Armageddon, page 11
part #5 of Liars Series
‘Remember,’ Plowman said. ‘You have to be facing the robot for the glasses to fool it. Don’t turn your back on it.’
‘Will it not be suspicious when it sees two Vipers?’ Anya asked.
‘I’m hoping it’s not that smart.’
Hoping, Anya thought. Great.
‘I will go first,’ she said.
‘What? Why?’
‘I am useless in here. You are not. If the robot zaps me, close the door before it gets you. You can help Jarli using your drones, or your money.’
Plowman nodded slowly. ‘OK. Good luck.’
Anya turned back to the door, trying not to feel disappointed. She realised she had been hoping he might object. No, Anya, you’re just a kid. I’ll go first.
She touched the glasses on her nose, checking that they were properly in place. They still didn’t feel like much protection. Then she opened the door.
It was hard not to scream. The robot was right in front of her, poised to attack. It levelled its mouth-spike, ready to spray her with anaesthetic—
But it didn’t fire.
Anya edged forwards. The robot stepped backwards, then forwards, then back again, like it was trying to dance with her. The gleaming eyes were fixed on her face. It thought she was Viper.
She breathed out, slowly. ‘It is not attacking,’ she said, trying not to move her lips too much. She didn’t quite understand how Jarli’s trick had worked, and didn’t want to disrupt it.
Anya circled slowly around the robot, keeping her head turned towards it. It scuttled around to face her, until it saw Plowman in the doorway, then it swung back towards him.
Two Vipers, Anya thought. Would the robot realise it had been tricked?
Then she realised there was a problem. The doorway was too dark, and Plowman was taller than her. His body was visible, but his face was drenched in shadow. Anya couldn’t see his glasses. The robot probably couldn’t see them either.
‘Step forward!’ she told Plowman. ‘Into the light!’
As if it had heard her, the robot trotted towards Plowman, blocking the doorway. He couldn’t step out.
‘Shut the door!’ Anya yelled.
The handle was on the same side as Plowman’s broken arm. He tried to reach across his body with the other and grab the door. Too late. The robot sprayed his face with anaesthetic. Plowman screamed, clutching at his eyes. The robot stepped forward, stopping the door from closing. It raised a claw and zapped him with its stun gun.
Plowman crumpled to the ground.
‘No!’ Anya cried.
The robot swivelled to face her. Anya backed away, forcing herself to keep looking at the robot. Every instinct told her to turn and run.
After a few seconds, the robot lost interest in her. It turned, stepped over Plowman’s body and scuttled inside, out of sight. The door swung closed behind it.
SHHH . . .
Jarli ran.
His breaths were ragged and his legs ached. His eyes burned from sweat and exhaustion. The rain made his clothes heavy. But he didn’t dare slow down. Only forty-five minutes until Viper’s deadline, and he had a lot of ground to cover.
After Kirstie had given him the flight number, he’d checked Viper’s map. He and Bess calculated that at exactly noon, if the plane didn’t change its flight path, it would be passing over Kelton.
Specifically, the cliffs above the lake.
It was perfect for Viper’s launch. ISOLATED. Close to Eaton’s office at the school, and one of the highest points in Kelton.
It was also where Cobra had nearly killed Jarli, a year ago. Where all this had begun—and where it would all end, one way or the other.
Apparently Dana Reynolds had shamed the defence minister out of dropping the bomb. That had bought some time. But it made Jarli the only one left who could stop Viper.
Jarli reached the edge of his school oval, jumped over the fence and landed in front of the trees. He looked around. No sign of Viper—she was probably already up on the clifftop.
He had brought three things from Viper’s surgery.
A battery-powered bone saw, hopefully loud enough to distract Viper and lure her away from the botulism canister.
A toxic waste disposal bag he could wrap the canister in.
An air filtration mask, which might protect him from the toxin if he failed. Maybe. Probably not.
Jarli suddenly saw a figure sprinting across the oval towards him. Anya.
Jarli took off his mask and left it dangling around his neck. ‘What are you doing here?’ he asked, as Anya jumped over the fence like an Olympic hurdler.
‘Bess told me you would be here,’ she puffed.
