The Ruins Of Kaldac

Chapter 10

Blade could understand the words but still didn't know exactly what was happening. However, the cries, the laser fire, and the falling masonry said clearly enough that the people up on the surface were facing new danger.

Ruthlessly using feet and elbows, Blade got out of the tangle. He scrambled up the tunnel, more screams and laser fire echoing around him as he climbed. The smell of burning flesh grew stronger. As he hurled himself out of the mouth of the tunnel, the laser fire stopped and the metallic thuds came again.

As Blade stood up, he saw most of the people who'd been in the room vanishing up the stairs to the second floor. One lay on the floor, writhing silently, too horribly burned to be able to scream. Two others crouched in a corner, a man and a woman with their arms around each other. A moment later Blade heard an appalling crash. Cracks appeared in the wall to the right of the door to the street. Crash, crash, crash! A section of wall twice as high as a man disintegrated and came down in a pile of fragments and a cloud of dust. Through the hole Blade caught a glimpse of something moving-then a laser burned a yardwide gap in the stairs. At the same time the breeze outside swept away the veil of dust. At last Blade had a good look at the Oltec «giant.» He threw himself on the floor behind the largest piece of rubble he could find, as another laser blast deepened the crater in the stairs.

The giant was a humanoid robot at least twelve feet tall. Its slab-sided rectangular body was mounted on two massive legs with armored knee and ankle joints. Two equally massive arms with armored elbows and hands with four jointed fingers were tearing chunks out of the wall. In the middle of the chest glowed the laser tube.

The head was a grotesque parody of a World War II German helmet, with eyes, a mouth, and ears. The «eyes» were obviously some sort of scanner, although one was cracked and dark. The «mouth» was the black tubular muzzle of what looked like another weapon. The «ears» were sound receptors or possibly radio receivers; one of them had a long antenna trailing from it. The whole robot was a silvery brown-once this might have been a finish designed to reflect laser beams. Now it seemed tarnished and worn from many years of neglect and many battles.

The two Kaldakans in the corner now sprang up and made a dash for the stairs. The woman hesitated on the lip of the smoking gap in the stairs, giving the robot an easy shot at her. A laser beam cut her in two before she could scream. Her torso and head dropped into the crater, while her legs rolled back down the stairs.

The man howled like a wild animal. He leaped the crater safely, then turned and fired at the robot. It was a wild shot, hitting the robot in one knee and doing no harm. The robot lifted in one hand a chunk of wall the size of a man's head and flung it with horrible precision. The Kaldakan fell backward into the crater, his chest a crushed red mess.

Blade frowned. The war robot was obviously a creation of the Sky Masters, and therefore centuries old. It was still formidable enough to wipe out the whole Kaldakan expedition if it wasn't led away and destroyed. That was a job Blade knew he'd have to face single-handed. Some of the Kaldakans were fast and quick-witted, but none of them had the understanding of modern technology needed to give them the right reactions. The Law had suppressed their curiosity for too long.

Blade mentally damned the Law and looked at the robot again. The hole in the wall was now large enough to let it come into the room, but it seemed to be hesitating. Perhaps it was programmed not to walk on floors which might be unable to support its weight. The thing must weigh two or three tons!

However, it wasn't going to stand there making up its mind forever. Blade crawled to the mouth of the tunnel and called down, hoping the robot's «hearing» was impaired with age. «Kareena! Keep everyone down there until someone tells you it's safe. There's an Oltec war machine up here that's gone mad with age. I've got to lead it away from here, then destroy it.» He hoped she would understand what she had to do from this brief explanation.

He heard Kareena's muffled voice agreeing, then heard her cursing. After that came the scrabbling and rattle of someone climbing rapidly up the tunnel. A moment later Saorm popped out, pale and sweating but carrying two laser rifles and a bulky leather sack over one shoulder.

«What-?» began Blade, but Saorm only handed him a rifle, pointed at the bag, and whispered:

«Fire jewels. For the Oltec.»

Blade nodded. Extra power cells for the rifles would be useful, although he doubted if rifle fire would be enough for the robot. It had to be armored against much heavier weapons.

However, there could still be uses for the rifles. Blade took a fresh power cell, loaded it into his rifle, then aimed it at a far corner of the room and let fly. The cracked and shaken wall started to shed more fragments and dust. The robot's head slowly turned, and its own laser stabbed into the same corner. The corner erupted in dusty and flying debris, then the wall collapsed completely and took part of the floor above with it. The roar of collapsing masonry completely drowned out Blade's and Saorm's footsteps as they sprinted across the room and up the stairs. The fog of dust filling the room was thick enough to hide them completely.

Once around the bend in the stairs, the merchant leaned against the wall to catch his breath. «Thank you, Saorm,» said Blade. «You've done well. Now stay here while I-«

Saorm shook his head. «I am not going to leave your back bare or your Oltec dead.»

