De Coza nodded grimly. “Permission granted.”
The two dentists slipped eagerly out of the pub, clutching their spears and a small shudder ran through De Coza. He uneasily turned away from the window and tried to put the two prisoners of war out of his mind. He had nothing to feel guilty about, they had brought it on themselves by aligning themselves with the enemy. The hillbillies had information that would lead to the capture of the traitor, Badernoch, which in turn would lead them to the Toymaker. And once he was safely behind bars the public would remember him, Raymond Alfonzo De Coza, as the man who ended the evil reign of the Toymaker and helped usher in a new era of global peace. He glanced down at the plastic medal on his chest and wondered what sort of military decoration he would get. Maybe they would make a new one for him? The Global War on Robo-Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, that sounded about right. And would a statue of him be out of the question? He didn’t see why it should. A big bronze one on a plinth in Times Square where Connie and Chuck and every other person who thought he was such a damn loser could see it…
Still daydreaming, he turned back to the others. He was feeling happier about the decision he had made, much happier. During wartime there were always casualties, it was inevitable. He watched his men drinking and dancing and felt a degree of fondness for them. On the trail he had overheard Thumper and Kennedy bitching about whether he would give them a cut of the bounty if they captured the Toymaker. Well he had a surprise for them, not only was he fully intending to honour his promise, he planned to forgo his own share of the $10 million. He didn’t want the money, the respect and gratitude of the public would be reward enough.
De Coza’s eyes flicked over to the pub window and saw that the Scannell twins had already started their interrogation. He walked over to the animatronic pianist and slowly turned the volume up. He glanced over to the others to see if they had noticed. Roadkill, Uzi-Rider and Typhoid Mary were now doing a drunken can-can on top of the bar, cheered on by McBride, Kennedy and Thumper. De Coza slowly inched the volume control louder and then louder still.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
THE CYBORG
Toby sat drowsily by the campfire, watching over Caitlin who was sleeping fitfully. Scotty trotted over and inspected the remains of Caitlin’s original cyber-prosthetic arm that lay at her feet. He eyed the sheared-off tube of electronics jealously as if it were a rival for Caitlin’s affections, then rolled it off the blanket with his nose. He settled down in its place, resting his boxy metal head on her feet.
Caitlin muttered in her sleep, her arm jerking and Toby guessed she was having a nightmare. She moaned again and he felt a wave of pity for her. She looked so vulnerable lying there, so different to how she used to be.
His mind wandered, remembering the first time he saw Caitlin fight, two years previously. This was before they had become friends, when they shared the same classroom but had little else in common. He hadn’t wanted to watch the fight, in fact he was annoyed that double science had been cancelled for some stupid tournament. But Caitlin had reached the inter-schools karate finals, which was apparently a big deal, and so the whole school trooped down to the sports hall to watch it.
But then the fight started and everything changed. Caitlin launched into her opponent and all of Toby’s irritation drained away. He normally abhorred sports, particularly fighting. But something about the effortless way Caitlin battled her opponent with an economical flurry of kicks and punches made a strong impact on him. There was a rightness to it, a simple elegance that somehow reminded Toby of the physical laws he worked with in science. Caitlin didn’t put a foot wrong the entire fight, dancing back and forth, her copper ponytail flashing in the sunlight. And once it was all over Toby had left the sports hall dazed and somehow moved by the experience.
Toby looked away from Caitlin, the memory of the fight saddening him. It broke his heart seeing her like this.
And yet…
Toby stared at the remains of Caitlin’s prosthetic arm, troubled by the contradictory emotions boiling inside him. He knew the accident had ruined Caitlin’s karate career and changed the course of her life forever. But he couldn’t deny that deep inside, a tiny selfish part of him was grateful for the accident. He knew he would have forever remained the oddball at the back of the class in Caitlin’s eyes if it wasn’t for the accident. As soon as he had heard that his mother was treating Caitlin he had skipped school for the first time in his life so that he could attend the session. And over the following months, throughout the course of Caitlin’s treatment, a bond had formed between the two of them. He had supported her through her most vulnerable time and she had grown to trust him. And that trust had gradually turned into friendship.
