Grey Griffins: The Clockwork Chronicles #1: The Brimstone Key (28 page)

“Hold it.” Logan lifted his arm up.

“What?” asked Ernie.

Logan knelt down, swiped his fingers over a dark spot
on the rug, and whispered something into his comlink to Monti. He turned back to Obadiah and the Griffins and held up two fingers. They were covered in grime.

“Grease,” he explained. “The same kind used in the Class Six Nemesis we encountered back in Scotland.”

“Is it recent?” Max asked.

“It’s warm, if that’s what you mean.”

“They must have used a portal,” Strange reasoned. “I have no idea how Von Strife could have done it without alerting the facility’s security system, though.”

“Smoke…” Max muttered. “He can teleport without using portals.”

“Only if he’d been here before, though,” Harley noted.

“Maybe all he needs are the coordinates,” Harley suggested.

“Should we go back?” asked Natalia.

“We can’t be sure they have the key in their possession yet,” Obadiah stated. “We must go on, at least a little farther.” Strange pointed at the open hatchway in front of them that led into the Brimstone Chamber, where the key rested. It was dark in the room, and there were no sounds of clockwork ticking or energy cannons being charged up. Everything was deathly quiet.

“Do we have to go in there?” Ernie whined.

“There’s a remote-control Imager drone in Harley’s pack,”
Monti offered.
“Power it up and I’ll take control. You’ll be able to see what it sees through your goggles.”

Logan set his rifle down and extracted the clockwork from Harley’s backpack.

Similar to the hornets that Smoke had unleashed back at school, this drone was a palm-sized clockwork modeled after a golden dragonfly, with two huge eye-shaped cameras. In a flash, Monti sent it buzzing off through the dark hatchway and into the silence beyond. At the same instant, one of Max’s goggle lenses began to feed the drone’s video back to him.

The room was circular, dressed in black and white tile and supported by two pillars that rose up to support the massive glass ceiling. Surrounding the room were statues of men whose eyes were trained upon the shattered remains of the resting place that had once held the Brimstone Key: a coffin-sized glass case bound with meteoric iron. Its contents had been ripped out and scattered on the ground. There was no sign of the Brimstone Key.

“
I think we came a little late to the party
,” Monti commented grimly.
“You should probably get back here on the double.”

Even as he spoke, the sound of clanging metal echoed ominously from the passageway behind them. An instant later, the first of the Grimbots appeared, followed by a stream of blaster fire that lit up the hallways.

“Take cover!” Logan shouted as he pulled everyone behind a steel beam and grabbed his MVX Pulse Rifle. In a blur of professional finesse, he took aim and blew away the arm of the lead Grimbot. Next went the left
knee, and finally its head. It took two seconds at most, and Logan had trimmed it like a tree. Several others fell just as quickly, as Logan let loose a deadly barrage of plasma charges.

“Forget about it! Those things are at least Class Five. They have regen sub-programs,”
Monti warned.
“You don’t have enough firepower. Get out of there… now!”

Already, the Grimbots that had fallen were beginning to repair themselves. Behind those, a dozen more clockworks appeared, blasters firing. At the rate the Grimbots were coming, the Griffins would be overrun no matter how fast Logan could pull the trigger.

“They’re blocking our way out,” Logan replied as he took another shot, catching a Grimbot in the chest. It crashed into the wall. “Can you find us another exit, Monti?”

“We don’t have time!” Obadiah shouted. “Everyone, through the door.” He pushed the Griffins through the open hatch and into the Brimstone Chamber. “That goes for you, too,” Saxon’s apprentice shouted, waving at Logan as the Scotsman protected their escape.

Logan took a final shot that blew the head off the nearest Grimbot, and dove through the door. Obadiah slipped in behind him. Together, they heaved the hatchway shut. Logan spun the lock. The sound of blaster fire faded to a muffled buzz.

“Even if the hatchway holds,” Logan began, “we’re trapped.”

