De Coza scowled at Bubba and Billy-Bob as they marched downhill. “A couple of inbred hillbillies like you might not know this, but acts of treason are punishable by death during wartime. Count yourselves lucky that traitor’s gonna lead us straight to the Toymaker.” He spat impassively on the ground and walked ahead.
Bubba glared at Kennedy, Thumper and McBride who had overheard De Coza’s outburst.
“Relax”, said Kennedy uncomfortably, “he’s just playing up for the cameras.”
Thumper nodded. “Being a tough guy for the folks back home.”
McBride patted Bubba’s shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry, we won’t let him forget this is only a game.”
Bubba angrily shrugged off McBride’s hand. “This stopped being a game the moment your robot nearly killed an innocent girl back there.”
McBride reddened then walked away, joining De Coza. The convoy rolled steadily downhill towards the fortress.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
JUNGLE TREK
Toby shook his head in frustration and replayed the video footage again. On the screen, a shadowy figure entered the robot workshop, ducked beneath the security camera and then deftly covered the lens.
Damn”, he muttered. “It could be anyone.”
Marty looked nervously out of the gatehouse door. “Can we please get moving now?”
Toby reluctantly rose to his feet, his hands still working the keyboard. He entered the time code the mysterious figure walked into the workshop and on the monitors came the output of every security camera at that exact moment. He scanned the screens, noting Dale and Lloyd lurking outside the bathroom and De Coza striding down the corridor. “At least I know who it wasn’t”, he muttered, then followed Caitlin and Marty out of the gatehouse.
Outside, the sun was climbing steadily, and even though it was only mid-morning, the heat was fierce. They started walking along the narrow road leading away from the fortress and Caitlin immediately started to perspire. There was no shade to shelter and for the first time she could feel the sheer intensity of the tropical sun. The tarmac was tacky underfoot, absorbing the heat from the sun and blasting it back at them.
Marty produced a tube of sunblock and started applying the gloopy white liquid to his face and arms. “Here you go”, he said, tossing Caitlin the tube.
“Thanks”, said Caitlin and started rubbing the sunblock on her own face and body. She passed the tube to Toby and they walked along the road in silence, listening to the lazy drone of insects. Scotty scampered along happily behind them, seeming to enjoy being on the move. The road straightened, disappearing into a shimmering heat-haze, and Caitlin squinted in the intense light, wishing she’d brought sunglasses. The glaring tropical sunshine intensified everything to a vibrancy that was almost painful to look at; the piercing blue sky, the dazzling green jungle, the gleaming black tarmac road sandwiched between the two. A rivulet of sweat and sunblock ran into her eyes, irritating them further and she stopped to wipe her face with her sleeve.
“You okay”, asked Toby.
Caitlin nodded. “So how far away is this ship?” she asked.
“Fifteen kilometres, maybe twenty”, answered Marty. “Why?”
“I keep thinking of that robot-chopper they’ve got, Hogzilla. On a road like this it would catch up with us in no time.”
Toby glanced at Marty. “She’s got a point.”
“We could always go cross country”, said Marty. He pointed at a series of trails branching from the road and disappearing into the jungle.
“Do you know your way through the jungle”, asked Caitlin.
“Are you kidding? I’ve been scouting it for locations for the past five years. Besides, all of those trails end up at the north coast eventually.”
Eve pointed decisively to one of the trails. “Greater probability of survival following this trail here.”
Toby turned to Caitlin. “What d’you think?”
“It’s got to be safer than staying on the road.”
Marty glanced nervously behind him. “Well let’s go if we’re going.”
He stepped off the road, heading for the trail that Eve had indicated. Caitlin saw the trail curving into the jungle like the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz and she smiled, glancing at her companions; Toby with his scarecrow physique, Eve glinting in the sunlight, Marty with his mane of golden hair, and Scotty trotting faithfully at her side. “Why do I feel like I’m missing a pair of ruby slippers?” she murmured.
“What’s that?” asked Toby, turning.
