Hamish X and the Hollow Mountain (27 page)

“I'm in,” Mimi said grimly. She checked her stun pistol. “They ain't gittin' past me, if I can help it.”

“I have a question,” Mr. Kipling interjected. “Where is the King?”

“Here.” The King's voice came from above. As one, they looked up the stairs. They saw a strange and wonderful sight.

The King was taking the steps three at a time. His incredible progress was made possible by the fact that his entire body was encased in a suit of shining chrome armour. King Liam bounded down the stairs with easy grace, coming to a stop before them. He was smiling, his head encased in the silver helmet.

“I'm sorry I've taken so long, but George tells me you have all done wonderfully well. This thing,” he waved the
metal arms, “is difficult to get into unassisted.”

“Sire, what are your orders? We're all ready to fight to the end.”

“I know you are.” The King smiled sadly. “I don't think you'll like my orders very much. I want you to get out. I want all of you to get into the escape pods and go. I will stay behind and hold them off for as long as I can.”

“But we can't leave you here alone,” Cara cried.

“Oh, I won't be alone, will I, George?”

All the raccoons stopped what they were doing and looked to the King. “No,” they answered in unison, hundreds of tiny voices speaking all at once. “We are with you, King Liam.” The raccoons began to congregate near the King. They came from everywhere, hundreds of furry bodies massing in the open space of the cavern floor. They sat up in rows, their bright black eyes blinking in their masked faces.

“You see?” the King said lightly. “George will be with me.”

Aidan and Cara saw the King's determined expression and knew there was no dissuading him. They dropped to one knee and bowed their heads.

“Oh, I wish you wouldn't do that. It makes me embarrassed,” the King laughed, laying a large metal finger delicately on each of their heads. “Now go. Make sure my children are safe.”

Aidan and Cara rose and turned to their duties. “Let's get a move on,” Aidan bawled, but his voice cracked and Mimi swore he was about to cry. Mr. Kipling followed the brother and sister after doffing his peaked cap and sketching a quick bow.

Mimi shook her head. “You ain't gonna make it outta here alive.”

“Dear Mimi,” Liam said softly. “How proud I am to have earned your friendship. I was never meant for a life outside the Mountain. I've known that for a long time. You have a full life ahead of you. I am going to stay and make sure you have it, you and all the others.” He smiled and patted her shoulder with a shining metal hand. “Who knows? I may even win. Miracles happen.” A huge boom echoed through the chamber. “Hurry, they'll be through any minute.”

Mimi gritted her teeth and forced herself not to cry. “You've made miracles happen. For me and Parveen and …” Suddenly, something occurred to her. She narrowed her green eyes. “You know where Hamish X is, don't ya?”

The King's face clouded. “He is gone. He went to find his destiny.”

Mimi was crushed. “How could he leave us at a time like this? We need him here!” She felt her face flush with anger. How could he leave her without saying goodbye?

“Don't be angry at him. He had no idea this would happen. He was long gone when the attack began.” An explosion rocked the Workshop Cavern below. The King's head snapped around and the silver helm snapped with it. “I must be going now. Hamish X wanted me to say goodbye.” The King turned to go.

“Where did he go?” Mimi demanded.

“Central Africa,” King Liam called over his shoulder as he bounded towards the stairs. “To find Professor Ballantyne-Stewart.” And then he was gone.

Mimi watched as the raccoons headed after their master, and then she turned to join the others.

ONE LEVEL BELOW
, agents were piling through the newly cleared wreckage of the airship and gathering in the centre of the cavern. About fifty of them had made it through when the King appeared at the head of the stairs.

Chapter 25

“Grey Agents, you are not welcome here.” The King descended the stairs, step by step, his silver suit shimmering in the light of the Daniel's Panels overhead. “This is my home. Leave now and none of you will be harmed.”

The agents looked at each other and then back at the apparition walking down towards them. Mr. Sweet and Mr. Candy were not yet among them. Rows of grey faces, goggles trained on the King, stared without expression. As one, the agents raised their rifles.

“It's going to be that way, is it?” The King chuckled. “Very well.”

Down the stairs behind him came a deluge of tiny furry bodies, hundreds of George raccoons tumbling headlong and hurling themselves into the massed ranks of the agents. The agents staggered back in shock before remembering they were holding rifles. They began firing at the oncoming beasts, the bolts of energy issuing from their weapons striking individual raccoons. The effect was horrifying, with raccoons flailing about in bizarre contortions and falling in a smouldering lump on the stone floor. The smell of burning filled the air.

The attack of the raccoons gave the King the time he needed to leap down from the stairs directly into the midst of the beleaguered agents. He swung his metal fists with augmented speed and strength. Each blow sent an agent reeling, many too damaged to rise again. The raccoons were taking their toll as well. Alone, a raccoon isn't much of a threat, but twenty of the creatures
leaping on one agent were enough to pull the wretched being from its feet.

Any agent trying to rise up into the air using a jetpack was not immune to attacks. King Liam picked up raccoons and tossed them aloft at the agents. The raccoons latched onto their victims. The agents frantically clawed at the raccoons, trying to fling them off, but the raccoons crawled for the heads of their victims and wrenched their hats off, plunging clever little fingers into the mass of wires in the agents' skulls. Agents plummeted to the cavern floor, writhing and convulsing.

The agents were soon fighting a rearguard action, backing into a defensive square and shuffling back in the direction of the exit. One of their number, a Mr. Floss, thumbed his radio. “Mr. Candy! Mr. Sweet! We are under attack! Please advise!”

Mr. Candy and Mr. Sweet stopped supervising the loading of the children and stood stock-still. They consulted video projections on the inside of their goggles and saw the fury of the King's attack and the overwhelming number of raccoons.

