Steven Harper - The Havoc Machine

Maddie sat on the colt’s slim head, and she seemed to have established communication with him. He trotted briskly along, and Thad loped to keep up. The automatons remained content to ignore him, though walking past the armed soldiers did nothing for Thad’s nerves, especially when they abruptly turned toward him with a unified clack . But it was nothing more than a neatly executed about-face. Thad kept his brass hand visible and tried to lurch more often. It occurred to him that he was, in a twisted way, doing now what Nikolai used to do. Nikolai had pretended to be a human boy in a city filled with humans so the inhabitants wouldn’t hurt him. Thad was pretending to be an automaton man in a city filled with machines for the same reason. It was frightening, having to watch every step, wondering what would happen if he were found out.

“Doom,” said Dante.

At the base of one Academy wall, the colt came to a short staircase that led down to a small door. Maddie jumped down and ran to it, squeaking urgently. Thad surreptitiously straightened his mask and went in.

The passage beyond was low, damp, and stony. Maddie extruded a tendril that came alight with a pop.

Dante flapped his wings. “Bless my soul!”

“I feel the same way, birdbrain,” Thad said. “Let’s go.”

The tunnel was difficult to navigate. The light was bad, and Thad could barely see inside the mask. At least down here, he couldn’t hear the constant drone of Mr. Griffin’s voice. A web of wires and cables covered everything, and Thad was afraid to touch any of it, which slowed them down. The colt stayed close behind him, as if for comfort, and kept bumping into him. Tension tightened every muscle and thrummed in his nerves. His breathing came harsh inside the metal mask, and sweat dripped down his face. He eeled and twisted his way deeper into the tunnels. He passed clicking spiders and lurching automatons. They ignored him. By now he was half wishing they would attack, just to relieve the pressure.

“Thad, can you hear me?” the colt said in his ear.

Thad twisted, his pistol out and cocked. The colt had spoken in Sofiya’s voice. It was crackly and hard to hear, but definitely her.

“Thad? Are you all right? Can you hear me?”

He glanced around. The stone tunnel was empty for the moment. “Sofiya? How-?”

“I’m at the Peter and Paul Fortress. They have all sorts of explosives here-black powder, dynamite, these new grenades. They are extremely powerful, and I would like to-”

“Very busy here, Sofiya.”

“Sorry. Are you all right? Do you have Nikolai?”

“Working on that.”

“I built Kalvis and the colt to have a weak wireless connection, and I was able to strengthen it enough to”-she paused at a burst of noise-“not hold for long. I bought you an hour before the tsar attacks.”

“An hour?” More anxiety. Thad pursed his lips. “That’s not much time.”

“And that was thirty-five minutes ago,” Sofiya said. “You have twenty-five minutes before they attack. You must-”

Another burst of noise, and the signal faded.

“Twenty-five minutes,” Dante said. “Twenty-five.”

“Dammit,” Thad whispered to himself. His hands were cold now.

“Dammit,” said Dante.

“Enough, birdbrain. And when did you become a timepiece?”

“Twenty-four minutes. Twenty-four.”

Thad followed Maddie farther downward, trying to push everything else from his mind and take on his persona of clockwork hunter. It was difficult. Usually he could take his time, stalk his prey carefully. In fact, the only time he had been in a hurry was when he’d tried to rescue-

No. This wasn’t the time to think of that. This was nothing like going after David. But he hoped Nikolai knew he was coming. He didn’t want Nikolai to be scared, even if it were only a machine creating a facade of fear.

The noises told him first that he was coming up on his goal-sounds of machinery very much like those in Mr. Griffin’s lair, but louder and more numerous. Blue light came from around the bend ahead of them. Thad tightened his grip on his pistol and realized he had no real plan, hadn’t had time to formulate one.

“Sixteen minutes,” Dante said quietly. “Sixteen.”

A muffled boom came from above. The tunnel shuddered faintly and dust sifted down, making Thad cough. The colt flinched, and Maddie’s little light trembled.

“What the hell was that?” Thad gasped.

“Doom,” Dante said. “Dammit!”

A dozen more automatons and countless spiders burst out of the room ahead and streamed toward him. Thad jerked his pistol around to fire, and then he saw that the automatons were more of the twisted versions of Nikolai. They lurched and wobbled, stumbled and staggered in a wretched herd. It was awful to watch. Thad’s own heart lurched. He forced himself to step aside and they blundered past, creating a faint draft in the damp air. Then they were gone.

Another faint burst of noise came from the colt. “Thad? Thad! Are you there?”

Thad realized his hands were shaking. “What happened up there, Sofiya? I thought we had at least fifteen minutes left.”

“The major…” Burst of noise. “…too enthusiastic. The tsar apologizes but…” Another burst of noise. “…now riding Kalvis toward Griffin’s…”

The colt went quiet again. Thad took a steadying breath, then moved farther ahead and reached the mouth of the tunnel, just past a heavy portcullis. He didn’t want to look inside.

The room was bigger than he had thought, and crammed with machinery. One entire two-story wall was lined with a mass of memory wheels that clicked and spun in a dizzying dance. Spindly mechanical hands and arms with hands or tools or other objects on the end extended in all directions. Conveyer belts moved out of production machinery, and Thad knew this was the source of many of the spiders and automatons, including the twisted Nikolais. Connected in the center of it all stood the elaborate ten-legged spider Thad remembered from Havoc’s laboratory. Cables hooked it to the bank of memory wheels. Beside the horrible spider, just as Sofiya had said, was a little chair, and in the chair was Nikolai. His clothes were in shreds and his hair looked like a haystack, but he didn’t seem to be injured, except for the thick wire that trailed from his ear.

Thad wasn’t prepared for the sight. Nikolai’s little metallic face, his wide brown eyes, his small forehead-all went straight through Thad. How familiar, how normal, how much a part of his life that odd face had become; and now, seeing him in the chair with a cable in his ear, filled Thad with such a rage that he trembled from head to foot.

The room had no other automatons in it. They had all rushed out after the explosion up top. Thad tore his mask off so he could see better and ran into the room, pistol in his right hand, knife in the left. He went straight for the chair that held Nikolai.

Nikolai’s eyes widened when he saw Thad. He jerked forward, as if he wanted to leap out of the chair, but he stayed where he was. It was then Thad noticed he wasn’t strapped into the chair, or even tied down or restrained in any way.

“Niko!” he shouted. “Come on! We’ll-”

A heavy mechanical hand swatted Thad aside. The breath rushed out of him. He flew across the room, slammed into a cabinet, and slid to the floor. Dante slid squawking in the opposite direction. Pain thundered through Thad’s body. The mechanical hand dipped down from the ceiling, intent on hitting him again. Thad saw it coming and forced himself to roll out of the way. The hand smashed into the cabinet, denting it, and Nikolai yelled.

“WHO ARE YOU, MAN?” said a voice as heavy as an anvil dropped on concrete. “YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE.”