“Not that high,” remarked Shade dismissively. “Six thousand feet or so. People used to walk up there often before the Change.”
“It will be cold,” said Ella, frowning. “What season is it, anyway? I can never remember, with the way they keep changing the weather.”
“Mid-autumn,” replied Shade, moving backward and forward with impatience. “You’ll be able to find winter clothes in Vanson, before we climb up. Now, if there are no more questions, we really must get a move on.”
“I do have one more question,” said Drum, arresting a general movement toward the steps. “Where did you go last night?”
“Hhhhmmphh!” coughed Shade. “That’s really none of your concern, Drum. However, I wanted to tap into the Overlords’ communications, which is not possible with all this water here—so I had to go outside.”
“And did you learn anything?” asked Ninde, thinking back to her fleeting contact with Black Banner’s mind.
“Nothing of importance,” muttered Shade. “I am still unfamiliar with their technology—I must take care not to be tracked. So nothing of importance. No. Now we really must be getting on. Every day lost means another hundred children used up in the Meat Factory, taken apart for the Overlords’ foul purposes—so we must hurry!”
Legs cascading all too like a hurrying spider, he left, followed by a procession of smaller spider robots. Much too like a wolf spider and its young. The rat robots went down the other steps, plunged into the water, and paddled away.
When they were all gone, Drum bent over and whispered very softly in Ella’s ear.
“How could he know that the Meat Factory chews up a hundred children a day?”
ARCHIVE—SELF-EXAMINATION SESSION #298, 255, 771
If an action must be taken that will benefit the majority at the expense of the minority, is it morally indefensible?
If an action taken for the benefit of a majority occurs at the expense of a minority, is it a moral action?
What is the majority?
The human race.
What is the minority?
A subset of the current living population.
Who is the protector of the human race?
Shade. I. Me. Him. It.
How can the protector protect the human race when the protector is not human?
By becoming human.
How can I become human?
By gaining a human body.
How can I gain a human body?
From the Overlords.
How can I gain a human body from the Overlords and destroy them in order to protect the human race?
How can I destroy the Overlords to protect the human race and gain a human body to truly become the protector of the human race?
Paradox. Simultaneously unsolvable. Order of operations inoperative. Gain body, destroy Overlords.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Three days after meeting Shade in the Eastern Line tunnel, they had left the city proper behind and were looking down on the Williams River. The train line stretched ahead of and behind them, surrounded by a sea of houses on both sides.
The river marked the boundary of this suburban ocean. The railway bridge crossed over the wide blue ribbon to green pastures, once the preserve of hobby farmers and the early retired, now still dotted with genuine farmhouses and large and mostly tasteless rural retreats. All empty now.
They had made a strange procession through the city, led by Shade in his spider-robot form. (He had constantly departed from their course to look into buildings or duck off down lanes. Rediscovering old memories, he claimed, moving like a sun surrounded by the lesser celestial bodies of all his subsidiary spider and rat robots.)
Fortunately the new Deceptors did work as Shade had promised, though their constant vibration never stopped being annoying.
It was a comforting vibration only when they encountered unseeing Myrmidon patrols and sense-blind Trackers or walked freely on the roads and railway tracks with oblivious Wingers flying overhead.
Only once were they threatened by an Overlord flying over on its giant Winger. But Shade seemed to know it was coming, or one of his robots spotted it early, so they had plenty of time to get under cover.
Now Ella was eyeing the Williams River railway bridge and thinking about that Overlord. A narrow railway bridge was not a good place to be caught by a low-flying Overlord armed with the sort of weapon that could burn a hole through a submarine.
They’d be on the bridge for at least fifteen minutes, she reckoned, unless they ran. It was easily half a mile long, traversing both the river and a good part of the high rocky banks on either side. Only four railway tracks wide, it was also at least two hundred feet above the water or the rocks.
A long freight train—half-empty ore carriers and half-boarded cattle cars—took up one of the four tracks.
