“We’re down to ten men in the security squad, plus you and the technicians.”
It wouldn’t be enough. “Activate the warbots,” Gao said. “Put them in search-and-destroy mode.”
“But our men are out there, too.”
“We don’t have time to program the discriminator function,” Gao said. “Station the men on the seawall, with orders to guard the stairways and the easy routes to the water. The warbots will spread out and flush the Americans toward our guards. If they spot anything in the water, human or otherwise, they must shoot on sight. No captures this time.”
“Yes, sir.”
Gao was shaking with adrenaline, but Oni looked on him with a newfound level of respect.
“I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Had what?”
“The instinct to kill so ruthlessly.”
“It’s us or them,” Gao said. “There’s no way out of here for us. If the Americans reach the mainland, this island will become our prison.”
* * *
• • •
THE MAINLAND was a long way off, as Kurt, Joe and Nagano ran out into the night. The rain still fell from the dark sky, but the night had cooled and several layers of fog now clung to the hill behind them.
Traveling a hundred yards from the entrance, and well aware that the pursuit had already begun, they took cover inside the first building they found.
Crouching in the dark and listening to the radio they’d taken from the technician, they heard every order.
Kurt looked at Nagano. “What did they say?”
“My Chinese is a little rusty,” Nagano said. “Something about men at the seawall. And war machines.”
Gazing through an opening in the dilapidated building, Kurt saw the first “war machine” emerge from the mine’s entrance. It was the size of a lawn mower and it marched on six legs like a giant insect. Glowing LEDs—that looked almost like eyes—were visible as it turned toward them.
“Get down,” Kurt said.
They dropped behind the concrete of the building’s structural wall. When Kurt looked up again, he saw the machine marching in the other direction.
“Where’s it going?” Nagano asked.
“Toward the dock,” Kurt said. “Trying to head us off at the pass.”
“What, exactly, was that thing?” Joe asked.
“Han calls it a warbot,” Kurt said. “I was given a demonstration of them inside his factory.” He pointed to the pistol in Joe’s hand and then held up the sword he was carrying. “From what I witnessed, neither of these weapons are going to be much use against them.”
Kurt dropped back down as two more machines came out of the tunnel. Each of them took a slightly different path. “They’re spreading out,” he said. “No telling how many they have, but sooner or later one of them is going to come this way.”
“It won’t be easy getting to the water if they know we’re coming,” Joe said. “There are only a few spots around the island where it’s safe to get in the sea. Three stairwells and the dock.”
“We can be certain that those are already guarded,” Nagano said.
Joe nodded. “Which means we might have to go over the wall and jump for it.”
Kurt wasn’t sure that would work. “All that gets us is a fifty-foot drop into churning sea, with rocks and concrete pilings below us. Time the waves wrong and we’ll be killed on impact; even if we get it right, we risk being thrown back into the wall before we can get past the breakers.”
Nagano looked at the two men. “I competed in a triathlon down here years ago,” he said. “The currents are treacherous and my hand is useless. I won’t be able to keep up, let alone swim all the way to the mainland. You should go on without me. Perhaps I can distract these war machines while you escape.”
Kurt shook his head. “We didn’t come all the way here to get you just so we could leave you behind. Besides, why swim when we can fly?”
* * *
• • •
CERTAIN THAT Austin, Zavala and Nagano were out of the mine, Gao risked leaving the safety of the recording room and making his way to the control center. Ushi-Oni accompanied him, scraping the wall with the sword Han had given him to replace the Masamune. Sparks jumped here and there as the sword ground across tiny specks of flint.
“Do you mind?”
Oni ignored the comment and continued the annoyance all the way to the control room.
The men inside turned with a start as Gao and Oni entered.
“Any sign of them?” Gao asked.
“Nothing yet.”
Gao approached the closest console. Video feeds from sixteen different warbots were spread out on four different screens. A second wave of sixteen additional machines was deploying. An overhead view of the island showed them fanning out and working their way from the mine.
Oni approached and looked over the same map. “You’re leaving the west side of the island unprotected?”
Gao knew that. “There’s nowhere safe to climb down to the water on that side,” he replied. “And they would hardly dive off the west side of the island when they need to swim east to get to shore.”
“You wouldn’t,” Oni said, “but you’re still underestimating these men.”
Gao shook his head. “I know they’re trained divers, but they’re not fools. Swimming around the island and fighting the current makes it a far longer and more treacherous swim. It also makes it far more likely that we’d spot them in the water and shoot them dead. They’ll go for the nearest entry point and swim away from the island as fast as they can. And that means they’ll be on the east side.”
Oni stood back and Gao gave a new order. “Have some of the robots swing wide and loop around to the perimeter. Order the rest to go block by block and flush them out. Set them in area control mode so they can converge on the targets as soon as they’re spotted.”
