Giant Robots of Tunguska (Doc Vandal Adventures Book 4) Read online

  She couldn’t control her joy at the sensation, this was even better than the autogyro because she didn’t have to sit still in a pilot’s seat. Vic grinned ferociously, there were three armored suits in front of the Cathedral: two in front of the main entrance, the third a few yards down guarding the rectory door. The police had formed a perimeter with their patrol cars, and were watching from the other side of the street.

  “I’ll take the first two, you take the one by the rectory.” Vic told Gilly over the radio.

  “You sure seem to know your way around here pretty well.”

  “I was brought up right;” she answered. “I go to church; sometimes.”

  Vic hit the ground hard right in front of the main entrance. Shock absorbers groaned as the impact drove her to one knee. At least this time she’d kept her tongue behind her teeth. Rising to her feet, she turned just in time to meet one of the besiegers on his way down the steps.

  His armor looked bulkier and clumsier than hers, but there was no doubt of its power. Vic could feel the energy radiating from the suit, almost like she was standing in front of a fireplace. All her senses sharpened, even hearing and smell.

  “Give us Filitov or we burn the church,” the figure growled in heavily accented English; raising what looked like a small bore cannon with one hand.

  “Go to Hell!” Vic replied in Russian.

  His cannon barked, the shell slamming Vic in the chest like a charging rhino. Her breastplate rang like the Liberty Bell, but somehow she kept her feet. Vic shook her head; Doc’s armor was good, but not that good. She should have been knocked flat by the impact.

  Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Vic put all her augmented strength into a single punch. The blow rose from her toes and put three hundred horsepower and two-hundred and forty pounds into the middle of her attacker’s chest. His chest crumpled, and he flew back up the steps and slammed into the Cathedral door.

  Continuing on with her follow-through, Vic dashed up the stairs to the main doors. The other besieger tried to stop her but she just threw him aside like a child’s doll. The moment she touched his suit Vic felt another rush of energy. Something pulled loose inside her suit but she ignored it. Heart pounding, she ripped open the doors and charged into the Cathedral. People scattered in every direction, but all she could think of was the rush of power drawing her onward. Normally, she paused to take in the beautiful blue ceiling whenever she came to church. Today, it might not have existed.

  Vic crossed the floor in a matter of seconds; ran through the tiring room and out the back door, sending splinters everywhere. A suited figure tried to face her, but she smashed it aside contemptuously; already on the hunt for her next target.

  No sooner had the figure hit the far side of the alley than a hand landed on her shoulder. She spun to lash out, but it was Doc. Instead of striking out, she leaped, flying over the Cathedral in a single bound. For a moment she hung in midair, only to land beside the rectory door, cracking the sidewalk like a battering ram. Digging her heels into the concrete, she whirled to face the sound of combat.

  Gilly was still fighting his original opponent; to all appearances he was barely able to hold off his enemy.

  A laugh bubbled up from Vic’s throat as she skipped the ten feet between her and Gilly’s opponent. Reaching out with one hand, she scruffed the man in the black power suit like an unruly kitten. Power roared up her arm and she flipped her victim into the street where he skidded to a stop against the side of a Paddy Wagon.

  Blood thundered in her ears as she spun around looking for more opponents but none materialized.

  On the far side of the street, the police slowly rose from their positions behind their makeshift barricade. Most had their guns drawn, and pointed at Vic. Facing the weapons of at least fifty of New York’s finest; she threw her head back and laughed.

  “Are you alright?” Gilly had somehow managed to come up beside her before he spoke.

  “Never better.” Vic grinned. “What happened to your armor? Those mugs were pushovers.”

  “Pushovers?” Gilly added his own laughter to the radio circuit. “That suit was easily twice as strong as mine.”

  “That’s impossible,” Vic replied. “I just had to touch them and they fell over.”

  She looked up to see the police had closed up to surround them while they were talking. “Come on, Gilly, let’s get out of here.”

  Vic leaned down to pick up Gilly and just kept going. Everything went black as the last thing she heard was her armor clattering on the pavement.

