Willful Machines (28 page)

One of the Spider's legs still twitched, its tip scraping against the packed dirt. Nico grabbed his lifeless puck while I glanced into my blazer pocket to check on Gremlin. By the light from Nico's chest, I could just make out my little Creature blinking his big eyes at me.

From the passage came a skittering sound and a dim flash of blue. “ ‘By the pricking of my thumbs,' ” Nico muttered, “ ‘something wicked this way comes.' ”

Two more Spiders appeared. Their spotlight eyes shone on their fallen comrade, then on us.

Nico scooped me up. “Sorry. More careening through tunnels at breakneck speed.” He raced through an opening at the opposite end of the room and down a corridor. Without its covering of muscle and skin, his pulsing heart poured out an ovenlike heat that baked through my blazer and shirt. The red light shone in front of us like a headlight, splashing crimson over the furrowed walls, while behind, the two blue lights hurtled after us, accompanied by the double-time ticking of the robots' scurrying feet. One of the Spiders let out another eardrum-shattering scream.

When the cry had stopped, I uncovered my ears and said, “Do you know where you're going?”

“Not exactly. But I'm betting the main entrance will be swarming, either with Spiders or with military. I've been building a map in my head, and I have a rough idea where we are. I'm going to find us another way out.”

“Do you know if there
is
one?”

“I'm hoping.”

I peeked behind us again. “There are more of them.”

“How many?”

“Five, I think.”

They seemed to topple over each other, their flashing legs overlapping as they charged after us.

“Here's what I want you to do,” Nico said. “When I give the
word, take out the explosive in my chest. It's programmed to explode five seconds after it's removed, so you have to be fast. Throw it over my shoulder at the robots. Got it?”

“I think so.” Hearing the uncertainty in my voice, I corrected myself. “Yes.”

“Get ready.” Nico shot a quick glance over his shoulder. He sped up, putting more distance between us and the Spiders. The thrumming of his heart intensified. His eyes, focused on the passage ahead, narrowed. “Now.”

I plunged my fingers into the burning nest of wires. Gasping, eyes tearing, I grabbed the explosive. It released with a click, its jumble of severed wires coming along with it. I lobbed it at the tangled mob of Spiders. It bounced off one of them with a small
tink
. A split second later the robots disappeared as Nico rounded a corner. He put on even more speed.

A riot of light and noise filled the corridor. A gust of sweltering wind buffeted us forward. I squinted back over Nico's shoulder. Flames wrapped around the corner and chased us down the passage but died before reaching us. A single Spider leg clanged against the wall and clattered to the floor. Nico slowed to a stop. He turned and watched too.

“Do you think we stopped them?” My voice sounded like it belonged to someone else speaking underwater a hundred yards away.

“Shh,” Nico said.

A noise that seemed miles distant penetrated the stillness:
the creak and whine of metal, followed by the unmistakable skitter of Spider legs.

“We'd better keep going.” Nico's rib cage hissed shut, but the red glow from his power supply continued to filter past his metal ribs and through his translucent synthetic muscle. He started running again. Behind us, two Spiders appeared around the corner, their long legs mangled but still functional. They listed from side to side and knocked into each other like a couple of drunks.

But then they started gaining speed, despite their teetering gait. If anything, the headlong crookedness of their stride and the clanking of their broken limbs made them even more terrifying.

“How many now?” Nico said.

“Only two. But they're gaining on us.”

He glanced around, stopped again, set me on my feet.

“What are you—”

He pushed me into a narrow side tunnel I hadn't noticed before—so narrow I could only fit in sideways. “Hurry,” he said. “I don't think they can follow us through here.”

I edged along as fast as I could, with Nico right behind me. “How far does it go?”

He peered past me. “Another fifty feet or so. Then it opens into a larger chamber.”

The walls seemed ready to slam in on us. My sweat had probably soaked clear through my blazer, despite the coldness of the passage. I kept going, though. Meanwhile, the Spiders
had reached the tunnel entrance. The cold light from their eyes flashed down the narrow space. I craned my neck to watch them as I went. One of them folded itself sideways, the same way it might have in the hallways at school to make room for a human to pass. It sidled into the passage.

“Oops,” Nico said. “Guess I was wrong.”

I sidestepped down the corridor even faster, keeping my eyes focused ahead now, watching the darting blue and red lights play over the walls. The blue lights seemed to grow brighter little by little, but at least I could see the end of the tunnel now. Fifteen feet away. Ten. Five.

I burst out from the passage—only to find myself whirling my arms and fighting for balance at the edge of another abyss. Nico grabbed my damp blazer and dragged me back. We'd stepped onto a tiny ledge next to a chasm. By the light from Nico's chest, I could just make out another, larger shelf on the chasm's far side, about twenty feet distant. The vestiges of a wooden bridge still clung to the rock across from us, but it didn't do us much good now. The ledge petered out on either side of us: the only way onward was across.

“What do we do now?” I panted.

A single silver leg shot out from the narrow corridor and wrapped itself around Nico's ankle. Still holding me by the neck of my blazer with one hand, he grabbed the seat of my pants with the other and picked me up. “This.”

He hurled me into the air.

For the space of one long heartbeat, the chasm gaped beneath me, a bottomless blackness. Then I plowed into the opposite ledge chin first and skidded across the floor. A track of fire seemed to blaze down the front side of my body. Ignoring the pain, I scrambled to my hands and knees.

Back on the other side of the chasm, Nico had just slammed to the ground, toppled by the Spider holding his ankle. The machine folded itself out of the corridor like a contortionist stepping out of a box. Nico twisted his leg free of its grip and jumped to his feet. The two of them launched at each other. There were flashes of red and blue, like police lights. The clang of metal on metal. The rattle of small stones falling into the abyss.

