Robofight: E-Boy 2 Read online

  First published by Allen & Unwin in 2021

  Text copyright © Anh Do, 2021

  Illustrations by Chris Wahl, 2021

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or ten per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

  Allen & Unwin

  83 Alexander Street

  Crows Nest NSW 2065

  Australia

  Phone:(61 2) 8425 0100

  Email:[email protected]

  Web:www.allenandunwin.com

  ISBN 978 1 76087 785 9

  eISBN 978 1 76106 098 4

  For teaching resources, explore www.allenandunwin.com/resources/for-teachers

  Cover design by Jo Hunt and Chris Wahl

  Text design by Jo Hunt

  Set by Jo Hunt

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  ‘Come, one and all, to the Robofight Games!’

  President Bonner shouted into the microphone with all the gusto his short, round frame could produce. Thousands of people in the arena cheered and threw their hands in the air.

  Bonner smiled. All these cheering idiots, he thought. No wonder I could fool them enough to become president!

  He continued. ‘Look at these amazing pieces of robo-science! Over the next week, we’ll see them battle until only one remains.’

  Bonner motioned to six awesome-looking robots in the middle of the arena. Well, five awesome-looking robots and one that looked like a big metal soccer ball.

  No distance weapons were allowed in Robofight – no missiles, bullets or beams – which resulted in a frightening array of blades, clubs and even the occasional tentacle glinting in the sunlight.

  The tournament favourite was Harkland’s entrant, Arachnatron. Arachnatron was a two-metre-tall spider. Each of its eight legs was lined with razor-sharp barbs and ended with a heavy hammer.

  Where a real spider would have mandibles at its mouth, Arachnatron had two titanium-tipped drills.

  The robo-beast reared up and the crowd cheered, the Harkland supporters cheering the loudest.

  Each of the six robots stood on a round platform, while an eighth platform was empty. Bonner gestured towards it. ‘Our head technician apologises for the transport issues that have prevented our own Titus entrant being part of today’s ceremony.’ There were boos and jeers from the crowd, but Bonner forced his smile to stay in place. ‘Once again I say welcome, and good luck!’

  Bonner strode off the podium and grabbed an assistant by the elbow. ‘Has the lab communicated anything? Is it ready?’

  ‘Y-yes and no,’ the assistant stammered. ‘I mean, yes, we’ve heard from the lab, and no, it’s not quite—’

  Bonner snorted and stormed off.

  ‘No. Not here,’ said Penny.

  ‘Why not?’ Ethan pouted. ‘We deserve a bit of luxury – we’ve travelled almost three thousand miles in three days!’

  They’d taken buses and trains between small towns and walked when they had to, trying to avoid major cities and their surveillance cameras. Ethan had monitored the police networks for reports, so they knew if they had to change clothes, or avoid certain roads.

  At night they would slip into any motel that had electronic locks on the doors and find a vacant room. Sleep didn’t come easy.

  Less than a week earlier, Ethan had gone from teenage brain-tumour patient to superhuman with the power to hack any – every – electonic system by thought alone.

  Penny had gone from world-renowned surgeon and roboticist to fugitive, and her greatest creation, Gemini, had gone from soulless android healer to assassin.

  Ethan and Penny’s heads were spinning.

  Now, they stood at the main entrance of Lloyd Towers, the most luxurious hotel in the city.

  ‘We have to keep a low profile,’ Penny insisted. ‘We have to be average in everything we do, including where we stay … President Bonner will probably be staying here, with all of his security! We want to be close, to try to find out what he’s up to, but not that close.’

  Ethan didn’t answer. It annoyed him that she was right.

  Penny gave a sympathetic smile. This had to be tough on someone Ethan’s age. ‘What’s nearby that isn’t quite so flashy?’

  Ethan closed his eyes, and spread his mind through travel websites. As he searched, it was like looking at a roadmap of the city with every street drawn in shimmering silver. Hotels, motels, and anywhere offering a bed was a coloured dot on the map – and the colour was almost always red, for No Vacancy.

  ‘Everything is booked out. It’s the Robofight Games. Only the dingiest places in town have anything left.’

  Penny sighed. ‘Well, I guess we have no other choice.’

  ‘We could swap someone else’s booking for ours at one of the decent places,’ said Ethan.

  ‘That’s not fair on them,’ said Penny, trying to keep her tone from sounding too much like a scolding teacher’s. ‘We can’t just mess around with other people’s lives. We’ll make do.’

  ‘Make do?! You know how powerful I am! We don’t need to just make do!’

  Penny stopped worrying about her tone.

  ‘Ethan, every time we take something that isn’t ours, someone else suffers. Yes, you’re powerful, and that’s a lot to deal with, but that doesn’t give you the right to take whatever you want. The whole reason we’re here is because powerful people are doing what they have no right to. We’re trying to stop them, so we can bring your parents home and get our lives back, not be like them.’