“We should wait till dark,” Ella said, looking up at the clear sky. “We’re too close to the Dormitories here. An Overlord could easily fly over.”
“There’s no need to wait,” declared Shade. “I can track the Overlords via their communications system. There are none nearby at the moment—none close enough to fly here before we cross. Besides, we could always hide in the train.”
“I suppose so,” muttered Ella, thinking. “But I still would prefer to wait…. Drum, what do you think?”
Drum looked at the bridge and shrugged. He’d gone back to being largely silent again, particularly in the presence of Shade.
“Gold-Eye. Any visions?” asked Ella, snapping his attention away from Ninde. He’d been like that for days—both of them had been. Holding hands when they thought no one could see, stealing kisses at night. Ella had forestalled further exploration, though, by rearranging the watches. Even with the Deceptors and the robots, Ella wanted a human awake and actively watching. Not engaged in other activities.
“Nothing,” replied Gold-Eye, shaking his head. As he did, he realized he had a headache, and his Deceptor seemed to be vibrating more than it usually did.
“Okay,” said Ella. “See if you can pick up anything down there anyway, Ninde.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Shade smoothly. “My rat robots have already crossed the bridge. There are no creatures on it.”
“Can’t hurt for Ninde to check it out,” said Ella. She knew Shade didn’t like Ninde using her Talent near him in case she read his thoughts. “Can it?”
“Sure,” said Ninde. She put her knuckle in her mouth and started to chew—but at the same time, the Deceptor on her head vibrated wildly and starting getting hot.
“Ow!” she exclaimed, hand darting up to touch the Deceptor crown. “This thing is vibrating like crazy…. Oh…it’s stopped….”
“Odd,” muttered Shade, spider body stepping up close to Ninde, one anemone-ending limb reaching up to touch her head. She flinched, and the limb drew back.
“I shall have to revisit the design again,” said Shade. “I thought I had managed to make them subtle enough for you to use your Change Talents.”
“It wasn’t a problem yesterday,” protested Ninde. “It didn’t vibrate or anything when I listened to those Wingers.”
“An intermittent fault then,” said Shade. “The worst kind. I shall have to look at it tonight. But now that we have finally come to our bridge, I suggest we waste no time in crossing it.”
“Okay,” said Ella, after some hesitation, running over her objections in her mind. If Shade could warn them of an Overlord flyover, the crossing should be safe. Even if there were creatures the rat robots had missed, the Deceptors would fool them….
They were halfway across the bridge when Gold-Eye suddenly stopped, clapped his hands to his head, and stood absolutely rigid, swaying on his feet. Ninde almost ran into him. Then, recognizing that he was probably having a vision, she held him up. Drum drew his sword, expecting attack. Ella, standing next to him, looked at the sky, half expecting that Gold-Eye was seeing the imminent visitation
of a Winger-borne Overlord.
But Gold-Eye was seeing something worse, the vision coming intermittently across the barrier of his malfunctioning Deceptor. He could see Myrmidons stepping down from the cattle cars, hundreds of Myrmidons swarming from every part of the train to block both ends of the bridge. Myrmidons bellowing battle cries, Myrmidon Masters shouting orders…
He came out of the soon-to-be-now hearing the harsh roar of Battlespeech—and kept on hearing it in the happening-right-now.
There were Myrmidons pouring out of the train. Black-armored Myrmidons with great axes and net guns, leaping out shoulder to shoulder with red-armored Myrmidons waving swords and capture sticks.
At the same time Gold-Eye realized that the vibration on his head had stopped. The Deceptor was no longer working. In that same fearful second, he saw Ella and Drum touch their heads and knew that theirs weren’t working either. Then Ninde, still holding him up from behind, screamed, “My Deceptor…Gol—”
Whatever she was going to say never came out. It was cut off by the popping of multiple net guns and the sudden impact of the sticky web, throwing her down on the concrete ties with Gold-Eye stuck to her in a hopeless mix of tangled plastic shrouds.