“Nothing”, said Caitlin, suddenly feeling much happier. She linked arms with Toby and they set off into the jungle.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
THE EXPEDITION
When the convoy of robots rolled into the fortress, De Coza’s bad mood wasn’t improved by the sight of Roadkill, Uzi-Rider and Typhoid Mary still sound asleep on the courtyard floor. “Wake up, you drunken Harpies!” he yelled, prodding Roadkill with his foot.
Roadkill groaned and opened her eyes. “Attack at dawn”, she muttered.
“Yeah!” said De Coza. “Not 10 o’ clock in the freakin’ morning!” He prodded Roadkill with his foot again and she promptly bit it. De Coza yelped in pain and hopped backwards, clutching his injured foot.
The three biker girls clambered to their feet, hungover and bad tempered, their faces red from lying in the sun. “So what happened?” growled Uzi-Rider, tentatively touching her sunburned face.
“What happened?” yelled De Coza. “They got away, that’s what happened! Kiss goodbye to that 10 million bucks!”
“We thought they might have come back here”, said McBride, scanning the fortress courtyard.
Typhoid Mary scratched her head thoughtfully then shook her head.
“What is it?” said McBride.
“I had this weird dream”, she said drowsily, “at least I was pretty sure it was a dream, but now you mention it, maybe—”
“Get on with it!” De Coza exploded.
“Okay, okay”, said Typhoid Mary, wincing. “What I’m trying to say is that maybe I heard those two kids back here with Marty. Talking about getting ready to hit the road…?”
“Hit the road?” repeated De Coza, turning towards the fortress gates. “Well that’s the only road I know of on this island.”
Roadkill nodded with satisfaction. “It’s a good clear run. Hogzilla will catch up with ’em in no time.”
“Well let’s get moving”, said De Coza impatiently.
“Hold your horses, man”, said Roadkill. “We can’t just go racing off into the jungle without preparation.”
Uzi-Rider nodded. “An expedition like this, we’ll need to take provisions.”
“Survival rations”, Typhoid Mary added.
De Coza shook his head in exasperation. “You’ve got five minutes.”
McBride tossed the last of the survival backpacks into Dumpmaster’s hopper then turned to Roadkill who was assisting Uzi-Rider and Typhoid Mary strap provisions to Hogzilla’s chassis. The three biker girls stepped away from their robot and McBride saw that it now resembled a mobile drinks cabinet, with bottles of spirits lashed to the exterior of the robot and wedged between its spikes.
“Good to see you’ve got all the essentials taken care of”, he said dryly.
“I dunno about that”, replied Uzi-Rider, taking him seriously. “We’re out of tequila.”
“But there’s plenty of vodka, Scotch and JD, so we shouldn’t miss it too badly”, added Typhoid Mary, not sounding totally convinced.
Roadkill finished stacking packs of beer on a narrow platform at the back of Hogzilla and surveyed her work with satisfaction. “Ready to roll”, she announced.
McBride looked uneasily at Bubba and Billy-Bob, who were still tied to Blast Furnace. The two elderly professors were squashed uncomfortably together in the robot’s shadow, trying to protect themselves from the harsh sunlight. “What about these two, Ray?”
“What about ‘em?”
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“Can’t we just leave them here?”
“And risk them fraternizing with the enemy?” said De Coza in disbelief. He firmly shook his head.
The convoy of robots rolled out of the courtyard, Dumpmaster leading. The road they were following straightened, disappearing into the jungle and De Coza paused, looking at the trails branching off the road into the jungle.
The convoy ground to a halt behind Dumpmaster and Hogzilla revved its engine impatiently. “Do you want us to go ahead and round ’em up?” Roadkill called.
De Coza shook his head distractedly. “This doesn’t seem right”, he muttered. He turned to Roadkill and McBride. “Do either of your robots have tracking devices?”
“Sort of”, said McBride. “She’s equipped with infrared sensors. They’re pretty sensitive and if they’re walking through shady jungle…” He turned to Blast Furnace. “Switch to thermal imaging, 360-degree scan.”
Blast Furnace obeyed, its water cannon turret swivelling slowly around as it scanned the jungle. Suddenly it froze, stopping at the path Toby and the others took. McBride studied the robot’s infrared camera monitor and saw a glowing trail of footsteps leading into the jungle. “They went this way”, he said, pointing.