  #

  Doc watched in amazement as Vic leaped over the Cathedral, disappearing from sight in a matter of moments. “Gus, check out the one Vic hit. I’m going to check out the front.”

  Leaving Gus behind, Doc pushed through the broken door and into the Cathedral. The tiring room was quiet enough, but once he passed through into the sanctuary it was a different story. Hundreds of worshipers huddled in little knots, while clergy moved from group to group offering comfort. The moment people saw him, they spread apart in waves giving Doc a perfect view of Vic’s path through the Cathedral. Her heavy boot prints scarred the floor, marking a straight line to a puddle of hydraulic fluid by the main entrance. Moving at a much more sedate pace, Doc tried to figure out just how fast she’d been going. It was hard to tell exactly, but at a guess she must have been traveling at least thirty or forty miles an hour.

  Just another thing to file away; along with three hundred foot leaps and tremendous bursts of strength. What had she done now?

  Doc cleared the main doors to find Gilly standing over Vic’s body, surrounded by police.

  “What’s going on?” he asked over the radio loop.

  “Dunno, we were talking and she just collapsed.” Gilly shrugged as well as the armor allowed.

  Before Doc could ask anything further, he was interrupted by a familiar figure. “Just what the Hell is going on here Doctor Vandal?”

  Doc sighed behind his visor. Commissioner Pennyworth. Now he had two problems to deal with, and the commissioner was not fond of Vic.

  He flipped back his visor to reveal his face. “Yes Commissioner, what can I do for you?”

  “You can tell me just what you and your happy little gang are doing at an active crime scene,” Pennyworth blustered. “You blundered into a hostage situation; people could have been killed. Look at all the property damage your Miss Frank caused…”

  Doc raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean Miss Frank caused?”

  “She’s the one with the red markings on her suit isn’t she? Besides, who else would it have been.”

  Doc had to admit Pennyworth had a point. Vic was certainly more exuberant than was strictly necessary. Unfortunately, his pause gave the commissioner another opportunity to state his case.

  “So, why don’t you tell me why you would just happen to find yourselves on the scene all decked out in fancy knight costumes?” The commissioner thrust his jaw out pugnaciously. “Please don’t try to tell me it’s just a coincidence that you “happened” to be here.”

  “Commissioner,” Doc replied quietly. “You know as well as I do that Mayor LaGuardia deputized all of us back in ‘36; even Miss Frank.”

  “That still doesn’t give you free rein; especially not her.” Pennyworth glanced down at Vic with all the love the average man would show a particularly venomous snake.

  Suddenly Ming’s voice cut in over the radio loop. “Why are you still arguing with the Commissioner when Vic’s lying on the ground. Get her back here so I can take a look at her!”

  “I’ll move her,” Gilly replied. “Don’t want to interrupt Doc’s kaffeeklatch.”

  “At least one of you has some sense to go with his brains.”

  “I’m still waiting.” Pennyworth hadn’t moved. “I would love to know what brought Miss Frank rampaging through here like a wild elephant.”

  “Maybe the Spirit moved her?” Gilly had flipped up his visor and knelt to pick up Vic. “She ma
y not go every Sunday, but she is a parishioner here. My pappy was a preacher, and I’ve seen people do some powerful things when the Spirit moves them.”

  “Stop talking and start moving.” Ming’s voice was growing shriller, even with the limited fidelity of the headphones.

  “Yes Ma’am.” Gilly picked Vic up and headed for Madison.

  “Anyway Commissioner,” Doc said calmly. “It appears you have some miscreants to deal with. I’ll take Miss Frank home, and you can deal with your prisoners.”

  “Humph,” Pennyworth huffed. “I suppose you’re right; but remember, I’ll be watching her.”

  “I’m sure you will.”

  #

  Dry mouth; very very dry mouth. Vic woke slowly, driven by the burning taste in the roof of her mouth. “Water…”

  Her voice was a croak, barely audible even to her but someone must have heard because the next thing she felt was cold glass straw between her lips.

  “Small sips; take small sips.” Vic followed instructions as Ming’s voice soothed her ears as much as the water soothed her mouth.

  After drinking all that Ming would let her, and swishing the last mouthful around her teeth she finally felt strong enough to open her eyes. “What happened to me?”

