Carmody and the Electric Dragon
Chapter 24

St Helens Private Hospital, 7th District, Pan City

Friday November 2nd 2046

Carmody and Angelina were chatting in their hospital beds when Eric knocked politely on the half open door, a plastic bag of snacks in his hands. The Brackenridge Head Maid, Monique Shaw, had left her seat and was already standing alertly beside the doorway, a long black metal object visible behind her back.

“Hi, it’s just me” the boy announced and glanced nervously at the maid for a good few seconds before she nodded her assent and returned to the seat close by the doorway. She unobtrusively slipped her pistol into a holster under her coat and went back to reading a book she had dropped on the floor. Eric stepped into the room and deposited the bag of junk food onto a table that lay between the two girl’s beds.

“This is certainly a fancy hospital” Eric declared, looking at the plush decorations and expensive linens and blankets on the beds. “It’s more like a five star hotel room than a hospital ward”

“The Brackenridge family only use the best” Angelina said with a smug smile. “And there was no way my best friend could be in a public hospital after saving me once again”

“It was a team effort” Carmody refuted her with a smile of her own. “I am just glad all of our team made it out alive” The girl paused for a moment and she frowned. “Except for that brave pilot. I never did find out his name”

“He was MV-25-CB-Zero-One” Eric told her. “When his VTOL went down he was killed instantly”

“Ah” sighed Carmody. “How are the others going from the Post? I heard from Lilly and Achmed they took some wounds in the Workshop battle”

“They will all recover shortly and are actually back on duty right now. Francis will be returning to duty by next Monday. The clones all heal very fast with the right treatment”

Carmody regarded Eric solemnly and asked the question no one had been willing to answer since she had awoken yesterday.

“What about Fiona? Can they regrow her arm, or transplant a cybernetic one? No-one will tell me what is happening with her. They did get her out of the reservoir, right?”

“The Guard Unit F-Zero-Three was recovered from the scene” Eric admitted, speaking like he was referring to a lost piece of equipment. “Her assessment has been completed and she is deemed unsuitable for repairs”

Carmody felt her insides go cold. Then the freezing cold was transformed as she realised that Fiona was not being treated like the hero she was. Blazing fire leapt up from her belly and flowed to her clenched fists.

With a single blow from her hand the wooden bedside table exploded into fragments, sending cups, water jug and the plastic bag Eric had brought flying in all directions.

“No! I won’t allow this! I want to go see her!” Carmody screamed out loud. She threw off the bed covers and stood there in her pajamas, seething with fury. Eric cowed back from her, his hands raised defensively.

“It’s not a decision I can change!” Eric said to her, as calm as ever. “It is a ruling made by the Guard Command and approved by Archimedes. Only he could overrule this now”

“I suggest you talk to your brother, Jericho-Two, right away” Angelina observed from her own bed, picking some pieces of the table off her lap and dropping them on the floor. “Before my friend destroys this entire hospital”

Thus it was a bare hour later that a pair of armed Guards wheeled in Fiona, seated in a wheelchair. There was no sign of Jericho-Two and Eric stayed out in the corridor, a worried look on his face.

The clone woman was pale, her naturally darker skin tone washed out and sick looking. Her entire right arm was missing, up to the shoulder, and beneath the dark blue coverall she wore a mass of bandages could be seen.

“Good morning, Mjss Carmody and Miss Angelina” Fiona said tiredly. “I am glad to see you are both recovering well from your ordeal”

Carmody had shuffled forward nervously as soon as the woman had been wheeled in. At those words her face collapsed into tears and she flung herself against Fiona’s left side, trying to avoid touching the right shoulder. Her arms wrapped awkwardly around the woman as she buried her face into the crook of her neck.

Fiona seemed surprised, then she slowly wrapped her left arm around the girl, encircling her in a powerful hug.

“It will be Okay” she whispered to Carmody. “I am just a clone soldier. They will send a replacement to the Post as soon as one is available”

The girl sniffled deeply, her words muffled as she spoke into the warm depths of the woman’s neck.

“What about you, Fiona? They say you won’t be fixed up, so how will you do your job?”

Fiona’s hand gripped tightly to Carmody’s pajamas and she stared helplessly into the eyes of Angelina, still seated in her hospital bed.

“I have been deemed unsuitable for repairs” she stated flatly. “I am too old a model to be worth the cost of repairs, so I have been scheduled for Early Retirement”

“What does that mean?” Carmody asked her, pulling her head back to gaze at the clone’s face. “Will you go to some Old Guards Retirement Home and take up gardening or something? Can I come and visit you there?”