“Follow me, men!” yelled De Coza. He happily led the convoy into the jungle, in his element now. He shouted a rallying cry. “Death to the Toymaker! Destroy All Robots! Death to the Toymaker! Destroy All Robots!”
The Scannell twins followed suit, their faces brooding and vengeful. “Death to the Toymaker!” they hissed, jabbing their makeshift spears in the air. “Destroy All Robots!”
The three biker girls snapped open their first beers of the day then joined in with the chant, whooping and hollering.
Coach Kennedy caught Thumper’s eye and pulled a face and both men grinned. They started chanting along with the others, ironically at first, then with growing conviction. McBride joined in with the chant, walking ahead so he didn’t have to see Bubba and Billy-Bob stumbling behind Blast Furnace. “Death to the Toymaker! Destroy All Robots!”
CHAPTER FIFTY
THE JUNGLE INTERIOR
Toby, Caitlin, Marty, Eve and Scotty followed the trail, plunging deeper and deeper into the jungle interior. All around them creeper-clad trees thrust upwards, their splayed branches arching, interweaving, blocking out the light. Overhead, the sun rose higher in the sky, filtering through the dense leafy canopy, the heat growing oppressive. They plodded onwards, their faces slick with perspiration.
Toby rested for a second, trying to get his breath back. The air trapped under the jungle roof was thick and soupy, heavy with moisture and unfamiliar pollens. All around him the insects were making an incredible din, rich swathes of sound rolling back and forth across the jungle. The rhythm would get faster and faster, building to a crescendo, then die out, only for the cycle to start once more in a different part of the jungle. Over the white noise of the insects, Toby could make out the chittering of monkeys and the shrill squawking of birds.
He started walking again, in a buoyant mood despite the fatigue and the heat. Even though the competition had ended and there was no chance of winning the $10 million, the island had provided him with an unexpected way of saving his brother. As he clambered through the jungle, Toby formulated the questions he had for the show’s robot designer if he met up with him. The Sniper Robot he had examined had been created with a simple ingenuity, utilizing a power source that he had never seen before. It was almost as if the science of robotics had taken a unique evolutionary turn on this isolated island, branching off into exciting new territory. He was sure this mysterious Toymaker would have many things to teach him.
At midday they stopped to rest and eat. Caitlin pulled the three hot dogs out of her backpack and passed them to Toby and Marty. They brushed the ants off the warm doughy rolls then munched the hot dogs in silence, too tired to talk.
Marty climbed to his feet. “Better keep moving.”
They started walking and Toby’s thoughts returned to the robot designer again, trying to picture what sort of lab he had set up on the island. Caitlin stumbled over a gnarled tree root and Toby snapped out of his daydream. He grabbed her arm, saving her from a nasty fall and she gave him a weak smile. She pulled out her water bottle and swallowed greedily.
“We can stop for a while if you want?”
“I’m okay”, Caitlin replied, but Toby could see that she was exhausted. She had tied her tracksuit top around her waist, revealing a series of livid purple bruises coiling around her neck and arms from Blast Furnace’s tentacles. She saw Toby looking at them and pulled a face. “If people at school could see us now”, she muttered.
Toby smiled. “What I did in my summer holidays.”
Caitlin laughed and they trudged onwards in companionable silence.
Toby turned to Caitlin again. “I’m sorry I dragged you into all this.”
Caitlin shrugged. “It’s not your fault, you didn’t know what was going to happen.”
“But still. You wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for me.”
“Nobody forced me to come”, she said, a little sharply.
Toby gave Caitlin a curious glance and she looked away, troubled. She began to lag behind and Toby suspected it was to avoid further conversation, rather than fatigue. He picked up his pace, catching up with Marty.
“So how long has your robot designer been with you?” Toby asked.
Marty scratched his head thoughtfully. “Let me see, it wasn’t long after we’d set up our production office on the island, must be nearly three years now. He’d heard that we were on the lookout for someone who could create the biggest, fastest, meanest, craziest robots ever and said he was our man. He was as good as his word.”
