Metal in the Blood (The Mechanicals Book 1) Read online

  Will pursed his lips for a second and then swung to his screen, clearing away whatever he’d been working on and pulling up an internet search. Just seconds later results were coming back.

  “Definitely not isolated,” Will said. There was a tiny tremor in his voice and I didn’t entirely blame him. The idea of the Mechanicals overriding their programming was pretty terrifying. “Here, in Scotland, and in Newcastle. And look at this, a tiny village in Yorkshire.”

  There were more and none of them seemed related. Random deaths that were unexplained by the authorities because they simply couldn’t accept the idea that somehow the Mechanicals might be responsible. But once you looked at them as a larger picture, knowing what I thought I knew, it started to become clear.

  The Mechanicals were able to kill humans. And after the way they had been treated, I wasn’t sure I entirely blamed them.

  The truth of what I knew felt like a heavy weight around my neck over the next few weeks. Everyone else seemed blissfully unaware, and part of me wished I could share their ignorance, that I could forget what I thought I knew. They accepted what the Government told them, without question, and so their lives were simple.

  Mine wasn’t. The thought of the Mechanicals being able to turn on humans ate away at me. A niggling little thought I couldn’t escape. I found myself watching the janitorial Mechanical who kept the school clean. I didn’t know quite what I was looking for, some kind of sign, some kind of warning that it was suddenly going to go crazy and kill all the kids in school. Although, what I thought I would do if it did was anyone’s guess. My metal heart didn’t give me super strength, or speed. It just kept me alive.

  Instead I just found myself struck all over again by how human he -it - looked. The artificial skin covering the metal frame was a little waxy, but they had included freckles and little hairs. The hair on its head, grey and receding as it was, looked almost real. There were times when it would meet my gaze and I could see the intricate circuit boards that made up the irises, but even they didn’t detract from the humanity of his face. Its attachments were a different story. One of the hands twisted off to be replaced by any number of cleaning implements. It was hard to see him as human when he had a toilet brush for a hand.

  But whilst my fears resided firmly with the Mechanicals, I wasn’t blind to everything else in the world. There was a lot more muttering in the halls than usual. There were rumours of serious food shortages in certain parts of the country. People were actually starving to death according to the rumours. Which was crazy really seeing as 90% of the population already existed on the protein replica produced in huge factories in the north. Fresh food was available only to the richest. A fact I was painfully aware of when my mother routinely produced actual vegetables for dinner.

  But even we didn’t get meat often. Rich as we were, the smallest amount of real meat cost more than most people made in a lifetime.

  But the protein factories were run by Mechanicals. They worked until they dropped, usually. Which meant if there were shortages it was because something had happened to those Mechanicals. Had they malfunctioned as well? Or had they been destroyed by rampaging mobs?

  Just over a month after the day on the bus I entered the school next to Debs to an even more tense atmosphere than ever. No one was speaking above a whisper, but those whispers were frantic and anxious.

  “What did I miss?” I hissed to Debs as we reached our lockers. It had been ‘family night’ the evening before, which meant being banned from my screen for the day by my mother. She laboured under the delusion that if we could all just spend more ‘quality’ time together my father and I would stop butting heads.

  Debs glanced over her shoulder and then dropped her voice. “You didn’t hear? The Mechanical at the shoe factory set fire to the building and killed three people last night.”

  I knew the old shoe factory on the edge of our neighbourhood. It had been the source of a lot of jobs in the area until the owner bought a couple of Mechanicals. He’d taken a lot of shit for his decision, so much so that he’d moved out of the area months ago. But people needed shoes, and so the factory carried on. Two Mechs doing the job of forty people.

  “What happened?”

  “No one knows. But apparently there was a bit of a mob. Old factory workers.”

  Of course there was a mob. The question was what came first, the mob or the ‘malfunctioning’ mech. I was just about to reply to Debs when a shout further up the hall echoed off the metal lockers.

  “Hey! Hey, I’m talking to you, you stupid machine.”