‘You were supposed to get out of town. With Plowman and your Dad.’
Anya hesitated. ‘Plowman is unconscious in the alley next to the prison,’ she said finally. ‘The robot got him, and I couldn’t carry him here.’
Jarli felt a stab of guilt. His glasses trick hadn’t worked. Because of him, Plowman was still trapped.
Anya continued, ‘My father . . . he drowned when the tunnel flooded.’
Jarli gaped. ‘What?!’
She wouldn’t meet his gaze. ‘So, I thought you could use some backup.’
Jarli flashed back to the tunnel. The dark, the cold, the roaring water. He had come so close to drowning himself. It was impossible not to imagine what Scanner’s last moments had been like.
‘I’m so sorry, Anya.’ Jarli touched her arm, but Anya shook his hand off.
‘There is not much time,’ she said. ‘What is the plan?’
Jarli cleared his throat. ‘I think Viper is at the top of that hill. She’ll want to launch the canister right before the minister’s plane flies over at twelve. I’m going to switch this on and leave it somewhere.’ He held up the bone saw. ‘Then, while she’s distracted by the noise, I’ll try to get past her, grab the canister and wrap it in these bags so the toxin is sealed in.’
‘Let me take the saw,’ Anya said. ‘We can split up. I’ll switch on the saw when you are in position on the other side of her. Then you can sneak up behind her to get the canister.’
Jarli nodded. That did sound better. ‘OK. Use this button here to turn on the saw.’
‘Even if we stop her from releasing the botulism, she may still shoot us in the back as we run away.’
‘She might,’ Jarli agreed. ‘Do you have a better idea?’
He genuinely hoped she would say yes. But Anya thought about it and shook her head. ‘No. Let’s do this.’
They crept up the hill, weaving through the trees. The canopy kept the rain off them, but it still trickled down the trunks, turning the dirt to mud, which sucked hungrily at Jarli’s shoes.
Anya grabbed his shoulder.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘Shhh.’
Jarli looked around. He couldn’t see anything except trees and wet mist.
‘Sorry,’ Anya said finally. ‘I thought I heard something.’
‘Might have been Viper,’ Jarli whispered. ‘I think we’re close.’
He turned to keep walking—
And then something snapped closed around his ankle.
OLDER THAN HIS FACE
Jarli screamed as a loop of steel wire yanked his feet out from under him. He dropped the waste bags as he slammed into the mud. The wire dragged him sideways and pulled him up into the air.
Within seconds he was dangling upside-down from his ankle, two or three metres above the ground. The trees swayed dizzyingly around him. His phone fell out of his pocket and landed in the mud. His ankle was in agony.
‘Anya!’ he cried.
She was directly below him, eyes wide. ‘A trap!’
‘You think?! Get me out of this!’
‘Viper must have set it up, in case someone figured out where she was planning to launch from. So she could—’
‘Give me the saw! So I can cut myself free!’ It was designed to cut bone. Jarli hoped it would be strong enough to slice through the steel cable.
Anya raised the saw, but she was too short. Jarli couldn’t reach it. She tossed the saw into the air and Jarli grabbed for it, but he missed. He’d never tried to catch something upside down before. Anya somehow caught the falling saw without losing any fingers.
Jarli reached for it. ‘Try again.’
Anya stopped talking, scanning the forest around her. Jarli couldn’t see what she was looking at, and because he was spinning slowly in the air, soon he couldn’t see her either. All the blood had rushed to his head.
By the time he’d done a full circle, Anya was gone. So was the saw. Jarli’s phone lay alone in the mud.
‘Anya?’ Jarli hissed. ‘Anya!’
The only sound was the rain against the canopy.
The loop was cutting into Jarli’s ankle. He tried to do a sit up, but he couldn’t reach it. The other end of the rope was threaded through a pulley which dangled from a branch about a metre above his feet. The tree trunk looked barely thick enough to support his weight, but he couldn’t reach it.
As he slowly spun, helpless, he realised someone was standing between the trees nearby. It was his father.
‘Dad!’ Jarli yelled. ‘Help me!’
A grin spread across Dad’s face. ‘Oh my,’ he said. ‘Isn’t this convenient?’
