Spellbound (10 page)

The red lights were flashing. Sullivan stood up, wincing at the bump on his forehead. “Will that hold?” Then he realized that was a dumb question, since all of the technical types who knew better were still running. He grabbed Hammer’s outstretched hand and pulled her up. “Come on!”

They had made it about twenty feet when the containment for the spirit phone failed. The release made a terrible
WHUMP
. The basement shook so hard that Sullivan and Hammer were knocked off their feet. Dust and concrete bits fell from the ceiling. The blast door had held, though it had been stretched and bowed like the edge of a steel bubble and the thick walls around it were cracked and steaming.

The alarm was still sounding. The lights in the hall were red as blood. Someone got on an intercom and told damage control teams to report to Room XIII and for everyone else to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Several scientists ran past screaming and crying. Hammer sat up and coughed. “Hope that isn’t coming out of my paycheck.”

Sullivan touched the cut on his scalp. It wasn’t too bad, nothing the Healing spell on his chest couldn’t handle. It would be just another beauty mark in no time. “I’d like to stay and shed a tear for your fancy phone, but I’ve got important business to attend to.”

Hammer stood up and cringed when she put weight on one leg. “Thanks for clipping me there, buddy. It was like getting run over by a car.”

“Sorry.” Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and he was a very big object. “I need to go. You heard what the Chairman said.”

“I didn’t understand any of it, but come on. The alarm has sounded so the second layer of security will lock this place down tight.”

Everyone else was ahead of them. He took one of Hammer’s arms and helped her walk. His clumsy slide had managed to twist her ankle. They went back the way they’d come in, past the doors marked with Roman numerals. After seeing the terrible thing that was behind one of the doors, it made him wonder what was behind the rest. Despite being an intensely curious man, he decided that he really didn’t want to know . . . right this minute, anyway.

The red emergency lighting was dim, so he had to do a double take when something huge and misshapen clanked past in the intersection of hallways ahead. It was only visible for a second, but it had been a foot taller than Sullivan and twice as big around. He pulled Hammer to the side and took cover in the shadow of door IV. He squeezed her tight and watched. “Shhh. Demon.”

“That? It’s okay,” she reassured him. “That’s part of the second layer of security I was telling you about.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like Summoned. Especially a big one like that. I can’t believe you’d keep one of those things around.” The intersection seemed clear. “Greater demons are aggressive. Way too dangerous outside of a war zone. You better have a master Summoner babysitting it nonstop.”

Hammer chuckled. “Oh, Mr. Sullivan. That’s no demon. That’s a tele-automaton. EGE’s board just isn’t ready to unveil them to the public yet. They’re still working the bugs out. Come on. It won’t hurt us . . .” She looked up at him. “Seriously. Let go.”

Sullivan released her. “Sorry.”

“Thanks for trying to protect me from imaginary Summoned.” She stepped into the hallway and adjusted her dress. “But you’re rather rough with the ladies.”

“My last girlfriend was a Brute.” Sullivan grunted. He stepped out after her and froze. The four men that had been out of place at the spirit phone were heading their way. They had guns in their hands and the one in the lead was screwing something on to the end of his that could only be a sound muffler. They saw each other at the same time. They began running his way with murderous intent.

“You set me up,” Sullivan said to Hammer. “Should have known.”

“No wai—” Hammer began, but then she jumped back as a bullet struck the wall next to Sullivan. “Hell!” She ran the other way, but they weren’t shooting at her. The gunmen were aiming for him.

The door marked IV was heavy and solid, but so was Sullivan. He flared his Power, increased his mass, and slammed his shoulder into it. The lock failed and he crashed inside. It was another large space, but so cloaked in shadow that he couldn’t tell how big. There were only a few red emergency lights flashing above.

The floor was made of a metal grate. There were darker shapes on each side, tall units, shaped like standing coffins built to hold giants. They stretched into the distance. Pipes and cables stretched from the ceiling into the tops of the devices. He passed at least five of the things, before Sullivan ran to the side and took cover behind one of the units. He hid just as the feet of his pursuers hit the metal floor.

“Come on out, Heavy. We just want to talk.”

