The Scarecrow of OZ (13 page)

Her words had an unexpected effect on him. She had finally voiced the plight of the hybrids, and she was right. It was time they took charge of their own destiny and stopped letting the humans push them around, or force them to live behind barriers and walls, just to feel safe.

He stood up straighter and looked the Southern Marshal squarely in the eye. “What do you need from me?”

A smile spread across her lips. “You’ve just given it. If I can convince you, together we can convince the Council.”

He felt good about this new plan of action. Maybe it was time for him to take his rightful place as leader of the hybrids. The Council had done what they could to hide them and protect them. Now that there was a direct threat to their very existence, hiding was no longer an option. And it looked like it was up to him to lead his people through the dawn of a new era.

The Southern Marshal clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go tell those old geezers…”

An explosion echoed in the distance moments before the ground rumbled under their feet. Dust filtered down from the newly formed cracks in the ceiling. The Southern Marshal ran over to a speaker mounted on the wall and pushed down on the button next to it. “Report!”

A voice crackled through the speaker. “The castle is under attack, ma’am.”

“Establish a defense perimeter. Nobody gets into the castle. Is that understood?”

“Yes ma’am!”

She released the button on the speaker and gripped Caleb’s shoulders with a huge smile on her face. “This couldn’t have come at a better time. You get out there, stop whoever’s attacking the castle, and prove to the Council of Elders that you are the one.”

Caleb tried to swallow, but his mouth had dried up. His silence told the Southern Marshal more than he ever could with words. She patted his shoulder reassuringly.

“It would’ve been nice to properly train you on how to use the suit, rather than force you to learn it as you go. Don’t worry, the Tin Man will help you.”

As if on cue, the Tin Man bounded down the hallway, if bounded was the right word for the massive metallic beast that moved swiftly toward them, moving much faster than his squat and bulbous shape should allow.

Explosions continued to bellow and shake the ground under their feet. The Southern Marshal jabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “Get out there before they reduce my castle to rubble.”

The Tin Man pointed his machine gun at the far wall and fired a single shot. The wall exploded outward from the solitary round. Caleb gawked at the Tin Man, whose metallic voice echoed in the small hallway.

“I have three types of rounds for my gun. One of them explodes on impact. I’m afraid you only have standard ammunition for your suit gun.”

Caleb looked down at his suit. He didn’t see any gun mounted on the underside of either arm. The forearm pieces of his suit were a bit bulky along the inside of his arms, but no gun anywhere.

“My suit gun?”

“Make a fist with your right hand and crook your index finger out slightly.”

Caleb balled his hand into a fist and then poked his index finger out slightly. A gun barrel snapped out from the armor along the top of his hand and a trigger sprang out to rest against his index finger. The gun was integrated into the suit of armor. He opened his hand and everything receded back into the suit. He rolled his left hand into a fist and a double-edged sword, as long as his forearm, sprang out along the top of his hand. He opened his hand, and it retracted just as quickly.

This suit was more than just defensive protection. It was combat ready.

The Southern Marshal slapped a hand on his back. He heard it rather than felt it.

“You learn quickly, Caleb. Now get out there and show those bastards that the hybrids are no longer going to roll over and take it.”

The Tin Man was the first through the hole in the wall. Caleb followed him through the castle wall and out into the blinding sun.

All around him, portions of the castle were on fire, columns of black and gray smoke billowing into the clear blue sky.

The Tin Man was scanning the skies. “I don’t see the airship.”

Caleb looked up and saw only blue sky and columns of dark smoke.

“It’s camouflaged. If we get somewhere high, we can look for the shadow it casts on the ground.”

“Excellent idea. Follow me.”

The Tin Man half-crouched and raised his arms in the air. Plumes of flame shot out from his back and he vaulted into the air and onto the roof of the nearest building. He used the height of that building to jump again to the roof of the next tallest tower. And then he was out of sight.

