gripped the top of the soldier’s body armour and tore at it, electromuscles in his arm discharging painfully as he ripped the metal free of the man’s body. The mechanism beneath was exposed to the sunlight, pitiful and embarrassing.
‘Look at him!’ called Arban. ‘Look at yourselves. Identical bodies, identical parts, all so that you can rebuild yourselves from your comrades. Submerging yourself in each other for safety. You act like Nicolas the Coward.’ He pushed a finger into the mechanism in the chest of the man he now held, stopping a wheel that turned there. A whining noise emerged from the man’s mouth. The other soldiers shifted, distressed by their comrade’s pain.
‘And now you mill about in the midst of a conquered city, taking it easy, running from danger, avoiding the spoils that are rightfully ours. I tell you, better robots than you have died these past few weeks. Better robots than you have mounted attacks and been repulsed, and this is how you repay them. You are a disgrace!’
The whine had risen to a scream now. Arban looked down at the distressed man, tensed his hand as if he were about to rip the mechanism apart, thought better of it and released the man to collapse painfully to the ground.
‘I should kill you all now. You’re practically traitors! Any other time maybe I would, but not today. We are short of robots, even second-rate ones such as yourselves.’
The infantry looked on thoughtfully, the sun warming their grey skins.
‘You killed Carmel,’ said Eleanor.
Arban shuddered. ‘Even your voices!’ he shouted. ‘So grey and colourless! But, no, I didn’t kill anyone.’ He held up a hand, showing the silver spiral of an interface coil.
‘I palmed a coil, just like this one. You saw me crush the coil of a Wiener soldier, not your comrade. Artemisian troops are too valuable to waste. All I did was disconnect Carmel’s coil from her body. You can easily link her back up.’
Eleanor nodded to Hetfield, who bent down over Carmel’s body.
Arban turned to address the others. ‘While he’s doing that, the rest of you form yourselves into two lines. You are under my command now. There are still a few towers defended here in Wien. Still a few booby-trapped doors with aristocrats hiding behind them. Robots beyond hope and fear, robots who would rather die than give up what they have, and are quite prepared for their workers to make that sacrifice along with them. Well, my happy crew, you shall be the first to face them!’
Arban drew himself to his full height. The grey infantry weren’t moving. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ A note of anger in his voice. ‘I said line up!’
Slowly, the soldiers began to shuffle into position.
‘Faster! Do I have to really kill one of you to set an example? I don’t have any time for sulkers and shirkers who have spent the last few hours hanging around at the edges of the camps, waiting for the danger to pass so that they can creep in amongst the bolder robots and share the spoils and the glory. I tell you, I was the first into this city, and…’
‘No you weren’t.’
Everyone turned to look at the robot who had spoken. He seemed identical to the rest: thin grey-painted body armour, unexceptional machinery. He did not pause in the process of taking his place in the line.
‘What did you say?’ said Arban, his voice dangerously low.
‘I said that you weren’t the first into this city.’
It was so quiet in the square. From somewhere in the distance a crumbling crash of rubble could be heard as another marble tower slid to oblivion.
‘Are you daring to call me a liar?’ hummed Arban, his voice modulated so low. Eleanor reached slowly for her awl. Around her she was aware of other infantryrobots doing the same.
‘No,’ said the robot. ‘I believe you to be merely mistaken. You were not the first into this city. We were.’
Arban held the robot’s gaze. There was something strange about the man, something so still and unafraid. Eleanor felt it, they all felt it, yet they had worked and fought with him for so long. Arban laughed to cover the unease that suddenly arose within him. ‘Hey, who’s to know? We all had our part to play. Maybe I got it wrong. Maybe I owe you an apology. Still, it isn’t done to disagree with your superior.’
‘I’m not sure that you are my superior. I’m not sure that such things exist within Artemis.’
Arban looked the plain grey robot up and down.
‘Okay, soldier boy,’ he said. ‘Single combat. You and me.’
The grey man seemed unimpressed. ‘Are you now going to kill us all one by one? What’s the good of that to Artemis?’
‘I don’t intend to kill all of you,’ said Arban. ‘Just enough to ensure discipline.’ And he sprang: his electromuscles had been charging even as he spoke. He went for the quick kill, landing on the man’s chest, his feet scraping down the chest armour and wrenching it clear of the body, his left hand pulling the coil from the back of the robot’s neck, his other hand…
The robot wasn’t there. He was standing just out of reach of Arban, arms folded. Eleanor and the rest of the infantry were moving, getting into position. Arban unslung the rifle from his back and fired it, dead centre on the infantryman’s chest. The robot was already standing within the length of its barrel, raising his hand to strike, bringing an awl down… Eleanor saw the sharp point scrape down the Storm Trooper’s left arm, saw the electro muscles there discharging in a crackle of sparks. The grey soldier had punctured him!
But now the grey soldier was tumbling backwards, his grey body folding in half, badly dented where Arban had kicked him in the chest. And now he was having trouble getting to his feet. Eleanor saw why: Arban had snatched off his arm. Eleanor nodded to the reanimated Carmel.
Arban held the arm out for his opponent to see. ‘What’s your name, boy?’ he asked.
‘Kavan,’ said the crippled grey man.
Eleanor watched for Arban’s response
‘Kavan?’ said Arban, ‘Kavan. I’ve heard that name before. Now, when was it?’
The grey robot said nothing. Arban was disturbed, Eleanor could tell. The name obviously struck a bell deep inside him, and not a tinkling little silver bell but a great tolling chime of warning.
‘I have heard of you,’ he said. ‘Back when we took Stark. Were you there?’
‘I was.’
We all were, thought Eleanor.
Arban was picking apart Kavan’s arm, stripping off the grey casing, popping out the joints and peeling away the electromuscles. He dropped them on the ground, one by one.
‘I remember. You led the charge through the Tesla towers. A lot of robots died there…’
‘But we made it through in the end.’
Arban finished stripping the arm. He rubbed his palms together, scraping off the remnants of Kavan’s grease and lubricant, his left hand moving oddly: the effect of the punctured electromuscle.
‘You were offered promotion,’ said Arban. ‘A Storm Trooper’s body, but you preferred to remain as an infantryrobot. Yes, I knew I’d heard of you! You’re not a coward, that’s for certain. I’ve heard you called a hero, but I’m not sure that’s exactly right. Anyone can get others killed. So what are you? You’re not a good soldier or you wouldn’t be skulking in this square. I don’t know what I should do with you.’
‘This is single combat,’ replied Kavan. ‘To the death.’
‘Don’t be stupid! You don’t stand a chance!’ Arban stepped forward and ground the remains of Kavan’s arm into the flagstones with a hard metal foot. Kavan took a step back. And now Eleanor and the grey infantry were moving. Carmel tossed something towards Kavan. Something long, it bent as it tumbled. Kavan snatched it from the air.
Arban jumped, kicked out with one foot, bringing the ultrahard, shovel-like edge around and upwards just at Kavan’s knee joint, breaking the leg there, but Kavan moved in at the same time, stabbing out at the metal in Arban’s thigh, puncturing him again, rupturing the electromuscle there. Arban landed and spun around, slightly clumsy, slightly off balance due to the spasming muscles in his left thigh.
Kavan had two arms again! As Arban moved in to attack, Eleanor nodded to Ulrich, who detached his own leg at the knee and threw it to Kavan, who snapped it into place and then, almost in the same movement, jumped at Arban.
Arban anticipated his attack. He grabbed Kavan’s right arm once more, pulling it off, but again Kavan reached out and with his left hand stabbed at the electromuscles in Arban’s arm. They were spasming all the more. With
