Alliance (19 page)

I have to admit, she has a point. Without
her guidance, I likely will end up freezing and being buried under
the snow, lost forever. These mountains are big and easy to get
lost in, even with the map in the mobile Database to guide me. It
makes sense to accept this vampire's offer, then, although I keep
my guard up nonetheless, just in case she is planning to betray or
harm me.

So I nod and say, “All right. I will go
and see what I can do about these beings, whoever they are. Will
you lead me to them?”

The arctic vampire smiles. “Of course. The
storm is dying down, so soon it will be safe for us to travel. We
can leave in about ten minutes.”

***

Chapter
9

T
en minutes later, just as the
arctic vampire says, the blizzard is gone. I find it puzzling how
quickly the blizzard disappears, but the mobile Database does say
that Winterlands blizzards can leave just as quickly as they come.
It is part of the unpredictability of the Winterlands, I
suppose.

What is even more puzzling is how the
arctic vampire predicted when it would be safe enough to travel.
This may be due to her growing up here, or it may be another
mysterious ability of her species. I cannot tell for sure, but it
is worth noting nonetheless.

Once the arctic vampire confirms that the
storm is over, she leads me out of the cave. We emerge back into
the valley from before, only now the ground is covered in even more
snow. It is still nowhere near as deep as the snow above, but it is
slightly harder for me to traverse than it was several hours
ago.

As I follow the arctic vampire to the
south, I glance up at the tops of the walls around us. The sky
above is still gray with clouds, although the arctic vampire
assures me that it will not snow again for a few more days at
least.

But the current weather conditions are
hardly on the top of my list of priorities to worry about. I am
more interested in finding out how the battle between the
Foundation and Reunification ended or if it is still ongoing. That
blizzard must have affected the course of the battle. Maybe it
forced Reunification's army to retreat or maybe it helped them
win.

In any case, I suppose this will not
matter in the long run. Once the arctic vampire shows me where the
invaders are, it will hopefully not be long before I return to
Xeeo, where I can finally reunite with the Database and clear my
name.

As we walk, I realize that I do not know
the arctic vampire's name. It may be unimportant to know, but I
like to have complete information on my allies, or at least as much
information as I can realistically gather, anyway.

So I say to the arctic vampire, “I do not
recall you telling me your name earlier.”

“
Do you
need
to
know it?” says the arctic vampire without looking at me. She is a
little ahead of me, moving across the snow with more grace than
I.

“
Technically, no,” I
say. “But even so, I like to know the proper names of things and
people. It makes it easier to sort and search for things in my
memory.”

“
Too bad,” says the
arctic vampire. “Arctic vampires do not give out their names to
just anybody. You must first earn our trust, and then we give it to
you.”

She stops and glares at me from over her
shoulder. “I thought you knew that, since you machines seem to know
everything already.”

“
Well, we do not know
everything
,” I say, stopping so I do not walk into her. “We
know only as much information as has been collected by the millions
of individuals across both worlds who painstakingly cataloged it
for us over the century since the two worlds were connected.
Besides, no one knows much about you arctic vampires anyway due to
your reclusive and anti-social natures.”

“
We prefer to keep it
that way,” says the arctic vampire, turning away from me and
resuming her trek across the snow-laden earth. “The rest of the
world could burn for all I care, although I suppose if that
happened then there would be much less blood for me to
drink.”

I resume walking after her, but say
nothing. If she is unwilling to tell me her real name—an odd aspect
of arctic vampire culture that not even the Database says anything
about—then she is unwilling to tell me, plain and simple. I am not
interested in forcing her to tell me; besides, from a strictly
practical point of view, I do not need to know her name anyway. It
is not like there are any other arctic vampires to confuse her
with, anyway.

The further down this canyon that we
travel, the less snow there is, until soon there is only rocky,
frozen earth, with patches of snow here and there. Near the tops of
the walls on either side, I spot what appear to be cave mouths and
occasionally see movement within, but it is impossible to tell what
creatures the movements belong to.

After about an hour or so of walking, the
arctic vampire stops and says, “Did you hear that?”

I stop as well and listen. My audio
receptors at first pick up nothing except the howling wind above,
but soon I hear it: The sound of construction equipment—a drill,
most likely—tearing through the earth nearby. I increase the range
of my audio receptors and soon hear the creaking of a crane, the
shouts of workers, and a minor explosion going off.

I look at the arctic vampire. “What is
that noise?”

She glares at me. “The invaders, you dumb
machine. They have big equipment they use to make loud noise and
destroy the earth. I don't know what they're digging for, but
they've been at it for months and I hear this sort of thing almost
every time I come near their dig site, even in the middle of the
night.”

“
Months,” I repeat.
“Well, now that I can hear them, I think I should be able to find
their base on my own. You do not need to lead me any further; I can
handle the rest of this journey myself.”

“
Fine,” says the arctic
vampire. She shudders. “I don't like going near those beings,
anyway. They would kill me if they saw me. They always kill
us.”

“
After I deal with them,
should I return to your cave?” I say. “Or will you come to
me?”

“
You can return to my
cave,” says the arctic vampire. “After you handle these invaders,
come back to my cave and I will tell you the location of the
nearest Portal that will take you back to Xeeo, as part of our
deal.”

“
I expect you to uphold
your end of the agreement,” I say. “Because if you do not, then I
doubt either of us will be very happy about it.”

The arctic vampire smiles, revealing her
long, sharp fangs again. “Unlike most Delanians, we arctic vampires
have little use for things like 'contracts' and 'agreements,' but I
do keep my word. I guarantee it.”

