Crystal Keepers (18 page)

Cole felt terrible to think he was responsible for trashing Googol's best hideout in Zeropolis. But how could he have known? “I'll never betray them on purpose.”

“Let's save that conversation for later,” the Hunter replied. “For now, come with me, or City Patrol is going to turn your life into a nightmare. After losing Joe, they're on a witch hunt, and you're the only person who hasn't escaped.”

“I'm sort of tangled up,” Cole said, reaching for his other tube of freeze-foam.

“Are you going for a weapon?” the Hunter asked. “Seriously? Is your brain broken? You see my trapgun, right? Do you think you can get a molecule of that foam out of that tube before I bury you?”

“I thought I'd be sneaky about it,” Cole said candidly.

“No chance,” the Hunter said. “Looks like I'm going to have to tear off that battle suit and carry you. It would be easier if you'd come willingly.”

“Sorry for any inconvenience,” Cole said.

“Toss that little tube aside or I'll trap you good and leave you for the patrolmen,” the Hunter threatened.

Cole tried to toss it aside, but it got stuck in the net and didn't go very far. “Sorry,” he said. “Want me to try again?”

“Just don't touch it,” the Hunter replied. “Let me get the net off of you. Keep still. If you try something, I swear I'll fire.”

Extending an arm, the Hunter sprayed the net and it dissolved. He reached for Cole, but there came a click as if a little piece of metal had hit the robotic drone. Glancing, Cole saw a silver disk attached to the drone's hip. A slender wire led from the little disk to a shabby maintenance robot perhaps fifty yards away.

And then the drone lit up. White electricity crackled along the wire, and suddenly the drone was jerking and sizzling. Seconds later freeze-foam covered the severely damaged drone, and Sidekick shoved it over.

“Hi, Cole,” the little robot said. “Time to run.”

C
HAPTER

17

OLD ZEROPOLIS

C
ole raced after Sidekick, who it turned out could extend wheels and zoom along at a rapid pace. It took a moment to leave behind the sharp smell of the drone's scorched metal. Cole was relieved to find his battle suit still functioned normally. He glanced back at where the drone lay swaddled in freeze-foam.

“What did you do to him?” Cole asked.

“I converted a lot of energy into something like electricity,” Sidekick said. “Too much for a bot like pretty boy to handle. I could have blown him apart, but you were too close. It was safer to disable him and lock him up with the foam.”

“Do you know where we're going?” Cole asked.

“You had better hope so,” Sidekick said.

Cole hit the button on his communicator just in case. “Anybody hear me?” he asked.

“It's dead,” Sidekick said. “Don't worry. We'll be okay. Whoever was running that fancy drone wanted you to
himself. He diverted the patrolmen and the Enforcers away from here. And we're almost to a tunnel entrance.”

“Thanks for saving me,” Cole said.

“Don't thank me yet,” Sidekick replied anxiously.

The walkway widened into a little park. Sidekick led the way to a rectangular grate in the ground between a bench and a low rock wall, then reached down and lifted the grate. “Just drop.”

No rungs or steps gave access to the gloomy shaft. Cole glanced around. There was nobody in view. Not wanting to ruin a clean getaway, he stepped into the shaft and plunged into the darkness, trying to hold his body ready to land.

He hit after falling perhaps twenty feet, making a splash in shin-deep water. Looking up at the rectangle of daylight, Cole saw Sidekick enter the shaft, all six legs braced against the sides as he slid the grate back into place. Then the little robot shimmied down to the bottom of the shaft.

“Catch me?” Sidekick asked. “You should be strong enough with the battle suit.”

“Sure,” Cole said.

Sidekick dropped. The robot was heavier than Cole expected, but he held on to him.

“You can set me down,” Sidekick said. “I'm waterproof.”

Cole put him down gently, trying not to dip his hands into the chilly water. It reeked like sewage.

“According to my specs, I can survive a thirty-story drop onto bonded crystal, but who wants needless risk? What if I dislocate a processor?”

