Steven Harper - The Impossible Cube

“Sorry it took so long to get here,” Phipps said. “We had to raid the Gonta armory first.”

“Oh God,” Gavin muttered.

“Fire!” Phipps ordered. Glenda and Simon obeyed. The air crackled with energies Alice couldn’t name. Gavin dropped the paradox generator, and they pushed the children to the floor while terrible thunder boomed overhead. The smell of hot metal filled Alice’s nose. It went on and on. Several of the children began to cry. Heat pressed on Alice’s back.

And then it stopped. Alice raised her head and slowly got to her feet. Smoke choked the air and it took some time to make out the warped figures of the automatons scattered about the floor, arms and legs skewed at odd angles, bodies and heads half melted. The marble floor was pitted and scorched, and the glass plate in front of the door had shattered into a thousand pieces. The children coughed and continued to cry. The sound wrenched Alice’s heart, but she forced herself to concentrate on the matter at hand.

“Madam,” said Kemp’s voice from among the wreckage. “Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Alice gasped upon hearing this, heartened at this small bit of mechanical life among the strange carnage. Beside her, Gavin got to his feet. Feng remained upright. No one had told him to duck.

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Phipps came down the stairs, followed by Glenda and Simon. The brass barrel of the energy rifle glowed a soft red. “That was satisfying,” she said. “I imagine the Cossacks themselves will come upstairs eventually, but we should have time. And my shackles are rather more effective than the ones those disgusting clockworkers used.”

Glenda put a hand to her ear, which had a metal cup over it. “I have access to the memory engines that run the house, Lieutenant. The Gontas have abandoned the automaton controls and are coming now.”

The smoke caught in Alice’s throat, and she had to cough before she could speak. “Susan-Lieutenant-I can’t go back with you.”

“I’m not offering a choice.”

In that moment, all the frustration and anger and fear she’d been keeping under control got away from her. “Why are you doing this?” she burst out. “What do you have to gain? The plague in England is dead. There are no more clockworkers. The Third Ward’s purpose is no more!”

Phipps strode forward and grabbed Alice by the front of her blouse in a metal fist. Her breath smelled of stale bread and long-forgotten wine. Alice grabbed Phipps’s wrist with her own metal gauntlet, but Phipps was stronger by far. “You endanger the world. You diminish me. You destroyed my reason to exist.”

“Let her go, Phipps!” Gavin barked, but Simon pointed his rifle at him, and he went still. The paradox generator sat uselessly at his feet like a half-dead flower.

“So now you’ve replaced your purpose with an obsession to destroy me?” Alice countered. “Is it worth the cost? You’ve dragged Simon and Glenda into hell, and these children are paying the price as well. Let us go to China, Susan, and we’ll restore balance to the world. It won’t be the balance you remember, but it’ll be balance nonetheless.”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Phipps’s six-fingered hand tightened on the white cloth at Alice’s throat, and Alice found it a bit hard to breathe. “Balance is restored only through justice. I will have justice.”

“The Gontas will be here in two minutes, Lieutenant,” said Glenda from behind her rifle.

“Susan,” Gavin said evenly, “we shouldn’t be talking about this here. These children need our help, our assistance, our aid. Isn’t that also your duty, your responsibility, your obligation?”

“A fine try, Ennock,” Phipps said. “But I’m not a clockworker.”

“Listen to me, Lieutenant.” The words came out half-choked, and Alice could barely draw breath through the iron grip at her throat. She fumbled for the whistle on its chain, but couldn’t get to it. “You have a chance here to build instead of destroy. You can save these children and thousands like them. Just let us go.”

Phipps stared at Alice, her ice-blue eyes meeting Alice’s brown ones. She wavered. The grip at Alice’s throat relaxed and she could breathe freely again. Relief made Alice relax. Everything was going to be fine. The children continued to huddle around Gavin, and she wanted to tell them it would be all right now, but she had no way to-

“No!” Phipps snarled. Her grip tightened again. “No! No! No! I will have justice! Glenda, chain them both. Simon, keep them covered. If they move wrong, shoot to kill. Alice first. That’ll keep Gavin in line.”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

“We have barely sixty seconds,” Glenda reported, setting her rifle aside and producing a set of heavy handcuffs.

“Feng!” Alice cried in desperation. “Attack Phipps!”

Feng instantly launched himself at Phipps. The move caught Phipps off guard and he slammed into her, knocking her down. Alice went down, too, but Phipps released her grip and she was able to roll free. Gavin’s wristbands snapped a cog at Glenda, who ducked by reflex. Gavin shoved through the crying group of children and swept the rifle from Glenda’s hands with a hook kick. It hit the floor and slid away. Simon spun and aimed his weapon straight at Gavin. The tip glowed red.

Feng and Phipps rolled across the floor, trading and blocking blows faster than Alice could track. “No!” Phipps chanted. “No! No! No! No!” Feng was getting tired, and Phipps landed several choice hits on him. Alice struggled to her feet, fumbling for the whistle.

Gavin faced Simon across the glowing rifle barrel. Simon’s eyes were sunken, his hair disheveled, his black coat torn. “Are you going to shoot me, Simon?” Gavin said. “Simon Peter d’Arco, the man who killed his friend and partner?”

“I have my orders,” he said hoarsely.

“What orders come from your soul?” Gavin asked. “You once gave up happiness to give me Alice. I can’t imagine that someone so unselfish would kill for shallow reasons.”

“You never wanted me,” Simon said. “So I found someone else, and Phipps ripped me away from him to follow you. It always comes back to you, Gavin. You!”

“I’m sorry,” Gavin admitted. “I know you’re angry. But is anger worth my life, or the lives of these children?”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Glenda was moving toward her lost rifle. Simon twisted a lever, and the red barrel glowed scarlet. Alice froze, the whistle at her mouth, as Simon fired. The energy beam shot past Gavin and hit Glenda’s rifle. It leaped away, a molten mass. Glenda swore and jumped back.

“You traitorous bastard!” Phipps leaped to her feet, dark hair wild. Feng staggered upright, still trying to attack but not possessing the coordination. “I’ll see you court-martialed, d’Arco!”

The door at the top of the balcony burst open, and clockworker Cossacks boiled into the room. Ivana was at the forefront. She waved a sword that would have looked ridiculous with her pink tea gown if the vibrating blade hadn’t sheared a marble bust in half as she passed. The other Gontas bore similar weapons, including a number of projectile arms.

“Shit,” said Simon and Gavin together.

Alice blew the whistle. It shrilled high and loud, like a baby chick crying for its mother. There was a small moment of silence when everyone in the giant room paused, as if startled that Alice would do something so ridiculous. Alice stood in the middle of the frozen chaos. The children huddled together, frightened and without a protector. Feng staggered about, still trying to obey orders and attack Phipps, but betrayed by his battered body. Kemp’s head droned sorrowfully to itself. Gavin and Simon remained side by side, dark and light, newly become brothers. Even the Gontas and Zalizniaks paused momentarily in their charge.