  I turned in time to see one of the guys from my class lob a bottle at the back of the janitorial Mechanical. The bottle shattered but the machine didn’t even stumble. It also didn’t look round, didn’t react at all.

  The guy hefted another bottle. “I said, I’m talking to you. One of your buddies killed my uncle.” The second bottle smashed against the Mechanical’s head, and it came to a halt, rocking on its heels.

  As it turned slowly to face the boy, I darted down the corridor, ignoring Debs’ shout.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I yanked another projectile out of the guy’s hand just as he moved to throw it. “That one didn’t have anything to do with your Uncle’s death. It’s just a janitor. It cleans the floors.”

  “Why are you defending it, huh?” He stepped right up to me, getting in my face, but I forced myself not to step back.

  “’Cos she’s practically one of them,” another voice shouted. “She’s got a metal heart. And who knows what else. Mech lover.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I just don’t see the point of hurting – “ I knew my mistake the second the word slipped out of my mouth.

  “Hurting? It’s a machine. It don’t feel pain, you dumb bitch.” He grabbed me by the front of my shirt, practically lifting me off my feet. “Not like my Uncle. He burned to death. That’s pain.” He shoved me. Hard. I fell into a locker, cracking my head as I crumpled to the ground.

  “Ellie?” Debs was at my side in a second, helping me sit up. As I tried to stand she held me down. “Don’t. Leave it.”

  The guy smirked at me and turned back to the janitor. It hadn’t moved since it had turned around, its strange eyes fixed on Denny.

  “It was wrong to hurt the girl.” I’d never heard the Mechanical speak before. It didn’t really need to. But its voice was strangely soft, despite the clipped, precise way it spoke.

  Denny rolled his eyes and snatched the bottle off the ground. I struggled to my feet, shaking Debs off, but I was too slow. Denny swung the bottle, smashing it into the Mechanical’s face. Blood, what looked like real human blood, poured from a dozen deep gashes. I knew it was just an effect, a design feature, but it made my stomach heave.

  The Mechanical lifted one hand to its face, and then looked at the blood on its fingers almost curiously. Then I saw what I’d been waiting for, even if I hadn’t known it at the time. The circuits in its eyes flickered, dimming for just a split second, before blazing back to life. Its hand flew out, snatching Denny by the front of his shirt. Pulling him forward.

  It felt like it was happening in slow motion. I was moving, but too slowly. Far too slowly. The Mechanical’s other hand came up. A sickening crack echoed down the corridor, and Denny dropped in a crumpled heap on the floor.

  The shock hit me like a sledgehammer. It had snapped Denny’s neck. Like it was no thicker than a pencil. Without hesitation, without remorse.

  No one moved. No one made a sound. We were all too shocked, too stunned to think properly. But I came to my senses just as the Mechanical took a step forward, its eyes fixed on Pete, who had been stood next to Denny. Who had laughed when Denny had swung the bottle.

  “Run,” I screamed as I barrelled into the boy, shoving him in front of me as we pelted down the corridor. Debs was at my side, and all around us were the sounds of screams and running footsteps as people shook off their bewilderment, as the reality hit them.

  Debs, Pete and I thre
w ourselves into an open doorway, slammed the door and began piling desks and chairs in front of it.

  “Will that keep it out?” Pete asked as we stepped back from our makeshift barricade.

  I glanced at Debs behind his back. Her eyes pleaded with me, begging me to say yes.

  “Probably not. Mechanicals are insanely strong. Even a basic model like this one.”

  Debs sunk down against the far wall. “This is not how I planned on going out. I planned on at least drinking legally before I died.” Tears glistened in her eyes despite the forced bravado.

  Distant screams echoed down the corridor outside. They weren’t screams of fear, they were screams of pain. Horrible, terrible pain. I sunk down next to Debs and buried my face in my knees. How had this happened? Why was it happening?

  Heavy footsteps stopped outside the door and the handle jiggled, shifting the pile of furniture.

