Thick angry smoke
Lurches above the train
And the engine wheezes
As it rests in the hot sun.
A woman slinks
From the passenger car.
She has no luggage
Except a small satchel
Held tightly to her side.
She has no one to greet her
Except strangers
Looking to make a buck.
This is a week earlier.
Before William Winter
Offers the job to Aki Monye.
Before Aki himself arrives in Lagos
And meets his friend Cittavata Nachiketa.
As Kaya Sabah arrives in Lagos,
William is just realizing she’s gone
And is looking for a trail.
Aki expects to be a rancher
Even though his land is hard and dry.
Cittavata has yet to run out of money
Building his latest invention.
As Kaya slips through the crowd
And the train terminal,
A coal brick of a man
Also steps off the train
Watching her with purpose
And rubs his chin with fingers
Like engine blocks.
Kaya moves quickly, but she avoids
Looking chased.
She has the misfortune to find
A quiet street near the terminal.
She knows there was a man on the train.
She knows he saw her get off.
But she doesn’t know,
Until those thick and hard hands
Grasp her shoulder in a crush,
That he’s right behind her.
His other hand moves to her satchel,
But she pulls it protectively
To her chest
Just as she deftly kicks backwards
And puts her foot deep
Into his guts.
Two of his fingers are about
All her hand can grab
As he doubles over.
Two fingers are enough to twist
And his hand
Then arm
Then torso go askew.
She uses the moment to move him off balance
And to lower his massive jaw.
It is just the right
Amount of time
For her to bring her foot back up
Into his face.
She runs free as he recovers
As two of his escorts
Turn the corner to see her.
She hears metal feet
Telling her he is not
Alone.
A quick glance confirms that
The humanoid figures
Are not human.
Where her assailant’s muscles
Are likened to iron,
Theirs is iron.
Where his joints are thick bone,
Theirs are steel bolts.
Where his eyes shine with wet malice,
Theirs shine an emotionless glow
Through crystal.
Mechanical men.
Humanoid apparatus.
Androphones.
She knows them well.
She helps build them.
She breaks into a busier street,
Though people won’t hold off a pair
Of metal predators,
An abandoned motivecycle might.
She hops on and fires up the Sterling
The time it takes
For the hydrogen to heat up
The water is
Agonizing.
Metal feet
Clang
Like a bell tolling
In Kaya’s ears.
And it’s too late
As one androphone reaches out
With a grasping hand
To squeeze her by the neck
Missing by a second.
The motivecycle has burst to life and
Propels her down the street.
The androphone stops
Seeing that it failed to grab her
And figuring that it can’t catch her.
The second,
However,
Bends its legs to kneel on the ground.
When Kaya glances back
She sees it has wheels
On its hips and knees.
Folding its legs,
Touching them to the ground,
It begins pursuit.
Kaya weaves through the crowded street
Around stands of food
People on bicycles
On horses
And carriages and motivecycles moving
At a more reasonable speed.
The androphone comes sailing out
In a wide turn
Trailing dust
Maneuvering deftly through the same traffic.
Kaya takes sharp turns.
Her two wheels afford her more agility
Than its four.
This almost makes up for the advantage the machine has
Over a human controlling another machine.
The machine also has allies.
Kaya sees them joining pursuit.
At one intersection,
Another androphone almost crashes into her
Trying to cut her off.
Instead, she turns towards it
And drives down the street it just came.
It is not able to turn around quickly.
There are three behind her as she leaves the heavy crowds
Of the residential and commercial markets
Into the sparser areas of warehouses
Where the huge cargo-tractors
Dominate the streets.
Only after diving deep towards the docks
Does Kaya see the disadvantage she’s given herself.
The tractors are easier to maneuver around.
The streets are broad and wide with few alleys.
In some cases the androphones, being only a torso on wheels,
Easily duck under the massive vehicles
And are gaining.
A horse screams
As Kaya almost runs into it
Along the waterfront.
She misses the ramp and drives off
A three foot drop
Landing hard on a large wooden dock.
The vibrations shake her teeth
Driving across the slatted dock.
The move was not gutsy enough.
Two androphones take the leap as well.
Now she’s committed to
A long drive
Off a short pier.
Of the two androphones, one sees what is coming
And accelerates
Rapidly catching up to her.
It is a few feet from her as the end of the pier approaches.
Kaya clutches her satchel
But makes no move to stop.
Her motivecycle flies off the end of the pier
And she pushes down with her feet.
Kaya separates from the bike,
And it crashes into the water
Only seconds before she does.
She skips off the water at first
Landing on her face,
Before the second hit causes her to slap against the water
And go under.
Concentrating so hard on keeping her satchel with her
She is failed to take a deep breath.
Disoriented and trying to bite down the
Excruciating pain along her chest and face
She’s already running out of breath
With no idea where the surface is
When the androphone grabs her ankle.
The machine cannot swim.
It managed to fly out far enough to land near her
And as it sinks to the bottom
Of Lagos harbor,
It pulls her down with its grip.
Looking up, she can see the dim glow of the surface.
She kicks
And kicks,
And the surface gets dimmer
And dimmer.
As dark water envelopes
She desperately
Uses her other foot and one hand
To break the hold.
Wet skin and smooth metal fingers.
She manages to slip free.
The metal man sinks away too fast
To make another grab.
Her throat and face almost spasm in choking panic
But now she knows
In which direction the surface is.
Kaya pulls herself up
To a dock far down another part of the dock.
She swam away from the machines searching for her.
Her simple dress is soaked.
Her shoes are now gone.
One pulled off by the grasping metal man
The other kicked free to swim.
Her hat is long gone, she’s not sure when.
She looks like a mess but she’s alive and free.
In this area of the docks, there is little industrial trade.
Instead tourist areas dominate,
Including a temporary carnival.
She enters the fair,
Dripping wet
And catching her breath.
She stumbles to a cotton candy booth,
Hoping that her contact is there.
She knocks in a rapid and coded succession.
She looks around
Nervously.
The door opens quickly.
A metal hand reaches out,
And before she has time to react
It grabs her wrist
And pulls her quickly inside.