Wizard paused for effect, while Tod and Vanja quietly came back together. “But it seems that history is too much. Now that they remember it, all the old grudges come back. ‘No way!’ he says. ‘Never!’ she agrees.
Damn. That was not the conclusion Tod wanted.
Vanja stepped into him, put her arms about him, and kissed him ardently. He kissed her back. Thus clasped, they waited.
“Will they work it out?” Wizard asked rhetorically. “Or must they separate, losing their newfound love? That is the question before you. This story is unfinished until you decide.”
“How can they?” a man demanded. “They’re enemies.”
“But they’re in love,” a woman replied.
The audience dissolved into debate. But the purpose of the story had been accomplished: to give relief from the tension of the coming siege.
They left the scene while the villagers continued their discussion. “You passed,” Vanja told Wizard. “You’re a tale teller.”
“But it has no resolution.”
“That is the resolution, for the villagers. That may be your signature. The story that ends in a question.”
“Perhaps so,” he agreed. “Thank you, vampire.”
“Just get physically better. We still have a job to do.”
They did indeed. But Tod was glad that the last art had been displayed. The team was complete.
Then came the first report of a missing villager. The man had gone out in the night to urinate, and not returned. His family was alarmed; this was not like him. They made a search, but there was no sign of him, or of foul play. He was simply gone.
Work continued on the fortress. Villagers ranged through the forest, fetching in supplies for a siege. And two more men disappeared. Vanja transformed and did an aerial search, but again, no sign.
“The androids have to be getting them,” Tod said. “But how? They know better than to take on any androids alone. And these two were together anyway.”
Now the mystery was ugly. This was a new phase of the war, one they did not understand. Somehow the androids were finding a way to take out armed, alert men.
“Damn, I wish we had succeeded in taking the pool out first,” Tod muttered. “Now it knows we are out to get it, and it is playing it cagy, maybe invoking some prepared program to take out exactly such a team as ours.”
“We tried,” Veee reminded him.
“But we tried stupidly, thanks to my inexperience. That just got us in trouble. It was my fault.”
“We agreed with you.”
“You trusted my judgment. That trust was misplaced.”
“I don’t think so. It just is turning out to be more complicated than we thought.”
“That makes two mysteries,” Vanja said. “The crabs that didn’t attack, and the missing men. Could they be connected?”
“They were observing,” Veee said. “The pool concluded that we like to interact with each other. But how could that translate into missing villagers?”
“Assuming it does translate,” Tod said. “They are two parallel things, not directly connected. But it does bear thinking about.”
The day clouded over, and light rain came. Tod dug out his folded polyester film raincoat, or more properly a poncho, and put it over his clothing, cinching the hood at his neck. The others lacked such protection but didn’t seem to care. Vanja’s painted apparel was waterproof, and Veee simply packed away her robe and went nude, as must have been legitimate in her culture. That attracted a number of looks from village men, but she ignored them and they got the message: she was not soliciting their interest. After all, the village women were doing the same; Tod looked and ignored them similarly. Wizard remained under cover, and Bem was impervious.
The two women went out together, honoring their policy of never entering the forest alone, and Tod went with Bem.
They ranged through the forest, eating berries and collecting fallen branches for the defensive fires, helping the villagers. Tod and Bem became separated from the women but remained within shouting distance. Every so often they encountered pairs of villagers, usually men, because the women were encouraged to remain in the safer fortress.
Then they saw something odd. It was a lone dog-sized six-legged android crab, standing motionless. That in itself was not unusual, as the things did not necessarily attack, especially when over-matched; they were more likely to watch and wait while the pool sent reinforcements to surround and overwhelm the prey. But this one was green. All other androids had been orange. What did this color change portend? There had to be a reason, and they needed to understand that reason.
“Go fetch the girls,” Tod murmured. “I’ll watch this, just as it’s watching me.”
Bem glided rapidly away, leaving Tod to make sure the oddity did not depart.
Then another person appeared. It was a naked woman, apparently one of the villagers. She was a beauty, with proportions much like Vanja’s, and dark hair descending to her waist. He did not remember seeing her before; surely he would have noticed. But she seemed to be in trouble. She stumbled, having difficulty balancing, and was about to fall when Tod jumped to catch her.
She turned to face him, putting her arms about him. She drew him in close, her breasts flatting against his poncho. Then her legs came up to clasp his hips. His arms went around her almost involuntarily. She brought her face to his. She seemed to be after sex, but he was fully clothed. She had not noticed? And why would she want it with a stranger anyway? This was not the way of any remotely normal woman. Vanja, of course, was not normal.
He froze momentarily. Her skin was pasty white, rather than flesh colored. Her features were almost perfect, but her face had no expression. Her eyes were blank. In fact they weren’t eyes at all, but bands of white within the eyelids. Her mouth was no mouth, but red lips parted to show a band of white in lieu of teeth. Her nostrils were not open, but sealed off. She was not breathing, and there was no visible pulse in her neck. Even her hair, he saw now, was not hair, but a dark brown mat. She was no human being.
