A Sneak Peek at “Kaitiaki” – Book 3 of the Watchers Trilogy

Imperium Training Programme

Date: 1982-05-16

Time: 01:04

Subject: MENTIS

Session: Heavy Training Module [3]

‘Very good, Mentis. This session is complete.’

She jumped at the voice. A man’s. Slimy, she thought. Her sights shifted from the convulsing hulk of a machine at her feet to the glaring white walls that caged her. She couldn’t see where the voice was coming from.

‘Let me out.’

‘We will, Mentis,’ said the slimeball, wherever he was. ‘You need to calm down first.’

She returned to the machine, wires sparking at the place its head should have been, and held out a hand. It helped her focus her thoughts, point them in the right direction. With a mental flex, the giant metal corpse lifted, a marionette on invisible strings, which she hurled at one of the great white walls. Metal and electricity exploded, charring the smooth surface, and she roared again, ‘Let me out!’

Movement, in the centre of the room; a round capsule was rising from the floor.

‘Mentis, we just need you to get into –’

She was already heading for the capsule, visualising the cylinder of steel and glass ripping itself from the floor. A second later it did, jerking free to hover in mid-air.

‘Mentis, what are you –’

She flung the scrap away, breaking for the hole in the floor just as an alarm pierced her ears. There was a brief reprieve from it as she jumped into the hole, hitting the ground metres below and forcing open the door barring her way. The alarm hit her again, only fuelling her anger, and she clambered out to find herself in a long, narrow tunnel. She charged down it, seeing an intersection ahead –

Another robot blocked her way. This one was smaller than the one she had just decapitated, though similar in appearance; plated with dull grey metal, its joints and limbs angular, its face blank save for two round unblinking eyes.

It wasn’t in her way for long. With a telekinetic punch it was shunted into the opposite wall of the next passageway, which, she found upon entering it, was huge. To either side of her were identical tunnels she assumed led to more rooms like the one she had just escaped. About halfway down the immense passageway she spotted another corridor and made for it, wheeling around the corner to be met by three more of the robots.

‘How do I get out of here?’ she demanded of the one she left standing. It stared at her dumbly and she slammed it against the wall, repeating her question. When it still didn’t answer, she ripped it in half with a thought and ran on, soon hitting the end of the corridor where an elevator awaited her. She opted for the stairs beside it, leaping up them two at a time until she burst into another corridor, this one filled with paths on either side. She took one at random, racing past doors, until something caught her by the foot and sent her skidding across the floor – a steel band wrapped around both her ankles.

‘That’s enough,’ said a voice.

She lifted her eyes to see a woman, not much older than herself, standing at the end of the passage. The stranger was dressed something like a martian – a tight silver outfit with a black “W” around its waist, steel bands similar to the one around her own ankles lining the woman’s forearms.

‘Get away from me,’ she threatened as the stranger advanced. The band around her ankles was locked tight, so she envisioned it peeling open, mentally forcing the solid metal to unwrap itself.

‘Stop!’ the stranger shouted, running towards her.

But she was already free; with a flick of her wrist the band flew at the stranger, hitting her square in the forehead, then she was on her feet, sprinting down the corridor. She needed to get out of this rat-warren, out into free space, somewhere with objects she could use to aid her –

With a blow that took her breath away, another droid blindsided her, pinning her to the wall. She made to force the thing off her but it wouldn’t budge; its mechanical fingers were clenched around her wrists, locking her against the wall. She searched desperately for something to help her, seeing only the other woman closing in, hands outstretched. The droid seemed to grow heavier, pressing against her with more strength than its scrawny frame should have been capable of. She was struggling to breathe, fighting with everything she had, but whatever strange power the woman had over the droid was stronger than her telekinesis. She wouldn’t give in to these people, wouldn’t let them beat her…

Release – the weight lifted and she heard a crash. Opening her eyes, she saw the droid in a broken, crumpled heap some distance from her.

‘Netica, stand down.’ Another voice – this one, a man’s. She tensed, turning to face the newcomer as her pursuer obeyed the command. He wasn’t much older than the other woman, approaching her with hands held open, submitting himself to her mercy.

‘Māia,’ he said softly, ‘I know you want answers.’

She shook herself. She could tell by the voice that he wasn’t the slimeball ordering her around in the white room. But she had no reason to trust this one, either.

‘I want to know what the hell is going on,’ she said.

The man took a step forward. ‘Then I can help you.’

She scanned him up and down. She thought she could take him; although toned muscle showed through his simple grey top, he wasn’t much taller or bigger than she was. She imagined herself throwing him her out of her way and fighting on until she found freedom. But the crumpled droid remained in her sights; the other woman had had some sort of special power like her own – magnetic, by the looks – so did that mean this man did, too?

He had crossed the remaining distance between them while she pondered. She threw out a hand and the man bowed his head.

‘My name is Michael,’ he said. When she didn’t react, he added, ‘If you let me, I can tell you everything you want to know.’

Slowly, he lowered one of his hands and offered it to her. She looked from it to him, seeing something in his emerald eyes she couldn’t explain. Finally, it seemed, someone who understood her. She took his hand.