Beth’s eyes were wide as she watched the machine straighten out and face Simon. They didn’t seem phased. The unit was as undamaged as it had been at the start of the fight, but she and Simon were starting to feel some wear.
There’s no stopping them! Beth thought frantically. They’re faster than us, stronger than us, and they don’t even seem to break a sweat. They’re a terminator and we are going to die.
Something caught the corner of her eye. A shape laying on the floor, just within arm’s reach. It was a gun, one of the black market models she’d seen advertised before. One of the tunnel-dwellers must have pulled it to stop Rubik, then realized how much danger the robotic assassin posed and fled, abandoning the firearm on the station floor. She didn’t care how it got there, only that it was there. With nearly lightning-like reflexes, she scooped the weapon up and aimed it at Rubik.
The assassins didn’t stop at the platform edge for long. They used their momentum to leap back at Simon, pouncing the I.I. like they were a big panther and Simon were a witless boar. He tried to dive out of the way, but when he realized it was too late, he raised his arms to defend himself. The mechanical beast took him down and together they rolled over the floor and smashed through a few people’s suitcases.
“You’ve got some fight in you,” Maru said through Rubik’s voice speaker. “Good.”
It raised one of the dazzling blue blades and slashed at Simon. If he hadn’t been able to tug his head out of reach, it would have come tumbling across the floor, detached from the rest of his body. The swords left a burning gash in the floor as the unit missed its mark.
Simon managed to purchase some space after Rubik missed. He curled his legs up and pushed off on his attacker, launching the robotic spider through the air. They tumbled near Beth, scattering a few empty bottles someone had left behind.
Her hands shook as she tried to get a bead on the assassins. Just before they were able to stand back up, she squeezed the trigger and felt the gun explode in her fingers. The shot ripped through the air and ricocheted off the metal that covered Rubik’s shoulders. Sparks flew up, but Rubik remained unharmed.
Bulletproof, she realized, feeling defeated.
Rubik started to laugh in all six voices.
“This has been fun, but eventually, you’ll realize there is no hope,” Lynch said.
“You are defeated,” Maru commented.
“Even if you try to run, there’s nowhere you can hide,” Jerri said.
“And we’ll be right on your tail. Snapping our jaws the entire way,” Wolfgang told them.
“Give up,” Nick urged.
Beth tried to shoot again, but the gun didn’t respond. Something inside it jammed and it wasn’t letting her pull the trigger anymore. Perhaps the owner had installed an I.D. print on the weapon, preventing anyone else from firing it, but Beth doubted it. Such features were expensive, and it was much more likely that the gun was so poorly crafted that it couldn’t even handle two shots in quick succession. She cursed and threw the thing down.
“She realizes it,” Hilde said. “Look at her face. She knows she’s been beaten.”
“Is that so?” Simon said, stepping closer to the robotic assassins. “Then she must know something I don’t.”
“Ah, he has fire within him,” Maru observed.
“Must be why Tarov values him so much,” Wolfgang said. “He told us it would be a challenge.”
“I think he overestimated what challenges us,” Jerri said, her tone smug.
“Don’t celebrate yet,” Maru said.
There was more laughter from Rubik.
“What can they do now? Run?” Lynch said. “Look at them, trying to catch their breath. They’re powerless. There’s nothing they can do to stop us.”
“Did you hear that? Nothing!” Hilde shouted.
“Nothing?” Simon asked, his tone almost sarcastic. “What about deactivating the breaks?”
All components of Rubik seemed confused. Beth even looked over at her I.I. companion with skeptical eyes, unaware of what the fugitive could be planning.
“The brakes?” Nick asked through Rubik’s voice speaker.
“That’s right,” Simon said. Without any warning, he coiled up and jumped right into Rubik’s tall torso. The force was enough to overtake whatever balance they had purchased on the platform’s edge, sending them teetering over the edge.
As they were falling, all four arms reached out and clutched onto Simon. He couldn’t pull away as they both fell into the hyperloop tube with a loud clang.
Just as they hit the multi-layered plastic that made up the hyperloop tubes, Beth heard a whine from farther up the track. A capsule carrying a small group of commuters appeared in the mouth of the tube, shooting out at a speed faster than any of them could register. When it was normally supposed to slow down and brake, just as it reached the platform, the capsule instead maintained its velocity. Before either could move, crawl, or jump away, the vehicle smashed through both bodyshells.
The shriek of metal being scraped on plastic filled the entire station, reverberating off the walls and causing Beth’s teeth to chatter. She looked up in time to see Simon and Rubik torn apart by the hyperloop capsule. Robotic limbs and shards of metal scattered the platform like some sort of industrial confetti. Beth covered her head to protect it from the debris raining down upon her.
Simon, she thought, her heart sinking. She stared at the spot where his bodyshell had been locked in a grapple with Rubik. There was nothing there now except for a few gears and a wire or two. Both bodyshells had been utterly destroyed by the hyperloop capsule.
“Simon!” she cried aloud. Her voice tore a little with worry. Tears started to form in her eyes.
What am I going to do now? She thought. Rubik may be destroyed, but Tarov will certainly send more
