Miss atomos, p.7
Miss Atomos, page 7
She stopped talking and walked back to the door. Her bodyguard followed without looking at Soblen. As they went through the door Miss Atomos asked, “Do you have any other questions for us, doctor?”
Soblen pulled himself together. “I would like to know where we are.”
“Can you repeat that?” the bodyguard said.
“Can you repeat that?” Miss Atomos said.
Soblen clenched his teeth. He had spoken loudly enough and anyone with all his faculties could have understood his question. He guessed that the verbal transmission to the Great Brain was having problems. It was crazy to be conversing with an electronic machine by means of human beings.
“I would like to know where this shelter is located?” he pronounced, changing his question a little.
The usual delay was abnormally long. Soblen closed his eyes. He could not stand the dead eyes pondering him. Finally Miss Atomos spoke more slowly, “Doctor, you are under the Everglades at the moment, a few miles from Palm Beach.”
“When will I be taken to the island?”
“First thing tomorrow morning. We’ll leave here…” Another silence and then, “We know that you’re hoping to destroy us. Others before you have tried such a foolish thing. In fact, they believed that they could sacrifice their lives to save humanity. It was, after all, only a matter of blowing up an island full of strangers and that seemed easy enough to do. Now, men who were more capable than you gave up when they found their loved ones again in Atomos City. Doctor, you will react the same way because on the island you are going to see the dead.
Soblen sat up, livid. “What do you mean?” he asked in a trembling voice.
“Do you want a list of names, doctor? They are men and women whom we were supposed to have killed, but whose corpses were never found. Dead to their family and friends, but alive forever on our island. Here’s a list: Sam Forbes, Maggy Fairbanks, Gregory Maxwell, May Maxwell and their two sons Jack and Greg…”
“No!” Soblen screamed. “That’s impossible! You’re lying! Sam Forbes body was burned to a crisp in front of Beffort and Akamatsu.”
“Of course not,” Miss Atomos assured him in her monotone voice. “Sam Forbes was indestructible because he was already equipped with a motor-brain. He was totally engulfed by the flames and his mortal coil suffered, but we got it back right away. He was back on his feet 30 minutes after Beffort and Akamatsu left.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“It doesn’t matter, doctor. Tomorrow you can see Sam Forbes again and all the others whose names I just gave you. You’ll recognize many others whom you thought were dead but we saved. It’s like that with John Twain, the chief of police here in Palm Beach, strangled by mistake instead of Smith Beffort.”
“Twain was taken to the morgue,” Soblen shouted.
“He’s not there anymore, doctor. He was an intelligent man and his services will be greatly appreciated on the island. Do you need any more information?”
Soblen looked at her in horror. Of course she was nothing but a kind of human machine, but for an instant she symbolized everything Soblen wanted to destroy. Besides, he could not, as hard as he tried, admit to himself that Mie Azusa was completely ignorant of the diabolical role she was playing as Miss Atomos. Like Smith Beffort, he thought the young lady could not forget...
“Are you going back to the Hilton this morning?” he asked.
“We don’t understand,” the bodyguard said.
“We don’t understand,” Miss Atomos repeated.
Soblen clenched his jaw again. If he kept on, the Great Brain would learn that Miss Atomos was a traitor when she turned into Mie Azusa. Wasn’t it wiser to say nothing and keep this priceless ally? “You told me,” he said, “that we’re leaving for the island first thing tomorrow morning. Will the departure take place before the Great Brain takes a rest?”
It was a sneaky question, tending to admit to the electronic machine that he knew it was out of order every day between 9 and 10 a.m. Moreover, it was a test. If the machine answered in the affirmative, Soblen would conclude that it could be rational, but it could not be crafty.
“During our rest hour,” the Great Brain responded through Miss Atomos, “you will already be in our city so that you can get back in touch with your friends in a normal state. Then they will operate on you and you will become immortal. Now we will leave you. Do you need to eat?”
“No,” Soblen said. “What time is it?”