The Tin Man made it look so easy. But Caleb remembered what happened inside the room. He had never felt so out of control in his life. The first time hadn’t given him a chance to get a feel for the suit, other than the feeling of sheer panic. Now he was expected to repel an attacking force with it?

An explosion directly above blew chunks of stone away from the top of a castle tower. He instinctively ducked while raising his arms to protect his head from the falling debris.

The jets activated on his unintentional command. He shot into the air and his stomach flipped upside down.

To the casual observer, he flew off into the air with a battle cry. But he was actually screaming in terror as the ground fell away.

He flailed his arms and legs, trying to stay upright, but it was not needed. As promised, the suit maintained a steady course as he descended to the rooftop of the nearest building. He settled onto the roof with no more effort than hopping down from the bottom rung of a ladder.

The Tin Man landed on a roof several buildings away and jumped again. Caleb looked in the direction the Tin Man was headed. There it was. The long airship-shaped shadow crawled across the rooftops just ahead of the Tin Man.

A puff of smoke erupted in the middle of the clear blue sky. The Tin Man angled sideways and narrowly avoided the cannonball fired at him. His jets pushed him higher until he crashed into a piece of the sky itself. He clung to the sky with a three-fingered claw and tore away a section with his other claw to reveal the airship.

Now that they had a target, cannons on the ground began firing, and hitting, the airship.

The Tin Man let go and dropped out of sight between two buildings.

Once the airship was targetable, it turned tail and fled out of range of the castle’s defenses.

The Tin Man landed on the roof next to him. “Excellent work, Caleb. They will think twice before trying that again”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“I will be glad to have you join our quest.”

Caleb just shook his head.

Caleb stood in the center of a large circular chamber next to the Tin Man and the Southern Marshal. The three of them faced the nine members of the Council of Elders. The Eldest sat at the center with four younger, but not by much, elders seated on either side of him. It was obvious he did not like hearing the words that were coming out of his own mouth.

“The votes have been cast and the Council has decided, on a vote of five to four I might add, to allow your little expedition to retrieve the Brahmastra. Now before you congratulate each other on your little victory here today, let me add that this is the first time the counsel has been divided on an issue of this magnitude. Since the window of time to succeed with such a far-fetched plan is so small, the Council has wisely decided to continue with plans to leave OZ and find a new home; beyond the reach of humans.”

The Southern Marshal leaned over and whispered to Caleb. “I bet I can guess which way the Eldest voted.”

The Eldest slammed his fist on the table and stood abruptly. “Do not make a mockery of me, or of the Council. The only reason we even voted on your scheme in the first place is because the stakes are so high. And, so help me, it pains me to admit that the future of all hybrids might actually rest squarely on your misguided shoulders.

“Look at yourselves. You, Madam Marshal. You’re just barely a hybrid. You could live comfortably among the humans unnoticed and unharmed. I applaud your strength of conviction when it comes to the plight of our people.

“But look who you selected as the heroes of your quest. A leader, who has spent so much time among humans, he refuses to take his place as the leader of our people. And a robot. Need I say more?”

The youngest elder was the first to reply. “No. You don’t.”

The Eldest turned on him. “Excuse me?”

“You made your statement when you voted. The last thing these brave souls need to hear is that we don’t believe in them, because we do.”

“Only half of us do.”

“No. I believe the vote revealed that more than half did.”

The Eldest laugh. “By one vote.”

“One vote was all it took. But do not berate those who would come to our defense because that one vote went against how you voted.”

The Eldest raised his voice. “You do not know how I voted. They are cast in secret.”

“Oh please. Your speech, given in front of the only ones willing to stand up to the humans, told me your vote. And since I was willing to speak out against your tirade, everyone knows how I voted. The rest of the votes can remain a secret.” He faced the three standing at the center of the room. “But I want you to know that you have my full support.”

The Eldest banged his gavel and stared distastefully at the three of them in the center of the room.