Not Dad, Jarli realised. Cobra.
‘Do have any idea how much trouble you’ve caused me?’ Cobra circled Jarli slowly, looking up at him. Jarli was spinning, so Cobra crossed his field of view over and over, his voice seeming to come from all around. Cobra was taller than Anya. He could reach Jarli if he wanted.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Jarli said, frantically racking his brain for a plan. ‘If you cut me down, I can help you.’
His phone beeped from the mud below. LIE
Cobra laughed—a short, sharp bark. ‘It was so hard to avoid getting caught out by that damned app. But I usually managed it, unlike you. To be honest, you’re less truthful than I am.’ He grinned broadly, showing long, yellow teeth. His gums were receding—a reminder that he was older than his face.
‘How did you find me?’ Jarli asked, stalling for time.
‘I called Viper. I confessed that I’d lost you. I expected him to be angry. I thought he might even kill me. But he just laughed.’
Jarli realised that Cobra didn’t know who Viper was. Eaton had carefully hidden her true identity even from those who worked for her. Jarli knew something that Cobra didn’t—but he wasn’t sure how to turn that to his advantage.
‘Apparently, Viper messed around in your brain a little bit.’ Cobra reached behind his back and pulled out a machete. ‘And while he was in there, he implanted something. A poison capsule, just like I have. But it also functions as a tracker. He told me exactly where you were.’
Jarli’s skin crawled. Viper already knew he was here. And she could kill him with the push of a button.
Cobra reached up and grabbed Jarli by the hair. Jarli yelped. Cobra’s eyes were focused on Jarli’s forehead, like he could see through the bone to the brain beneath.
‘I wonder what Viper needed you to forget?’ Cobra mused.
Jarli already knew. Plowman had told him who Viper was, and Viper had erased the information.
‘Just tell me what you want,’ Jarli said.
Cobra released him, and Jarli swung back. He felt like he was going to VOMIT. His swollen foot had gone numb.
‘Me?’ Cobra said. ‘I want you dead. I’d cut your throat right now. But Viper doesn’t want that. “No unnecessary casualties”, he told me.’
Jarli thought back to Eaton’s face. Cold. Merciless. But apparently not a psychopath. Not like Cobra.
‘So you and me are gonna take a quick road trip,’ Cobra said. ‘I parked your dad’s new car down at the school. We’ll seal up the windows and doors, then drive out of town while Viper is dispersing the toxin. But I don’t want you to escape again.’ He wiped some rainwater off the giant blade with his T-shirt.
‘You’re cutting me down,’ Jarli said hopefully. ‘Right?’
Cobra’s grin widened. ‘Something like that.’ He grabbed Jarli’s hair and pulled downwards, bending the tree branch and bringing Jarli’s ankle within reach. Jarli screamed as Cobra raised the machete—
And then a whining, buzzing sound filled the air. The bone saw.
Cobra let go of Jarli and whirled around. The branch sprang back into place, bouncing Jarli sickeningly upwards.
‘Who’s there?’ Cobra demanded. ‘Show yourself!’
There was no answer from the forest. But Jarli knew who it must be. Anya, distracting Cobra so Jarli could get away.
Again, Jarli tried to fold himself in half so he could grab the loop. Again, he couldn’t reach.
Then the tree lurched. Suddenly Jarli realised what Anya was doing—cutting through the trunk with the saw.
‘What the—’ Cobra began.
The tree fell. Jarli covered his head with his arms as the ground rushed up to meet him. He hit the mud and rolled sideways just in time to avoid the trunk, which crashed down after him.
‘Run, Jarli!’ Anya yelled. Now he could see her, on the other side of the fallen tree. ‘Get to Viper! Stop her!’
Cobra snarled and swung the machete at Anya. She side-stepped. It whipped through the air, hitting nothing.
Jarli was already frantically tugging at the loop around his ankle. Without his weight pulling on it, he was able to loosen the cable. It finally came off, leaving an angry red line around his ankle.
He snatched a glance back at Anya. She was keeping Cobra busy, dancing around him like a pro boxer.