“I owe you big time,” Cole said.

Switching on a light, Sidekick skittered forward, his legs extended to their maximum length. He left a gentle wake in the dark water. “Save the gratitude until you're safely delivered to the Unseen in Old Zero. Think how guilty I'd feel if you thanked me and then we got captured in the tunnels!”

“Think they'll catch us?”

“Probably not. I have more than my fair share of tricks to use down here. Nobody has mapped the Zeropolitan underground like the Unseen, and I have all of their information. In fact, I helped compile a lot of it.”

“I didn't know you were with us,” Cole said.

“You weren't supposed to know,” Sidekick said. “I work best in the background. I'm not a main attraction like that fancy drone, Mr. Tall and Sleek and Ready to Rumble.”

“You were the most important robot for me today,” Cole said. “You saved my bacon.”

“I can be useful,” Sidekick admitted. “I'm not the big, cool bot who charges into trouble with trapguns blazing. I'm a wingman. I lay low and pay attention. When an ally like you gets in trouble, I sneak up and zap the troublemaker in the back. Effective, if not heroic.”

“It felt heroic to me,” Cole said wholeheartedly. “How'd you have enough energy to fry him?”

“The energy is easy,” Sidekick said. “I can tap into some really juiced crystals. The trick is converting the energy into something like electricity without overheating. I'm built to do that. It's my primary way of dealing with other bots.”

“It wasn't electricity?” Cole asked.

“Almost,” Sidekick said. “Tinkers here can play with
physics. Googol tuned my converter to deliver a jolt that would be extremely harmful to bots, but not horribly destructive to living beings. I deliver it with a wire because that kind of energy can't be linked with harmonic crystals.”

“You're amazing,” Cole said.

“Don't embarrass me,” Sidekick said. “You're just saying that because I rescued you. But I guess that's an acceptable reason. Say it again.”

“I'm the new president of your fan club,” Cole said.

“Don't toy with me,” Sidekick replied. “I've always liked the idea of a fan club. Of course, I usually picture myself as a member. I thought about making one for Outlaw.”

“He was good today,” Cole said. “But I'm making one for you.”

“Let's not get carried away,” Sidekick said. “Any clue who was operating the drone? It was high-end technology.”

“The Hunter,” Cole said.

Sidekick stopped moving forward. “Really? The famous Enforcer? Are you sure?”

“That's what he told me.”

“No wonder you were impressed with me,” Sidekick said. “I'm more impressed too.” The robot started advancing again. “What else did he say?”

“Didn't you catch any of it?” Cole asked.

“I have good listening devices, but in this case I was coming fast,” Sidekick said. “I shot the drone as soon as I was within range.”

“The Hunter wanted me to come in quietly,” Cole said. “He told me I was on the wrong side.”

“Playing nice to convince you to give up everybody else.”

“Seemed that way.”

“The Hunter definitely wanted you to himself,” Sidekick said. “When they started ordering patrolmen away from the route you were taking, I suspected you were heading into a trap. The High Shaper must have a very serious interest in Secret.”

“Understatement alert,” Cole said. “He'll do anything to get her. And he wouldn't want too many people knowing much about her.”

“All the more reason for us to get away from here,” Sidekick said.

“Will the whole path smell this bad?” Cole asked.

“It'll get worse before it gets better,” Sidekick said. “But it beats torture!”

“Can you smell?” Cole asked.

“Not like you,” Sidekick said. “I have sensors.”

“It's pretty close to torture,” Cole said.

Sidekick stopped at an open pipe projecting from the wall. The round mouth looked barely tall enough for the robot to fit inside. “You'll have to crawl, but this will get us onto less obvious pathways.”

“Are you joking?” Cole asked, crouching to study the greasy water draining from the pipe.

Sidekick climbed inside. “I may not be a handsome bot, but I don't love squirming through filth either. Sorry. I'm under orders to protect you. Going this way will do that.”