  Ethan didn’t reply. Penny couldn’t tell if she’d gotten through. Then her phone beeped as an email confirming a booking at the Kwikstay Motel arrived.

  As well as the actual Robofights, the Games featured different events for countries to show off their mastery of robotics. The first was the Steeplechase, a five-hundred-metre hurdles race.

  Robots of various shapes and sizes from around the world had been entered – many of them were trying to imitate horses or other animals. But the winner, from Japan, was a simple X-shape that cartwheeled along the track.

  Just as the race finished, Ethan and Penny made their way into the standing-room section above the expensive arena-side seats. From where he stood, Ethan could see the windows of the boxes just below the stadium’s roofline. He could see the back of a TV camera in one. That’s probably the President, he thought. He looked up at the Channel 8 helicopter hovering over the arena.

  Ethan’s thoughts reached to the camera. Through the lens, he saw a pale, thin man, hair as black as his long coat. He was looking at a striking red-haired woman who was holding a microphone and talking. Ethan concentrated a little harder to hear what she was saying.

  ‘… first visit to this country and his first visit to the Robofight Games, the North King
dom’s enigmatic leader, William James. Mr James, welcome.’

  ‘Thank you,’ William replied, his voice chilling.

  ‘The North Kingdom has never entered the Robofight Games. Are you here because that’s about to change?’

  William smiled. ‘Perhaps. I’ve been invited to the Games each time, and thought it would be interesting to finally attend.’

  ‘Well,’ said the presenter, ‘we certainly hope you enjoy the Games.’ She turned to the camera. ‘The first bout is ready to start, so it’s back to the studio.’

  The signal from the camera went dead. Ethan’s thoughts snapped back into his own head as trumpets sounded around the arena.

  Huge red curtains parted at each end of the battlefield. At one end, a two-metre-tall cylinder scooted in on shielded wheels. Five sawblades wrapped around its exterior, spinning in an uneven pattern, threatening to shred anything that they touched. On top of the cylinder were six long metal tentacles.

  A voice boomed from the arena speakers. ‘The first entrant in this opening contest represents the Nations of the Arid Plains. This is … Nightmare!’

  That name fits, thought Ethan. That thing is terrifying!

  From the opposite end of the battlefield the oversized soccer ball rolled in, its surface smooth except for the outlines of hexagons and pentagons covering it.

  ‘The second entrant represents France. This is … Battle Moon!’

  Both robots made their way to the centre of the arena, stopping on marks ten metres apart.

  ‘At the sound of the horn, the contest will commence,’ said the announcer. ‘Good luck … aaaaand FIGHT!’

  The horn sounded, and immediately a pentagon on Battle Moon’s surface snapped open and a spike shot out, punching a hole in the base of one of Nightmare’s tentacles.

  It retracted just as quickly, the gap in Battle Moon’s surface closing in a blink. Battle Moon rolled backwards out of Nightmare’s reach as the damaged tentacle slumped against the cylinder’s side, and was immediately cut off by the spinning sawblades.

  Nightmare closed in, but the tentacles could not find anything to grab on Battle Moon’s surface. Battle Moon rolled to the side and another spike shot out, stabbing between the rotating blades and disappearing again. Nightmare kept approaching but its tentacles couldn’t catch hold of anything, and each time one of Battle Moon’s spikes tore a hole in Nightmare.

  The screens around the arena showed reaction shots from the crowd.

  Nightmare approached again, but this time when Battle Moon fired a spike out, one of Nightmare’s tentacles grabbed it. Battle Moon tried to reel it back in, but Nightmare’s grip was too strong. Out shot another spike, and another tentacle wrapped around it.

  The crowd could hear Battle Moon’s gears grinding as it tried to retract its spikes while Nightmare started to pull them wide, slowly bringing Battle Moon closer and closer to the sawblades.

  Sparks flew as the blades scratched into Battle Moon’s surface. The crowd watched on in a hush. Suddenly another spike shot out of Battle Moon, through a sawblade and into Nightmare. A motor in Nightmare gave a growling noise as it tried to keep spinning the stuck blade, but the spike stayed firm. Both robots shook, as the teams of technicians monitoring each of them watched them overheat.

  There was a loud BANG, a shower of sparks, and thick smoke rose from Nightmare as its tentacles slumped.

  Battle Moon pulled its spikes back and rolled away as Nightmare twitched, wobbled, and then fell with a thunderous CRASH.

  ‘The winner of the first contest,’ shouted the announcer, ‘is BATTLE MOON!’

  The crowd cheered as Battle Moon rolled back to its curtain. Members of Nightmare’s technical team drove a forklift onto the arena to carry the robot away.

  Ethan stood with his mouth open, then said, ‘That was amazing!’

  Penny frowned. ‘Seems like such a waste to me, to see two incredible pieces of technology do that to each other,’ she said. ‘But let’s get on with why we’re here. Can you find President Bonner?’ Ethan closed his eyes. ‘I can look through all the TV cameras to find him.’