Caitlin twitched and whimpered in her sleep, her nightmare intensifying. Toby reached out and gently stroked her hair. Her moans grew fainter and fainter until she was sleeping peacefully. Toby continued to stroke her hair, lost in his own thoughts.
Eve’s voice rang out, snapping him out of his reverie. “Permission to switch to energy conserve mode, Toby?”
Toby turned and saw that the robot was standing directly behind him, her glowing green eyes trained on his hand as he stroked Caitlin’s hair. Almost guiltily he removed it. “Sure, go ahead. I’ll keep watch here.”
“Thank you Toby”, Eve replied and Toby thought he could detect a hint of reproach in her voice like she thought she was being neglected. The light faded from the robot’s eyes.
Toby placed the remaining branches on the fire and they smouldered and caught alight. He stared at the dancing flames, hypnotised, and his eyelids started to flicker. His head drooped, his chin resting on his chest, then he snapped awake, annoyed with himself for dozing off. He surveyed the shadowy jungle outside the orange circle of firelight, determined to remain vigilant. Seconds later he was fast asleep.
All was quiet in the camp, the only sounds Toby and Caitlin snoring softly. Then another sound could be heard, a quiet rustling from the trees above them. The rustling got louder, accompanied by the creak of branches as something hopped from tree to tree. Scotty’s ears pricked up, sensing movement in the jungle. He began to whine softly.
Caitlin shifted position in her sleep. “Quiet, boy”, she muttered.
Scotty’s whine increased in pitch and volume as a number of black shapes emerged from the jungle, creeping along the branches towards them.
“What is it Scotty?” Caitlin said drowsily. She opened her eyes and stared in shock. Directly above her the branches were alive with dozens of electronic yellow eyes, twinkling like fairy-lights on a Christmas tree.
She screamed and Toby woke up with a start. He saw the creatures in the trees and scrambled to his feet. “Eve, assist”, he yelled.
The creatures dropped to the ground, scampering towards the campfire and Toby saw that they were monkeys. Scotty ran up to them, his sheepdog programming engaging. He barked furiously and most of the monkeys fled, swarming back up the trees. Toby joined Caitlin who stood fearfully watching the monkeys. “It’s okay”, he said reassuringly, “I think they’re more afraid of us than we are of them.”
Caitlin nodded, watching Scotty chase the remaining monkeys up into the trees. The robot dog turned and trotted back to his mistress, looking pleased with himself and Caitlin smiled. “See ‘em off, did you?” she said, stooping to pat his head.
There was a flash of brown as a lone monkey darted out of the shadows. It snatched up the robot-dog, tucking it under its arm and Scotty yelped indignantly. The monkey turned to escape with its prize.
“Hey!” yelled Caitlin. She grabbed the hind legs of Scotty and after a brief tug-of-war with the monkey managed to retrieve him. The monkey shook its tiny fist at Caitlin and she laughed at the human-like gesture.
“Sorry, you’re going to have to get your own dog—”
SLASH! Eve’s hand chopped down on the monkey’s neck, mortally wounding it. Caitlin turned on Eve furiously. “What did you do that for?”
Toby p
icked up the dying monkey, cradling it. It gazed pathetically at him, its yellow eyes growing dim.
“It’s dying!” cried Caitlin, glaring accusingly at Eve.
“Prime directive, destroy all robots”, replied Eve coolly.
“That wasn’t a robot—”
“Not technically anyway”, said Toby. “More a cyborg.” He showed Caitlin the monkey’s skull, cleaved open by Eve’s blade. Poking out of the bloody fur were wires and circuits. “Its brain has been fitted with some sort of neurochip.” He turned to Caitlin excitedly. “You know what this means?”
“There’s a cruel vivisectionist on this island who experiments on defenceless animals?”
Toby shook his head impatiently. “No, whoever did this must have created some sort of neural data-sharing platform. This could be the breakthrough I’ve been looking for!”
The monkey’s eyes started to flicker and Caitlin saw that within the iris of each eye was a tiny mechanism rotating back and forth. “Look”, she said, pointing. “What do you think it is?”
Toby leaned forwards, examining the monkey’s eyes. “It looks like a video camera lens.”