The controller hesitated. “The farther we spread the net, the more likely the Americans are to slip through.”
“The warbots use wide-field infrared sensors,” Gao said confidently. “Ten of them can cover the ground of a hundred men.”
“And if the Americans hide in one of the buildings?”
“Then they’ll play right into our hands. In a few hours, the operation in Nagasaki will be complete; the Prime Minister and some of his Cabinet ministers will be dead and Austin, Zavala and Nagano will be wanted men. At that point, they’ll have nowhere to escape to. The whole world will be looking for them.”
* * *
• • •
KURT WENT from one corner of the building to the next. Warbots were guarding each intersection in his view; others were marching past, setting up positions beyond.
Joe came back from the far side of the building. “Another one on the far side.”
“Coming this way?”
Joe shook his head. “Just sitting at the intersection.”
“They’re establishing area control,” Nagano said. “Cutting off every avenue of escape before they begin the search. We would do the same—we call it a double box.”
Kurt remembered Han saying the warbots could replace the police. “That means we’re surrounded,” he said. “Probably several blocks deep. Even if we could get past these warbots, we’d run into others.”
He took a breath and sat back trying to visualize exactly where they were on the island. As he recalled photos and the map he’d studied, an idea came to him. “Find the stairs,” he said finally. “We have to go up.”
“And then?”
“If this is the building I think it is, there’s a structural brace on the roof connecting it to the next building. Not a real bridge. But if we’re careful, we can crawl across it.”
“That’ll get us past this group, but what about the next layer?” Joe asked.
“I
have an idea that should take care of that,” Kurt said.
Joe grimaced. “If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking, I wish you’d stop thinking it.”
“It’s all we’ve got,” Kurt said.
Nagano interrupted politely. “Would you two mind cluing an old detective in? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“We have to lure those warbots in here,” Kurt said. “As many as possible.”
“And then?”
“There’s a bridge on the roof. If most of the warbots are converging on this building to search for us and the rest are cordoning off the exits, we should be able to crawl across to the next building and make our escape.”
“Won’t the machines follow us?” Nagano asked.
“I don’t think so,” Kurt said. “Han’s race car was only capable of following known pathways. It stayed on the track while I cheated and cut across the infield. If these warbots have a similar program, they won’t consider the rusted-out structural brace to be a pathway. They won’t attempt to cross it.”
Nagano nodded. “And by the time they get back down to the bottom, we’ll be several buildings over and taking flight.”
“Sound plan,” Nagano said. “All you have to do is get their attention.”
“You two start climbing,” Kurt said. “I’ll let them know we’re here.”
As Joe and Nagano found a stairway, Kurt made his way to the main entrance and studied the position of the two robots. The one to the left was the nearest. Knowing they had cameras on board, he decided to make it look good. He eased his way outside and stopped—pretending to freeze in his tracks as the warbot turned toward him.
He dove to the side as a red laser dot locked onto him and the first gunshots rang out. The bullets whistled past, inches from his head.
Kurt crawled into the building and stayed low as the machine began moving his way. It fired again as it approached.
“That’s it,” he said. “You’ve found us. Now come and get us.”
When the sound of the machine approaching became audible, Kurt left his covered spot and rushed to the stairs. He bounded up the first flight as the warbot entered the building at the front of the structure and began scanning.
He’d noisily climbed four flights of stairs before slowing down. There, he found an opening that had once been a window and glanced out into the dark. He could see other machines heading their way.
The plan was working—except for one thing. The first machine was moving faster than Kurt had expected. Much faster. It was already on the stairs two flights below him.
Kurt took off and raced up the next few flights. There were no doors to shut, no obstacles to create, nothing he could find that would slow the machine down. Then again, it was probably pointless; he’d seen them batter through plenty of doors in the simulation.
Passing the seventh floor, he could hear Joe and Nagano banging against something up above. “How are we doing?” he shouted.
“First miscalculation,” Joe shouted. “Roof door is padlocked. We’re trying to break it down. But, hey, there was bound to be at least one problem with the plan.”
“One problem would be fine,” Kurt shouted, “but we have two. The lead warbot isn’t waiting for backup.”
“So slow it down,” Joe shouted.
Easier said than done, Kurt thought. He considered the sword in his hand. “Too bad Masamune didn’t make rocket launchers.”
“Should we look for another way up?” Joe asked.
Looking around, Kurt spotted something that might be of use. “No,” he shouted. “Keep working on the door.”
“What are you going to do?”
“My best exterminator routine.”
While Joe and Nagano continued to batter the door two flights above him, Kurt swung the Masamune at the dilapidated railing along the edge of the stairwell. After hacking through the rusted metal at the bottom, he wrenched the obstruction out of his way.
