Chapter 13

Fighting Time

‘GARRGGHH!’

Rake let out a snarl of frustration. He gave the thick bundle of cables that spewed from the ducting an angry slap.

‘Anything I can do?’ asked Snow from below.

Rake swung his legs over the ducting and dropped to the floor beside her.

‘It’s driving me nuts! I’m ninety-nine per cent certain I’ve found the wiring for the right shield zone,’ he said. ‘The one that Hoax and Oddball are expecting us to shut down. But I can’t figure out a way to do it temporarily.’

He checked the dial of the tiny, super-accurate clockwork timer in his suit’s forearm guard.

‘And we’re running out of time – fast!’

He looked back up at the cables dangling above him. He traced their ducting back to where it joined a large barrel-shaped power cell on the far side of the room.

‘Maybe we should just take the direct approach and knock out the main cells permanently.’

‘Master Salt insisted that we shouldn’t leave traces,’ said Snow. ‘I guess that was why he’d put Tea-Leaf in our team. She’s the one with the real knack for this sort of thing – hacking systems invisibly.’

‘Yeah, I know,’ said Rake, a little irritably. He didn’t need reminding that his quarrel with Tea-Leaf now looked like jeopardizing the success of the mission.

‘What if we tried to short-circuit the—’

‘LOOK OUT!’

Snow gave Rake a sudden two-handed shove in the chest. As he staggered back, a bolt of red energy fizzed narrowly past him.

A pair of White Knights were patrolling the field generator’s unmanned areas. They had stumbled on the young Armouron. As the first android prepared to fire another shot, the other reached for its throat, to activate its comlink and report to control.

Rake and Snow moved like lightning. Rake’s shortsword was out of its scabbard and slicing down onto the first android’s blaster arm in the blink of an eye. Arm and blaster tumbled to the floor.

Snow whipped out her T-shaped tonfa fighting stick. She delivered a ferocious jab to the other Knight’s neck, crushing its communicator. A second fierce blow left a deep split in the android’s armoured visor.

But the robots were fast too. The one fighting Rake managed to grab the cadet’s sword arm with its remaining hand. It gave it a violent twist. Now it was Rake’s weapon that clattered to the floor.

Snow’s opponent smashed a metal fist into her breastplate, sending her sprawling across the floor. She struggled back into a sitting position in time to see the White Knight draw its blaster and take aim at Rake, who was still grappling with the other android.

In a desperate bid to save her friend, Snow aimed her tonfa and pressed its release catch. A length of rope shot out from the stick’s end. It wrapped itself round the White Knight’s blaster arm. Snow gave the rope a sharp tug. The android’s arm jerked to the side, sending its shot off target. The red energy bolt struck its partner. The robot slumped forward – trapping Rake beneath its lifeless body.

The second android raised its left hand. A thin blade flicked out from its edge. The White Knight sliced through Snow’s rope, then strode to where she was hurriedly getting back to her feet. It lashed out at her tonfa arm with a fierce kick. There was a sickening crack. Snow screamed – and fell back on the ground.

The White Knight turned its attention back to Rake. He was still struggling to get out from under the heavy robotic body pinning him down. There was nothing he could do as the second android strode to stand over him and took careful aim at his head with its blaster.

There was a fssssh-thunk and a ten-centimetre-long metal bolt suddenly appeared in the split in the White Knight’s visor. The android went down like a sack of potatoes, with sparks crackling from its head.

Rake craned his neck to see where the life-saving shot had come from.

Tea-Leaf was standing in the doorway. She was holding her crossbow.

She hurried to where Rake lay, crouched down and helped roll the slumped Knight off him.

‘You OK?’

‘Yeah, I think so,’ said Rake. He sat up slowly. ‘Thanks.’

There was a low moan from the other side of the room. Snow was sitting up, nursing her right arm. Her face was pale and clammy. Tea-Leaf and Rake hurried to check on her.

‘I think that kick dislocated my elbow,’ she murmured. ‘My armour contracted around it and it popped back.’ She gave a brave smile. ‘It’s not too bad now. If I set my suit to keep it immobilized, I’ll be OK.’

The others helped her to her feet. Rake looked at the two wrecked androids and the damage caused by their brief fight. He gave an ironic chuckle.

‘So much for us not leaving any evidence behind!’

‘Kettle patrols check in with control at regular intervals,’ said Tea-Leaf. ‘We’ve got maybe ten minutes before they send backup, if we’re lucky.’

Rake checked his timer again.

‘And even less than that before Oddball and Hoax are expecting the field to be deactivated.’

He suddenly became all action.

‘Let’s face it, we’ve blown the softly-softly approach. There’s no reason now why we shouldn’t just cut the main power feeds and take out the whole field.’

He reached for his sword. But Tea-Leaf grabbed his arm.

‘No!’ she urged. ‘You mustn’t! It’s booby-trapped! If you cut the power, the field will implode – the entire dome will collapse inward. There’s enough energy in it to frazzle everything and everyone inside it!’

‘How could you know that?’ said Rake, puzzled.

Tea-Leaf looked sheepish. ‘I hacked into the network in the West One Keep. I was trying to shut off the field zone from there. That’s when I found out that the system is designed to be tamper-proof.’

Rake looked crestfallen. His shoulders slumped.

‘We’ve failed, then.’

‘I didn’t say that,’ said Tea-Leaf. There was a steely look in her eyes. ‘I couldn’t override the field generator controls from the Keep. But I’m pretty certain I can shut down the zone from here in the generator itself.’

Rake held her determined gaze for a moment. He gave a firm nod.

‘OK. Do it. Snow and I will watch your back.’

He gave Tea-Leaf a leg-up onto the ducting above. As she hurriedly unfurled her roll-up keypad once more and wrapped its hack-patch around the cable bundle, Rake managed a nervous smile.

‘You’ve got just over seven minutes, so no pressure . . .’