“You mean someone could be watching us right now?” asked Caitlin. “Who?”
She gazed at the camera uneasily and somewhere on the island, her and Toby’s face appeared in close-up on a monitor screen, taken from the point-of-view of the dying monkey. The video feed faded to black and a hand reached out and switched off the monitor.
CHAPTER SIXTY
ASSIMILATE
McBride woke suddenly, with a strong sense of guilt. It was dawn, a pearl-grey light filtering through the pub’s grimy windows. He sat up and winced at the sudden movement. His head was pounding and he knew he was suffering from a hangover. He glanced at the snoring biker girls sprawled out on the floor. Dotted around them were empty bottles and the remains of smashed-up animatronic dummies. He frowned, trying to dredge up memories of the previous evening. There had been drinking, he recalled, lots of drinking. Singing and dancing as well, but mainly drinking. Then everything got hazy. At some point in the evening a fight broke out after Typhoid Mary accused one of the animatronic market porters of staring at her cleavage. He had vague recollections of tables being overturned, chairs flying. But after that everything was a blank, he must have either passed out or fallen asleep.
McBride delicately clambered to his feet. He saw that Thumper and Coach Kennedy were asleep behind the bar, lying next to the decapitated animatronic barman, but there was no sign of De Coza or the Scannell twins.
McBride’s guilty feeling intensified. He reached for his water bottle and in a sudden flash realized he’d forgotten about Bubba and Billy-Bob. He’d brought some hot drinks out to them just before midnight but that was nearly six hours ago. With a sick feeling in his stomach, he made his way outside.
Dumpmaster was parked directly outside the pub door, forcing him to walk around it. “Hey, McBride!” De Coza called cheerfully from above him. McBride looked up and saw that De Coza was sitting astride the robot, a screwdriver in his hand. He beckoned the fire chief over and McBride saw that he was wiring an electronic module to the back of Dumpmaster’s head. Kenneth and Gilbert assisted him, sifting through Dumpmaster’s recycling bins for parts.
“What are you up to?” McBride asked.
“Just one or two adjustments”, De Coza said airily, seeming very pleased with himself. He looked at McBride expectantly, hoping for more questions.
“Well are you going to tell me or not?” McBride said irritably.
Kenneth pulled the outer casing to the module from the recycling bin and passed it up to De Coza. De Coza grunted in satisfaction and started screwing it in place. “As soon as Marty told me Dumpmaster could utilise the parts from any robot it destroyed, I set about creating a new operating system for her. I called it ASSIMILATE; a program that would enable her to accept any new parts and treat them as extensions of her own body.”
McBride looked at De Coza in exasperation, wondering what this had to do with anything, then suddenly recognized the module he was fitting. “That’s from Redneck’s Revenge, isn’t it?”
“Got it in one”, said De Coza, beaming. He nodded to Kenneth who passed him the screws to the module casing. “Now the thing about this sheep-shearing robot is that it was designed to work in tandem with its slave unit, constantly relaying data back and forth”, he said, tightening the screws. “So if I tune into its transmitter for position indication…” He twisted a dial on the module and a flashing light appeared on Dumpmaster’s monitor. “Our little guide dog will show us the way.”
“So what gave you the idea to do this?” said McBride.
“Just came to me”, De Coza said evasively. His eyes unconsciously flicked over to the Scannell twins who were now clambering out of the recycling bins and with a thrill of horror McBride saw the tips of their spears were maroon with dried blood.
“What have you done”, McBride whispered.
The dentists didn’t answer, the hint of a smile twitching on their lips.
McBride turned and ran around Dumpmaster, heading for his own robot. He skidded to a halt and stared in horror at the sight before him.
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
LOST IN THE JUNGLE
Caitlin woke just after dawn to find Toby still absorbed with the dead monkey. He was sitting cross-legged before the remains of the fire in exactly the same position as he had been when she’d finally dozed off and obviously hadn’t been to sleep. She watched, a little disturbed, as he peered keenly inside the dead monkey’s cleaved-open skull, trying to get a better look at the neurochip.