«You are no warrior, Saorm. Forgive me for sounding like Hota, but-«

«I am the father of Geyrna, who has caught the eye of a warrior who is my chief's son. Peython will judge the father's worth as well as the daughter's, when it comes time to choose a wife for his son.»

«You have already-«

«I have not done enough, Blade. And can you truly say that having a comrade will make no difference in this battle against the war Oltec?»

Blade couldn't. He would rather have had Sidas or Kareena at his side, of course. But they were trapped in the storeroom-possibly trapped for good if he didn't draw the robot off fairly soon. If Saorm was this determined, there was no point in wasting precious time by arguing.

Besides Sidas knew Gilmarg much better than he did. That could turn out to be important.

«All right,» said Blade, not trying to conceal his irritation. «But if you get tired or are wounded, I'll have to leave you behind. I'll come back for you if I live, but I can't wait for you.»

«That is the way of war, Blade. Even a merchant knows that much.»

Blade mentally threw up his hands in resignation and led the way up the stairs to where the other Kaldakans were hiding. Since he saw none of the natural leaders up here, he spoke to all of them. He had to choose his words carefully, to tell them what to do without revealing so much knowledge of Oltec that anyone would become suspicious of him.

«This is a machine of the Sky Masters, made for war. It has gone mad with age, so it must be destroyed. I have more of the knowledge needed to do this than anyone of Kaldak. It does not matter that I am outside the Law, for this machine is also outside the Law.

«So I will take the machine away from here and find a way to destroy it. When it is gone, go down to the room below and bring up the people in the tunnel. Help them also bring up all the fire jewels everyone can carry. Then leave the city at once. Do not try to save the munfans. That will draw the robot on to you like a great-hawk on to a lamb. You must save yourselves first.»

Blade saw a few faces still blank with surprise or fear. Most seemed to understand what he was proposing and didn't resent taking advice from a man outside the Law as long as he was the only one with some idea of what to do. He turned to Saorm.

«All right. Let's go play bait.»

Blade and Saorm climbed down the vines from a rear window on the second floor. Then they hurried around to the front, to find the robot still standing there. It couldn't get into the building and its enemies wouldn't come out. So Blade and Saorm took cover half a block up the street, then opened fire with their rifles.

Instantly the robot turned its head, its body followed the head around with surprising speed, and the laser chewed a piece out of the wall above the two men. A fragment large enough to crush Blade's skull came close enough to part his hair. Before the robot could fire again, Blade and Saorm were running up the street. Both hoped it would follow. After a moment's hesitation, it did. In fact it came after them so fast that Blade looked back to find it gaining on them rapidly. They were both zigzagging, but in another minute it would be too close for safety.

«To the right!» Saorm followed Blade's gesture and darted down a side-street with the Englishman at his heels. The robot saw them turning but fired too late. A section of the corner building two stories high crashed down and spread itself across the street in smoking rubble. More of the building was tottering. Blade stopped in the shelter of a doorway, hoping to see the robot come close enough to be caught by the next fall of masonry.

Instead it gave the building a wide berth. When the collapse did come the robot was already well out of danger and advancing on Blade. As it marched out of the cloud of dust and smoke, its laser fired again. A chunk of pavement flew up like a soccer ball, crashed into the front of a building just ahead of Blade, and brought down several large pieces of metal facing. Blade and Saorm barely jumped aside in time, and Blade was now painfully aware that two could play this game of dropping buildings on the enemy. He decided to keep to the main streets as much as possible and use the side streets only for cover. The robot could turn so well that there was no reason to try leading it around sharp corners and hope it would fall or crash into a building.

Blade and Saorm headed west as fast as they could, nearly getting lost several times but usually drawing the robot after them. Twice it seemed to lose track of them, and once Blade saw it turn back toward the east. Assuming it was turning back toward the Kaldakans, he opened fire, was nearly killed by the robot's laser, but at least got its attention again.

Blade wondered why the laser was fixed in the robot's chest rather than mounted in the swiveling head. He could only guess that the black muzzle in the head was some sort of close-range weapon, perhaps a grenade launcher. He hoped it was empty. A few grenades could have finished the Kaldakans, and one lucky shot could do the job on him and Saorm. On the other hand, lasers worked only on line-of-sight. You couldn't fire them in a curve over anything or through anything too solid.

Of course this worked both ways. Blade and Saorm had to expose themselves to fire at the robot. They were smaller targets, but they were much more vulnerable. There didn't seem to be any part of the robot they could hurt with the rifles, at least before the robot could bring its own heavier weapon to bear. Blade quickly knew that he and Saorm were going to have to win by skill rather than by strength.

Several times Blade tried to lead the robot across the bridges over Gilmarg's numerous canals, hoping its weight would collapse a bridge under it. Each time the robot stopped at the head of the bridge. Each time Blade had to recross the canal before he could get the robot moving again. He hoped the Kaldakans were on their way out of the city by now, but he couldn't be sure. At least he hadn't heard any laser fire from the east, so the robot was probably operating alone.