That done, he rushed to a pile of rubble, where part of the wall had collapsed. He found a sizable wedge of concrete lying on the floor. It was too heavy to lift, but getting low and pushing with both legs, he was able to slide it across the floor. He pushed it to the edge of the stairwell and waited.
The robot was two flights down now, moving and scanning and moving again; it had an almost alien style of locomotion. It paused on each landing, scanning the area for any heat signatures.
Just a little farther.
Finally, it made the turn. Appearing out in the open ten feet below Kurt.
With a mighty shove, Kurt pushed the two-hundred-pound chunk of cement over the edge. It dropped straight down, hitting the robot just off center, crushing several of its appendages and literally flattening it.
Its six legs splayed out in all directions and for a second Kurt thought he’d destroyed it. But the robot began to move and the slab of concrete slid off of it and onto the floor. Freed of the weight, the machine sprang back up to its feet.
“And I thought roaches were hard to kill.”
Back in action, the machine tilted upward, locked onto Kurt with the targeting laser and opened fire.
Kurt dove out of the way, but he needn’t have bothered. Down below, an explosion rocked the stairwell.
Kurt risked a glance. The barrel of the weapon was sheared off and what remained was splayed out. It had blown itself apart when the warbot opened fire.
“The concrete slab must have bent the barrel,” Kurt said. “Just as I planned.”
The robot was not destroyed, but at least it was neutered.
Kurt took off, charging back up the stairs. “Back in the lead,” he shouted. “Humans: two. Robots: one.”
He reached the top floor and found the door open where Joe and Nagano had finished breaking it down. Stepping through and wedging it shut again, he stepped out into the rain. Joe and Nagano were standing at the edge of the roof, staring at a gap between the building and its neighbor.
Joe gave him the bad news. “Hate to tell you, amigo. But the bridge is out.”
“The brace should be here,” Kurt said.
Joe pointed to the corroded remnants of a mounting that jutted out from the edge of the building a grand total of eight inches. “I think it used to be here.”
Kurt shook his head ruefully. “Old photos,” he muttered. “Never rely on old photos.”
Glancing over the edge, Kurt could see a dozen of the warbots heading their way. Others had undoubtedly already entered the building. “Unfortunately, the rest of our plan is working to perfection. The warbots are coming in droves.”
“Now what?” Nagano asked.
Kurt studied the building across from them. The gap was only six feet and the roof of the other building was a half story lower than the one they were standing on. He pointed across the gap with the sword. “We’ve only got one choice.”
The three of them exchanged glances, backed up a few feet and then ran for the edge. They jumped at the last instant, propelling themselves up and across the gap, before dropping down through the darkness.
* * *
• • •
“WARBOT number eight is out of action and off-line,” the controller said.
Gao was staring at a blank screen. “What happened?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Oni said. “The rifle exploded. The barrel must have been damaged by the impact of the concrete block. A man would have known that and avoided firing. So much for your perfect robots.”
“The others will finish them,” Gao said confidently. “There’s no way off that roof.”
Gao switched the video feed to a different machine and they all watched as it passed the damaged warbot and climbed the stairs all the way to the roof. It burst out through the door and scanned every quadrant.
After a brief delay, the controller spoke. “N
o targets in sight.”
“What about the other floors?” Gao asked. “They may have doubled back.”
The controller flicked through the data screens. “We have machines on every level of the building now. No thermal signature on any floor. No sign of movement. We’ve lost them.”
Gao pushed the controller out of the way and looked at the telemetry data himself. “This is impossible. They have to be in the building somewhere.”
That Oni was looking over his shoulder, breathing down his neck, made it all the worse.
“Show me a map of the island,” the assassin requested.
“Why?”
“Indulge me.”
Gao fumed but did as requested. The screen flicked and a wire outline of the island and all its buildings appeared. “Red dots show the positions of the warbots,” Gao explained. “Most of them clustered in the building the Americans and Nagano had been in moments ago.”
It took only a second for Oni to see what he needed. “Do you have something to stop those machines from killing me by mistake if I go out there?”
“An identifier,” Gao said, pointing to a rack of devices hanging on lanyards by the console. “As long as you’re wearing one of those, the machines will recognize you as a friend and they won’t target you.”
Oni looked pleased. He pointed toward Gao with the sword. “Give me one,” he demanded. “And put one on yourself.”
“Me? Why?”
“Because I know where the Americans are going,” he said. “And you’re coming with me.”
54
NAGANO was limping.
“That jump hurt you,” Joe said, taking as much of Nagano’s weight on himself as he could.
Nagano winced and then forced a smile. “Actually, the jump was fine, but the landing was quite painful.”
“A couple of sake bombers back on the mainland and you’ll be good as new,” Joe said.