The Nightingale Circus (12 page)

“Find the other arm and let’s pull it out,”
Rake said.

Spinner dug through the debris, but the left
arm was caught in between two iron beams, twisted at an odd angle.
He tried to lever it out with one of his long knives and shook his
head when nothing moved. “It’s stuck. We’ll need a crane to get it
out.”

Too bad there was no such thing at the
junkyard, and they didn’t have one at the circus, either.

Rake knocked on the remaining wall of the
car. Hollow. “Reverse field.”

“What? Noooo…” Spinner made a long face. “My
joints ache for weeks whenever we do that.”

“It’s the only way to get it out.” Rake
cracked his neck and drew in a deep breath. This was going to
hurt.

Spinner grumbled but took position with his
legs spread and fists brought together in front of him. His muscles
bulged along his arms in anticipation, making the leather jacket
look alive.

At Rake’s signal, they reversed their fields
and set them to the highest intensity for a full second. The earth
shook, and everything made of metal around them was blown fifty
meters away in the blast, including the car. Once the pain subsided
and he caught his breath, Rake cracked one eye open. They stood on
clean ground, with only wood and plastic and the bot left beside
them. He’d been right. It wasn’t made of metal.

“It’s so … big,” Spinner said for lack of a
better word.

On a regular day, their enhancements made the
knife throwers the biggest people in the room. Not anymore.
Although it was lying down, the bot had to be at least one head
taller than Rake. It would barely fit in one of the train cars
while standing.

“I bet Big Dino would love to see it move,”
Spinner said with a smirk.

That was unlikely to happen, considering the
state it was in. A quick assessment had revealed no weapons of any
kind. It didn’t matter, they couldn’t have used them anyway.

Rake grunted as he picked up the bot’s leg.
“Grab the other one.”

Together, they dragged the bot across the
uneven ground, heading in the direction of the exit. Their muscles
strained under its weight—the damned thing was heavier than both of
them put together—and although the material provided little
friction, that didn’t help much.

Annoyed by the wet clothes and the mud that
clogged his boots, Rake growled when the owner of the junkyard
appeared.

The man waved his hands, saying, “No take …
no take!”

Rake let go of the bot and held his ground,
his hand going automatically to his knives. “We already paid the
entry fee.”

“Parts … only parts,” the owner said.

“Well, it’s not working.” Spinner pointed at
the dead bot. “Do you want us to cut it in half first?”

The man gave the bot a wary look, and his
right eye rolled crazily in its socket. “No take…” His voice came
out with less conviction.

Rake’s scowl was countered by Spinner’s
calmer look.

“How about we fix your eye and call it even?”
Spinner asked.

The man pulled his long tunic tighter around
himself and wrinkled his nose. “You can … fix eye?” His thin
moustache trembled.

“Sure we can fix it.” Spinner pulled a
scalpel and a screwdriver from his tool bag. “We can repair
anything.”

Ten minutes later, the new client touched his
face and cried loudly, “I see … no see in twenty years … thank
you!”

“Can we leave now?” Rake stomped his feet. He
disliked the sinking into the mud feeling.

“Go! Go!” The man waved them away.

They picked up the bot again and carried it
to the platform at the back of their truck.

“If you know anyone else in need of fixing,
send them to The Nightingale Circus. We’ll be there the whole
week!” Spinner said before leaving.

* * *

“You have to see this!” Spinner waved at Big
Dino when they pulled up the truck near the train. Around them, a
crowd of chatty clowns watched the gymnasts rehearsing their
numbers.

“What? You’re bringing the competition in
now, too?” Jacko asked.

Ignoring his comments, Rake jumped out to
check on the dirty bot. Where was the rain when you needed it?

On top of the steps leading to his car, Big
Dino paused and slowly turned his massive body around. His already
green complexion became even greener at the sight of the bot. “What
do we have here?” He rubbed his hands together, his round, black
eyes gleaming with interest.

“Isn’t it a beauty?” Spinner grinned.

Rake opened the factory door and returned
with a hose a minute later. No way were they bringing the bot into
their workshop with mud smeared all over it.