Fiona refused to meet her eyes, looking steadfastly anywhere else in the room.

“You won’t be able to visit me, Miss Carmody” she said and her voice faltered.

“Why?” the girl demanded.

“Because when they send the clones to the Retirement Centre, they never come out” Angelina spoke out. “My mother told me about it the other day. Apparently it is a big secret for most of the people in Pan City, but the clones all know the truth”

Carmody gripped the woman’s face with her left hand and made her look her in the eyes.

“Is this true, Fiona? If you go to this Retirement Centre, you will never come back?”

“Yes” she admitted and a single, human tear fell from her left eye. “The parts of me that can be salvaged will be recycled into a new Guard clone. What remains will be discarded. That is how it has always been for my brothers and sisters”

“I won’t let you go!” Carmody shouted, her anger rising once more. “I refuse to let them do this to you!”

“You are in no position to tell me how to run my City, Miss Brentwood” said one of the two Guards who had escorted Fiona. Eric rushed into the room and stared in horror at the Guard who had spoken.

“Carmody, be careful, Archimedes has taken direct control of the Guard” he warned her, looking at the clone soldier as if he were the Devil himself.

“No need to be melodramatic, Thirteen” said the voice of Archimedes through the Jack. “I have been monitoring this matter for some time and I decided to take an active role” He addressed himself to Carmody, who had risen to stand between the clone and Fiona as if to shield her.

“The Guard Unit F-Zero-Three is into her final year of Deployment, Miss Brentwood” Archimedes said coldly. “Your interactions with her and the other Units at the Post have made them deviate substantially from the behavioural standards that are permitted. Even if she had not been drastically damaged, she would have been deemed Defective and sent for Early Retirement in any case”

“What about if I pay for the repairs?” Carmody said in a determined voice. “If I cover all of the costs, will you allow her to return to service?”

The Jack regarded her impassively with its organic and artificial eyes.

“There is no benefit to my allowing this” Archimedes stated. “Unit F-Zero-Three would be sent for Retirement regardless. She is Defective and cannot resume duties in the Guard”

“Then sell her to me!” Carmody declared. “If she is just a piece of equipment to you, let me buy her from you! Name your price!”

The Guard soldier tilted its head, eyes boring into her as if trying to look inside her skull.

“One Million Pan City Dollars” Archimedes said after a few seconds of thought.

Carmody collapsed against the wheelchair, her face a mask of shock and despair.

“A Million Pandas?” she whispered. Her parents earned a bare fifty thousand a year between the both of them. Carmody could never get that kind of money together!

“Deal!” agreed Angelina smugly from her bed. “That will include full repairs to Fiona of course as part of the purchase price”

“Agreed, Miss Brackenridge” Archimedes replied. “In that case, my role here is completed. I will have Unit F-Zero-Three sent to the Central Barracks for repairs and deactivation of the Quantum Network. She will be returned to you in five days so please have the funds ready at that time”

“What, you don’t need a deposit for the sale?” Angelina asked mischievously.

“Of course not, Miss Brackenridge” Archimedes spoke for the last time before leaving the Guard’s mind. “I trust you to honour your agreements”

=====

“Wow, you have a nice view from here!” Nata exclaimed as soon as she entered the hospital room. The late afternoon sun was glinting off the soaring Tower of Babel and the various shrines and temples that surrounded it in the 7th District, painting the glass windows with gold.

“Nata! I am so glad to see you!” Carmody shouted in delight and jumped off Angelina’s bed to wrap the young woman in a hug. Angelina looked with interest at the latest arrival, one of a half dozen in the past two days. So far only her father had come to visit Angelina in the hospital, though she had to admit the visits from Lilly, Sarah and Achmed were to see both girls, not just Carmody.

“Nata, I would like you to meet one of my best friends, Angelina” Carmody announced, dragging the older one to shake hands with the younger. “Angelina, this is Sister Impassionata. This is the one I was talking about that I met in the tunnels”

“The fighting Nun?” Angelina asked. “I am glad to meet you in person after all the stuff Carmody has been telling me. Although I am sure I saw someone like you at the Festival, fighting Sentinels with a blue sword as I recall”

“No, that would have been very irresponsible of me to do that without orders” Nata answered with a wide smile. “That would be as crazy as the heiress to the Brackenridge fortune fending off attack drones with cargo bots”

The two regarded each other for a moment then Angelina burst into laughter, her severe features lighting up with youthful beauty when she did so. She patted the side of her bed and Nata and Carmody sat so all three were close together.

