Alien Storm (23 page)

“Bring the head,” he said gruffly, not looking at either Alex or Sarah. “And pick up any bits from inside. You don't want to leave anything lying around for the other wolves to find. Hurry!”

Alex looked at Sarah, open-mouthed, but she was already on her feet to retrieve the fallen skull of the robowolf. Looking around the floor, she collected several pieces of circuitry and set off up the aisle after their rescuer. Alex brought up the rear, lugging the sledgehammer.

They turned a corner and went down a narrow walkway walled by racks of tools. The man bent and opened a steel trapdoor set into the floor. Turning, he unceremoniously kicked the body of the robowolf through the gap. It landed a second later with a crash and the man followed down a set of steps. Halfway through the trapdoor, he looked back at Alex and Sarah, who hesitated on the threshold. The man pulled back his coat hood, revealing his face for the first time. He was in his mid-fifties, and although his face was lined from years of exposure to the elements, his eyes were bright and intelligent. The left side of his head was marred by a series of fresh-looking scars that seemed to have been caused by the claws of an animal. His greying hair grew long and fell over his face, obviously to hide the worst of his wounds.

“Well, are you coming or not?” he snapped impatiently. “You can stay here for the rest of the wolf pack to arrive if you like. Just don't lead them to my hideout.”

Alex glanced at Sarah, who shrugged. What choice did they have?

They started after the man, taking the stairs down as quickly as they could. As they descended, he pulled on a cord and the metal trapdoor swung closed with a mighty clang, blocking the way back to the factory.

26

Sarah and Alex followed their rescuer down a narrow corridor under the factory floor. Light was provided by a series of bulbs gaffer-taped to the low ceiling. The man had to duck to stop from knocking them down with his head as he passed underneath.

The corridor stretched ahead for about fifty metres, before ending at a short set of steps leading down into an underground room. Sarah judged it was about the size of their entire apartment back in Melbourne, although it felt cramped because of the sheer amount of stuff contained within: workbenches piled high with electronic components, racks of tools, boxes brimming over with old bits of scrap. In the corner she made out a single mattress on the floor and realized that this was where the man lived. Underground, it was significantly warmer than in the factory above, but the place still wasn't exactly luxurious.

“Where are we?” Alex asked as they stepped into the room.

“It used to be a storage area for the factory,” the man replied as he dragged the remains of the robowolf across the room and hauled it up onto one of the workbenches, scattering junk in the process. “Now it's just about the most desirable property for a hundred kilometres in any direction.”

Shedding his coat, he walked to a bank of car batteries and attached a crocodile clip to one. Immediately, a series of electric heaters positioned around the room hummed into life, casting a ruddy hue across the benches and shelves. Alex walked over and inspected the electrics – everything was battery powered, from the heaters to the lighting.

“Who are you?” Sarah asked as the man returned to the bench and started opening up the belly of the robowolf with a pair of metal cutters.

“Call me Yuri,” he replied with a grunt as he prised open the guts of the robot and yanked out a motor. He pointed to the object Sarah cradled in her arms. “Bring me that head.”

She walked to the bench and handed Yuri the skull of the robowolf. He held it up, inspecting the exposed brain before reaching inside to remove a circuit board. With a grin, he dropped it on the floor and brought his boot down on the component repeatedly until it was little more than dust.

“Homing chip,” he explained, aware that Alex and Sarah were looking at him with concern. “Hard-wired into the brain of every one of those monsters. I just hope we got it before the rest of the pack realize we've taken this one down.” He waved his hand around the room. “Take a seat and don't touch anything.” He looked at the arm of Alex's coat, which was slick with blood where the robowolf slashed him. “There's a first-aid kit on the shelf over there. Sort yourself out before you leak all over my floor.”

With that, Yuri set to work on the motor he'd salvaged with a screwdriver, as if neither of the children existed. He hummed a tune to himself.

Alex moved closer to Sarah.
Do you think he's all there?