“Yes, clean it up.” Big Dino nodded as much
as his short neck allowed. “Then try to open it
very
carefully. You can skip the show tonight.”

Both Rake and Spinner looked up. Unless
someone was seriously sick, everyone’s performance was mandatory
during the show each night. When had the rules changed? But Big
Dino had turned his back on them, so they shrugged.

Rake washed the bot and brushed all of the
dirt off until its shell shone in the afternoon sun. It was dark
brown, and although it was made of several parts, he couldn’t find
a way in.

“Did you get the factory ready?” Rake asked
as Spinner came out to join him.

“Yes. It's good to go.”

“Good. The fair will open soon, and we don't
want any visitors to see this thing.”

Spinner grabbed the legs. “How do you think
they powered it up?”

Rake grunted as he lifted his end of the bot
and didn't answer. Sometimes, Spinner just needed to hear himself
speak.

They dumped it on the floor and stared at it
with hands propped on their hips, wondering where to start.

“It must open somewhere.” Spinner kneeled by
the bot’s side.

Half an hour of poking and prodding brought
no result.

“Should we get Nicholas to do it?” Spinner
asked. “The army uses telechargers to fight bots … not
successfully, but this one’s already dead so…”

“I doubt it would work,” Rake said. “He’ll
probably just break what’s not yet broken. He doesn’t know what’s
inside.” And that was the problem, no one did. Their scanners
hadn’t been able to get through the shell.

“Well then, there’s only the drill left.”
Spinner brought one from the shelf and pointed it at the left side
where the breastplate met the abdominal plate and the back plate.
“I’ll start here. If only I could chip it a little…”

“You think?” Rake’s eyebrows rose. “These
bots are made to survive direct blasts.”

“That’s different from what I’m doing here,”
Spinner yelled over the screech of the drill. “This one can’t run
away.”

Spinner didn’t need his help, so
Rake
focused on the broken
spotlights encased in the bot’s shoulders and the suspensors on the
back of its legs. This wasn’t a terrestrial unit. At one point,
this bot had been able to fly.

“Umm … Rake?” Spinner’s voice came out
hesitantly from behind a welding mask. He’d switched from a drill
to a cutting torch during the past few minutes. “Come and take a
look at this…”

Rake stepped over the bot’s leg and crouched
by his side. “What?”

A narrow crack, two centimeters wide and five
long, had appeared between the plates.

“Put your finger in there,” Spinner said.

Rake looked at him like he was insane.

“It’s not hot!” Spinner grumbled. “I’ve
already done it, and I’m fine. The scanner doesn’t pick up anything
because the angle is wrong, so you need to feel it yourself.”

Reassured by the sight of Spinner’s hands
covered only in old scars, Rake inserted his index finger into the
hole. When the last knuckle got in, he ran into a soft, elastic
membrane. Not a membrane, this thing had a certain resistance and
consistency. “It feels like…”

Spinner nodded. “That’s living tissue.”

Rake sat back on his haunches. He’d been on
the battlefield, but back then the bots weren’t led by humans. Was
this a new model? He couldn’t tell for sure, but by the look of
things, the bot had to have been in that yard for several
years.

“
What?
” he said in answer to Spinner’s
persistent stare.

“We opened it … and it doesn’t smell.”

“There’s a living thing in there.” Rake drew
in a breath and ran a hand over his face. “We approached it all
wrong. We were trying to open a tin can when this is much more.
Bring the cables.”

“What for?”

“The bot won’t open as long as it can sustain
life, I'm guessing, and for some reason, its inhabitant can’t or
won’t give the order. I’m going to short circuit it. Then it’ll
have to open.”

Spinner winced as if he were the one
electrocuted. It wouldn’t have been the first time. “What about the
… creature? What if it kills it?”

“It’s either that, or we suck it out through
that hole,” Rake said.

Spinner brought the cables.

The spotlight locations needed a bit of
digging to get to their connectors before Rake managed to attach
the cables. “Clear.”

Spinner turned on the dial.

The bot didn’t shake like a patient on a
hospital bed. Several seconds passed before it screeched, and its
shell split and flipped to the side, starting with the face, chest,
and gradually advancing towards the arms and legs.