  “I was hoping you could tell us.” Doc spoke from an armchair against one wall of the infirmary. “You put on quite a show out there. Gilly said the Spirit moved you.”

  “The Spirit?” Vic laughed, and then wished she hadn’t as the laughter trailed away into a coughing fit. “It was that suit you made me. I felt like I could do anything wearing it.”

  “Like jump the Cathedral?” Ming asked.

  “Jump the Cathedral? What are you talking about honey?” Vic shook her head. Jumping the Cathedral, that was a good one.

  Doc coughed. “She’s talking about the fact that you jumped to the sidewalk in front of the Cathedral from the back alley: right over the rectory. I saw it; you leaped at least three hundred feet straight up.”

  “Three hundred feet?” Vic’s jaw dropped. “Three hundred feet? That suit is incredible.”

  Doc shook his head. “It wasn’t the suit.”

  “What do you mean, it wasn’t the suit?” Vic asked incredulously. “You built the damn thing to make me stronger and jump higher.”

  “As far as I can tell, you blew out the suit before you got into the Cathedral. The accumulators were fried and there was no fluid in the servos. It was all you.”

  Images crashed into her brain; Saint Nicholas Cathedral from above, a man in iron armor flying across the street. Most of all, she remembered the feeling of power that had washed over her; the sense of invincibility as she practically flew over the Cathedral.

  “That was all me?” Vic tried to sit up, but barely managed to raise her head before collapsing back to her pillow. “It wasn’t the suit?”

  “You said that already.” Ming reached out and stroked her hair. “It was all you.”

  “But if I can leap tall buildings why can’t I even sit up in bed?” Vic tried to make a fist, but her fingers barely moved.

  “As best Gus and I can tell,” Doc explained. “Something out there supercharged your body. By the time we got you to the van, your heart was at about a hundred and fifty beats per minute and dropping. At the rate it was falling, Ming and I figured it probably peaked around two hundred and fifty.”

  Vic dragged a hand over to feel her pulse. It felt fast, but not that fast. “Do you have any idea what caused it?”

  “We were hoping you could tell us.” Doc steepled his fingers in front of his face. “It shouldn’t have been possible, even if the suit was working.”

  “Where’s Gus?” Vic pushed herself up on her elbows; it was a strain, but she made it. “He’s probably going to want to hear it, too.”

  “No room for me in there,” Gus rumbled from the doorway. “Besides, I only have a few minutes. Gilly’s gone to get one of those fancy black suits from the commissioner and I want to get started on it the moment he gets back.”

  “I’ll try not to take too long. Besides, I’m not sure how much longer I can sit up.”

  “Lie back down then,” Ming said. “I’ll adjust the bed.”

  “Thanks.” Vic flopped back against the pillows while Ming bent to the wheel.

  Vic waited until she was sitting almost all the way up before she began. “Everything was normal when we got out of the van. I did leap the police barricade, but I only went up about twenty-five or thirty feet.

  “That’s normal, right?” She wrinkled her brow. “I’m supposed to be able to jump twenty or thirty feet in the suit aren’t I?”

  “That’s about right,” Gus answered. “You’re lighter than Doc or Gilly, but big enough that we didn’t have to cut down the servos.”

  “Okay, I made that jump and saw the three figures guarding the doors. Being the pig I am…” Vic paused and winked at Ming, “I called dibs on the two by the main entrance. Once I got within about ten feet of them it felt like I was standing in front of a fireplace. I took down the pair in front of me really quickly; each time I touched one I felt stronger. Something broke loose in the armor when I entered the Cathedral, but I ignored it.”

  “That was the servos going out,” Doc told her. “You blew the main hydraulics and dumped fluid all over the floor. From that point on, your armor was so much dead weight.”

  Vic shrugged. “Honestly, I didn’t notice. I was all charged up and wanted to get as many of those guys as I could.”

  Her eyes went cold as she remembered what happened next. “I broke the door, didn’t I?”

  “Smashed it to flinders,” Gus said. “Broke it into teeny tiny little bits.”