“And you say he’s based here permanently, just like you?”
“That’s right, him on the north coast, me on the south. Funny when you think about it, apart from this last month when Stacey and the core production team arrived it was just me and him living here. But we never meet up.” Marty lowered his voice a fraction and leaned towards Toby. “He’s a bit of an oddball, to tell the truth. Doesn’t care much about money, doesn’t even ask for a fee. All he asks for is a quiet place to work and the materials and equipment to build his robots. I’ll introduce you to him if we get the chance.”
Caitlin stumbled behind them again. “We’d better rest soon”, said Toby.
Marty nodded. “There’s a place a little further ahead where we can stop and eat.”
The group rested in a jungle clearing, bathed in the light of the setting sun. Caitlin gratefully sank to the ground and slid out of her backpack. She ripped the foil-top lid off of one of the trail-pack meals and looked dubiously at the powdered contents.
“They’re okay”, said Marty. “Give it a try.”
Caitlin poured water from her bottle into the layer of grey dust and stirred the gloopy mixture with a plastic spork attached to the underside of the lid. Scotty trotted over to her, attracted to the shiny foil container. He inspected the contents of the container, quickly lost interest and scampered away again.
“What have you got?” asked Toby, pulling out a trail-pack for himself.
Caitlin examined the label. “Turkey and Sweetcorn Hotpot, it says here.”
“Want to trade for Beef and Tomato Surprise?”
“I guess”, said Caitlin unenthusiastically.
They switched trays and started to eat. Marty dug into his food, chewing vigorously. “Not bad, not bad at all. How’s yours?”
Caitlin prodded the lumpy gruel with her spork. “No identifiable beef so far. No tomatoes come to that.”
“That’s the surprise”, muttered Toby.
Caitlin started to giggle and Toby grinned as well, happy to see her smiling.
Marty frowned, taking the criticism personally. “I’ll have you know that Marty Shultz Productions sourced the best quality dehydrated meals on the market for these trail-packs. All the essential vitamin
s and minerals needed for—”
Eve swung round, interrupting Marty. “Robots detected, closing in.”
Toby and Caitlin looked at each other in alarm. “They’re following us?” asked Toby.
“High probability”, agreed Eve. “Blast Furnace equipped with infrared sensors.”
“So what, they’re tracking our body heat?” asked Caitlin.
“Looks that way”, said Toby. “We’d better get moving.”
They broke camp, finishing off their meals as they walked. Toby studied the terrain ahead and then turned to Marty. “There’s no water nearby, rivers or streams or anything? We need to disguise our body signature.”
Marty shook his head. “None that I know of.”
Caitlin pointed to the trail ahead, twisting and turning up a steep hill. The setting sun was visible through a break in the jungle canopy, a ball of fiery orange. “Maybe we’ll see something from up there?”
Toby nodded and they continued walking, none of them talking because of the steep gradient of the trail.
Toby turned to Eve. “They still with us?”
“ETA 22 minutes.”
“How much longer before they’ll need to stop to charge-up?”
“Approximately two hours.”
“We can’t outrun them and we can’t lose them. What other options do we have?”
“Current situation not strategically advantageous for combat.”
Marty reached the crest of the hill and turned to Toby thoughtfully. “Hang on, if they’re following our body heat, what if we made for somewhere cold? Wouldn’t we be able to shake them off?”
Toby shook his head. “The lower the thermal conductivity of the ground, the easier it will be to be traced. Besides, where’s cold on a tropical island?”
“Funny you should ask”, said Marty with a grin.
Toby and Caitlin scrambled up to the top of the hill to see what Marty was looking at. In the valley below them was a vast open-topped stadium surrounded by a high wall, containing an undulating ice field sculpted into peaks and valleys.
“The Toymaker’s Ice Warrior training camp”, said Marty softly.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
THE ICE ARENA
Toby gazed down at the training camp thoughtfully. The frozen landscape glowed orange in the setting sun, long shadows accentuating the contours carved into the ice. “Blast Furnace’s thermal imaging system must be incredibly sensitive in order to sense body heat in a burning building…” He tailed off, lapsing into a thoughtful silence.