She swivelled and started walking through the utter darkness. “Am I going the right way?”
“Stop,” Feril said. “Yes; you are a step away from the young man you kicked.”
She felt down. “So they weren’t androids,” she said.
“No, I believe they are clones, but otherwise perfectly normal human beings,” Feril said. There was a pause. “Well…”
The man was breathing shallowly; she kept the gun pointed at where the breathing was corning from, then felt in his uniform jacket. “This feels like a chip key.”
The android directed her to it. “The slot is at the back,” it told her.
The key snicked in, the collar buzzed alarmingly, then a small white light flashed and the collar clicked open. She removed it and put it on the floor, which trembled again as she set the collar down. More smashing, tinkling noises sounded in the distance.
“Which direction to the Lazy Gun?” she asked.
“Your hand?” Feril said. She shivered, gritting her teeth as she put her hand out into the darkness. Feril held her bandaged hand gently; they walked forward. “Here it is,” the android said.
She felt for the device and lifted it. “Great,” she said. “Now all we have to do is try and find a way out of this place.”
“If I may make a suggestion,” Feril said, its voice calm. “While I was standing near it earlier I had the opportunity of scanning the monowheeled vehicle taken from the tower. It appears to be in working order.”
“Hmm,” she said. “Or we could just wait here for my cousin to appear.”
“Ah,” Feril said carefully. “I am not sure about that.”
“You’re not?”
“I was able to observe the action taking place on the desert surface and in the nearby hills by way of the high-definition screens built into the walls of this place. Those in the first wave of comparatively lightly armed attackers were not identifiable. However, those in the second wave, who seemed to be fighting both the Keep’s defending forces as well as the first wave of attackers, were almost certainly Huhsz.”
“Huhsz?” she said into the darkness.
“I believe so. There were certain insignia on the wings of the aircraft forming-”
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“I am sure of what I saw on the screens,” Feril said cautiously.
“Fate,” she said. Then, “But if Geis is mad enough to start crossing the Areas, they certainly are.” She hoisted the gun to her hip, holding it like a child. “Where’s the monowheel?”
“This way.”
The floor bucked beneath them, almost throwing her off her feet. Another devastating crash sounded from a distant part of the bunker.
The android helped her into the monowheeled vehicle’s open cockpit. She shoved the Lazy Gun into the long footwell past what felt like a pair of hanging pedals, then she sat. There was a small compartment just to the rear of the cockpit; Feril climbed up and stuck its legs into it, sitting on the rear of the vehicle just in front of the tilted monowheel. The vehicle moved fractionally, with the hint of a whine.
“Now what?” Sharrow said, raising her voice above a roaring noise coming from somewhere ahead in the darkness. A gust of hot air blew around them, flinging dust into her face. She closed her eyes.
“Try this,” it said. “Excuse me.” She felt it lean over her, bending her forward; she heard a click, then lights glowed. The android leant back again. She looked round at it; its face gleamed softly in the green light spilling from the vehicle’s screen and instruments.
“Perhaps you should drive,” she said.
“The position here is a little exposed,” it told her. “Allow me to navigate.”
“All right.” She turned back and studied the controls; a twinstalk hand-grip with various buttons arranged on the columns, two pedals for her feet; various dials, screens and touch-bolos, and a head-up display seemingly hovering in mid-air in front of her.
She pressed a pedal; the monowheel’s nose dipped. The other pedal brought it level again. She took the hand controls and squeezed both; her left hand was stiff and hurt a little, but it was bearable. There was a beeping noise from the instruments. Nothing else happened until she let go the left grip. The monowheel leapt forward, banging her head against the seat’s head-rest.
“Stop!” Feril yelled.
She released the grip and they stopped quickly. She sensed the android turning behind her.
“Oh well,” it said, turning back. “I don’t believe you were too keen on that young man, anyway.”
“Dead?” she asked.
“Thoroughly,” Feril said.
She found the lights and another holo display, switchable between radar, ultrasound and passive EM. “Hell,” she said, “I had a unit like this on a bike once.” She adjusted the display to optimum on EM.
She was sitting on the safety harness; she lifted, pulled the straps out and fastened them round her. The holo display showed the whole bunker ahead of her in grey; the roof had collapsed in at least two places. The ramp she had been brought up was lying off to her left.
There was a muffled rumble from above, followed by another hot gust of air.
“I think we should leave this place fairly soon,” Feril said.
“So do I,” she said. “Ready?”
“Ready. I suggest you head for the ramp.”
“On my way.” She pressed the right grip lightly, sending the monowheel humming forward over the floor, then tipped the wheel; the vehicle turned. She looked at the squashed body of the young emissary she’d kicked and then run over. The monowheel was obviously quite heavy.
The other emissary lay still at the foot of the dais. His chest, neck and face were still cooling. She thought she heard him moan.
She took the laser from her jacket, reached out over the side of the cockpit and shot him twice in the head.
She paused just once more, at the other cooling body on the floor, then left her image lying there and powered the monowheel down the ramp.
There was a door. “Just a minute,” Feril said. “This seems to require a fairly simple radio code…”
The door trundled aside, revealing the short corridor walled with roller doors.
“Well done,” she said, moving the monowheel forward.
“My pleasure.” The second roller door on the left rippled as a rumble of noise sounded all about them. “The door opposite that, I think,” Feril said. “It will require the vehicle’s cannon.”
“Cannon?” she said, looking round at the android.
It nodded. “I believe this was a robo-tank hunter; a sporting vehicle used by the Vrosal Moguls following the-”
Another blast shook the roller door.
“Aiming and firing controls?” she said quickly.
“You aim the whole vehicle,” Feril said. “The pedals control nose angle, the red cursor on the head-up is aim-point and the red button on top of the left hand-grip fires.”
She fired at the door; there was a burst of light from beneath the monowheel vehicle, an ear-ringing bang and a single small hole appeared in the roller door. An instant later the door bulged and burst open as the shell exploded behind it.
Wreckage tumbled past them; she ducked, glanced back at Feril, who seemed to be unharmed, then eased the monowheel over the remains of the door. The vehicle rolled with uncanny smoothness into a circular-section tunnel fitted with twin toothed-metal rails. There were flat rail-cars sitting on the rails; beyond them the tunnel spiralled upwards.
“This is how I was brought in,” Feril said. “I believe it leads to just below the surface.”
“Maybe so, but how do we get over these flat cars?”
“I believe this vehicle is quite sophisticated for our. day; I suggest just driving at them.”
“All right,” she said. She sent the monowheel forward slowly; it climbed over the flat cars as though they weren’t there. She looked back and shrugged, then powered on up the spiral tunnel.