The Lodestone Trilogy (Limited Edition) (The Lodestone Series) (165 page)

“Smoke,” Shann blurted out. “If we could blind it somehow...”

“Ingenious, but it won’t work. HK sensors work on the infrared band. They can read heat signatures through smoke... ” He trailed off while the others waited patiently. “
Fire.
If we could create a sufficiently strong heat source, it might be enough to confuse or overload its targeting scanners.”

Shann reached into her pouch and extracted one of the silver spheres she had claimed from the fallen Keltar. “Will this do?”

“A Keltar lodestone gas grenade. Perfect. Where’d you... no, never mind. All right, you toss it; then I’ll jump in and disable the HK.”

“I’ve never actually used one of these things,” Shann confessed.

“I’ll do it.” Keris took the sphere from her.

“Okay, Alice in Wonderland, let her rip.”

“My name’s Keris.”

McCann shrugged. “Whatever.”

Keris gave the sphere a deft half-twist and lobbed it past the corner. It impacted the stone floor with a clack and rolled forward, emitting a whine which grew rapidly in pitch and volume. The corridor erupted in light and flame.

As the firestorm died, McCann sprang from cover, grabbed the tub-shaped machine, tore open a panel, and ripped something from its guts. The tiny red light went out, and the HK sank to the ground, settling to one side. The watcher stared at it dolefully, like a beloved pet witnessing the death of its master.

Shann and Keris emerged. Keris prepared to strike the watcher with her staff. “Don’t waste your time,” McCann advised. “They already know we’re here.”

“How many of these machines are there between here and the audience chamber?” Shann asked.

McCann scratched his head. “I dunno. How many more grenades do you have?”

“Two.”

“Then I guess the answer had better be ‘less than three’.”

Keris led the way through the next set of passages. On the way, Shann counted at least half a dozen bodies, one of which was clearly hu-man.

McCann’s face twisted with disgust. “The Captain’s gone crazy. We have to stop him.”

“Let’s keep moving,” Keris urged.

Up another level, and a second brooding HK awaited them. Keris set off the grenade and McCann disabled it before it could get off a shot.

Keris noticed Shann holding her side. “You’re hurt.”

“It’s nothing,” she dismissed. “How much farther to the audience chamber?”

“We’re here.”

Around the next bend, the passage opened up to reveal a heavy, iron-studded set of double doors.

Keris tested them. “They seem to be barred from the inside.”

“I have one more grenade,” Shann pointed out.

Keris shook her head. “Explosive power is insufficient. It wouldn’t put a dent in these doors.”

“Maybe we should knock?”

Keris gave her a look that made her immediately regret the suggestion.

“Wait here. I have an idea.” McCann disappeared back around the corner. He returned, his arms wrapped around the casing of the downed HK. He set it heavily on the floor. It looked a little like a metallic sand scarag.

“What are you doing with that?” Keris demanded.

The engineer was on his knees, fiddling with the machine’s components. “Turning up the heat... I hope...
there.
Stand back.”

The two Kelanni obeyed as McCann went through a series of final adjustments and then pulled something firmly. A finger of fire struck the doors dead centre, searing wood and scorching iron. It pressed relentlessly, pouring liquid flame into every crack, testing the doors’ resolve.

Finally, McCann shut it off. Keris stepped forward to inspect the soot-black circle, scarred and smoking. Without a word, she raised a boot and kicked the line where the doors met. She kicked again. And again. Wood creaked, then rent, then splintered. Iron groaned, then bowed, then screamed. Bonds shattered and the doors flew apart, laying the audience chamber bare.

Shann’s jaw dropped. The great hall was strewn with rubble: parts of chairs, tables, lampstands, tapestries, and lumps of stone, some on the floor, some floating in the air. It was as if a great cataclysm had engulfed the chamber and then become frozen in time. In one corner, a mixed group of soldiers and lackeys cowered, while others lay on the floor, unmoving. Off to one side stood a handcart containing a bronze globe—a smaller version of the devices they had encountered at the human weapons facility on Helice.

At the end of the hall were two more figures whom she recognised. One was the ugly, round-faced figure of the Prophet, Wang. Next to him stood a tall, fair-haired Kelanni.
Lyall.
Her heart leaped.
He was alive.

In front of them, perched on a platform, a large obsidian-coloured lodestone cannon was aimed directly at the burnt, contorted, smashed-open doors.

Wide-eyed and rooted to the spot, she watched as Lyall opened his mouth and yelled.

“Fire!”

<><><><><>

Chapter 51

“Not so fast, my friend. Let’s see what your compatriots have to say for themselves.” Wang’s voice was high as a bird’s cry and taut as copper wire.

Keris registered the shocked expression on Shann’s face and sympathised. She too was struggling to comprehend the evidence of her eyes and ears. Shann had staunchly maintained that Lyall was working secretly to bring down the Prophet. Had she been wrong? Was it possible that Lyall’s true purpose all along had been to lead them into a trap?

All she could think to do was to try to appeal to whatever shred of sanity the hu-man might have left. “Charles Wang. The keep is lost. Your own people have deserted you. Surrender now.”