Looks like he's been living alone down here for a while
, Sarah replied dubiously, casting another look around the room.
Take your coat off and sit
.

She collected the first-aid kit and went over to Alex, who'd taken a seat in a battered armchair. The wound on his arm wasn't as bad as it could have been, considering the razor-sharp talons of the robowolf.

“You were lucky the cut wasn't deeper,” Sarah told him as she applied antiseptic to the four parallel cuts on his upper arm.

“Lucky, right,” Alex replied, gritting his teeth as she bandaged the wound. In the background, Yuri continued to work away at the motor, seemingly oblivious to their presence.

The cuts tended to, Sarah took the first-aid kit back to the shelf and cast another look around the overcrowded den that was Yuri's home. The air had a stale smell to it, but at least the heaters were doing their job. The temperature quickly became too much after the freezing air above. Sarah unzipped her coat and threw it down on a sofa by the door. Yuri looked up sharply at the movement.

“Don't make yourself at home. There's plenty of space to hide out under the factory. You two need to find your own room. I can spare you some food and clothes, but then you'll have to do your own scavenging.”

“If you didn't want us down here,” Sarah demanded, “why did you help us in the first place?”

Yuri closed the housing of the motor and gave it one last look over. “Because you were bringing the whole wolf pack down on my hideout, clattering around like a pair of fools up there. And because I needed this for Laika.”

He turned and gave a whistle towards the open doorway of a darkened anteroom they hadn't noticed before. Something stirred within and there was the sound of metal feet moving on concrete. Thinking of their pursuers, Sarah instinctively backed away. Alex rose from his chair and stood beside her, ready for action.

A robot limped out of the darkness and approached the bench. It was similar in shape and build to the robowolves, although slightly larger and more cumbersome. From the mismatched markings on its body and limbs, it was clear to see it had been constructed from pieces collected from various robots, along with other bits of scrap. Wires were taped to the outside of its frame, which was welded together clumsily in places. Its head was rounder than that of the other robowolves and its oversized eyes glowed green rather than red.

“Don't mind, Laika,” Yuri reassured them. “You won't hurt anyone, will you, girl?”

Laika sat back with a
clunk
and raised her forelegs in a movement that approximated a dog begging. An electronic bark escaped her mouth followed by a simulated panting sound that was oddly comical in comparison to the growling sounds of Balthus and the wolf pack.

“It's not a robowolf,” Alex said with a laugh, “it's a robomongrel!”

Laika's head twisted in his direction and she let out an abrupt yelp.

“Watch your mouth,” Yuri snapped, crouching before the robodog and opening a panel by her front leg. “She's very sensitive.”

Alex shrugged. “Sorry.”

Yuri removed a component from Laika's leg and proceeded to fit the salvaged motor inside, connecting wires before finally slotting it home. Standing, he patted the robot on the head as if she were a real dog.

“There you go, girl,” he said with a newfound softness in his voice. “Getting around should be easier now.”

Laika rose and turned in a circle, as if testing out the new motor. Satisfied, she ran excitedly round the table, knocking into furniture and disturbing shelves in her excitement.

“Laika, easy!” Yuri protested as the robodog ran up to Sarah, panting happily. Not sure what else to do, Sarah patted the machine on the head. Laika gave a bark and sat before her.

“She likes you,” Yuri said grudgingly. “She has good instincts about people.”

“What happened to her leg?” Sarah asked.

Yuri held up the component he'd removed and threw it into a pile of scrap by the door. “Burned out in a fight with a robowolf. They come sniffing around from time to time. We wait for one of them to stray from the pack and take them down. Nobody knows this terrain like Laika and me.”

Alex looked at a series of slash marks on the robodog's side. Clearly made by the talons of a robowolf. They approximated the scars on the side of Yuri's face.

“Looks like you've both seen a bit of action,” he said. “Did you build her yourself?”

Yuri nodded. “From pieces of the others. First it was just me fighting them out here. Now the robowolves have both of us to fear. Right, Laika?”

Laika gave an approving yelp.