Blade did notice that when the robot turned its head, its feet sometimes kept going for several more steps in the old direction. This happened often enough to make Blade wonder if the robot's computer «brain» was slightly defective. After all these years it very well might be, and this could give him and Saorm an opening. There should be places where the banks of the canals which criss-crossed Gilmarg were so overgrown with foliage that they were hidden. If they led the robot straight toward one of those places, then suddenly drew its attention to one side, the robot's legs would continue to take it forward a few more steps, and then…

They were far enough ahead of the robot now so that Blade could lead Saorm into a doorway and force him to sit down for a minute. The merchant was gasping for breath.

«I'll need you for our next trick,» said Blade. «But if that doesn't work, I want you to give up this chase.»

«My honor-my daughter-I'm just a bit short-of-breath.»

«You'll drop dead if you go on much longer,» said Blade sharply. «I'd rather bring you home to Geyrna than tell her how gallantly you died! Now, is there a place where the canal bank is so overgrown that the robot might not see it until too late?»

There was, and Saorm led Blade toward it as quickly as the robot would let them go. They could never forget the searing green death licking at their heels, and Blade was beginning to worry. Saorm really did look ready to fall over, and he himself wasn't going to be able to play hide and seek with this mechanical monster forever. Human flesh could not compete with steel and electricity in an endurance contest.

Then they were out on the bank high above the canal and trotting rapidly along the street toward the park where Saorm had said there would be a good place to set their trap. As the robot turned onto the street half a mile behind them, Blade saw something peculiar about the pavement ahead. For fifty yards the pavement slabs of the street were tilted slightly toward the canal. Blade looked across the canal. There were actually two streets, an upper and a lower roadway one above the other, supported by the steel columns. He then looked over the railing along the street on his side of the canal. It was the same on this side. Those shaky pavement blocks ahead hid a fifteen-foot drop to the roadway below.

That should be enough, and suddenly Blade had a different plan. The trap in the park forgotten for the moment, Blade quickly gave Saorm his instructions, conscious of the robot tramping steadily toward them. The merchant staggered off toward the next bridge, his eyes so glazed with fatigue Blade wondered if he could even see the robot, let alone hit it. Well, with luck he wouldn't need to hit it to draw its attention.

Then the robot was within range and Blade began his dance of death with it. He darted back and forth across the street high above the canal, never stopping even to fire his rifle, always watching the robot, always seeing it tramp steadily forward, firing every few yards. He began to fear it would step on one of the loose slabs and spring the trap prematurely.

Now the robot needed only about ten more steps before it reached the loose slabs. «Fire,» Blade whispered to Saorm. «Fire!» He wanted to scream, but his throat felt as if someone was firing a miniature laser inside it. His chest felt as tight as if the robot was already gripping him in one hand.

«Fire!»

Green light speared out from a window on the far side of the canal. The robot's head swiveled to scan the direction of the new attack, while its feet took the last few steps onto the first of the loose blocks.

For a moment Blade couldn't be sure his trick had worked. Then several tons of robot made the slab give up its long struggle against the force of gravity. Instead of tilting toward the canal, the slab tilted toward the buildings inland. It tilted so slowly that for another moment Blade thought the robot might have time to step backward. The robot stopped, sensed that something was wrong, and lifted a foot for a backward step. Then the slab cracked completely in two, and the robot vanished as if it had fallen through a trapdoor.

Blade was running toward the hole before the echoes of the robot's fall died. He approached the hole from the rear to avoid the laser but quickly saw he needn't have bothered. The robot's chest was crushed against a steel column, and the laser was sizzling and sputtering like all the frying pans in the world put together. Acrid gas poured up past Blade, and sparks and bits of molten metal dripped down into the water from the lower roadway. Blade sighted in on the robot's neck and fired his rifle. He kept firing until the rifle was too hot to hold. He let it cool off, then started firing again until the power cell was completely dead. By then half the robot's neck was black and distorted, and clouds of foul-smelling smoke told Blade of burned-out circuitry. By the time Saorm staggered up with the other rifle, Blade was sure the robot was helpless if not permanently wrecked.

He clapped the merchant on the back. «Saorm, I don't know what the Law says, or what the Law says I can say. But I say here and now-this day you've been a warrior and a friend. Let no one say a word against Geyrna's father in my presence.»

«Thank you, Blade. I-«Suddenly he went down on hands and knees, started shaking all over, then vomited into the hole. Blade let him alone. Tougher men than Saorm could have got the shakes after this weird battle. As long as he'd waited until after the fight, it was all right.

Finally Saorm rose, wiped his mouth, and looked down at the robot. «So we've won.»

«We've won today's battle,» said Blade. «But I suspect it was only the first battle in what could be a very long war.»

«The Law spare us that!» exclaimed Saorm.

Blade shook his head. «I do not think the Law will make much difference one way or another. In fact, I would say that today saw the end of Kaldak of the Law.»