Heart of Steel (15 page)

“By the time I realized he was violent,” Mechanus backpedalled, scrambling to find a better way to frame things but coming up empty.

She took another step back. “By the time you...” she echoed, sounding like she wasn’t entirely sure whether to believe it. “What did you
do
to him?”

He blinked; she
knew
what he’d done. She’d requested the rebuild after all. “... Do?”

She shook her head slowly. “You... Jim was never violent before. Never.”

...Ah. Perhaps she was under the impression that he’d brainwashed Jim. It was a plausible—if
ridiculous
—theory.

He closed with her in a single long stride and grasped her by the shoulders, fighting back a grimace when his arm howled with fresh pain. She stiffened slightly but didn’t pull away. Instead, she turned her head away.

“Listen to me,” he said quietly. She glanced at him, but for only a second. “
Listen
. I did nothing to his personality. No changes. Nothing added. Nothing removed. I kept him completely intact. Do you understand?”

She said nothing, but he was gratified to see her brow furrow in thought. She was at least considering it.

“But... why would you even do that?” she asked. “Why would you do that to someone, and then leave his mind intact?”

“Because,” he replied, “I wanted to make him a companion for you, and I was under the impression that he loved you.” Even acknowledging the romantic competition soured his stomach, but there it was. He sighed. “I don’t know what went wrong. But whatever this is, it was there before. You know him

better than I do. Was there...?” He couldn’t figure out a good way to finish that sentence, and bit his lip as he watched her.

“I...” she croaked, and then cleared her throat. “He was always a bit controlling,” she whispered. “But I
never
thought...” She fell silent, pressing her

lips together. She sniffled. “I never thought I’d be in any danger. Just a big argument when I told him I wanted to break up. It’s...” She went silent again for several long moments.

“Look,” she started again. “I don’t know what I should think about any of this. About him. About you. So much has happened in the past few days.” She wrapped her arms around herself, as though trying to keep warm.

Mechanus’s mind raced, struggling to determine what normal people ought to do in this situation. Comfort her, he supposed, but then there was the matter of his injured right arm and his super-strong left arm. Words seemed feeble here, and in any case he couldn’t think of any that sounded remotely appropriate to the situation.

Because, really, what were the odds?

Well, he couldn’t exactly let her stand there, miserable, and do nothing about it. He ransacked his brain for a suitably human response, and after a few frantic seconds found a likely one. He reached out and softly cupped her cheek in his metal palm, brushing away a tear with the pad of his thumb. He was satisfied to see that she didn’t flinch away from his touch this time.

“I caused this,” he said quietly. “It’s my fault you’re in danger, and I aim to correct things.”

“How?” she asked, looking up at him.

“First, we get Arthur back,” he said. “After that, I think everything will start falling into place.”

Chapter

TWELVE

Alistair sounded a lot more optimistic than Julia felt, but what alternative did they have?

In the meantime,
God
, his metal hand was cold—but at the same time she was surprised at how gentle it was. It was strangely comforting, all things considered. She reached up and clasped his mechanical wrist as she looked up at him. He offered her a strange little smile, a bit pinched from the pain of his injury, but genuine enough. After several more seconds, he lowered his hand, and she released him.

“Now,” he said, “Where did you find Arthur?”

“He said he was in Sector 51,” she said. “A good way up from here.”

Alistair nodded thoughtfully. “Seven levels up, in fact.” He sighed. “And since Scarface pitched Jim

into the basement, I dare not activate any of the elevators.”

Julia looked at Scarface, startled by the news of Scarface’s achievement. Only then did she notice how

torn-up the shark-man looked. It leered at her in a way that Julia supposed might be a proud grin, but it was hard to tell when something with a mouthful of chainsaw teeth bares them at someone. She offered a small wave of acknowledgement, and Scarface returned the gesture.

“Okay,” she said, trying not to shiver as she turned back to Mechanus. “So, first thing, meet up with your minions—”

“Assistants,” Mechanus corrected her mildly. Another spindly robot arm tipped with a plug reached over to the left side of his head, interfaced with a small round outlet it found there, and gave a small hiss, whereupon the slightly pinched expression in his face eased slightly. Painkillers, she guessed.

“We meet up with your
assistants
somewhere near here, as previously planned, right?” Julia finished.

He nodded. “I imagine you’re eager to rejoin your pet, yes?”

“Well, of course I am,” she returned. “I mean, he doesn’t have anything to do with... all this, does he? I want to see if he’s okay.” She reached down and grabbed the heavy Ionizer, slinging the nylon strap over her shoulder. “If your arm’s feeling better, that is.”