I nod, although I still do not trust her
entirely, knowing the deceptive nature of arctic vampires. “Fine. I
will make this quick because I do not want to waste any more time
than I have.”

I turn to resume walking, but before I do,
the arctic vampire says, “Machine, wait.”

I look over my shoulder at her.
“What?”

“
I just thought you
should know that one of my fellow arctic vampires, Kalcan, is
working with the invaders,” says the arctic vampire. She says the
name
Kalcan
like it is a slur. “He is a traitor and the only
vampire those killers have ever spared. But he is also even more
powerful than your average arctic vampire, so watch
out.”

“
Why are you telling me
about him?” I ask. “And why did you give me his name? I thought
arctic vampires are supposed to only give out their names to those
that they trust.”

“
Because Kalcan is a
traitor,” says the arctic vampire. She scoops some snow off the
ground and crushes it in her hand. “He's no longer one of us. I
want you to kill him if you see him. Let him know what the rest of
us arctic vampires think about him working with the
enemy.”

She speaks so viciously that I am almost
taken aback. Something about her tone tells me that this Kalcan's
betrayal is more personal than she is making it out to be—maybe he
had been a close friend of hers—but the exact nature of his
betrayal is irrelevant to my current situation, so I do not ask
about it.

I simply nod and say, “If I run into
Kalcan, I will be sure to let him know your feelings about
him.”

“
Good,” says the
vampire. “Now go, machine, and rid our land of these invaders, just
as you promised. And if you don't, then I will get to you well
before the invaders do.”

I nod once more and turn to leave again
before remembering something else I need to ask her.

So I turn around once more, saying, “By
the way—”

But the vampire is nowhere to be seen.

-

Not long after we separate, I crest a hill
and discover the dig site that the arctic vampire told me about. It
is a massive pit in the earth—so deep and dark that I cannot see
its bottom—that appears to have been dug out by heavy machinery. It
is the largest and deepest pit I have ever seen, even bigger than
the ore mines north of Xeeon, which makes me wonder what these
people are digging for.

But I do not really have an opportunity to
look as much as I like because I am not alone here. Large
machinery, such as a giant crane on the other side of the pit, is
operated by dwarves, although some of the equipment is clearly
automated, such as a mechanical lift that allows the workers to
rise up and down the pit easily.

I crouch behind a gathering of rocks and
snow as low as I can, which allows me to remain hidden from the
workers while still being able to see them. That drilling sound is
closer than ever and appears to be coming from the massive pit.
Even so, the echoing of the sound off the pit walls and the
surrounding mountains makes it impossible for me to determine the
pit's exact depth.

Near the crane is a box-shaped building
that is clearly meant to be temporary, based on how flimsy its
materials appear. Its roof is covered with snow, although one of
the dwarfish workers, armed with a shovel, is shoveling the snow
off as quickly as he can.

The temperature around here is much warmer
than the rest of the mountains by at least twenty degrees, although
it is hardly burning hot. I suspect that the presence of so much
machinery and equipment is contributing to the warmer temperatures.
Still, all of the workers are wearing thick clothes, which makes
sense even with the warmer temperatures.

I search for a company logo of some kind
among the equipment and the workers, but I see nothing at all. It
is like they are hiding their logo to prevent anyone from
identifying them, which is an illegal move under the Business Logo
Act, which is supposed to punish this tendency for certain
businesses to hide their logos when they are performing illegal
deeds.

I am not sure that this dig is even legal.
My knowledge of Delanian law is not as complete as Xeeonite law,
but if these invaders do not have a permit of some sort that grants
them permission to dig here, then that alone will help me take them
down. Perhaps I should search for whoever is in charge here and
tell them that what they are doing is illegal.

But then I remember what that arctic
vampire told me earlier, about these invaders slaughtering the
arctic vampires who tried to stop them. If they are willing to kill
so many dozens of lives in order to secure this place, then I doubt
these invaders are the kind who are afraid of one robot threatening
to arrest them for their illegal behavior.

I therefore must gather as much
information on them as I can first. That office building, the
temporary-looking one, looks like a good place to start, as that is
probably where the foreman is and where they keep all of their
records on this dig and every worker who is a part of it, including
any permits or licenses given to them by the government of the city
of Delig or some other Delanian city..

That means I will need to sneak over there
carefully, however. I cannot allow anyone to see me, otherwise they
will sound an alarm and I will be found and caught. Stealth has
never been my strong suit, but we J bots can be stealthy when
necessary, so I will simply have to do my best.

I soon spot a route that will take me to
the office building without being seen by any of the workers.
Keeping as low to the ground as possible, I make my way behind the
line of rock and snow leading from my current position all the way
to the office building. It appears this wall is made of earth and
rock dumped from the dig, although I do not stay still long enough
to scan it because I do not want to waste time examining things
that are irrelevant to the success of my mission.

I stop when a drone—a small, flying
machine that resembles a flying security camera—soars by a little
too close to my path. I crouch as low as I can behind the line of
rock and snow, but I still think the drone will see me, although
thankfully the drone does not fly overhead and instead goes flying
in the opposite direction away from me.

Looking over the low wall, I see that
there are in fact many similar drones flying around the pit,
although they appear to be focusing most of their attention on the
pit itself rather than on its perimeters. While I find it odd that
a Delanian company uses these drones, considering how most
Delanians tend to be distrustful of Xeeonite technology of any
sort, it does make some sense, as these drones probably take
pictures and video to allow the diggers to gain a bird's eye view
of their work. No doubt they also make sure that the workers are
not slacking off, in addition to keeping an optic out for anyone
who should not be here, like me.