The Gravity Engine (8 page)

‘I see.’ Michael turned back to the engine and leaned on the railing. ‘Will you
build it for them?’

‘Until they release you I don’t think I have a choice,’
Semias said, his voice low. He straightened and became more brisk. ‘Now, we have to find a way to very accurately measure the components while they’re moving, because it is important that they all be made in exactly the same ratio.’

‘Ratio? What about the size of the whole machine? Isn’t that important?’

‘Oh, the size of the whole engine is completely vital. The smaller it is, the more gravity it negates. An engine a foot to a side will send a large chunk of the planet shooting out into space and bouncing away from every gravity well it encounters.’

Michael leaned on the rail and considered for a moment.

‘Yes,’ Semias said.

Michael turned to him. ‘What?’

‘Yes. We’ll tell them that they can make it small and portable, then ensure that you and the women are safe when they turn it on. The demon leader will be gone forever, and me with him.’

Michael turned back to the machine. ‘I’d prefer not to sacrifice you,
Semias. You’ve cared for my family and been honourable in your assistance.’

‘As long as the city stands, I exist,’
Semias said. ‘I don’t breathe or eat.’ He raised his head and spoke contemplatively. ‘I wouldn’t mind going out and visiting the stars, seeing if there’s any intelligences out there like me. Once the demons are destroyed I can turn the machine on and off to control where I go.’ He turned to Michael and smiled. ‘It would be an interesting experience. So.’ He banged the rail with his palm. ‘Let’s build the blueprint and see where this little adventure takes us.’

It was very late when they returned to the mansion. Michael checked for the women and they hadn’t returned; he was alone. He went into the room he’d commandeered and washed, then put on some of the soft cotton boxers from the chest of drawers and fell onto the bed. He pulled the covers over him, and their lavender scent soothed him. He was asleep before he knew it.

He woke and sat up. The windows were bright and it felt like he’d slept a long time. He turned
and saw someone kneeling on the floor next to the bed. It was one of the demons; a young female, but different to the one he’d spoken to before.

‘Get out,’ he said.

‘I have a message for you,’ she said. She bowed low over her knees. ‘Please do not destroy me, Highness, I only bear a message.’

‘Who from?’

‘The Number One Son of the Demon King.’

‘Wait outside for me for a moment. I need to dress,’ he said.

‘I will sit
here and not look, Highness.’

‘I need to use the
bathroom as well!’ he said, exasperated. ‘Wait outside.’

‘The bathroom
?’ She looked around, then her eyes widened. ‘Oh, I most sincerely apologise. I will wait.’ She climbed to her feet, bowed to him, and crept out.

He opened the door when he was done and she was standing next to it. He checked around; nobody else present except for the demons in the kitchen. He gestured for her to enter.

She came into the centre of the room and knelt again. ‘Royal Highness.’

‘What’s the message?’

She stiffened as if she’d been struck, then relaxed and her whole body language changed. She became graceful and confident as she pulled herself to her feet, then sauntered to the arm chair at the side of the room and lounged in it. She waved one hand. ‘Good to see you again, Prince Michael. Please, take a seat, let’s talk.’

Michael sat on the bed and waited.

‘The King’s selling us out to them,’ the female demon said. ‘He’s promised the horde that he’ll take the Earthly back and we’ll walk in the sun again. He’s promised that when he’s taken the Earthly he’ll march on the Heavens themselves.’ She leaned forward and put her elbows on her knees. ‘But even if he succeeds, it will be with the help of the European Demon King, and the debt will need to be paid in the end, and the debt will mean the enslavement of us all.’ She leaned back. ‘I can’t let that happen. I’d rather we stayed in Hell than became the thralls of the European King. We need to stop him. We can help each other. What is he asking you to do, and why are you helping him?’

‘He has my mother and my fiancée,’ Michael said.

‘Are you sure they’re not copies? Your mother died when she took the Elixir of Immortality. And I’m pretty sure your fiancée was experimented on and tortured until the Dark Lord rescued her.’

Michael looked down at his hands and didn’t reply.

‘You won’t risk the chance that they’re real?’ the demon said.

Michael shook his head.

‘I understand. Well, I don’t really understand, your Celestial minds are beyond me, but I’m willing to work around it. Why is the King holding you? Are you a hostage against your father?’

‘He needs my abilities with metal.’

‘Oh,’ the demon said, a drawn-out sound of understanding. ‘The gravity engine.’

Semias
appeared at the end of the bed. ‘Who is this?’

‘This is the Number One Son of the Demon King,’ Michael said. ‘He’s possessing this
servant to speak to me.’

‘Do your demons work the way ours do?
’ Semias said. ‘Is he plotting against his father to take the throne?’

‘Always,’ the demon said.

‘I see,’ Semias said. ‘Can we speak freely here? I’m sure the Demon King has spies listening to us.’

‘As long as I’m here they can’t hear anything,’ the demon said. ‘Talk to
me.’

A chair appeared and
Semias sat in it. ‘So what’s in it for us?’

‘I don’t want him to succeed, he’s working with the European demons
—’ the demon began.

‘I know all this, I heard everything you said,’
Semias said. ‘I’ll ask the question again. What’s in it for us?’

‘If I can free the women and return them to your care, what will you do?’ the demon said.

‘I’d leave immediately but I can’t teleport out,’ Michael said.

‘I can open a gateway for you,’
Semias said.

‘
Then I’ll leave,’ Michael said. ‘Take them and go.’

‘Promise?’

‘My word.’