Jarli wanted to help her. But she was right. If he didn’t stop Viper, they would both be dead soon.
‘Go!’ she shouted.
Jarli snatched up the toxic waste bags and ran, up the hill towards the falls.
KNIFE TO A FIST FIGHT
Roaring like a lion, Cobra stabbed at Anya’s chest with the machete.
Anya stepped aside just in time. The blade swung past, slicing the sleeve of her top.
As she dodged, she aimed a punch just under Cobra’s ribs. It connected, but the angle was wrong. He barely reacted. It was like punching a rhino.
‘Give up,’ she told him. She knew he wouldn’t—but she wanted him to be angry. Angry people made mistakes.
Teeth clenched, Cobra raised the machete above Anya’s head and brought it down quickly, like a lightning strike. Anya jumped backwards. The point of the blade whipped past the tip of her nose, missing her by centimetres.
‘Old man,’ she said. ‘You have already lost.’
This wasn’t true. He had brought a knife to a fist fight. It was Anya who would lose. But she could buy Jarli some time. Give him a chance to save the town.
‘Die!’ Cobra bellowed, and slashed sideways at her neck.
Anya ducked. The machete skimmed the top of her hair and then thunked into the tree beside her head.
Cobra yanked on the handle, trying to wrench the blade free. But it was wedged in deep. He would be defenceless for two or three seconds.
Make them count, Anya told herself.
She raised her leg and kicked Cobra three times. First in the knee, then the arm, then the face, all with the same foot—bam, bam, bam!
He stumbled backwards, but the machete came with him, popping out of the tree trunk with a crack. Blood poured from his broken nose.
He raised the MACHETE.
Anya was exhausted. There was no way she could win this. She was going to die. Like her sister. Like her father. Like all those others left in Viper’s terrible wake.
But she had to stall Cobra as long as possible. For Jarli. For Kelton.
Her fists felt so heavy. She raised them anyway.
‘Do you surrender yet?’ she asked.
Cobra spat some blood on the ground and charged, holding the weapon up like an Olympic torch.
Anya braced herself, ready to feint one way and then dodge the other—
Then Cobra tripped over nothing. His legs just collapsed beneath him.
The machete tumbled out of his hand, and he flopped into the mud.
Anya hovered, uncertain whether to attack or to run away.
Cobra tried to get up. But it looked like his arms and legs wouldn’t obey.
‘No,’ he gasped. He was starting to dribble. ‘You can’t!’
His right hand shook, and Anya saw a faint orange glow under the skin.
‘Why?’ Cobra moaned.
Footsteps were thumping through the bush somewhere. Someone else was coming. Anya didn’t take her eyes off Cobra. Eventually he stopped twitching and lay still, his face frozen in an agonised grimace.
Former Constable Blanco ran into the clearing. She took in the fallen tree, the machete, the phone in the mud and Cobra’s body. Then she looked at Anya. ‘What happened?’
Anya wasn’t sure if Blanco could be trusted. ‘What are you doing here?’
Blanco spoke quickly. ‘Dana Reynolds called me. We’ve been working together to expose Viper. Where is she?’
Jarli’s phone didn’t beep, so Anya took a chance. ‘She’s at the top of the hill, we think,’ she said. ‘Jarli went after her. We have to move quickly—but watch out for traps.’
THREADING THE RIGHT CELLS TOGETHER
Jarli sprinted up the hill, dodging trees and rocks as he raced towards the falls. Without Anya, and without the bone saw, he had no way to distract Viper. He didn’t even have his phone to call for backup.
He would just have to hope. Hope he could sneak past Viper. Hope he could get the botulism canister before she loaded it onto the rocket. Wrap it in the waste bags, run, and hope she wouldn’t catch him.
Soon the trees thinned. Black clouds blocked out the sun. Rain slashed sideways across the cliffs. The lake below had turned into a deadly whirlpool. The water must still be draining into the tunnels underneath.
The rocket was right at the edge of the cliff. It was almost as tall as Jarli himself, with fat boosters at the bottom and a sleek point at the top. The botulism canister was already fixed to it with taut nylon straps. Ready to fill the air with death, killing the defence minister, and anyone left in Kelton.