And sell me a bridge in Brooklyn.
Sullivan stayed mum. He’d let them all come inside, then he’d Spike them through the roof. Light beams flickered back and forth. Some of them had hand torches. He crept around the cold metal edge and spotted the four silhouettes. They were confident, but he’d see how confident they’d be when up became down. Sullivan focused and Spiked hard.

Gravity didn’t change. He tried again. Nothing happened. Confused, Sullivan pulled back.

“You feel that?” one of the men asked.

“Yeah, I felt it.” Their leader raised his voice. “You trying to use magic on us, Sullivan? It won’t work. You might as well come out in the open and face us like a man. I want to get out of here before this place falls down on our heads.”

It was rather unnerving to have his magic not work on demand like it always had, but Jake Sullivan wasn’t the panicking type. He was, however, the analytical type. First he took inventory of the Power gathered in his chest. It was there, he could feel it, but it was like something was keeping him from using it. It was like a blindfold for his eyes or earplugs . . . Everything was where it should be, but muffled.

Concentrating, he felt the spells etched into his flesh. They were still alive with Power, but it was as if he couldn’t access them. The laceration on his head should have been tingling with Healing magic, but it wasn’t. Even his Grimnoir ring felt dead.

Interesting.
Somehow these men were blocking his access to the Power. But that puzzle would have to wait. He had to get out alive first, which meant either taking out four armed men with just his hands or escaping. Smart money was on escaping.

Sullivan moved quietly down the grate. He had the wall to his right and the giant coffins to his left. If he was lucky there would be another door at the other end.

“We going to do this the hard way then, Sullivan? Your call.”

Sullivan hit the far wall. It was a dead end. There was a heating vent he thought about trying, but who was he kidding? There was no way in the world that he would be able to fit in there, and he didn’t want the indignity of getting shot in the ass while his shoulders were stuck in a duct. That meant fighting his way out. His hand landed on something leaning against the wall. It was a big spanner. Nice and long with all the weight at the end. Perfect for cracking skulls. Sullivan took the wrench in hand.

He risked a peek. The leader gave some hand signals. The four men spread out, one on each of the far walls, two in the center. Once they were formed up, they all started walking his way, torches bobbing along ahead of them. They were treating this like a pheasant hunt, walking the field, down the levies in a line, keeping an eye on each other so he couldn’t sneak between them, until he had nowhere else to run. They intended to flush him out.

The gunmen were halfway down the room, nearing where Sullivan was clutching his spanner, when there was a loud rumble from the hallway. At first he thought that another part of the building had fallen down. The rumble came again and he realized it was a
footstep
.

“What the hell was that?” The flashlight approaching on his side bobbed away.

“Quiet!” snapped the leader.

Sullivan used the distraction to his advantage. He covered the distance between the coffins swiftly. The light came back around. Sullivan caught the man by the gun hand and swung him facefirst into the nearest metal coffin. He tried to fire his gun, but Sullivan blocked the hammer with his thumb. He tried to push away so Sullivan clubbed him on the back of the head with the wrench.

Lights flashed his way as Sullivan shoved the dazed man into the open. The others opened fire. His victim took a round in the chest and sprawled forward. Sullivan felt a bullet burn across the back of his hand. He dodged back around the coffin, but the pistol he’d hoped to secure went bouncing across the grate to disappear into the shadows.

The guns were quieter with the mufflers attached, but the bullets sure made a lot of racket as they punched holes in the sheet metal he was hiding behind. There was a lull as empty magazines were dropped and new ones slammed home.

“We got you now, Heavy. Nowhere for you to hide.”

There were three of them left and they knew exactly where he was. He was pinned down. They’d fan out and soon enough one of them would have a clean shot . . . He had to get out of here. It was hard to hit something with a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the other, which might give him a chance, but he’d probably still get ventilated. Sullivan prepared to run for it.

There was a metallic thud as something shook the grating. “Greetings, EGE guests. Allow me to help make your visit a pleasant one,” a new voice boomed.

“What the hell is that?”

Sullivan peered around the corner. It was the thing he’d glimpsed in the hall. The flashlights gave him a better look at it this time. It was shaped like a man, mostly. The head was a disproportionately small oval ball with two rectangular glowing eyes. The torso was round too, like a pot-bellied stove. The arms and legs were too long and too thin, with bones of pipe encircled in metal skin. The feet were huge and splayed like a duck’s, probably so that the mechanical oddity could keep its balance.