He flexed his wounded arm without wincing; those must have been some sort of opiates, based on what she knew of fresh sutures. “I’ll be fine. You... did well.”

She gave him a small smile. She still wasn’t sure what to think about his withholding the truth of Jim’s condition, but on the other hand, was there really any good way to tell her?

However, as he picked up the Stormcaller—which presumably had made the loud-as-hell boom in the hallway earlier—she got to thinking again. Thinking had not proven itself to be a particularly good idea in recent years, as it had left her trapped in a bad relationship and spinning in the same circles over and over again, but thinking had also gotten her through med school. And thinking had also led her to give Alistair a chance, and hadn’t he come through for her several times?

He closed his eye for several seconds, apparently consulting his mental map of the area, and then nodded and opened them again, glancing at her.

“This way,” he said. Scarface moved to follow, but Mechanus put up his hand. “Not you, I’m afraid,” he said to the shark-man. “You’ve done exceptionally well so far, but you need to let the medibots do their job.”

Scarface growled and gurgled his displeasure, but settled obediently back onto the examination bed and into the care of several more of the spindly appendages. “Stay safe,” he rumbled.

“We shall,” Mechanus replied, and then turned to Julia. “Come with me. It isn’t far.”

His feet clanked against the metal floor as he led her down yet another sterile, industrial-looking passage lined with doors on both sides.

She followed him, watching his white-coated back as he navigated unerringly through the maze of Sector 3. He moved with confidence now, a far cry from the disoriented wreck he’d been shortly after

losing Arthur. Like her, he seemed to function best with a plan in mind rather than having to improvise. Certainly the latest development with Jim had caught

him off-guard, though she’d initially had difficulty reading his body language.

Based on this, Julia considered that it probably wasn’t fair of her to get mad over something that probably wasn’t even his fault.

But he’d known
, said the rat voice.
He’d known and he’d kept it from you.

And when everything went tits up, he’d immediately made sure she was safe. He’d risked his life for her. That had to count for something.

And you never thanked him properly for his efforts,
the sensible voice chimed in.
You focused on the
one thing
he didn’t do.

That stopped her thinking in its tracks, and the rest of her nearly followed. She faltered a few steps as he rounded a corner, and he glanced back as she stumbled.

“Okay?” he asked simply.

“Fine,” she confirmed, slightly out of breath. “Are we almost there?”

“Nearly so,” he said. “It’s just through this door.”

He strode up to a metal door that looked identical to any of the hundreds of other metal doors in the complex. It hissed open as he neared it, and on the other side she saw maybe two dozen assorted beast-men and other creations, including one that gave a happy bray when she followed Mechanus in.

The horse-ape knuckled and clopped forward on its esoterically-matched limbs and folded Julia into a hug that her instincts told her ought to have fractured several of her ribs, but instead it was warm and snug

and very hairy. She hugged the chimera back, stroking his flanks in sheer relief that he was okay.

“Good boy, Cuddles,” she murmured, pulling back to rub the horse-ape’s velvety nose. He whickered appreciatively and settled on his haunches, his ears alertly forward.

“Good job,” Mechanus said to the chimeras at large as he nodded at the horse-ape. “Now, how many do we have here?”

Julia looked over at the assembled minions. She recognized some of them—Bagheera, Romulus, and the bear-man she’d encountered while scouting, to name a few—but the rest were a mind-boggling variety of beast-men and bird-men. Clearly Mechanus had been busy in between his world conquest preparations. The assembled group seemed pitifully sparse to patrol the entire complex, however. Hopefully they would be just assigned to this floor.

Mechanus grimaced. “Is this all?” he asked, disheartened. He shook his head. “No matter. As many of you may already be aware, Shark Reef Isle is under attack by an internal force, a rampant cyborg that used to answer to Jim. He is extremely dangerous, and has already taken down Arthur.” He paused, waiting for the assorted murmurs of dismay to die down. “Fortunately, we have located Arthur, and Julia and I will be going to retrieve and restore him. I want everyone on high alert. Arm yourselves, and be on the lookout for Jim.

“He is to be considered extremely dangerous, and will not hesitate to kill any of you. I will not order any of you to your deaths. All I ask is that you delay him for a time. Delay him, detain him, trap him, or immobilize him—the means I leave to you. Once Arthur is back online I will be better equipped to stop

him, but until then—” He grimaced, as though bracing for impact. “Until then, I won’t ask any of you to

throw yourselves away trying to kill him. You’re all... too precious to me. Just... buy us time.”