“They’ve turned off life support,”
Monti warned. “
Oxygen levels are dropping.”

Logan growled. “I have a feeling that was Von Strife’s plan all along.”

“We’ll have to go on the offensive…” Strange muttered. “It’s the only way.”

Logan shook his head. “Grimbots are Class Five killing machines. We wouldn’t last two minutes. Unless Monti can upgrade my rifle remotely.”

“Ha! Not a chance!”

“I have something a little more radical in mind,” Strange countered.

Max’s gauntlet melted away from his arm and reconstituted itself as the
Codex
. With Obadiah’s help, Max’s mind guided its pages toward a section of green leaves. It came to rest on the image of spiraling vines under the glow of a silvery moon.

Obadiah nodded. “That’s the one.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I could make this a lot worse.”

“I don’t think it can get any worse!” Ernie exclaimed.

“Trust yourself, Max,” Strange maintained.

Max quickly scanned to the bottom of the page and spoke the words written there. All at once, there was
an explosion of light. A tangle of green cords snaked up through the page and spilled onto the floor. The cords began to swell and stretch, turning into twisting vines that slithered across the room.

“An excellent choice.” Obadiah nodded, as the
Codex
returned to a ring on Max’s finger.

“Vines?” Harley asked, as he jumped over a thick trunk that slithered across the floor.

“Volt Vines,” Strange corrected. “Extremely fast growing. They feed on energy.”

Soon the vines were as thick as saplings. Natalia sidestepped one of the tendrils as it raced for the door like a dog on the scent of a rabbit. Other vines followed, and then, in unison, they ripped the massive door from its hinges. Like the arms of a sea monster, they seized the closest Grimbot. The machine tried to break free, but the vines only wrapped tighter, crushing the armor plating as they drained the machine of its life. Electric charges crackled through the vegetation as it discarded the lifeless clockwork. Two more Grimbots went down before the others realized what was happening.

“While the Volt Vines keep our friends busy—,” Logan began as he sent a volley of blasts through the open hatchway, “we’re going through, straight back to the Bell. Everyone stay together and watch your feet,” he warned. The Griffins obeyed, following Logan as he leaped over the vines and through the door. More clockworks appeared but
were soon engaged with an enemy they hadn’t expected. The Griffins raced past them.

Unfortunately, as Obadiah tried to run past, a Grimbot caught him by the leg. Like a cat playing with a mouse, the machine flung Strange wall to wall, ceiling to floor, and it finally slammed him to the ground.

Natalia screamed.

“They’re killing him!” she cried.

Already, Obadiah Strange was stumbling to his knees and then to his feet, popping his neck back into place, and then his shoulder and left knee. He replaced his glasses before resuming his race. Natalia’s mouth hung open.

“He really
is
indestructible…”

Before the Grimbot could recapture Obadiah, Logan blew its head off with his pulse rifle. At the same time, a Volt Vine caught hold of the rest of the clockwork and began sucking it dry. The machine thrashed until it had no more life to give. The vines moved on, leaving only a dead husk behind.

Out of a nearby tunnel, more Grimbots appeared—ignoring the vines and pursuing the Griffins. They were moving too fast, and Max knew they wouldn’t have enough time to make it to the Bell. As he contemplated a final showdown, he heard a strange sound:
Sqwarkkkk!

Max spun to see several Volt Vines reach around the corner and fall upon two of his pursuers. The vines were growing faster than the Grimbots could run. After each
meal, they seemed to become more powerful, swelling to gigantic proportions.

With single-minded focus, the Grimbots continued their pursuit, heedless of their falling brothers. Logan continued his cover fire, but by now the Grimbots were beginning to adapt to his weapon. Soon, his pulse blasts were ricocheting off their armor.

“Seriously, Monti!” Logan shouted into his comlink. “What do I pay you for?”

“How was I to know they were programmed for regen and electrostatic field convergence?”
Monti complained.
“I’m an engineer, not a fortune-teller. Besides, you said this mission was a piece of cake!”