“So tell me, Nata, what were you doing at the Festival?” Carmody demanded. “Eric won’t tell me anything but Lilly and Achmed told me you also helped them fight in the Workshop”

Nata looked around conspiratorially and leaned in close.

“Okay” she whispered, “This is only for you two and that really scary woman in the corner giving me the evil eye”

“Hmm?” said Angelina. “Oh, that’s just our Head Maid. She won’t tell anyone what she sees or hears”

“Really? I’ll take your word on that. Well, I had been a bit worried about those drones and robots in the tunnel. Someone was definitely putting an army together down there and I remembered something the Bishop had told me about a creature from the Dark Side. One that had attacked your school before and I thought maybe it was trying again”

“So, I found out through some contacts that Eric Hargreaves was in charge of the special Project team at the school. We got to talking, just him and me, keeping our superiors out of the loop”

“Why” Carmody asked. “If there were dangerous things going on, shouldn’t your boss try and deal with it?”

“Yes, in theory, but there are a lot of politics involved in this city. My Order can’t just go after people based on our own decisions, not without a Judgement being passed on the culprit. Those have to be decided by the Board of Governors and cleared by the Bishop”

“So you came and helped me, helped all of us, on your own” Carmody realised. “Was that the same for Suki and Dog?”

“Yes, although Dog just likes an excuse to hit things” Nata confirmed. “All three of us were kind of there without permission. I got in big trouble with my superior, but that was mostly because the Emissary, that Santo Green guy, got away”

“I heard they had Guard patrols out everywhere, above and below the City, looking for him” Carmody said. “He must have an excellent knowledge of the tunnel network though, to still be hiding after two days.

“I am sure someone will find him soon” Angelina said confidently. “Then all our worries will be over”

=====

Tunnel Network, Outer Walls, Pan City

Saturday November 3rd 2046

If he went any further, he would be outside the walls of Pan City. Above him at ground level lay the ten meter wide and twenty meter high walls that completely surrounded the vast metropolis. Automated gun turrets, sensors and foot patrols prevented anyone from passing through that massive barrier without the right passes.

Deep below the wall however it was a different story. All sorts of tunnels ran beneath the towering walls, carrying power and water and waste backwards and forwards. There were security locks, barriers and the odd patrol, but anyone with years of experience below the streets knew how to get past all of those.

Santo Green had that knowledge, earned from over a decade of shoving his arm deep inside the blocked pipes of the surface dwellers. Now it was his passport to freedom. Once he escaped the city, he could start again in one of the surrounding cities like Haven or Spitfield.

Then he could return at the head of a new army and take his revenge on the Dracoris and all their human allies! He smiled a chilling little smile to himself as he crouched in the darkness. Just a few more steps and he would be safe from the pursuit here in Pan City.

With eager steps Santo ran forwards to the next lighted section, pausing to verify the direction he needed to travel. A sound caught his ears, a faint sound close by, like a foot shifting on the rough floor of the tunnel.

“Hello?” he called out, silently drawing a long bladed knife from his tool belt. There was no reply, yet he had a vague feeling of unease, like something was watching him from the darkness. The Emissary inside of the host scoffed at such a feeling. He was a creature of the darkness himself, the giver of nightmares, a bringer of terror. There was nothing born of this world that could scare a servant of the Abyss.

“Whoever is there, you don’t scare me” he laughed nervously and lifted the blade to let it gleam in the light. “Why don’t you show yourself to me?”

“As you wish” replied the perfect English tones of Giles Hammerton as he stepped into the glow of the single overhead bulb. “And you should ask ‘whomever’ not ‘whoever’ if you wish to use correct grammar”

Santo looked the tall man up and down, noting the dark mottled suit he wore but seeing no obvious weapons, not even a knife.

“You are pretty brave, coming down into the darkness without any weapons” smirked Santo Green. “I am going to enjoy drinking your blood and eating your soul!”

“That is exactly what I was thinking” said Hammerton and let the Emissary catch a glimpse, just for a second, of what he really was. A second is about the longest he had found any being could withstand the sight of his true form.

The Emissary was rooted to the spot in utter terror, his knife dropping with a clatter to the concrete floor. He so desperately wanted to run and hide, yet his body refused to obey his commands.

“You threatened the life of someone very special to me” Hammerton said, taking a step closer. “You hurt her and caused harm to those she cares about. That cannot be forgiven” Another step closer, and the two were almost touching, the solitary light bulb in its wire cage directly over their heads.

“I swear I will never go near those children again” Santo blubbered and felt the warm wetness trickle down his legs as he peed himself.

“I know you won’t” breathed Hammerton and the light blinked out.

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