In fact she was an android. A mockup of a woman, convincing from a distance, but an empty manikin up close. He had been completely fooled. He should not have allowed her to touch him.
Then she squeezed. Her arms and legs constricted around him like tightening cables, crushing his chest and belly. He tried to push her away, but she would not be dislodged. He tried to strike her face, but it was leather tough, effectively invulnerable.
He remained on his feet, while she had become a clinging octopus, all limbs tightening around him with inhuman power. He staggered, turning around as he tried to maintain his balance, knowing that if he fell to the ground he would be lost. He might be lost already. But if he could draw his knife and saw at a limb he might save himself.
She relaxed, and he got a breath. But then she constricted again. What was going on? The androids had never been ones to toy with their prey; once they attacked, it was kill or be destroyed.
He spun around again, trying to dislodge her. Again she relaxed, and again tightened. Soon she would cut off his breathing entirely from the constriction of his chest.
Then he realized that she relaxed only when he was facing a particular way: toward the village. He couldn’t explain it, but he wasted no time taking advantage of it. He turned again and this time stopped while facing that way.
She hung on him, her limbs loosening, her head falling to the side. He got a hand around and caught one of her arms, pulling it away. Then a leg, and he saw that where it joined her body there was no genital region, merely another white band. She dropped to the ground.
And scrambled back to her feet. She came at him again, trying for the bear hug. Her face remained expressionless. He pushed her away, but she kept coming.
Then he got smart. He jumped to position himself so that she stood between him and the village. She collapsed. This time he followed her down, keeping her body toward the village. She remained inert. He had found a way to disable her, th
ough he had no idea how it worked.
“Tod!” It was Veee’s voice.
“Down here!” he called. “I’ve got an android!”
Then they stood around him: Veee, Vanja, and Bem. “That’s some creature,” Vanja said.
“It’s an android. It’s inactive as long as I keep it between me and the village.”
“No,” Veee said. “As long as you stay between it and the pool.”
That made sense. “But why?”
“Now I understand,” Bem said. “Androids are in constant touch with their pool. There is a signal animating them. You are blocking that signal.”
“That never worked before,” Tod said, starting to get up. The android stirred, and he quickly dropped back down.
“You are wearing the poncho,” Bem said. “That is a special material.”
Tod worked off the poncho. Then he got to his feet, but held the poncho low. The android did not stir. He lifted the poncho, and she came to life. He flung the poncho on her, and she dropped. He moved to the side, no longer between her and the pool, but she did not animate.
“The polyester is finely wrought,” Tod said. “Variations are used in photography and insulation. It must block the signal.”
“Now we can disable an android without having to hack it apart,” Vanja said. “But with only one poncho, that’s limited.”
“We can cut it up and make patches for each of us,” Tod said. “That will help when we’re fighting androids. It will make them pause, so we can chop off limbs with less danger.”
“A worthwhile discovery,” Bem said. “However, we have lost the green crab.”
Tod looked. The green android was gone. “I think it was there as a distraction, to give the humanoid time to approach. That certainly worked.”
“Now we have seen more of what the pool can do,” Vanja said. “It can change colors or forms.”
“And now we know what happened to the missing village men,” Veee said. “This thing took them out. There may be more than one of it.”
Tod shuddered. “But for the poncho, I would have been dead.”
“We are seeing the pool’s larger potential,” Bem said. “If it can emulate a human being well enough to get close enough, what else can it do?”
What else indeed! “We need to have another council of war,” Tod said, shaken.
“Meanwhile, what do we do with the body?” Vanja asked.
“I think we have to take it to the village, to show them what they are up against,” Tod said. “So that no more villagers are taken out by this device.”
“Then what?”
“What are you getting at?”
“We can’t just turn the android loose to resume combat,” Vanja said. “We have to kill it. Boiling water should do that. But even so we can’t just leave it; crabs will grab it and take it back to the pool for recycling. We can’t allow that either.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I think we’ll have to eat it.”
“Eat it!” Tod exclaimed, revolted.
“Think it through, lover. When the fortress is under siege, and nobody can get out, food will get low. Game is already scarce; the androids have cleaned it out. The villagers and we of the team will have to eat something. The one thing we can be sure there’ll be plenty of is android flesh. It’s made from our flesh, that is, animal flesh; it should be digestible if cooked enough.”
She was making ugly sense. “We’ll tell the villagers,” Tod agreed heavily. “But I hope Wizard recovers quickly, so we can try again to take out the pool. That’s the only way we are likely to end this war.”
“I hope the big attack on the fortress is done by crabs,” Veee said. “I can eat crabs.”
Tod had to agree. It might all be android flesh, whatever its form, but the thought of carving and eating humanoid shaped flesh made him nauseous.