  “Oh god, oh god, oh god.” Pete stumbled backwards, eyes wide with fear.

  Part of me want to tell him it served him right. If he and his dumb friends had just left the Mechanical alone none of this would have happened. But that wasn’t strictly true. If there was something wrong with them, some kind of malfunction, some reason they were breaking their programming then it was only a matter of time before they all turned into raging homicidal maniacs.

  The next second my ears picked up the most wonderful sound I’d ever heard. Sirens and the beat of a ‘copter.

  I scrambled up and threw open the window. Police cars, militia jeeps and two ‘copters were heading our way. Someone had obviously gotten the word out.

  The Mechanical obviously heard them too. He stopped trying to force the door and footsteps pounded away. Moments later I saw it come running out of the main doors below me. He stopped when he saw the forces waiting for him. I expected him to simply charge at them, mindless of his own destruction. But he didn’t. He dropped to his knees, hands above his head. Surrendering. What? Why? My brain jammed. Malfunctions didn’t just correct themselves like that.

  A barrage of bullets pounded into him. His body jerked like a puppet on a string and then he went limp. Collapsing to the ground.

  Any chance of the Government keeping the malfunctioning Mechanicals under wraps died that day. By the time we were finally escorted out of the building by armed police the school was surrounded by news vans and hundreds of strangers.

  Three kids were dead.

  That fact didn’t seem able to sink into my brain. It kept swimming round and round. Three kids I’d known since our first day. Three kids I hadn’t particularly liked, but I still couldn’t accept that they were dead.

  “Are you ok?” Debs and I sat on the low wall at the front of the school. Afraid we might go into shock, paramedics draped blankets over our shoulders, and the school nurse had brought round cups of hot tea. Around us it seemed like the whole world was buzzing with gossip, but I hadn’t said a word.

  I watched the steam rising off my tea and nodded. “I think so.”

  “I think I nearly crapped myself,” Debs said in a low voice. “I’ve never been so scared in all my life. That thing just – “

  I nodded, not needing her to remind me.

  “What happened to it?” She pressed, twisting on the wall so she could look at me properly even as she dropped her voice. “How could it – ?”

  “I don’t know. It shouldn’t have been able to. But it’s happening everywhere. The Government’s trying to keep it quiet, but – “

  “Ellie?” My mum’s voice drifted across the car park and I looked up. She stood next to a silver grey car, with a dour faced driver by her side. She didn’t seem in a hurry to come and get me so I stood up, shedding the blanket and placing my now cold tea on the wall.

  “I better go.”

  “See you tomorrow?”

  I shrugged. “If they open the school tomorrow.” Both our gazes flicked towards the black body bags still lying on the lawn. The coroner hadn’t made it to pick them up yet.

  Debs reached out and grabbed my hand, and when I looked down at her I realised just how frightened she was. The attack might have been over, but there were other Mechanicals out there. Thousands of them. Working in every area of industry. There were even home security Mechanicals, and personal cleaners. If they all started to malfunction – I shoved the thought away. I couldn’t start thinking like that. If I did the fear would cripple me. I couldn’t live like that.

  “It’ll be all right, Debs,” I told her as firmly as I could. Though I don’t think I was as convincing as I hoped. “Just – stay home tonight, yeah?” I knew she liked to go partying, even on school nights. It was better than being at home, she said.

  “No fear.” She winked, back to the old Debs.

  I squeezed her hand one last time and headed across the carpark to the waiting car.

  My mother had already climbed back in by the time I reached it, and sat tapping on her tablet as I slid in beside her.

  “Let’s go home shall we?”

  I stared at her. “No ‘I’m so glad you’re safe, darling’? Or, ‘we were so worried about you’?”

  She cocked one perfectly manicured eyebrow at me and tipped her tablet towards me so that I could see the screen. “I’d have known the second you were hurt.” There on the screen, plodding along nicely, were my vital signs. Or at least, my blood pressure and respiration. There wasn’t a heartbeat as such. After all, my heart didn’t beat, not properly anyway. But there was the glowing green symbol that showed it was operating at peak efficiency. As it had been for fourteen years.