Then the incomprehensible jumble of struggling limbs resolved itself: Nico had the Spider's small body locked in a bear hug. The robot staggered around the narrow ledge, lifting Nico off his feet, but he didn't let go. He raised one fist and punched clear through the robot's metal housing. He yanked his hand out again, holding a bouquet of sparking wires. The machine's eye flickered and went black. Its legs sagged sideways. Nico dropped to the ground. I clutched the front of my shirt in my fist and started breathing again.

Meanwhile, the second Spider slid out from the passage.

“Watch out!” I yelled. “The other one!”

The thing charged forward, ramming its dead friend, along with Nico, toward the edge of the chasm. I stretched out my arms pointlessly.

“No!”

Nico stumbled and staggered toward the drop-off, caught in the tangle of silver legs. The Spider gave its comrade one more push. The wrecked machine toppled, carrying Nico along with it. He struggled to grab on to something, but the dead Spider's limbs kept getting in the way.

Until his fingers found one of the ruined bridge's support beams. The Spider kept falling, but Nico hung there, legs swinging. The rotted wood groaned and sagged. My heart hammered. I didn't think I'd heard the crash of the Spider hitting the bottom. Did this chasm even
have
a bottom?

The surviving Spider peered over the side. Its blue spotlight found Nico. Adrenaline pulsed through my body. Enough watching. I had to do something. I reached into my blazer and pulled out Gremlin—my little Disney mascot whose only skills were looking cute and fetching my socks. What good could he do? His huge eyes blinked at me.

“Gremlin, bring me that blue light.”

I swiped my thumb over the Creature's fur for luck and lobbed him across the chasm. In the darkness, I couldn't tell where he'd landed, or even if he'd made it all the way over. Meanwhile, the Spider had just bent over the edge and stretched down one of its legs. It stamped on the wooden beam, which cracked and drooped some more. Nico's hand slipped a few inches. I pressed my fist against my chest again, like that would keep my heart from bursting out and landing on the dirt in front of me.

A small shadow passed over the Spider's eye, dimming its light. The robot paused, its leg still outstretched, and tossed from side to side. Gremlin went flying, vanishing into the darkness again. He'd distracted the Spider for only a second. But that gave Nico the opening he needed. With his free hand, he grabbed the robot's extended leg. He pulled. The machine flew over the edge, legs waving. Its blue light shrank and shrank and finally disappeared. This time I heard it: a crash echoed up from the chasm floor, which did exist after all.

N
ico grabbed another of the broken beams projecting from the cliff face, this one a little higher, and used it to hoist himself back onto the far ledge. He leaped across the chasm and straight into my arms. I dug my fingers into his back, not even minding the blood and gore still clinging to him or the heat of his chest or the abrasions running down the front of my torso.

I stepped back to look at him. He'd collected more injuries. Now he had a slash on his left forearm and another on his neck below his ear, where a flap of skin had fallen away, exposing the thick synthetic tendons of his neck. He could never pass for human now.

“I think you forgot something.”

He opened his hand. Gremlin made an inquisitive noise, spotted me, and sprang onto my shoulder. “Good work, buddy.” I ruffled his fur.

Over Nico's shoulder, on the opposite side of the chasm,
more flashes of blue lit up the narrow corridor. Nico turned, following my eyes. “We should go,” he said, all business again. Another corridor—wider, fortunately—led away from the chasm on this side. He hustled me into it, pulled down an iron portcullis behind us, and secured it with a latch. “I have a feeling that'll only slow them down.” He picked me up and sped off.

He continued making turns without hesitation, even though, as I knew now, he was just feeling his way along. As for me, I was pretty sure the passage had started slanting upward, but beyond that, I didn't have a clue. I trusted Nico, though. I barely felt surprised when we rounded a corner and a dim light appeared far ahead.

“Is that—?”

He nodded. “An exit. We're about three miles away from the main entrance now, on the western side of the mountain.” He set me down. “We should stop here. If I go any closer, I'll be networked again, and before that happens, we need to talk about what we're going to do.”

“All right. Let's talk.” I turned to face him. “I still say you should stay here. It's true you don't have the bomb in you anymore, but Charlotte can still track your every move. She'll send more robots after you for sure. And couldn't she hack into your motor-control system and hijack you the same way she did Nevermore and those Spiders?”

Nico twisted his mouth but didn't answer.

“Tell the truth.”

“I felt her trying to get into my brain when I ran off with you earlier. I managed to hold her off long enough to reach the cavern.”

“So if you leave these tunnels again, how long will you be able to keep her out of your head?”

His eyes didn't waver. “My best estimate? Sixty-three minutes.”

“But that's nothing.”

“I'm not staying here, Lee. With those Spiders still running around, I won't be much safer down in these tunnels anyway.”

“Well, at least we should split up, so she can't track both of us.”

He sank his fingers into his curls and paced around in a small circle. “Okay. I guess you're right. But I don't like it.”

“I'll leave the mine first. Go back to Inverness. Try to find Dr. Singh.”

“Remember what I said. That place'll be a madhouse.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket, grabbed my wrist, and wrote something on the back of my hand. “When you have news, find a puck and send a message addressed to this puck handle. It'll go straight to me. Charlotte won't see it.”

I couldn't make out what he'd written in the darkness. “What are you going to do? Just run for your life and stay in the general vicinity of Inverness and wait for me to message you?”

“I guess. I'll try contacting Charlotte again too. See if she'll
answer this time. Maybe I can still talk her out of whatever she has planned.”