Chapter 7:
Pool
The villagers did not like it any better than Tod did. But they saw the humanoid android come to life when Tod lifted the poncho, and recognized the danger she represented to unwary men. They knew her flesh could not be allowed to return to the pool. So finally they cooked her with hot water and stored her away out of sight. When the siege came, and they got hungry enough, they would reconsider.
Vanja elected to spend another night with Wizard, under the Bem blanket. That left Veee to sleep with Tod. “This makes twice in a row for you,” Tod remarked.
“She does not have to keep up with me. I had to keep up with her, until the shares were fixed. They are fixed now, so it does not matter which of us has you.”
“I know you’re the one for me, Veee, and I want to stay with you. But Vanja—”
She hushed him with a finger to his lips, a gesture that seemed to have lasted 50,000 years. “She enchanted you. You have a passion for her. We know that. When she moves on she will leave you to me, instead of taking you with her. I appreciate that.”
“You two are becoming friends.”
“Yes, I don’t want her to move on. She has courted and won me as a friend.”
“And me as a lover.”
“She wants you for a friend also, Tod.”
“She’s a vampire!”
“She’s a person. Give her a fair chance.”
He shook his head. “You love me, yet you want me to better appreciate my mistress.”
Veee smiled. “We live in interesting times.” She had learned that comment from him.
“Interesting times,” he agreed. Then he kissed her and they made love.
In the morning Wizard was much improved again, and seemed almost back to his original vigor. This time he acknowledged Vanja’s help. “She has given me the illusion of, if not youth, middle age,” he said.
Bem agreed. “Not as robust as you, Tod, but well beyond the prior night. The vampire needed to do only half of it. His overall health is better, too.”
“Give me more nights, and I will make him young,” Vanja said, satisfied.
“One more day will return me to full strength,” Wizard said. “Then you may return your ministrations to your real lover.”
One more day. Then they could bomb the pool. Assuming that Tod could figure out a way to get them there without requiring Wizard’s intercession. Wizard would need all his strength for the pool.
The fortress was almost complete, with only finishing touches being made. The villagers had deserted the village and moved to their relatively austere quarters in the fortress. They were ready for the siege.
Again, Tod was not satisfied. “Now we know they can assume human form. Even if not, they seem likely to attack with seemingly overwhelming force. We need a back-up defense in case they breach the wall and get inside the fortress.”
“A fire pit,” Bem said. “To trap, stun, melt, and dispose of the bodies. That is how we finally prevailed.”
“But they’ll soon catch on and avoid it,” Vanja said.
“Not necessarily. Individually they are stupid; the pool guides them. But in a mass attack, the pool will have dozens of androids to direct. It will be fully occupied, and they will be on their dull own much of the time. We should be able to take out many androids before it catches on.”
“We’ll do it,” Tod agreed.
They got to work, supervising villagers who dug a deep pit, lined it with stones, then piled in brush. “When the attack comes,” Tod said, “we’ll set fire to the brush and let it burn. By the time it burns out, the rocks will be hot, and they will remain that way for hours. Then if any androids of any type breach our wall, we’ll lead them into the pit to burn.” He glanced at the women. “Children will be good for that. Train some to scream in front of the androids, then flee around the edge of the pit, leading them in.”
Veee and Vanja nodded, and went to talk with women and children. The trap was being set.
Vanja transformed frequently and flew out across the forest, watching. “There is activity,” she reported. “I can’t see what kind witho
ut flying low enough to put myself at risk.”
“Don’t do that!” Tod exclaimed. “I mean, tactically we can’t risk our observer.”
“Of course,” she agreed, her dark halter fading out momentarily to bare her breasts.
“That too,” he agreed, smiling.
The androids did not keep them waiting. Suddenly a force erupted from the forest and charged the circular wall. A small army of six large naked male humanoids, whose arms terminated in sword-like points.
“Fire the pit!” Tod cried. Village women brought torches to do that. “Heat the pots!” And more did that. Suddenly fires were everywhere. “Stand ready at the wall!” The village men were already hurrying to do that, having been alerted by the lookout.
The brute males charged up to the wall and stuck their sword-limbs into it. Their feet were spiked too, so they could climb it. It slowed them, but was no lasting impediment.
But when they did that, they were unable to attack any people. Village men, prepared for this, leaned over the wall and swung heavy axes, cutting off limbs, leaving the androids helpless. Some villagers got right down among them, stabbing and cutting. The androids had to pull out their swords to fight back, but then they couldn’t climb. Neither could they readily let go; they had no hands. Before long they had been reduced to armless and legless blobs. More might come, so the defenders couldn’t rest, but they were not getting over the wall. It was a standoff.
The fortress had it seemed won the first skirmish. The pool took a while to come up with the next move, and in that time the water pots and fire-pit continued to heat. That was part of Tod’s strategy: to hold the androids off long enough with the outer defense so that the inner defense could be established.
Then six more androids came. These were females, like the one Tod had encountered, with splendid bodies and blank faces. They climbed up the backs of the stuck ones and reached the height of the top of the wall. But again they could not strike while they were climbing, and became vulnerable to de-limbing.