“What the…?”

Rake and Spinner gaped at the bot's
occupant.

“It’s female.” Spinner blinked in
surprise.

The creature’s unnaturally long limbs had the
appearance of a jellyfish, covered in translucent skin that left
the veins and bones visible. Small breasts decorated her bare chest
while her sex was hidden behind a metallic sphere the size of a
human head that pressed her stomach against her spine.

“She’s been in there for a while,” Spinner
said. “Look at the length of her hair.”

Her skin was sickly white, as if she had
never seen the sun before, but her long hair was black and so were
the almond-shaped eyes, protected by thin eyelids.

“She’s breathing,” Rake said as an
afterthought.

Spinner pulled up an arm, and her long,
flexible fingers popped out of the bot’s hand, but the arm remained
limp in his grip. “We need Big Dino. We’re not qualified for
this.”

Rake made no move to stop Spinner as he ran
to the window and called for their boss. The sphere had caught his
attention. He’d never seen anything like it before. It was held in
place by wires, but no wire went into the sphere. Why was it in
there and what did it do?

Huffing and puffing, Big Dino entered the
factory while Spinner was debating whether to set up an IV
line.

“Well, well, well, look at this…” Big Dino
bent at the waist to peer inside the bot. “I was hoping for that…”
He nodded at the sphere. “But I wasn’t expecting
that
.” He
scratched the dark crusts on his chin as he stared at the girl.

“What is it?” Rake asked.

“This?” Big Dino knocked on the metallic
sphere. “It’s a power source. I’ve had a similar one once, but I
gave it away. This thing can power up an entire platoon of
bots.”

“It’s not connected to anything,” Rake
said.

“That’s the beauty of it. It works by
remote.” Big Dino showed his teeth in a wide grin. “It will get us
through the winter with ease.” He straightened his back. “Okay,
detach it and store it safely in the engine room. We’ll redirect
the power from there. I’ll show you how.”

When the sphere removed, Spinner asked, “What
about the girl?”

Big Dino gave her a long look. “Wake her
up.”

“Shouldn’t we call Cielo—”

“She lives trapped inside a bot. She doesn’t
have any mental powers.”

At Big Dino’s impatient gesture, Spinner
brought a syringe and stabbed her arm with the needle.

The girl stirred shortly after that. First,
her arms trembled, and then her eyes opened. She whimpered and
flapped her limbs like a fish taken out of the water, unable to
hold her weight.

Damn, they should have brought in one of the
girls before waking her up. No wonder she freaked out when faced
with three men staring down at her, two covered in scars and one
looking like a toad.

“Easy, sweetheart, we’re not here to hurt
you,” Big Dino said in a soothing voice.

The girl didn’t listen to him. She continued
to struggle, but she only managed to slip out of the bot and curl
up by its side, whimpering.

“Maybe she doesn’t understand English,”
Spinner said.

He tried seven other languages, and Rake
added four of his own, but no luck.

“I bet she knows Japanese,” Spinner muttered
with a peevish look. None of them spoke it, as the circus had never
traveled that far east.

“Forget that,” Big Dino said. “Call one of
the mimes.”

Spinner ran once again to the window. “We
need a mime in here!”

The girl shuddered but didn’t try to crawl
away. There was nowhere to go. She raised her head with great
difficulty and glanced from one man to the other, waiting.

Rake brought a blanket from the closet and
draped it over her.

She accepted it, her fingers wrapping around
a tattered corner, but then she squeaked when the mime, dressed in
a black and white striped costume, followed by Jacko in his
colorful jacket, came in.

“We’re here,” Jacko said.

“Take the masks off,” Spinner said. “You’re
scaring her.”

The mime made an apologetic gesture to the
girl and indicated they were coming from the fair. The mask then
broke into tiny pieces that retreated behind his hairline.

“Now, this is what I want you to explain to
her.” Big Dino knotted his fingers behind his back and turned
towards the girl. “We need your power source. We’ll still power
your bot, and you can keep it if you want. But we can’t take you
back. People will ask questions.”