The Grimbots continued to gain, even as they neared their destination. Ernie was the only one who could have outrun the machines. He refused to leave his friends behind.

“We have a problem,” Strange called to Logan.

“You think?” Several more energy bolts smashed into the wall above Logan’s head.

“I’ve done the calculations in my head. At the rate the Volt Vines are growing, they’ll burst through the walls soon.”

“Burying us under a mile of water,” Logan growled. “We have to get to the Bell!”

“If I could get one of their transponders, I could reprogram the Grimbots—like I did at the library,” Harley offered, ducking under an incoming plasma blast.

“Wait!” Natalia shouted. “Harley, you’re brilliant.”
She signaled for the others to go on ahead while she took position at the intersection of three corridors.

“Are you crazy?” Harley shouted, as she said something to Monti through her comlink. “We have to get out of here!”

“Give me a second,” she cried, pushing him away. “This will work!”

“She’s right!” Logan shouted, grabbing Harley by the arm and pulling him toward the waiting Bell.

Pulling a device from her pack, Natalia flicked a toggle switch and secured it to the wall. She punched in a sequence of codes, as Monti read them off to her. Suddenly she was surrounded by three-dimensional copies of herself and the other three Griffins.

Harley watched in awe as the holograms ran to meet the oncoming Grimbots, screaming and waving their arm. At the last minute, they ducked down a corridor.

Harley held his breath in hope.

The Grimbots took the bait and disappeared down the hall. The Volt Vines followed after them.

The Griffins cheered as they raced aboard the Bell. Even as they did, they could see the glass walls of the underground facility begin to fracture. Pipes started to shake, and an ominous rumble ran through the facility.

“It’s gonna implode!” Logan shouted, as he hit the call button. The Bell rumbled to life and began to slowly climb. “Everybody take your seats. This is gonna be a bumpy ride!”

“Wait! Natalia’s still outside!” Max cried. She had tripped and fallen, and she was only just getting back to her feet. With a desperate cry, she sprang to her feet, her eyes locked on the rising Bell.

“She’s too far away!” Harley exclaimed. “We’re rising too fast!”

Logan pushed Harley away from the door and leaned out. “Natalia! Use your jump boots!”

Natalia nodded as she rushed along the fractured passage. Water was beginning to pool at her feet. She pushed a button on her glove and suddenly her jump boots fired up. Silvery fire blasted out from the bottom of her shoes and with a shout, she was launched into the air like a rocket. She hadn’t had time to gauge the distance, and Max watched in horror as she shot up the tunnel past the Bell. Then, with a dreadful sputter, the boots cut out and she fell.

At the last minute, Logan grabbed her around the waist and pulled her inside. With a
bang
, Strange sealed the door shut.

“We did it!” Harley laughed in relief. Then the Bell shuddered to a stop.

“The security system was activated,” Logan explained grimly. “We have to override it or we’ll drown.”

Monti’s comlink roared with static as his voice came through in pieces.
“…need to… bots… the Bell… be ready!”

“What?” Max yelled. There was a massive explosion down below, followed by the eerie sound of twisting
metal. Then he watched as a wave of icy water rolled up and over the viewing window.

“The Volt Vines have outgrown the facility,” Obadiah observed.

The Bell began to shudder against the intense water pressure. Then, just as Max was certain that they were going to be crushed like an egg in a vise, the Bell launched upward like a bullet in a barrel, pinning its occupants to the ground. There was another tremendous explosion and the lights went out. Something heavy smashed into Max’s head and he lost consciousness.

When Max opened his eyes, he was lying on the pier in Durban as seagulls flew overhead. At first he thought he could hear Iver’s voice, but it was just Obadiah Strange warning Ernie to get away from the water before he fell in.

Max looked up to see Monti’s airship hovering nearby. Connected to it by a towrope lay the battered Bell. The heroes had been plucked out of the facility by the
Graf
just in time.