“Noon. But we fed you during the night and you can last until tomorrow without feeling hungry or thirsty. Nevertheless, if it happens, simply press the button on the door. It will buzz for your guard. Good day, doctor.”
The bodyguard pulled the thick door and it slammed shut. The locks creaked back into place and the room was silent again. Soblen was alone with a halo of blue light in his concrete prison. He felt like a guinea pig in a cage before the big experiment. And if he could not find a way to escape in the meantime, tomorrow he would be transformed into a robot just like Mie Azusa, Sam Forbes and all the others he believed had disappeared.
He walked around the room, hung from the air duct grill and tried to move it, but to no avail. That was how May Maxwell had managed to escape from her prison in Lake Whitney, but it was clear that this kind of miracle only happened once.
Discouraged, Soblen stretched out on the bed and thought about how, in 20 hours, the air in Florida would become unbreathable and there would be thousands more dead, among them Beffort, Akamatsu, Witter and Cadogan.
Chapter IX
The Boss looked at the dead city that stretched out before him and threw away his cigar, which was something he rarely did. The rolled tobacco burning in the dust became a symbol of his perplexity and anxiety. “For the first time,” he said, “we don’t know what we’re up against. The men in the state started drinking for no good reason and we have no idea how the women were strangled…”
Akamatsu interjected, “Everything has happened very fast since this morning, but Witter and I haven’t stopped working. We followed Miss Atomos into the Everglades where she lost us after abandoning her car on the banks of a huge pond. It proves that her hideout is somewhere in the swamp.”
“You should have followed her no matter what,” the Boss exploded.
Akamatsu did not move. “Finding that weird device running on solar energy stopped us,” he said calmly. He told him everything he knew, pointing out that the metal spheres should be easy to spot from the sky, and briefly repeated what he had already told Beffort a few minutes earlier.
Now the Boss got a sparkle back in his eyes. “I see what you’re saying, Yosho, but you can’t forget that you discovered only one device. Before mobilizing the U.S. Air Force for this work of destruction, we have to be certain that the state really is full of such devices.”
Cadogan jumped in, seething, “At this point I was under the impression that every second ticking off can only make things worse! The heat is still rising and Beffort’s practically useless. In a few hours we won’t be much better. And have you thought about the men and children who…”
“Enough!” the Boss cut him off. “I’d like to admit that the weather is making you testy, but at least do me the favor of recognizing that I’m not senile yet. I talked about evacuation. If we first save those who are still on their feet, it doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon the rest! Palm Beach is in southern Florida. Help will come, but a little later. Right now the north is in full evacuation. The army, navy and air force are taking the survivors to Georgia and Alabama. That’s why I want to be certain before making the planes do something else! We can’t change an ambulance into a flying fortress for no reason.” He wiped the sweat off his face and added, “I’m going to put Beffort on board right now and Witter, too. During the trip I’ll watch the ground and if I spy any spheres, the air force will be deployed immediately. I suppose you’re planning to go back to the Everglades?”
“Exactly,” Cadogan said. “We’re going to get a boat and inspect the swamp.”
The Boss grimaced. “Watch out,” he warned. “When the air force attacks, it won’t be good to be anywhere near a sphere. So, I’ll send a helicopter within the next hour. It’ll bring you some walkie-talkies and be ready and waiting for you on the ground. You’ll have to keep in contact with it during your expedition and that way it can stay in touch with my HQ in Saint George, Georgia. No stunts and no heroics. Understood?”
Akamatsu smiled, “Understood.”
The Boss turned around, climbed on board the plane where Witter had joined Beffort and gave a little wave before disappearing. The jet started up its engines and made a long, slow turn to face the runway. Two minutes later it took off.
Cadogan buried his hands in his pockets and clucked. “There you go!” he said as if a final act had just been played out.
Akamatsu dragged him to the De Soto, got behind the wheel and said, “Do you feel like you’ve just been cut off from the world?”