“This special meeting of the Council is adjourned. We will convene again in one week’s time. The location depends upon your actions. And, for the record, a house divided cannot stand. While you did not get my vote, you still get my support.”

One by one, the rest of the elders in the Council also replied, “And my support.”

The Southern Marshal spoke up. “Thank you, all of you. My team will depart immediately and, let me assure you, we will win.”

The Eldest’s shoulders dropped as he looked sadly at the three of them. “Let’s hope, for all our sakes, you are right.”

The Southern Marshal spun around and exited the chamber, Caleb and the Tin Man following right behind. As soon as they were outside the council chamber, she spoke quickly.

“We were lucky they decided to attack the castle like they did. It means they gave up their head start. We have an excellent chance of getting there twenty-four hours ahead of them, even if they push their airship to its top speed.”

The Tin Man’s modulated voice echoed in the long hallway. “I thought their airship was the fastest in the sky. How are we supposed to get there ahead of them?”

The Southern Marshal walked swiftly as she gave her cryptic reply. “The Southern Territories are not as cut off from the rest of OZ as I have led everyone to believe.”

She led them through several twists and turns deep under her castle and into a small room where a cylinder carriage waited on the platform at this end of another tunnel.

“The carriage will take you to a city on the other side of the wall that separates the Southern Territories from the rest of OZ.”

Caleb looked around at the empty room.

“I thought Dorothy and Toto were coming.”

“They have already gone ahead. A friend of Nero’s will meet you in the city and take you to them. Now go, quickly. I have cannons on the border that will do their best to slow down the airship, but I doubt we can stop it when we can barely see it. You have to maintain your lead if we have any hope of keeping the weapon out of human hands.”

Caleb and the Tin Man settled into the carriage. The Southern Marshal held on to the curved glass door and looked at both of them.

“Good luck.”

She lowered the curved glass door and twisted the lock. Her cloak flapped angrily from the sudden wind as the carriage pulled away from the platform and into the darkness of the tunnel.

The clock was ticking. And not just because of the humans who were racing to get to the weapon first. Even if the Southern Marshal destroyed the airship before it crossed over the wall, there was still the matter of the thousand-airship armada due to land in OZ in less than a week. And they still had to make their way through all of OZ to get to the Northern Territories, find Jasper, and then locate the hidden weapon.

Maybe if OZ had an army equipped with suits like his, or even a hundred more Tin Men, they could repel the invading force.

Instead, it was just the two of them. And he barely knew how to use his own suit.

The carriage rocketed through the pitch black underground tunnel. There was no difference between eyes open or eyes closed. It felt like they’d been traveling through the dark for half the day when a pinpoint of light appeared ahead. They were nearing the other end of the tunnel.

The circle of light expanded until they shot out the other end of the tunnel and quickly skidded to a stop at a platform.

Someone opened the door and several rifle barrels appear in the doorway of the carriage, accompanied by the unmistakable clicks of hammers being cocked.

A burly man, his scalp shaved bald and covered in tattoos, poked his head through the door and smiled a teeth-blackened grin.

“Well, whadaya know. Tell Ellis we got two more of ’em.”

The guns retreated back through the door of the carriage and the bald tattooed man’s voice called out to them.

“Come on out. And don’t try anything funny. I got twenty guns out here, and every one of them’s on a hair trigger.”

The Tin Man placed a claw on Caleb’s shoulder and spoke softly through the speaker. “I suggest we do as they ask until we can properly assess the situation. No sense showing them their guns cannot harm us until we know what’s going on.”

Caleb nodded and stepped out of the carriage and onto the platform. He quickly assessed there were at least twenty gun barrels pointed at him. Every one of them held by men with bulging muscles and shaved heads. Every arm, shoulder, neck and head in the room was covered in tattoos. The tattoos disappeared into the clothing, leading him to think they might even cover their entire body. It’s silly what people did to themselves when they didn’t have fur.