Julia studied Mechanus as he finished his speech. He was rubbing the pad of his right thumb furiously across his fingertips as he scanned the assembled motley ranks of his creations. He chewed his lip anxiously, as though imagining horrible fates befalling each and every one of them.

It was as clear as the metal plates on his face that he cared about them. Yes, he made them by whatever means out of spare parts, and he could easily make more of them, but he cared about them, like a father cared about his children.

And he was afraid for them.

“All right,” he said quietly, and turned away. The chimeras filed away in somber, tense silence. Mechanus’s gaze fell on Julia. “Are you ready to go?” he asked in that same, grave tone of voice.

She nodded. “I’m ready, but... seven levels up sounds like it’s going to be a lot of climbing if the elevators are shut off.”

He nodded in agreement. “For us, and for Jim,” he agreed. “Fortunately, I know of an access shaft that I set up for emergencies that will avoid all that.” A grin started to develop on his face. “It was my first foray into magnetic-based levitation technology.”

“Into... what?” Julia asked, but he had already turned and headed back down the corridor.

“Magnetic-based levitation technology,” he repeated brightly, as though he was discussing something as basic as making spaghetti. “It contains a field that interacts with my implants to lift me to

whatever level I desire. It’s a bit slower than the elevators, but Jim is unlikely to be able to follow us.” He frowned then, and glanced at her apologetically. “It’s... typically only meant for one person at a time.”

“Will it lift me?” Julia asked, trying to keep up with the topic and unsure how well she was succeeding.

He slowed to a stop, looking at her speculatively, but then glanced away, frowning. “You know,” he said. “I don’t think that’s ever come up... that is, lifting a completely organic passenger.” He shrugged. “I should be able to carry you, though, with some minor recalibrations to account for the additional mass.” He continued walking. “Come on. It’s just up ahead.”

‘Just up ahead’ turned out to be around at least three different corners, along a path that Julia judged was winding them fairly close to the center of Shark Reef Isle. She tried to recall the map she’d studied several days ago to try to figure out if she was correct, but so much had happened in between that her mind refused to cooperate.

Aside from this, her feet were starting to hurt from all the running around, and she was looking forward to the opportunity to rest. She would have to make sure Alistair took a break, too—while his pace had not flagged at all, he’d been through a lot more than she had, and he wasn’t going to heal properly unless he took the time to rest.

“How long do you think it’ll take to rebuild Arthur?” she asked, just as he drew level with a metal door set back in an alcove and stopped.

He turned to look at her. “A couple of hours, maybe.” he said. “Why?”

She nodded. “That will give both of us some time to catch our breath. And
you
to get some sleep.”

He scowled. “I don’t have time to sleep, not while...” The sentence dissolved into a yawn. He blinked blearily. “Not while Jim is hunting both of us down,” he finished stubbornly.

She huffed out an exasperated breath and placed her hands on his shoulders. “Look,” she said. “You’re exhausted. You’re sleep-deprived. For all I know you have a concussion. You can’t keep going on like this. It isn’t healthy. And... right now we both need to stay sharp.”

“But—” he tried to interrupt, but Julia was just
tired
of everything right now.

“No,” she overrode him. “No buts. When we find Arthur and get him on his way back to fully functional, you need to get some rest.”

“But I—” he tried again.

“Promise me,” she said. “Promise me you’ll get some sleep.”

He stared at her, and the dark circles under his right eye seemed to stand out even more starkly than before. She put her hand on his right cheek, feeling the warmth of the skin there. He was so pale that the portion of his face not dominated by metal appeared nearly translucent.

She knew full well the consequences of trying to function for too long with no sleep—she’d played that particular game during her residency, and it was mental hell until she’d learned how to sleep virtually anywhere, including on a cold tile floor.

He blinked owlishly at her, and then closed his eye for several seconds.

“Promise me,” she insisted quietly.

“After I start the compiling process,” he agreed, opening his eye. “But not a moment before. We can’t waste time in getting him back.”

“I understand.”

“He’s... more important to me than you know.”

Julia thought she had a fair idea, but she nodded anyway. “I understand,” she repeated. “Now let’s see how this levitating shaft works.”

She released him, and he straightened up and turned to the alcove. He reached out his metal hand towards the door at the back, and the door slid open, granting them access to a space that looked more like a broom closet than any sort of maintenance shaft.

She peered in dubiously, squinting in a vain effort to see how far up it went. “Are we both going to fit?” she asked.

“We should,” he said. “It might be a bit snug, though. Please bear with me.”

As it turned out, it was more than just a bit snug; after a bit of maneuvering, they both fit, but with bare inches to spare. Once they were both in, the door shut with a hiss, plunging them both into darkness.