“I wish I knew how to breathe without smelling,” Cole muttered, sliding his head into the pipe and crawling forward
on his hands and knees. The air seemed chewy with foulness. Cole fought his gag reflex. “It can't get worse than this.”

“There are so many different kinds of nasty beneath Zeropolis,” Sidekick said sadly. “I'll let you be the judge.”

As they progressed through pipes and tunnels, Cole lost track of time. Thankfully his nose became somewhat deadened to the disgusting smells.

Sidekick was right that the underground passageways held a variety of horrors beyond the sights, smells, and textures of sewage. Oozing slime often covered the walls and floors. On occasion they slogged through sucking goo. Curtains of webs parted reluctantly as Sidekick powered through them, leaving Cole to dodge through the gaps. He saw spiders, bats, snakes, centipedes, lizards, and at one point, Sidekick's lights illuminated squirming masses of blind, hairless rats.

At length they reached the widest, driest tunnel Cole had seen so far. “The worst is behind us,” Sidekick announced.

“At least we brought a lot of the smells with us,” Cole said.

“Taking off your coveralls might help,” Sidekick suggested.

Cole removed them.

“Close your eyes,” Sidekick said.

Cole did as requested, and Sidekick began to spray him. It smelled minty and vaguely like a hospital.

“Turn around,” Sidekick ordered.

Cole complied and the spraying continued. After some focused showering of his legs and boots, the spraying stopped. Cole stood dripping.

“I guess I was already pretty wet,” he said. “I smell better. Kind of like toothpaste, but better.”

“I masquerade as a cleaning bot,” Sidekick reminded him. “I need a few actual cleansing tools. That wash should also kill the germs on you.”

“Thanks,” Cole said. “And thanks for leading us out of trouble. It stank, it was gross, but it worked. We never saw a patrolman.”

“I could hear some searching for us at first,” Sidekick said. “Faint sounds. I didn't want to alarm you. But I haven't heard anybody else in some time.” The robot trundled over to a set of rails. “These are tracks from the old subway. We can follow them to Old Zeropolis.”

“Will they expect that?” Cole asked. “What if they head us off?”

“The subway system was needlessly complicated,” Sidekick said. “There are many routes we can take, and plenty of service tunnels. Our enemies don't know where we're going. We could be heading anywhere inside or outside of Zeropolis. We could have gone aboveground long ago.”

“Old Zeropolis is dangerous too, right?” Cole asked.

“It's no playground,” Sidekick said. “But I'll take you right to oldbase. You'll be safe there. It's our biggest stronghold.”

“Are you still in touch with Googol?” Cole asked.

“I was,” Sidekick said. “He asked me to shut off my comms system not long after we went underground. Forge got raided.”

“Wait, what?” Cole exclaimed. “Just now?”

“About the time we came down here,” Sidekick said.

“Is Forge okay? What about Dalton? And Mir—um, Secret?”

“I can't be sure,” Sidekick said. “It sounded like they were on the run. Forge is slippery. Even if City Patrol found his hideout, chances are good he got away with your friends. But if patrolmen took Forge's lair, most of our communicators will be compromised. We'll have to make new batches.”

“Did Jace escape?” Cole asked.

“He got underground and met up with Roulette,” Sidekick said. “It's the last I heard. But it bodes well.”

“Forge had such a great hideout,” Cole said.

“They've gotten too good at finding us,” Sidekick said. “Forge did a lot of hacking to set up this ambush to free Joe. Somebody must have traced him.”

“We won't know more until we reach oldbase?” Cole asked.

“Looks that way,” Sidekick said. “Too bad you lost the warboard. We could have ridden there.”

“How far is it?” Cole asked.

“At this pace, it'll take us into tomorrow,” Sidekick said.

“I'm already hungry,” Cole said.

“I have some provisions,” Sidekick said. “You won't starve.”

“For a little robot, you have a lot of surprises,” Cole said.

“Makes me a good sidekick.”