The Rocket
Chapter 4 Part 3
The city was huge. There were many skysc.r.a.pers towering in a row, and the roads intertwined. In this place that had flourished in the past, hundreds of thousands of people lived their hurried lives. But now, there was nothing left except for ruins. Half of the buildings were collapsed, blown out by the wind and the ground was covered in sand.
Angela entered the front door of one of these buildings. There was a reel of communication cable tied to her hip. This cable went out the front door. In Angela’s air was a wired headset.
“By the way, how do you know so much about rocket fuel?”
Her voice reached Dingo, who was sitting in the alley around the corner from the old building with a laptop. This cable was connected to the laptop. Touching the headset, Dingo answered, “I was just interested. There are many different books here on Earth.”
“Hmm.”
Angela remembered, how she read a book about s.p.a.ce technology in a car. She went through a pa.s.sage from an emergency ladder. There was a spiral staircase the ends of which were not seen. Exhausted, she began to climb.
“Since he’s going to use a rocket with a hybrid engine, collecting the raw materials wouldn’t be a problem for him. ABS plastic and acrylic resin are used in plastic bottles and car parts, as well as synthetic rubber. The ruins of the old world are full of these. But no oxidizing agents. To clean it, raw materials are needed. So I checked to see if anyone is constantly selling unusual chemicals. And this is the result.”
Heavily breathing while climbing the stairs, Angela said, “Incredible. You believed in this lie.”
“That is one of the possibilities, but also the most reasonable. In any case, we have no other options.”
“Well yes… Pioneer has been collecting ammonium nitrate for a long time now.”
“Someone hacked into Deva and is making plans to go to s.p.a.ce. And he is clearly not alone, since he has been acting for a long time. It is a well-organized organization, capable of collecting a large number of materials. This means that the plan was made many years ago. It is possible that this plan was being made not only before Deva but maybe even before the nano-catastrophe. And as they are working on their long-term project in secret, it’s clear that people from Deva knew nothing of this.”
“To invest so much time and money into nothing. What were they thinking? Are they okay?”
“Did you not hear the story of a postman who built a palace out of roadside stones?”
Angela stopped abruptly. The spiral staircase was broken. All the concrete crumbled from it, exposing the metal frame that could collapse at any moment. It was enough to just step to fall through. It was impossible to get through. There was only one way – down. There was a metal door. Opening it, a strong wind blew. Attached to the wall, there was another staircase. Angela looked up. The top floor was still far away. Sighing, she continued to climb.
“Oh my trusty guide, can I ask you a question?”
“Mhm.”
“Am I imagining things or have we switched roles?”
“You said that you wanted to explore from a height.”
“This is the most effective way.”
“Besides, I’m afraid of heights. I’ll get up, but then won’t be able to move. Don&
rsquo;t think badly of me.”
Having climbed up the emergency ladder, Angela noticed a stepladder. There were still ten metres left to the top, so it was impossible to get there without it. Cunningly she said to Dingo.
“You’re worthless.”
She finally got to the roof. She was breathing heavily, the climbing had exhausted her. The feeling of despair grew. She looked around. This was just an empty city. Angela took a break and, turning on her wrist computer, checked the direction with a digital compa.s.s. She opened up her backpack and took out a remote control camera. She connected it to the cable. Angela installed it on the roof fence. She told Dingo about this.
“I installed it. Can you see everything normally?”
Dingo confirmed the presence of a picture on the computer screen. With the help of the touchpad, he checked the functions of magnification and fixation.
“Perfect. The signal is good.”
Angela took a telescope from her hips and began to observe the ruins. There were no living souls seen, just sand-filled buildings. She was slowly changing the angle of inclination. On the road, surrounded by abandoned buildings, was some movement.
“Dingo, eight and a half hours.”
The rotation mechanism on the camera started working.
“I see it…”
The camera lense caught a working robot, moving along the road. He had two double arms and four legs.
“Wow,” Dingo said in surprise, “This is a working robot from before the nano-catastrophe. And it is still in working order.”
She started looking for the one that operated this robot, but saw no one.
“Autonomous?”
“No, it’s not that good. Remote control. Someone is directing him from a distance.
“Pioneer…”
“Perhaps.”
The roar of a truck’s engine was heard. Hearing it, Dingo hid in the shadows with his laptop. A truck slowly drove out from the rubble. Lazlo was behind the wheel.
“There he is. He came earlier than we thought.”
“I’m going down.”
She pulled out some rope and fasteners from her backpack. She attached the rope to the fence and to the descending device on her hip before beginning to descend from the building. Angela reached the ground almost immediately. She ran towards Dingo who was sitting with his laptop.
“Are you tracking him?”
“Yep. He arrived at the meeting place.”
Angela looked at the screen. The camera showed a large intersection between the skysc.r.a.pers. Lazlo’s truck was parked right there. The same robot they saw earlier stood in front of the truck. Picking up one of the manipulators, it signaled him to stop. More robots appeared on all sides of the truck. Some were of the same model and one was a large cargo model.
“How many are there…”
“Don’t ask me. Plus, these aren’t just the older models. He built them from different parts. He must have access to the old technologies.”
“Do you have any idea of who could’ve done this?”
“Not at all. These days, anyone that can restore these robots could easily become a king around here. But he’s just hiding and suspiciously building something…”
Dingo made a serious face.
“He’s a real villain.”
Lazlo climbed out of the car with a briefcase. The robots surrounded him. Lazlo raised his hands, to show that he wasn’t hiding anything. There was a fake smile on his face, hiding his fear. No matter how many times he came here before, he still couldn’t get used to these strange robots. He put the briefcase on the ground and opened it to reveal a white container full of ammonium nitrate.
One of the robots stepped forward and a.n.a.lyzed the contents through its camera. It pulled out a manipulator. It seemed that it was ready to accept the goods. Lazlo closed the briefcase and placed it on the manipulator. The cargo robot took the briefcase. Inside were electronic schemes and parts. He put it on the cargo platform.
“It’s just like Lazlo said.” Dingo said as he looked at the screen, “There’s n.o.body. The exchange was entirely handled by robots.”
“But why?”
“Who knows. Maybe he’s just shy.”
The robot with the briefcase started to leave. It went down into the subway near an intersection.
“What’s down there?”
“The entrance to the subway. There’s an underground railway system left from a long time ago.”
“Can people really still ride there?”
“Only robots can. Wow, they returned the railroad into working condition.”
“But it’s interesting, where will they take all this?”
“That’s true. But luck is finally shining upon us.”
He made a few operations and the screen changed from the camera to a signal transmitter. They were receiving a radio wave signal. Back in Lazlo’s store, when Dingo was touching the contents of the case, he placed a pulse transmitter wrapped in aluminum in the ammonium nitrate.
“Well… It was lucky that I had such an anachronism.”
“Quickly, follow him.”
Angela stood up. Dingo rose after her, unplugging the cable from the computer. They headed for the land rover parked nearby.