Scotty trotted happily up to Caitlin, pleased to see her awake. She reached over to pat his head and her arm felt heavy and unfamiliar as if she had been sleeping on it. She raised her hand and saw that the skin tone was a different shade to the rest of her body. Suddenly the memory of the previous night came flooding back. She looked at her new arm distastefully then pulled down the remains of her tracksuit sleeve, trying to hide it. She looked around for Marty and saw he wasn’t there.
“Where’s Marty?” she asked.
Toby spoke without looking up from the monkey. “You know something, I’m positive this neurochip could be adapted for biomedical applications.”
“Toby, where’s Marty?”
“Gone”, he said shortly, poking inside the monkey’s skull with a screwdriver.
“What do you mean, gone?”
“You were right, he was lying about that ship.”
Caitlin stared at Toby, aghast. “You mean to say we’re lost in the middle of the jungle?”
Toby looked up from the monkey, finally registering Caitlin’s distress. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way out.”
“How?” cried Caitlin.
Eve pointed to the trail that they’d been following. “Greater probability of survival continuing in this direction.”
Caitlin looked at the robot darkly. “You know something, she’s really starting to bug me with that.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
THE BODIES
McBride returned to the pub, his face ashen, and roughly shook Kennedy and Thumper awake. “Get out here now”, he whispered.
The three men slipped past De Coza and the Scannell twins who were still busy fine-tuning Dumpmaster’s new module and made their way to Blast Furnace. Kennedy and Thumper stared in horror at Bubba and Billy-Bob’s lifeless bodies sprawled on the ground.
“Oh my God…” breathed Thumper.
“Who did this to them?” whispered Kennedy. He hesitantly approached Bubba and saw that his shirt was mottled with dried blood, his mouth frozen in a soundless scream. He crouched down and touched Bubba’s neck, feeling for a pulse.
Thumper swallowed apprehensively. “Is he…”
Bubba’s eyes opened making everyone jump.
“Scannell twins…” he muttered hoarsely. “De Coza’s orders… Get information…”
Billy-Bob’s eyes flickered open
as well and he pulled up his shirt, wincing in pain. McBride, Kennedy and Thumper stared, appalled at his injuries. His chest and stomach were criss-crossed with lacerations.
“These are the sort of people we’re following”, said McBride grimly.
“But they’re leading us to the money…” said Thumper miserably.
“Ten million bucks”, added Kennedy. “We’d be set up for life.”
McBride stared at them both incredulously. “Is any amount of money worth this?” he hissed, pointing at Billy-Bob’s injuries. “People at home could be watching us right now. Our families and friends. What are they going to think of us? We’ll be no better than the monsters that did this.”
“So what do we do?” asked Thumper.
“We fight.”
“Those biker girls?” Kennedy pulled a face.
“What are we, mice or men?” said McBride scornfully.
Thumper glanced through the pub window and his eyes fell upon the barman’s decapitated head. “Eek”, he said, sticking out his protruding teeth.
McBride shook his head impatiently. “Listen, I say we go with Bubba’s original plan. We tie those girls up now while they’re still out for the count. That just leaves De Coza and his two Gestapo sidekicks.”
Thumper and Kennedy didn’t answer, still looking at Billy-Bob’s injuries.
“So what d’you say?” insisted McBride. “Five of us, three of them, the element of surprise on our side?”
Thumper and Kennedy exchanged glances then nodded. “Sounds like a plan”, said Kennedy.
“We’ll tackle those biker girls first then the others”, said McBride.
“Good luck”, Bubba whispered.
McBride nodded and the three men crept past Dumpmaster into the pub.
Roadkill stood behind the bar, pouring vodka into three shot glasses. “Hello boys”, she growled. “Just in time for breakfast.”
McBride looked ruefully at Kennedy and Thumper; their rebellion was over before it had even begun.
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
RETURN OF THE WRANGLER
Toby and Caitlin were on the move again, following Eve along the same trail they had been following since the fortress. They tramped steadily through the jungle, lost in their own thoughts. Scotty picked up something of their subdued mood and lagged behind, his tail drooping. They reached a clearing in the trees and Caitlin pointed out a craggy mountain range rising in the distance.