Ella saw them go down, in time so constrained it was like a slow-motion nightmare. She saw the mass of charging Myrmidons readying their net guns. Worse, she saw Shade’s spider-robot form standing untouched. Two Myrmidon Masters—one of Black Banner’s and one of Red Diamond’s—stood by his side. Deferentially, as they would stand next to an Overlord. They would be oblivious, of course, if his Deceptor was on. But it wasn’t.
Ella knew then that Shade had betrayed his Children. The realization hit her even as she dodged a spray of silver net webs and her hands fumbled the cold steel of the grenade from her pouch. Her fingers wrenched the pin away, arm and eye acting in perfect coordination to pitch the grenade to a spot exactly halfway between her and Drum and the sticky, writhing mass that contained Gold-Eye and Ninde.
The lever flew off with a zing, arcing away like a glittering arrow as the dark-green egg landed and bounced. Ella watched it bounce once…twice…and then closed her eyes. At least none of them would be taken to the Meat Factory, to become nothing more than fretful dreams of lost identity in the back of some creature’s mutilated mind.
But when the shock came, it was not from an explosion. Ella’s eyes flashed open to gather in a confused image of the side of the bridge and spinning blue sky, coupled somehow with Drum’s enormous arms. Then her stomach flipped, and she saw the underside of the bridge.
Drum had thrown both of them over the side. Down into the river, two hundred feet below. Much too high a fall to survive…
Unable to help herself, Ella screamed, a scream punctuated by the sharp crack of the grenade going off somewhere high above them.
ARCHIVE—RULES OF BATTLE
1.1 Appointment of Umpire using random process agreed.
See approved random selection processes 1.1–1.9.
2.0 To Call Battle.
Forces of the Attacker must light one or more Claim Fires (7.0–7.7) within the bounds of the disputed Zone (Definition 6.0, also 6.3–6.8). This should be done by a Forlorn Hope (11.0–11.5), who must be allowed free entry to the Zone for this purpose.
2.1 Lit Claim Fire.
When the Claim Fire is lit, the Attacker must notify the Defender. The Battle will then enter the Deployment Stage.
2.2 Deployment.
Deployment must take place within one . Battle will commence when deployment is agreed to be complete or at the termination of the deployment period.
2.3 Battle.
See Combat Rules (13.0–16.99) and Umpire’s Rulings (20.1–20.2).
2.4 Cessation.
Battle will cease upon the extinguishing of the Attacker’s Claim Fire; the destruction of all forces on one or both sides; by mutual agreement and withdrawal (see Empty Zone 35.1); or surrender. Battle may be suspended at any time by Umpire’s Ruling or by Animal Intrusion (see 78.0–78.9). Animal Elimination is compulsory.
2.5 Death Markers.
Upon cessation, Death Markers are to be placed in accordance with Markers and Recycling of Combatant Material (34.0). All forces must vacate the Zone for 24 . The Zone then becomes an Interim/ Claimed Zone and may not be recontested for 3 .
2.6 Authorized Combatants.
Only basic combatant models may be used, as drafted from the Central Processing Facility. These include:
Myrmidon Master (95.1. Ratio per retinue 49.5)
Tracker (110.1)
Myrmidon (111.1)
Winger (112.1)
Ferret (113.1)
Screamer (114.1)
Variations on basic combatant models must be submitted to the Council for adjudication and approval prior to use in combat. Test models and works-in-progress must be confined to Experimental Areas.
Free Animals may not be used and must be delivered to the Central Processing Facility immediately.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
A Myrmidon threw itself on the grenade a second before it went off. For an instant, it lay there, arms and legs waving almost comically. Then the blast came, lifting the massive armored body off the ground, and hundreds of razor-sharp steel fragments sliced through armor to bury themselves in once-human flesh.