There was a scratching of a record, like an automated player making a new selection. “Due to the delicate nature of EGE scientific equipment, no weapons are permitted in EGE Shelved Projects areas. Please, place your weapons on the floor and wait for an EGE representative to secure them for you. Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Well, ain’t that something? It’s one of those mechanical men I read about in
Popular Mechanics
. Welcome to the future, boys.”

“We don’t have time for this. Shoot it, Willis.”

There was the muffled snap of a silenced pistol and a
ding
noise as the bullet bounced off the mechanical man’s rounded torso. It barely even swayed.

The record player scratched and rattled as a new track was put on the turntable. “Warning. Please desist from damaging or defacing EGE property.” Logically, Sullivan knew that it was impossible for the prerecorded voice to know, but he could have sworn the mechanical man sounded annoyed.

Willis shot the mechanical man four more times.

This time there was no warning. The mechanical man raised one arm. There was a loud
clack
that Sullivan recognized as the charging handle being worked on a Browning 1919. The thunder of the 30-caliber machine gun filled the room. Sullivan covered his ears.

The three men twitched and jerked as shell casings spilled from the machine’s arm and fell through the floor grate. After a ten-second burst, the firing stopped, and the smoking metal arm was lowered. They were well past dead.

The mechanical man made a rumble as its torso swiveled toward the coffin Sullivan was hiding behind. The record player scratched. “Due to the delicate nature of EGE scientific equipment, no weapons are permitted in EGE Shelved Projects areas. Please, place your weapons on the floor and wait for an EGE representative to secure them for you. Thank you for your cooperation.”

The wrench hit the floor immediately. Sullivan came out with his hands up.

Brief pause. “Thank you for your cooperation. EGE representatives will be along shortly. Please enjoy your visit to the Shelved Projects Branch.”

“Thank you,” Sullivan said. “You mind if I search those fellas?”

It took awhile for the mechanical man to pick the right record. “I’m sorry. I do not understand your question.”

“Great. Just tell me if I start to do something against the rules.” He picked the one that had been acting as the leader. Sullivan checked his pockets, careful not to get blood on himself. There was a wallet and a badge holder, which he took, though he was careful not to pick up any of the perfectly good guns that were lying around.

The mechanical man lumbered closer to see what Sullivan was doing.

“What are you?”

“I am an EGE Tele-Automaton Mark Five. I ensure the safety of the EGE Shelved Projects Branch.”

“How do you work?”

“Through a strategic partnership between Cseska Robotica and Edision General Electric, the EGE Mark Five series operates on a proprietary system combining state of the art scientific methods and ultramodern engineering.”

“Uh huh . . .” Sullivan could see the lightly glowing carvings on various parts of the mechanical man’s body. It was spellbound. Cog science had figured out a way to connect this thing directly to the Power. And thinking of Power . . . How had these guys been able to block his? Sullivan continued his pat-down and found something odd. One of the men had a small orange Bakelite box in his pocket. Sullivan opened it up and saw that it had some sort of gem inside. One fingertip set it spinning.

“Warning. Please desist from damaging or defacing EGE property.”

Sullivan looked up at the mechanical man. “What?” The mechanical man shook as he lifted the box. “This thing hurting you?” The glowing spells seemed to flicker. Sullivan took a step closer and the mechanical man drooped. The arms fell with a grinding noise and hung limp. The lights behind the eye holes gradually went dark. He walked over and knocked on its chest. It was dead or asleep. Sullivan looked down at the mysterious box, shrugged, and shoved it in his pocket.

Picking up one of the hand torches, Sullivan inspected the coffins. Now with more light, he could see that there was a porthole in each one. A quick look inside revealed that there was a different type of mechanical man in each one. Some looked quite a bit like his new friend, bulbous and odd; others were rougher, like boxes with girders for limbs; while a few were much more streamlined, man-sized and looking like a knight in a suit of armor. All had been spellbound, though these seemed inactive. Too bad he didn’t have more time to explore, but he had to get out of here.