“A little like that. After all, now there’s only two of us left standing in this city. I’ve never been surrounded by so many dead and dying…”
Akamatsu turned the ignition and put the car in gear. They left the airport, gliding between the funereal buildings with the employees collapsed at their posts, and then headed for the port. On the silent roads all kinds of vehicles were stopped along the sidewalks or in the middle of the street and the motionless drivers looked like they were waiting for some signal to start driving again. Men, women and children were lying down almost everywhere. The sun beat down on this incredible, apocalyptic stillness, spreading its unbearable heat that made everything look like it was about to be consumed by the flames of hell. An awful smell started floating over the city. In the furnace, flesh was already starting to rot…
“We need a very light boat,” Akamatsu forced himself to look only at the road. “In the swamps we’ll have to carry it sometimes.”
Sickly pale, Cadogan lit two cigarettes and handed one to his partner. “It’s not that I want to smoke, but the smell of tobacco has to be better than this, right? If the appropriate services don’t go into action fast, Florida is going to die from the plague. Anyway, I think we can make do with an inflatable dinghy.”
They found it on board a yacht and then tied it to the roof of the De Soto after taking off the motor. The dinghy was an Oceanic, completely waterproof and equipped with a sail that they also had to throw away since there was no wind. But Cadogan swiped a couple of paddles lying on the deck of the abandoned yacht.
He went back to the car where Akamatsu was finishing tying the dinghy onto the car and said, “Still another 30 minutes before the helicopter arrives. How about a little feast?”
Akamatsu nodded. “Good idea. Did you find a refrigerator?”
“Follow me.” They climbed back on the yacht and found the kitchen. A small cabin next to it housed a radio in perfect condition.
“In case of a hitch,” Cadogan said through a mouthful of cold chicken. “The yacht might very well get us out a tight spot. It’s fast, built for the high seas and its tank is full to the brim.”
“Can you navigate?”
“Good enough to take this bucket to Mexico…” While talking he was searching the kitchen cupboards. All of a sudden he froze before a sight that made him whistle.
Akamatsu got out of his chair. “What is it?”
“A stash of whiskey!”
The Japanese went over to him. The back of the cupboard was lined with unopened bottles, but that could not justify the G-man’s astonishment. “I don’t see anything so surprising here.”
“Look closer. The bottles are covered in dust.”
“Indeed. So?”
Cadogan shrugged his shoulders, closed the cupboard and said, “I think that’s weird. In this place everyone’s been boozing it up for 15 days. Tell me why the owners of this boat weren’t drinking?”
“Well, I don’t know. Do you think that it’s really so important? Besides, it could be that the yacht has only been here since yesterday.”
“No,” Cadogan rebuked. “I saw the mooring cables and the anchor chain and I can say for sure that this bucket has been anchored here for at least a month.”
Akamatsu lit a cigarette, drank a glass of water and said, “I don’t really think any of this matters much, Cadogan. It’s time we got back on land.”
“Okay. You’re probably right.”
They climbed back up on the bridge and jumped onto the dock. Cadogan sat next to Akamatsu and while the car was starting, he said, “Still, the yacht might come in handy.”
“You’re probably right. What’s it called?”
“The Somota.”
The car went back through the east part of Palm Beach and entered the airfield three minutes before the appointed time.
The name of the helicopter pilot was Gaylord. He was a redhead and built like a house. His hands were huge battering rams, but his voice was as smooth as honey. His mechanic was named Robinson. He was tall and wiry, angles everywhere. His movements were slow, calculated, sparing. He was a very good mechanic and a very good machine gunner.
The helicopter could hold ten men, fly at over 180 miles an hour and was equipped with air conditioning, which Cadogan and Akamatsu especially appreciated. The machine had been put in an empty hangar with the four men inside.
“These walkie-talkies,” Gaylord was saying, “have a range of 30 miles on flat terrain. They’re pretty light so you can carry them with no problem, even in the swamp. Let me point out that they’re waterproof and will keep working even when dunked. The Boss wants you to check in every 15 minutes. We’ll be listening. If you need help, don’t hesitate.”
