Toys - James Patterson [72]
Suddenly a vicious rrrhhh erupted behind me—a growl like from a savage beast that’s ready to feed. I whirled to face Metallico, who was charging with his steel fingers ready to pierce through my body like spikes.
“Traitor!” the robot yelled. “Human turd!”
“Nice mouth,” I said. “There are children here, you know.”
Chapter 98
I BARELY MANAGED to twist myself sideways, just in time to avoid being severely maimed or possibly killed. Metallico’s rigid and powerful hand raked across my chest, slashing through an inch of flesh and scraping my rib bones raw.
As the powerful and determined robot lunged past me, I pivoted and kicked his legs out from under him, watching as he sailed headlong into the wall and then crashed down to the floor.
But he sprang right back up and at me again, still snarling that ugly rrrhhh.
Deactivation Mode, hell! I thought. The only way to deactivate that berserk hunk of silicone was to bust him up into byte-sized scraps. I’d been right all along that something was seriously scrambled in his wiring.
Now it flashed through my mind that maybe it was no accident—and that Lizbeth had secretly modified him to protect herself and the girls from me.
My darling wife wasn’t standing still either—she’d taken off running toward the kitchen. “Leave me alone, Hays,” she called over her shoulder. “I’m warning you.”
I couldn’t let Lizbeth go, so I grabbed the granite-topped coffee table and slammed it into Metallico’s very thick skull. Then I went after Lizbeth. Though not as physically ferocious as Metallico, she was still just as dangerous.
But the robot was on me before I could get to her, and the two of us went into mortal-combat mode again. I was hammering him with fists and elbows and knees, while slipping like a snake to dodge his gouging fingers. The wounds from where he’d already raked me were streaming blood now, slicking my skin and staining my shirt bright red.
Through the blur of his attacking parts, I could see Lizbeth literally tearing at the kitchen wall. What in hell is she doing now?
Good God! She was yanking loose the controlled-fusion unit that powered all the appliances in the apartment. If she touched me with the feed-out prong, I’d be fried to cinders.
“Lizbeth—you wouldn’t!” I called to her.
“I certainly will. Watch me!”
Chapter 99
I CAUGHT METALLICO’S wrist in my hands, clamped down on it with a viselike grip, and leaped up in a double backflip. Strong as he was, the torque was too much for him—I tore his arm loose at the shoulder, leaving it hanging by a single cluster of wire, which I then ripped away.
“Hays!” the robot groaned. “How could you?”
The kitchen lights flickered, and the appliances bleeped as their backup batteries kicked in—Lizbeth now had a seriously deadly weapon in her hands!
I clobbered Metallico across the head with his own arm, then hurled it like a spear at my wife—just as she was swinging the power unit around toward me.
Metallico’s spiky fingers pierced and drove through her upper arm, pinning Lizbeth to the kitchen wall. Talk about domestic squabbles.
She shrieked with pain and fury, and the power unit went clattering across the floor. I scooped it up just in time to meet Metallico’s next charge.
I rammed the feed-out prong right into his chest.
Ssssssttt! Ssssssttt! Ssssssttt! The sound was like a giant bug repeatedly hitting a red-hot grill. Very satisfying.
You’re deactivated now, you homicidal sonofabitch, I thought.
I shoved the shell of the pesky robot out of my way, leaving the prong embedded in his melting torso. Then I turned back to Lizbeth.
She was still struggling to free herself from the wall, and her flesh was starting to bleed. But the wounds weren’t serious, and whatever qualms I’d had about fighting her were quickly gone.
In fact, I was grimly pleased—the shock and pain might make her more cooperative.
That was when I heard a familiar little voice scream, “Stop hurting Mommy!”
Just then, something completely unexpected and unrecognizable came hurtling through the