  ‘His VIP box probably won’t have any,’ Penny said. ‘He’ll want some privacy away from the media … what about security cameras?’

  Ethan looked around and spotted a camera nearby. ‘Let’s see what I can do.’

  Ethan walked up to the closed-circuit camera and reached out, with his hand and his mind. He found the feeds from the VIP boxes and searched from one to the next. All he could see were the rich and famous, sipping champagne and mingling.

  After a few attempts, he looked into a room with four men inside. Three of them were in black suits – Ethan recognised Agent Ferris, and there were two other People’s Service Agents. The fourth man was President Bonner, talking to Ferris.

  Ethan could see the President’s lips moving but couldn’t hear anything. I guess this security camera doesn’t have a microphone, he thought. The President likes having secrets. Bonner looked annoyed.

  Ethan pulled his thoughts back just enough to see the flow of information along the camera network and pinpoint which box Bonner was in. He returned to his body and found Penny standing beside him.

  ‘He’s up in that one,’ Ethan said, pointing to a VIP box about eighty metres away.

  Penny led him into the stand, along a grey concrete corridor, up a set of stairs, slowing as they saw two agents standing guard. A beep sounded, and one of them grabbed a device from his hip to study the screen.

  ‘President is on the move,’ the agent said to his partner.

  Penny and Ethan glanced at each other. Ethan looked up and found another security camera, sending his thoughts through it back to the President’s VIP box, just in time to see the door close as everyone left.

  Ethan rode the data stream to the next camera and watched the President and his agents walking to an elevator. Agent Ferris slid a keycard into the slot beside the elevator door, which slid open, and all four men entered.

  Ethan whispered to Penny, ‘I saw where they went. We need to get past these guys.’

  ‘We can’t let any agents see us,’ said Penny. ‘What can we do?’

  Ethan focused on the agent, and the device he’d received the message on. His mind reached into its circuitry. The device beeped.

  The agent picked it off his belt. ‘The President wants us in his box, making sure it stays secure while he’s gone.’

  Ethan’s plan worked, as both agents left their post to move off in the direction of the VIP box. Ethan and Penny snuck around the corner to the elevator.

  ‘I don’t suppose we need a keycard,’ said Penny.

  Ethan just smiled as the door opened.

  The elevator took them down. And down. And down, deep underground.

  After what seemed like forever, the elevator opened to reveal a bright metal corridor. At the far end was a gleaming steel door. Ethan looked around, with his eyes and his powers, for any security cameras or other devices, but found nothing. He and Penny walked to the door and found a simple lock – one that needed a key, not a card, to open.

  Ethan pointed to the lock. ‘That’s a problem. I can’t do anything with that.’

  ‘Can you feel what’s on the other side?’ asked Penny.

  Ethan closed his eyes. After a moment he placed his hand on the door. He stood silent as Penny held her breath.

  ‘What can you see, Ethan?’

  ‘Nothing. No networks, no circuits, nothing.’ Ethan opened his eyes. ‘What … what do we do?’

  On the other side of the door was a long staircase carved from the rock underneath the stadium.

  At the bottom was another metal door with a traditional key lock. Past the door was a long room containing a tonne of lab equipment, being operated by four technicians working as hard as they could. There were also three agents, and one president who was puffing and panting.

  ‘Do we … puff … have to keep this … wheeze … so far down?’ said Bonner.

  �
�This hacker is amazing – we have to keep this place isolated,’ said Agent Ferris. ‘No systems running in or out.’

  ‘But I have to go back up all those stairs!’ said Bonner.

  ‘What about us? We have to go up and down them several times a day,’ said one of the technicians, Doctor Jakoby Ross, who was just as portly as the President.

  ‘Then stay down here and work! We need this thing ready,’ snapped Bonner. He pointed to the workbench in the centre of the room. Lying on the workbench was Gemini.

  ‘We’re close,’ said Ross. ‘Whatever happened in that car factory left Gemini in pieces. His hardware is working again, but his systems were scrambled. Part of the problem was using him as an assassin when his core programming was to heal people, but adding programs to fight other robots doesn’t clash. Of course a fight with a robot designed for nothing but combat will do more damage to a revolutionary—’

  ‘I get it, Doctor Ross,’ Bonner interrupted. ‘You don’t approve. You don’t have to approve to do your job. Will it be ready for tomorrow?’

  ‘We’re uploading more combat styles now,’ said Ross. ‘There’s a command that keeps popping up and slowing the process down, but that’s probably just a side-effect from the damage.’

  ‘I have to get back to the box for the next bout,’ said Bonner. He sighed at the thought of climbing all those stairs. ‘Get it done.’

  As Ferris unlocked the door, Bonner had one more question. ‘What’s the command that’s getting in the way?’

  ‘Terminate E-Boy. Whatever that means,’ said Ross.