Akamatsu asked the question that had been worrying him. “What’s the news on the spheres?”
Gaylord patted his two-way radio. “We intercepted a message from the Boss when we were flying over Cape Kennedy. The air force should be about to take off as we speak. From Cape Kennedy to Palm Beach we personally spotted a good 20 of the shiny machines that answered the description given by the Boss. If you want my opinion, the fighter pilots will turn them into sieves.”
Robinson asked, “In Saint George they’re saying that Miss Atomos was tracked down and is being cornered right now…”
Cadogan scowled. “If anyone tracked her down, I’d like to know where he’s hiding! Now you know that there’s only four us in this corner of Florida.”
“We noticed some employees in the buildings.”
“Yeah. You noticed some unconscious men and dead women! It’s a desert here, friend. In an hour or two you’ll smell the corpses if you leave this blimp… I don’t know what they’re saying in Saint George, but I know that Miss Atomos has just killed more people in an hour than Madame Atomos did in her entire life.”
He slung his walkie-talkie over his shoulder and said rather bitterly, “As far as tracking her down and arresting her, it’s easier said than done. We know that she’s holed up in the Everglades and that’s all.”
“And that’s not a bad start,” Akamatsu added.
When they got back in the De Soto, Gaylord and Robinson were a little less excited than on their arrival.
The car stopped on the shoulder of 441. Akamatsu and Cadogan got out. They instantly felt that the temperature had lowered a few degrees.
“Damn!” Cadogan reveled. “It’s almost chilly. But the sun’s still beating down… If this is the result of destroying the dehydrator you found, I think that after the fighter jets the air will become breathable again.”
The Japanese frowned. “The operation hasn’t started and I don’t believe it’ll be a walk in the park. Gaylord claimed that the fighters would destroy the spheres. I’m not so sure.”
“You’re becoming a pessimist.”
“Simply a realist,” Akamatsu corrected. “The spheres are not big. Seen from the sky they’ll be the size of a dollar coin. If we find Miss Atomos’ laboratory, we’ll get quicker results. That’s why we have to get cracking, Cadogan.”
The G-man untied the rope holding the inflatable dinghy and threw it over the roof of the car. “ To get cracking, no problem, but first we have to lug this dinghy down to the pond. And don’t forget the paddles and walkie-talkies. Is the pond far?”
Akamatsu helped him get the dinghy down and answered, “Distance is hard to gauge when you’re walking in territory as monotonous as this. Still, I know that we’ll have to walk for at least 20 minutes.”
A minute later Akamatsu called the helicopter. “You’re late,” Gaylord complained. “Don’t forget to contact us every 15 minutes. The Boss’ hair was starting to turn white.”
“Everything’s fine,” Akamatsu assured him. “We’re in the swamp. Any news on the air force?”
“It’s coming. Duck when the fighter jets fly over and don’t forget to contact us at 2 p.m.”
Akamatsu signed off, put the walkie-talkie back over his shoulder and grabbed one end of the dinghy. He walked in front following very closely the tracks left by the wheels of the Buick that Miss Atomos used. The heat, even though it was sufferable, was still strong enough to make them expend a lot of energy on every movement they made. They moved forward for a while, then climbed a little mound and suddenly saw the pond, which seemed to stretch out forever with its countless islets, thick clumps of reeds and banks of motionless weeds.
“Where’s the car?” Cadogan asked in a low voice.
“It should be there. See. The tracks stop of the edge of the water.”
Cadogan went down to examine the bank. The tracks went no farther into the silt. It was like the car had been lifted up by a crane set up on a huge boat. Except that it was unthinkable because the shallow water would not allow for such an operation.
Akamatsu bent down and swept away a fine, blackish powder that carpeted the ground. “Disintegrator rifle. This dust is probably all that’s left of the Buick. We’re hot, Cadogan!”