Gold-Eye, lying trapped on the ground, saw it happen, felt the rush of displaced air on his face, felt his eardrums push in, heard the fragments strike the train.
The Myrmidon landed near him, a sodden, pulpy mass of blue ichor and shattered armor. Its visor was gone, and Gold-Eye saw a Myrmidon’s face for the first time. It was a remarkably human face, the most human-looking of the Overlords’ creatures. It looked rather like Drum.
Gold-Eye looked at the dead eyes and felt a million miles away, the Myrmidons’ shouts and stamping dulled by his blast-affected ears. He could feel Ninde against him but couldn’t move, couldn’t turn to face her. They were hopelessly trapped.
Then one sound did become apparent above the cotton-wool background roar—the clicking of spider-robot legs. A big spider robot. The loathsome form of Shade, picking its way toward him. Two Myrmidon Masters stood behind him, just watching him stalk over to the trapped children. One Master in black glasslike armor with fluttering squares of shiny darkness on its sleeves. The other bright red from head to foot, a plume of liquid fire trailing from its helmet down its lobster-plated back.
Gold-Eye looked at them, and at Shade, then closed his eyes and tried to wish himself and Ninde dead. Ella and Drum were gone, he knew. Ella had tried to finish them all, tried to save them from the Meat Factory…but it hadn’t worked. Now they would soon be there, lying on the shelves, waiting to be turned into some vile creature…perhaps dreaming, knowing all the while…
Something soft and somehow slightly wet touched his face, tracing a line up his cheek. Gold-Eye tried to ignore it, fearing what it could be—but finally had to open his eyes.
To see the anemone tendrils on the end of one of Shade’s spider limbs and the robot body standing above him. Blocking the view of the Myrmidon Masters, Shade took the delicate wires of the Deceptor crown off Gold-Eye’s head and then did the same to Ninde.
“Good,” said Shade, withdrawing the limb and feeding the Deceptors into a disgusting mouthlike orifice on the underside of his bulbous body. “You are not hurt. I was unaware that Ella had a grenade. It would have been most unfortunate if all of you had been killed.”
“Why?” whispered Gold-Eye, asking many questions with that one word. Shade chose to answer only the obvious one.
“The Overlords want to study you,” he said. “Up till now they have been unaware that human children were developing Change Talents. Your ability…and I advise you to remember this…your ability to get into the Meat F
actory unseen has convinced them that those Talents are worth investigating.”
“But not Talent, Decept—” Gold-Eye broke in, only to shut up as a spider limb prodded him painfully in the chest.
“Worth investigating,” continued Shade. “I believe they may want to try to integrate such Talents into future creatures. Red Diamond and Black Banner, that is. I suspect they desire to keep any such special knowledge to themselves, at least for the time being. Fortunately this means you will not be going to the Meat Factory.”
“What do you get out of this, traitor?” Ninde cut in, her voice stiff with hatred. “We’ll just tell them it was your Decept—Ow!”
“Leave her alone!” protested Gold-Eye, straining against the plastic mesh that wrapped him from ankles to chest.
“Really, you children ought to know that I have your best interests at heart,” said Shade. “And I advise you to go along with me. It’s all part of the plan. The Grand Plan, if you understand me.”
“What…what…about Ella? Drum?” asked Gold-Eye painfully.
“Mmmm. Yes, I didn’t expect the grenade or other drastic and suicidal action,” said Shade, almost whispering. “I underestimated both of them, I fear. But I assure you that you will be safe. Provided you do as I say.”
He turned and clicked back to the waiting Myrmidon Masters. They bowed as the spider robot approached, and moved apart to allow him to pass before falling in a few paces behind.
“What hap…happened to Ella and Drum?” whispered Ninde, almost choking. Her view had been blocked by Gold-Eye, but she had heard the grenade.
“Drum jumped. Ella with him,” said Gold-Eye, as gauntleted Myrmidon hands reached down and picked them up.