“You used to work for Makarov?” Alex asked Yuri, moving closer to the bench. “Is that how you know this place so well?”

Yuri winced at the mention of Makarov. “Don't say that name around here. All the pain he's caused, I don't want to talk about him.”

“But what are you doing here?” Alex pressed. “Where are the others from the factory?”

Yuri sighed and looked down at the bench again. “I was the manager for Makarov's mining operations here in Chukotka. When the meteorite was detected, the plant was evacuated fast. It was just a small fragment and landed many kilometres from here. Barely caused a rumble, but it made a crater in the ice. We thought we were okay, but then people started getting sick.”

Alex glanced at Sarah.
The sleepers we saw back at the tower
.

“Makarov's science team came in and transported them to the Spire,” Yuri continued bitterly. “For their own good, they said. Now he's keeping them there to use as he wishes.”

“He can't do that!” Alex cried. “Why haven't you told someone? The government? The police?”

Yuri grinned humourlessly. “Take a look around this wasteland, kid. Makarov
is
the law
and
the government for three hundred kilometres in every direction. You can walk for a week and still be standing on land owned by him.”

“How come you didn't get infected when the meteorite hit?” Sarah asked.

“Because I was in the Spire at the time,” Yuri replied, unable to hide the guilt he felt. “Used to live there in luxury along with all of Makarov's other executives. When the meteorite struck, Makarov was already set up for the retrieval operation – spacesuits, breathing masks, sleeper pods. I worked out pretty fast that he knew more than he was letting on.

“When the virus victims were brought into the Spire,” Yuri continued, “Makarov started shipping the managers out of Chukotka. Relocating us to operations in other parts of the world.”

“He didn't want anyone to know what was going on here,” Alex said.

Yuri nodded. “But I wasn't going anywhere. I'm from this part of the world. Those miners are my people. I refused to leave and that's when Makarov set his dogs on me.” He brushed a hand through his hair, briefly revealing the scars beneath. “Somehow I made it out of the Spire and crawled to the factory. Makarov assumed I would just die out here in the snow. He was wrong.”

Sarah placed her hands on the bench and leaned towards Yuri. “You have to help us. Makarov is holding those miners and their families prisoner, using them as a power source for a meteor beacon. He's in communication with an alien force—”

Yuri held up a hand to silence her. “Please. There's nothing you can tell me about Nikolai Makarov I don't already know. Before I was thrown out of the Spire I had a good snoop around in his restricted level…” His voice fell silent.

“Go on,” Alex prompted, but Yuri picked up a tool and continued working on the robot carcass.

“Enough. I've spoken enough about it.”

Alex looked at Sarah and shrugged, but she wasn't about to leave it at that. She projected her mind towards Yuri, peeling back defensive layers to reach the things he wasn't telling them about. In the act of suppressing them he had brought them to the surface – his thoughts were an open book to her. She saw the meteorite chamber in Makarov's tower. Yuri had been there. Seen everything.

“What are you doing?” Yuri snapped, backing away from the workbench and clenching his eyes shut. “Get out of my head!”

The man's mind snapped shut like a trap, blocking Sarah out.

“You saw the meteorite fragment,” she said harshly. “You know what's going on here. What have you been doing for the last six months?”

Yuri picked up a cutting tool and pointed it at her accusingly. “I've been surviving! And you…you're like Makarov. A mind-controller. Well, you won't get inside my head!”

Alex stepped between them, trying to cool things down. “Okay, okay. We're sorry, Yuri. We're just trying to work out what's going on here.” He cast a look at Sarah.
Take it easy. We don't need to be thrown out into the storm just yet
.

Yuri seemed to calm down a little. He threw the tool down in disgust and slumped into one of the chairs. “There's nothing I can do for those miners.”

Sarah spoke more softly. “We just want to know what's going on here. Makarov has our friends as well. We need to get help from outside. The world has to find out what's going on here.”

“There's no working telephone in the factory,” Yuri replied with defeat in his voice. “There used to be a communications set-up at the village, but—”