  I shivered. I hated that they had access to all my data. It was creepy and weird. Mostly since Debs had pointed out once that if I ever got around to going beyond kissing a guy, my parents would probably think I was dying or my heart was malfunctioning and send in the paramedics.

  “Just because I wasn’t injured doesn’t mean I’m OK,” I mumbled under my breath. But Mum wasn’t paying any attention anymore.

  I sunk down in my seat, glaring at the back of the driver’s headrest all the way back home. Not that there was much that was homely about it, I thought as we stepped into the lift. We occupied the entire top floor of a skyscraper. It was all marble and chrome. And I despised it.

  My Dad wasn’t there when we got in. Not that I expected him to be. He was never home. Whatever he did for the Government, and I never cared enough to ask, kept him away a lot. He would creep into the house in the early hours, reeking of stale coffee and cigarette smoke. Whatever it was he did, he always looked exhausted.

  But working for the Government was stable, unlike most jobs in our bottomed out economy. Not that we needed money. Dad had inherited a bucket load from my Gran when she died. Old money. The only kind that was left really. I guessed that was why he was so anti my career choices. I wanted to go into robotics, to be an engineer or programmer. He wanted me to go into the government or marry well. Both options turned my stomach.

  As soon as Mum headed for her bedroom, I grabbed the TV remote and flicked the channels until I found a news station. Not that I expected much honesty. The government exercised a pretty tight control over the media. So I was a little surprised to find the Mechanicals as the top story.

  I perched on the edge of the couch as the newscaster spoke.

  “And our top story again this afternoon. The Government has finally confirmed what many of us have feared for some time. A fatal flaw in the design of the Mechanicals has been revealed. After a tragic incident at a city school today, the Minister for Robotics made a statement.”

  The screen changed and a tall, thin faced man stood at the bottom of a wide set of stone steps. Armed guards were arrayed behind him, but I wasn’t sure if they were guarding the way in, or the way out.

  “We regret to inform the public that despite all the best efforts of the researchers and scientists at Genesis Labs, the Mechanical failure appears to be spreading. It has been decided that all private models and units must be recalled to the Department or
Genesis immediately for decommission. If you are in possession of a Mechanical unit, please deliver it without hesitation to one of our depots. If you know of anyone who refuses to hand in a Mechanical Unit, please inform your local law enforcement immediately – “

  The remote disappeared out of my hand and the TV clicked off. My Dad stood over me, his face pale and wan.

  “I don’t think we need to watch that.”

  “But – “

  “No. Ellie. Please go to your room.” Dad turned as Mum came back out of her bedroom. “Your mother and I need to have a discussion.”

  I glowered at them, but snatched my rucksack off the ground and stalked off to my room. The second I had the door closed I pulled out my tablet and connected to the internet.

  I knew most of the websites Will frequented, and most of them buzzed with the news of the Mechanical malfunction. There were already more cases of people taking their destruction into their own hands. Mobs were attacking any Mechanical they could find. Unfortunately, in most cases, the Mechanicals were stronger. Deaths were creeping up.

  There were cases all across the country. The army had been called in to deal with three Mechanicals holed up in a factory in the north. One of the food production sites. They’d burnt the place to the ground before they’d been apprehended.

  On the coast another Mechanical had gone on a rampage, this time in a shopping centre. It had killed almost fifty people before it had been stopped.

  It felt, and the thought sent a shiver down my spine, coordinated. Almost planned. For years religious groups had been arguing that the Artificial Intelligence of the Mechanicals bordered on sentience, but had they finally crossed that line? Had they begun thinking for themselves? If you create a machine that can learn and build on its own programming, how much of a leap is it to believe that they could actually start thinking?

  The very idea was terrifying. Was this something more than just a design flaw? If they had become sentient then what was happening to them was terrible. But if they were planning these attacks, seeking some kind of revenge against those who had ‘enslaved’ them, then that was terrible too.