAPS I’LL TAKE OVER THE TRAINING OF YOUR YOUNG KNIGHTS!’ the Armournaut bellowed at Salt. ‘THEY HAVE SPIRIT! BUT THEY’RE WASTING THEIR TIME WITH A RELIC LIKE YOU. THE ARMOURON ARE DEAD. I AM THE FUTURE!’

The robot picked up its sword and shield. It seemed as if nothing could stop the machine.

Outside, Tea-Leaf got to the web console first,
switching
it on. She started tapping the number in, but then hesitated, struggling to remember. Oddball staggered up behind her and punched in the last few digits.

A tacky ring-tone suddenly beeped from the Armournaut’s new chestplate. It froze, looking down. The medallion was ringing like a phone. Salt waved at the others to get down.

‘That’ll be your future calling,’ he told the machine.

Then he covered his head with his hands.

The Armournaut felt an instant of shock before it exploded. Rake and Hoax dived across to their
master
as the robot continued to erupt into flames. They dragged him away, protecting him with their bodies. The flames caught hold all over the factory, the fire spreading quickly. The remains of the Armournaut’s metal skeleton clanked around, crashed into some machinery and then collapsed.

Snow dropped in front of the three huddled figures, expanding her shield to cover them all as another explosion ripped through the factory.

Outside, Tea-Leaf and Oddball gaped at the factory, as fire burst from the high windows and they heard the sounds of more detonations inside.

‘Japes!’ Tea-Leaf gasped. ‘Was that supposed to happen?’

Oddball just stared, speechless. They both broke into a run, rushing towards the building, hoping there was still enough of their friends left to save.

Chapter 17

The New Generation

HOURS LATER, SIX
exhausted figures trudged down the tunnel into the Old School.

Salt was badly hurt, but he insisted on walking without help. The cadets carried their helmets in their hands, along with their weapons. They worked their jaws to clear their throbbing eardrums. Their faces were scorched and blackened by soot.

Salt had explained what had happened. He had been planning for this stand-off for some time, in case the robot was still alive. Once the Armournaut had plugged Salt’s chestplate into its own chest, it thought it would be taking his power totem.

Instead, the robot had plugged itself into a remote-controlled bomb.

Salt had replaced his totem with a detonator made using an earphone. He had rigged his chestplate with explosives. He’d got the idea from seeing Oddball’s remote-control robot explode behind Stamper.

But he couldn’t use a battery in the earphone without being detected. So to set off the bomb, Salt’s detonator needed electricity from the robot’s body . . . and somebody had to call the phone.

Salt lined the five cadets up in front of him. They stood before him, their heads hanging on their chests. They were bruised and battered and they could barely stand.

‘Hold your heads up,’ he said to them. ‘Be proud of what you did tonight. You fought one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy and you won. You all showed bravery, intelligence and skill. It was an honour to fight with you. But I am getting too old for this malarkey. It is time for a new generation of Armouron. I wasn’t fighting with cadets in this battle. You fought like the knights you are. It is time I gave you the titles I’ve chosen for you. You will use them
whenever
you go out into the world as Armouron Knights.’

He stepped up in front of Rake, placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

‘Templer, the Fearless.’

Snow was next. He put his hand on her shoulder.

‘Alida, the Shieldmaiden.’

Next in line was Hoax. Salt rested his hand on the boy’s shoulder.

‘False-Light, the Trickster.’

After Hoax was Oddball. The master squeezed his shoulder.

‘Sappar, the Inventive.’

And finally, Tea-Leaf, the only one who had not grown up in the Academy. Who had never been part of anything before. She avoided Salt’s eyes as he took her shoulder. He tipped her chin up with his other hand.

‘Balista, the Shadow,’ he said. Then he turned to face all of them.

‘Lift your heads high and be proud, young knights. You are the future of the Armouron.’

He turned and limped towards the medical bay, wincing at his injuries.

‘And you’d better make a good job of it,’ he growled back at them. ‘Or I’ll make you wish the Armournaut had won that fight.’

Chapter 18

The Beating Heart

THE CHAIRMAN WALKED
slowly through the burned wreckage of the factory. He didn’t care about the ashes that soiled his expensive shoes, or the way the pieces of wire and metal snagged on his trousers. It was early in the morning. The fires had been put out, but the ground was still warm beneath his feet.

The White Knights were controlling the area around the factory. The Chairman’s staff waited nearby for instructions. He ignored all of them. It didn’t take him long to find the first remains of the Armournaut. Some of its metal skeleton had survived the heat of the fires, the impact of the explosions. But the Chairman was not interested
in
the skeleton. Using a warped steel bar, he poked around in the ashes. If his enemies really were Armouron Knights, they would know the Armournaut’s history. But there was a chance that the fire had been too fierce for them to take the robot’s heart.

After nearly half an hour, he found what he was looking for. It was an egg-shaped piece of metal, about the size of the robot’s fist. It had tendrils hanging off it, making it look like a large spider. There were crystal sections in the shell and light could be seen glowing through them. Peering through a clear section of the shell, the Chairman could see the Thirteenth Medallion inside, giving off a throbbing glow.

This was what made the Armournaut so hard to kill completely. You could destroy its armour, even its body, but nobody had ever managed to destroy this. The Chairman held it up and his eyes narrowed. He allowed himself a slight smile.

The heart of the armoured ghost was still beating.