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Chapter 9

Stepping into the light was a young woman, barely into her teens I estimated, with pale red hair and skin as white as porcelain. She wore a long coat of stained white plastic, gaping open at the front and flowing behind her like a cloak. Her body looked to be covered in a rippling black plastic coverall of some kind, interspersed with splotches of gleaming metal and glowing red lights.

As she walked into the midst of the Redbacks the truth slammed home to me. She was covered from her neck to her toes in hundreds of tiny Skitterbugs, crawling and writhing over her flesh like a Queen Bee surrounded by her worker drones. With my enhanced sight I could see her eyes were pitch black, filled with the black oil that possessed any living being or mechanical. So could the Redbacks, who visibly recoiled at the sight yet were held by the power of Sung-Tae's will.

"Redbacks, please say hello to our most esteemed ally. This is Rachel MacPhee and she has complete control over the Skitterbugs" Sung-Tae paused to give a low bow to the new arrival, who tilted her young head in a show of modest deference to the Redback leader. "She will be helping us to take over the most valuable base of operations in the Deeps!"

"We're going to take over Deep Below?" Oscar queried his master uncertainly. "We don't need this kid's help to that!"

"Did I ever say I wanted Deep Below?" Sung-Tae answered in a silky, sly tone. "There is an even bigger prize, down in the Deeps, just waiting for us to take it"

"What is that, Boss?" asked one of the wary Redbacks.

"The Burrow" Bo Sung-Tae replied and grinned wolfishly at his assembled gang. "They are a bunch of farmers and pacifists, hiding themselves away from the world. Once we take control of their little nest, we'll be Masters of the Undercity!"

"But the Burrow has control of those tunnelling machines, Sung-Tae" Oscar ventured nervously. "Those things are dangerous if they use them against us"

"True, Oscar, very true" he conceded, still grinning hard. "That is where Miss MacPhee comes in. Why don't you show us all your newest pet, dear girl?"

Rachel nodded her head, still not having spoken a word, and raised a black encrusted hand in a beckoning gesture to the tunnel mouth she had entered from. That same low grinding noise I had heard before echoed from the dark opening and the Redbacks clustered in a worried group at the opposite side of the chamber, leaving the three captives and Sung-Tae in the centre.

I knew what it was before the chamber lights revealed it and Sami gasped in horror as the machine pushed itself into view. It was one of the tunnelling machines that were slaved to the Machine God of the Burrow, the front of the powerful mechanical a whirring series of near indestructible teeth, the body a series of heavily armoured segments and gripping claws to propel itself.

It was as broad as the tunnel it exited from, three metres in diameter and ten to twelve long. The armoured whirring mouth rose up as if tasting the air before coming to a rest at the side of Rachel MacPhee. She laid a black sheathed hand on its vibrating body, caressing it like the tunnelling machine were a pet dog or perhaps an inhuman lover.

There was one thing that set this machine apart from its brethren I had seen in the Burrow. The sensor eyes of this mechanical gleamed a glistening oily black, exactly the same as Rachel's did. I had no idea how she managed it but the powerful machine had been subverted into the biggest and deadliest Skitterbug yet.

"We haven't got a chance, David" Sami said, her voice low and filled with despair. "There are too many of them for us to fight. They are just too strong for you and me"

"So what do we do, Sami?" I asked her quietly. "Do we walk away and leave our friends to whatever Sung-Tae has in store for them? Do we leave Eleanor in the hands of that MacPhee girl to do what she wants with her?"