“Raccoons, Mr. Candy?”

“Raccoons indeed, Mr. Sweet.”

“It would seem that it is time to unleash the full measure of our disapproval upon the King of Switzerland and his furry automatons.”

“Agreed, Mr. Candy. Activate the Teddy.”

Mr. Candy pressed a long finger to his temple. “Activate the Teddy.”

One of the CCTVs stood alone in the middle of Frieda's Cavern. While the others roamed hither and yon, gathering up prone children with their cranes, this lone vehicle remained completely still, idling gently. Now,
the top of the cargo pod folded open. When the two flaps were completely extended a huge metallic claw, loosely covered in tattered brown fur, reached out and grasped the side of the cargo pod on one side. Then an equally vast claw reached out and grasped the opposite side. With an ear-splitting roar, amplified by the surrounding stone walls, a terrible creature hauled itself erect, towering five metres into the air.

The ODA, being experts in the art of terrifying children, had brought all the powers of their twisted minds to bear on the creation that hoisted itself up from the cargo pod that was its home. The Teddy was indeed a giant teddy bear, but this version of the common stuffed toy loved by children the world over was a twisted and terrifying parody of the original. Its body was covered in filthy brown fur, matted with mud and oil that leaked from its mechanical workings. The vast head the creature sported was horrific.
Instead of the customary benevolent smile there were clashing steel fangs. One of its round ears dangled from a shred of fabric. Its button eyes were glossy, dead camera lenses that whirred, extended, and retracted as the Teddy continually focused and refocused, trying to assess its new surroundings.

The Teddy was designed to seek and destroy an individual target keyed into its electronic brain. Mr. Candy pulled a video image from his own feed and sent it to the computer processor that was the Teddy's brain. The Teddy stood eerily still as it processed the image, lubricating oil dripping from its vast claws and fangs. After a few seconds it sent a signal confirming that it had received and understood the communication.

The metal monster heaved itself out of the cargo pod, setting the CCTV's tortured suspension rocking wildly. The steel bear feet of the Teddy gouged holes in the turf as it loped across the ruined gardens and mounted the stairs.

IN THE WORKSHOP COURTYARD
the raccoons and the King had pushed the Grey Agents back to the gate. There the retreat halted, though, as the agents held off wave after wave of the raccoon assault. Smoking, mangled raccoons with electronic innards were splayed out on the flagstones all around.

The King stopped. He struggled to breathe. Though the suit translated his tiniest movement into action, amplifying his strength enormously, the sustained action was taking its toll on his sickly body. On top of that, the basketball game with Hamish X had sapped his energy dangerously. His chest heaved and his eyes watered. He was almost at the end of his endurance. Fortunately, against all hope, it looked as though the agents were
stymied. If he could hold them off for a few more precious minutes, the escape pods would be off. He was just beginning to think everything was going to be all right when he heard the heavy tread on the stairs below.

Clang! … Clang! … Clang!
Something was coming … something big. Closer and closer the echoing clank approached. The impact of each step shivered through the stone and into the King's suit.

“This doesn't sound good,” the King said to the raccoons ranged around.

“No, Sire, it doesn't,” they answered.

The King lifted one of the raccoons in a metal hand. “Go. Find Hamish X. Tell him what has happened and help him if you can,” he whispered into the ear of the George raccoon. “Hurry.”

He put the creature down and it scuttled away, up the stairs, heading for the Royal level. The King watched it go, then turned to face his fate.

The agents at the gate scattered. Out of the gate emerged the giant furry nightmare that was Teddy. The thing ducked under the frame of the entranceway. The huge bulk of the beast's body was barely able to fit through the debris-choked gate. Once inside, the great shaggy head swivelled back and forth, lenses whirring in and out until its gaze settled on King Liam in his chrome armoured suit.

“Oh, my,” the King said softly, drawing himself up to his full height. He raised his hands in a defensive posture.

“Roooooowwwwwwr!”
With an inhuman howl the Teddy raised its metal claws, lowered its head, and charged.

Chapter 26

Mimi and Cara raised their heads from loading their escape pod. Mrs. Francis was safely inside the pod, sitting in the cushioned bench that ringed the inside of the sphere. Mr. Kipling stopped with one leg in the entry hatch.

The Escape Pod System was devised and constructed in the reign of Queen Josephina, fifty-third Queen of Switzerland. She was renowned for her fear of enclosed spaces and wanted to be sure escape was possible in the event of a cave-in. She'd had a crew widen existing tunnels to accommodate spherical capsules designed to carry inhabitants down through the mountain into an underground river that flowed out through the roots of the Nutterhorn.

The pods were hidden in a compartment cunningly carved behind a stone slab in the wall of the Nurtury Cavern. The compartment was a long tunnel with round hatches every ten metres. The hatches opened into individual pods. Once a pod was loaded and the hatch sealed, it would launch automatically down long stone tubes.

Guards stood at the hatches to the pods, supervising the loading. They were almost done when the fierce roar echoed from the Workshop tier below, cannoning off the stone walls and up the stairs.

“What in all heck was that?”

“It sounded like some kind of animal. Aidan, shouldn't we go and help the King?” Cara asked.

Aidan was pacing back and forth by the slab. “No,” he snapped, “the King told us to go. We're going.” He
stopped pacing when the terrifying roar repeated itself. He stared out through the opening, his hand gripping the hilt of his pistol.

“Aidan,” Mimi said, “we gotta go help.”

“No!” Aidan shouted, spinning and glaring at her. “No! He gave us an order. Load the pods. NOW!”

Cara and Mimi were cowed by the ferocity of his tone. Cara spoke. “Yes, Captain. I believe everyone is secured. Shall we give the order to close the pods?”