‘All right.’ The demon rose. ‘Let me see if I can find them, and we can stop this before it starts.’ The demon’s face went slack, and then filled with comprehension. She bowed low to Michael. ‘Highness. Please permit me to return to the kitchen.’

Michael waved her away. ‘Go.’

She bowed again and went out.

‘Have something to eat and we’ll return to the engine,’ Semias said.

Five days later, Michael and Semias returned to the mansion with the rolled-up plans. Michael went into the dining room and opened the kitchen door to speak to the demons.

‘Tell the King we’re finished.’

The demons, who had frozen when they saw him, nodded. He went back into the dining room, tossed the plans onto the table and sat. He put his head in his hands and waited.

‘It’ll be fine, lad,’
Semias said. ‘He’ll give you your family back.’

Michael nodded into his hands without replying.

Two hours later the noise of the Demon King’s helicopter woke him and he raised his head from the table. He waited quietly as the King approached and entered the mansion. When the King came into the dining room, Michael pushed the plans towards him.

‘My side of the bargain. Now let my mother and fiancée go.’

The King rolled the blueprints open and studied them. He glanced up at Michael and Semias. ‘What the fuck is this? This is a bunch of oddly shaped pieces that won’t fit together into any sort of cube.’

‘It’s the best we could do considering the four-dimensional nature of the mechanism,’ Michael said. ‘If you build th
ese pieces, Semias can put it together.’

‘What are these cogs made of? What metal?’

‘A very specific brass alloy, which will be almost impossible to smelt …’ Michael’s voice petered out, and he put his head in his hands again. He was too exhausted to think straight.

‘Oh, Michael,’
Semias said with compassion.

The King looked down at the plans, studying them, then back up at Michael. He pushed the paper at
him. ‘You have metal abilities. Make it for us.’

Michael slammed his hands on the table. ‘You said you’d let us go!’

‘You just said yourself that you’re the only one who can make it.’

‘Bring the women back.’

‘When it’s built and working, I won’t just bring them back, I’ll drop all three of you in the most expensive suite in the Beijing Four Seasons.’

Michael didn’t have the energy to fight him. ‘I need a
hundred kilos of copper, forty-five kilos of zinc, and ten kilos each of iron and tin.’

‘That’s not enough
metal to make the huge machine down there.’

‘Size doesn’t matter,’ Michael said. ‘Smaller will be easier to make.’

The King looked sharply from Michael to Semias. ‘If size doesn’t matter then why is the one down there so fucking huge?’

‘How do you know how big it is?’ Michael said.

‘Fibre optic cameras on the end of a drill,’ the King said.

‘What’s that?’
Semias said.

‘
It means that they can stick a pole into the earth and see what’s at the end. They know how big it is.’

‘So why is that one so big and this one so small?’ the King said, tapping the plans with his finger.

‘Aesthetics,’ Semias said.

The King’s mouth fell open. ‘What?’

‘Bigger is more inspiring.’

‘That makes no sense at all. You wasted resources to make it
pretty
?’

‘Making
things pretty is the
whole point
,’ Semias said.

The King hesitated, glaring at him, then said, ‘I suppose it is.’
He straightened. ‘You tigers can change one metal to another. What if I gave you a hundred kilos of scrap?’

‘It will double the time I
take to synthesise the machine,’ Michael said.

‘I can wait.’ The King hesitated. ‘
Hold on, how long to make it?’

‘With the right raw materials,
three days. With scrap, double it.’

‘You can’t do it that quickly, lad,’
Semias said.

‘If it means getting my family out of here
, I’ll work day and night on it,’ Michael said.

‘All right.
’ The King nodded. ‘Well done. I’ll have the metal for you within forty-eight hours.’

‘I want to see my family.’

‘As soon as this is made, Prince Michael, they are yours.’

‘Let me speak to them
before I start to build anything.’

‘I
’ll see what I can do,’ the King said. ‘Rest and eat while I gather the materials for you. Believe me, I would let you go now, but I want this to work and you’re the best way of ensuring it. Humour me and build it.’

‘I just want Rhonda and Clarissa free and unharmed,’ Michael said.

‘Then we both want the same thing. I’ll be back with the metal.’ He turned and left.

Semias
sat at the table across from Michael. ‘Any word?’

Michael shook his head.

‘Do as the King said. You’ve been working yourself into the ground. I think you’ve had about two hours’ sleep every night. Rest and eat until he brings you the metal.’

Michael rubbed his
gritty eyes. ‘I just want to go home with my family.’

‘We’ll get you there, lad. It will happen.’

Michael didn’t reply. He should have been on the way home with the women he loved, but he wasn’t surprised at having to stay and build the damn thing.

Three days later he was going nearly mad with inactivity, even though he and Semias were evenly matched at chess, when the helicopter thundered overhead. He went to the entry and waited, watching with his Inner Eye as the demons unloaded a crate full of the metal that he required. He wished his Eye could do more damage as the King approached and opened the door.

‘
Do you mind? That’s extremely uncomfortable,’ the King said as he came in.

Michael closed his Inner Eye.

‘Thank you,’ the King said. ‘I have the metal, and it’s the right elements as well. You said three days?’

‘I want to speak t
o my family first. Let me talk to my mother and fiancée and I’ll get right to work.’

‘I thought you might say that,’ the King said. He gestured with his head towards the living room. ‘In here.’

Michael followed the King into the room and watched, standing, as the King pulled a tablet computer out of his laptop bag and flipped it up onto its stand. He placed it on a side table and indicated for Michael to join him.