  “As I told the Commissioner, you were exuberant. Gilly said the Spirit moved you.” Doc leaned forward in his seat. “I’m not sure which explanation Pennyworth found convincing, but at least he didn’t arrest you.”

  “As if I would have let him.” Ming crossed her arms. “He’s not taking my Vic.”

  Vic smiled; it was always fun when Ming got feisty.

  “I remember hitting the last one on your side,” Vic told Doc. “It was such a feeling of power. Strength rushed through me, and I could feel the last one pulling me. I leaped the Cathedral and took away Gilly’s toy. Next thing I know I was telling Gilly how great the suit was and then things went black.

  “I don’t remember anything else until I woke up here.” Something pulled at Vic’s attention, like a tingle in the back of her neck. “Gilly’s back.”

  “Are you sure?” Gus asked.

  “Very,” Vic replied, enjoying the warmth emanating from the rising elevator. “He’s in the elevator and has some of the suits with him.”

  Ming stepped closer and put one hand on Vic’s wrist as she flipped her other hand over look at her watch. “Shush, you.”

  Vic sighed, and let Ming take her pulse.

  “She’s picked up five beats, and it’s much stronger.”

  Doc rose to his feet like a panther. “Ming, keep an eye on her; Gus and I are taking the suits to Cibola.”

  “Huh, what?” Vic stared at the sudden hive of activity. “What’s going on? Why are you moving the suits? I’m feeling better.”

  “That’s the problem.” Ming reached toward the lowering wheel. “Last time you were near those suits you got stronger than Gus and then collapsed like a sack of rice.”

  “I don’t mind being stronger than Gus,” Vic grinned evilly. “I’d love to see his face after beating him at arm wrestling.”

  “But I wouldn’t love to see your face turn even whiter than it already is.” Ming cupped Vic’s face in her hands. “We almost lost you Vic; your whole body nearly shut down before we could get you out of the suit. Doc was giving you artificial respiration the whole way back, and I went through three vials of adrenaline keeping your heart pumping.

  “Whatever’s in those suits may have let you leap tall buildings, but coming off it almost killed you.” Ming’s eyes flashed
with unshed tears. “I’m not letting that happen again if I can help it.”

  Vic wrapped her arms around the smaller woman, as Ming leaned against her and shook. “It’s okay hun, I’m right here with you.”

  Ming didn’t say anything but she stopped shaking quite as much. Vic just held on, letting her lover deal with her emotions. As Ming leaned against her Vic bit her lip, worrying it with her teeth. It must have been serious for Ming to react like this. Normally she just teased Vic about being reckless; this time she hadn’t said a word about it. After a few minutes Ming lifted her head and Vic wiped the tears away from her brown eyes.

  “Don’t worry, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

  Ming sniffled, then kissed Vic on the cheek. “I know, but you gave me a fright.”

  Hoping to change the subject, Vic stroked Ming’s back. “How’s Viktor? And what about the others, are they alright.”

  Ming straightened up, going back into Doctor mode; although she did leave her hand on Vic’s shoulder. “Your cousin is fine. He’s sleeping in the guest room and Shard said he hasn’t moved all night. It’s only Monday morning.

  “How about everyone else? Did the suits do anything to them?” Vic grabbed Ming’s wrist. “Are they okay?”

  “Doc and Gilly are fine; neither of them had a reaction. The gorillas didn’t either. I never got near them.” Ming patted Vic’s shoulder with her free hand. “It’s okay, we’ll figure it out. You’re the only one who felt anything.”

  Vic squeezed Ming’s wrist and then let go; laying her head back on the pillow she closed her eyes. “Thanks.”

  As she tried to sleep, all Vic could think of was Shard’s tentacled face in the regeneration chamber beneath Antarctica where the alien had told her a secret about herself even Vic hadn’t known: “You’re not human.”

  #

  Doc moved out of Gilly’s way as the smaller man returned from the darkroom with the recording camera. The big black camera had an advanced multi-bulb electronic flash Doc had invented a few years earlier, and a seventy-two exposure roll of medium format film. The two suits Doc had managed to pry loose from Commissioner Pennyworth’s evidence locker lay on a large steel table under a set of carbon arcs.