Everyone braced themselves, but no shots came from inside the room. Instead, heavy metal footsteps clanked toward the door.
Bixby and Chance burped their submachine guns at the advancing robot. Bullets bounced off its chest as it rushed toward them.
“Danger! Intruders!”
“It’s unarmed!”
“I see that, Mr. Chance. Sergeant, if you please! Before it gets to the door!”
Rip nodded and bounded to his feet, running through the entrance at full speed.
Having practiced on the earlier robot, he knew what to do. He made a running jump at just the right moment, neatly pivoting onto the machine’s back.
“High school gymnastics paid off,” he muttered.
Rip quickly unbolted the foot-square access panel, hanging off the neck and weathering repeated blows by the robot’s arms. As soon as the third bolt plinked off, the panel swiveled down and he reached in to push the emergency off button.
The robot stopped, its gears and servos winding down. It bent over from the waist, arms hanging limp.
Rip sighed, feeling fresh bruises as he climbed down off the metal man while the others filed into the room.
“Fascinating!”
Oggolopoli ran over to the machine and pulled himself onto its back to peer inside at the circuitry.
“I say! Thermionic valves, just like the Hallwood T-1 tabulator uses. Absolutely fascinating!”
Bixby passed the robot by, heading for the huge folding gate taking up the entire back wall.
“Never mind that, Doctor. Let’s see if we can summon the lift and get us all safely out of here.”
Two big red buttons poked out of the wall on the right. Bixby punched in the top one with the palm of his hand. Somewhere in the shaft above, they heard distant gears whirring. Cables behind the collapsible gate began moving.
“I say, Sergeant! I would like to take this breadboard back home to study it. Hand me that enhanced wrench of yours, will you?”
Rip shrugged and pulled it out of his pocket, then placed the wrench in the doctor’s outstretched hand.
Oggolopoli’s muffled thanks came from within the cavernous torso of the robot.
“Sounds like they’ve discovered the laboratory, Colonel,” Blair said.
She stood halfway in the lift room and halfway in the hall, her rifle at the ready.
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“Right. Step inside and let’s try to relock that door.”
“That’s probably not going to happen,” Rip said. “Every one of them I’ve broken with that wrench no longer works quite right.”
“Very well. Is there anything we can use to jam it shut?
Everyone looked around the relatively small space. The only thing in there besides the team was the robot.
“Maybe we can move the automaton in front of the door?” Chance said.
A couple of cogs and several bolts and nuts flew out of the robot’s back as he said this, followed by a few choice words from Oggolopoli.
“I don’t think our guardian statue will be going anywhere soon,” Bixby said, drily. “Doctor, please hurry up. The lift will reach us any minute.”
“Just a little more time, Baron.” Oggolopoli’s voice echoed from inside the robot. “This breadboard is not so easy to extract.”
“I think they’re on to us,” Blair said at the door.
She cracked it open an inch and the sound of boots tromping down the hall filled the room.
“Definitely coming this way, Colonel.”
“Shut the door! Mr. Chance, Sergeant Coulter, go put your shoulders to it. I’ll hold the lift if it ever gets here.”
He turned and unlatched the folding gate, pulling the metal grate back. Something came up below, air rushing faster in the shaft as it rose.
The marching steps outside the door drew closer, now competing with sounds from the lift as it slowly rose to their level.
“Doctor Oggolopoli! I must insist you come down right now. We will be making a hasty exit.”
“Hold your horses, Swathmore! I’ve almost got this.”
The footsteps increased in volume. Louder . . . louder.
They stopped, right outside the door.
Chance and Rip stared at one another. They stood face to face, shoulders against the door with their legs braced.
Chance whispered, “Maybe they won’t—”
BLAM!
They both jumped as the door pushed in a couple inches. They shoved back, slamming the busted door home.
Someone, or perhaps multiple people, continued banging into the door on the outside. The two men struggled, but managed to keep it shut.
“At last!” Bixby said, as the top of the lift slowly rose, filling the shaft. Rip glanced over his shoulder and noticed it was a simple open-faced room, with a control box on the side. It had no doors, other than the collapsible grate Bixby shoved aside.
The box filled the space and jerked to a stop, bouncing slightly on the metal cables.
“Lady Brooke, into the lift! Doctor Oggolopoli, I say, man! Get out of that monstrosity and into the lift!”
Oggolopoli’s head popped out of the metal torso, followed by the breadboard filled with vacuum tubes. He raised it above his head in triumph.
“Right! We can go now, Baron!”
Carefully, he climbed down while trying not to break any tubes, holding onto the enhanced wrench at the same time. He hurried into the lift.
The pounding on the door continued, shoving it back a few inches each time. The troopers on the other side started pushing, applying steady pressure.
Rip and Chance pressed back with their leg muscles, but their feet slowly slid on the floor as the men outside kept pushing in.
“When you let go, run to the side so Lady Brooke and I have clear shots!”
Chance’s face looked red as he locked eyes with Rip.
He nodded and they both let go at the same time, diving to either side.
The door slammed open, crashing into the wall, and three Sewer Troopers stumbled in, wearing gas masks, gloves and trench coats.
Bixby slammed the bottom of his fist on the Up button. The lift lurched and started slowly climbing up. He and Blair opened up with their submachine guns on the men at the door.
Rip jumped up and ran, making an arc safely out of the line of fire. Chance scrambled to his feet and ran after them. The lift was half way up by the time they made it over, jumping in and rolling on the floor.
The troopers out in the hall recovered. They shot back, some taking cover under the bodies of recently fallen comrades.
Bixby and Blair dropped to the floor, and kept shooting, trading out magazine drums at the same time. Now only a foot of the lift was visible in the room, the empty shaft showing below it. They kept firing as it inched up, making the troopers dive for cover.