too close for the artillery, and the machine guns were strangely
ineffective.
Some of the figures went down to energy beams or mines, but many more did
not. They swarmed over the smoking ruins of his defenses and began to
disappear down the tunnels.
Frantically, Craig ordered all his remaining robots to the lower levels to
try to stem the attackers.
And then it was all too much. Craig turned and bolted from his war room,
leaving the defenses entirely on automatic. He just couldn’t face any more
fighting and losing.
Mikey! Mikey was working on something. Maybe Panda, the master hacker,
could pull this out of the fire for them yet.
Mikey was sitting on a bench cradling something in his lap. As Craig came
closer he saw it looked a lot like the figure that had been growing on the
computer screen.
“We’ve got trouble, man.”
“No we don’t,” Mikey said softly. “We’ve won.”
“Goddamn it, they’re all over the fucking castle!”
Mikey looked up at him and smiled. For the first time Craig saw the mad,
red glint in his eyes. “It doesn’t matter,” he said almost gently. “It’s
all working according to plan.
“I was wrong about you, Craig,” he went on in the same gentle,
hair-raising tone. “You and your robots were important. You were a
wonderful diversion. The robots got them to grab the computer. All we had
to do was bring them here. Now we’ll crush them. We’ll just fucking
annihilate them.”
He caressed the black sphere in his lap. “We own the world. We own both
worlds. And we’re going to prove it.”
Craig drew back in horror.
“You’re fucking crazy!”
“No man, I’m sane. Crazy is letting these fucking maggots walk all over
you.”
He reached out and patted Craig’s forearm in a way that made Craig’s flesh
creep.
“You did good, you know. You kept them so goddamn busy chasing around
after your toys they never had a chance to focus on the serious stuff.” He
caressed the thing in his lap.
“They couldn’t get at it. Did you know that? For all their power they
couldn’t make what they needed without us. They needed the computer. And
they needed us.”
Craig stared in horrified fascination.
“You see what that means, don’t you?” Mikey was talking to himself now,
looking down at the black thing in his lap, crooning to it. “It means
they’re not all-powerful. We can do things they can’t and that means we’re
more powerful than they are.
“When I get done I’m gonna be master of all I survey.” He chuckled and his
eyes glinted even redder, like live coals. “I’m gonna rule the whole
goddamn world.”
Craig backed away from his former friend and then turned and ran.
There were problems, Glandurg admitted, even with an infallible magic
direction finder.
It was undoubtedly pointing at the Sparrow, but it didn’t show the way to
go to get to him. That was a problem when you were in a maze of ductwork
that ran only in straight lines and right angles. A half-dozen times now
they had followed the arrow directly only to be balked by a dead end.
Glandurg suspected the Sparrow was moving around also. But so far they
hadn’t gotten close enough to be sure.
They didn’t want to leave the vents. The roars, screams, explosions and
gunfire echoing through the vents-not to mention the smell of burnt
flesh-made it clear there was a battle going on out there.
“He is over this way,” Glandurg told his weary followers. “Forward.”
“We can’t go that way,” Thorfin protested.
“And why not?”
“Because it’s a blind tunnel, that’s why.”
“He’s right you know,” Snorri put in. “We’ve been there twice already.”
“I’m the leader and I say we bloody go this way!”
“You may be the leader, but you’ve got the sense of direction of a blind
pig,” Thorfin said without heat.
” ‘S’truth,” young Gimli added. “Remember the sewage tunnel back home.”
Glandurg reddened and puffed up like a toad. Then he got control of
himself and exhaled slowly.
“Very well,” he bit out. “For this job I will appoint a scout. Snorri, you
go first to find the way. But I’m still the leader, mind!”