Lyall was at the Prophet’s shoulder, leaning into his ear. “See? See, I told you. They will try to manipulate you—play for time. Destroy them. Destroy them now and we can take your shuttle; we can leave here and start your work again in another place where my people cannot interfere.”

Anger rose in Keris like a volcano and died back almost as quickly. Something wasn’t right. As an investigator, she was trained to analyse situations. Motivations. Lyall wanted more than anything to save Aune, his sister, but he must surely realise that the Prophet was on the verge of defeat. There was no reason for him to maintain this stance. It was almost as if... as if she was watching a part of some elaborate drama.

She decided to bide her time and see how it played out.

Shann surged forward, her face streaked with tears.
“Lyall, no!”

Keris placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we can come to some agreement.” The girl stared at her as if she had just said something blasphemous. Keris ignored her. “Let’s work together to end this, so that no more lives are lost.”

Wang threw his head back. His laugh was like an iron bar being dragged over a grating. “Are these the green-skinned losers you’ve teamed up with, Mac? They crack easily under pressure.”

The heavily built hu-man raised his head. “It’s over, Captain. Don’t you see that? We humans marched out into the stars like we owned everything—like everything was there for the taking. Caesar, Cortez, Custer—the lessons of our own history taught us that if you want something you go out and grab it, and you step on anything that gets in your way.

“But we are no longer ants, competing with one another in our own backyard. The universe is a big place. If we stick to our old ways, then sooner or later, it’s humanity that is going to get stepped on.

“Susan is gone, as have so many other people we cared about. Please, Captain. Let’s just put an end to this.”

Wang shook his head in mock sympathy. “You’re a fool, Mac, and you’re going to die a fool’s death. Power. That’s the only thing that counts. The creatures on this planet don’t know what they have. Ergo, they don’t deserve to have it. It’s all a game of survival. And you and your alien friends just lost.”

Smirking victory, he blew on a smouldering lintstock and touched the cannon’s breech with the glowing match.

The world exploded.

~

Keris pushed herself off the floor, shook the dust out of her hair, and discovered, to her great surprise, that she was still alive. Smoke drifted in stubborn swathes. Behind the smoke, something stirred.

Cautiously, she got to her feet. A quick self-examination revealed no obvious injuries. Behind her, the grey forms of her two companions were rubbing their eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief and peered forward. The cannon looked as if it had been blown apart. How... ?

Most of the floating objects had disappeared in the blast. She picked her way towards what was left of the platform. The Prophet Wang lay face up, eyes fixed and staring at the final moment of life. Shann hurried past her and knelt beside the prostrate figure of Lyall, cradling his head in her lap. His eyes still held a spark, but it was fading.

In the far corner the observers cowered, too terrified to move. “Go,” Keris shouted at them. “Get to the gates. Now.” They began to move towards the burned and broken doors like herded animals.

She scoured the hall for the lodestone device. The handcart lay on its side. The bronze globe had rolled a short distance, but it appeared to be intact. An orange light on its surface blinked rapidly. She had no idea what it meant. “McCann, can you disarm that thing?”

“I’m on it.” The hu-man strode over to the device and began to examine it intently, as if grateful for the distraction.

She turned back to Shann and Lyall. The girl was stroking his face. Hers was contorted with anguish. “We have to get him out of here.”

Keris pressed her lips together. It was a long way back to the gate, and the keep could fall at any moment.

Lyall’s mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

Shann leaned in closer. “What is it?”

“The... Prophet?” he breathed.

“He is no more,” Keris answered.

McCann rejoined them. “It’s done. I fused the intermix valve. The device will be inert until someone replaces it. Hopefully, no one will get the chance.”

“What happened?” Shann said in a strangled voice.

A faint smile played about Lyall’s lips. “I used Annata’s device... transformed the iron shot... into lodestone.”

Shann shook her head in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“Recall... your first lesson at the farmhouse, Shann. When you push lodestone, it... pushes back. And if you strike it with a... sufficiently powerful force...”

“Like a detonation in the cannon’s firing chamber,” McCann mused. “Negative matter—lodestone—possesses negative inertia. Instead of being propelled forward, the shot would be rammed back into the breech. The cannon would effectively become a bomb. Ingenious.”

“The... the slag.”

Shann brushed the hair from his face and forced a smile. “It’s all right. I figured it out. The keep is set to fall. The Keltar’s power will be broken once and for all.”

“We must leave,” Keris urged.

“Aune... ”

“What about her?” Shann soothed.

“Stairs... to the roof... one floor up... ”

Shann’s eyes widened. “She’s here?”

“Tell her... ” His breath rattled, fled, and was no more.

“Lyall.”
The girl held him close, as if trying to impart her life to him.

“He’s gone,” Keris said. Her words sounded like a knife dropped on stone. She moved a hand towards Shann’s shoulder, then withdrew it. She had nothing to offer, no way to assuage the girl’s agony. She did the only thing she could.

“Wait here. I will find Aune.”

She turned her back on inconsolable grief and headed for the stairs.

~

She located Aune on the next level in a private suite behind a locked door, a bird in a gilded cage. Following the faint but unmistakeable sound of weeping, she smashed her way in. A fair-haired girl in a blue dress screamed and ran for cover.