Free Alien Disaster by Rob May Page A

cure.’
    Kat looked puzzled. ‘A cure for what?’
    ‘Anything! I mean, it’s nanomedicine—tiny robots I think, that are only a few nanometres big, entering your body and fixing things: destroying pathogens, even rewriting DNA; and not just to cure one person: millions of nanobots could cure thousands of epidemic victims.’
    Kat considered this. ‘But it’s just a bit of metal pipe,’ she said. ‘Where are the tinybots? Inside?’
    ‘Probably,’ Brandon said. ‘It’s not like you would ever hear them rattling about. This cylinder could have layers and layers of protection and padding for just one tiny prototype robot. Who knows? But I do know there’s one more lab that’s got the information that we need to control it all. And I think I know where it is!’
    Kat smiled. ‘So what are we waiting for? Hurry up and finish your fish!’ She reached across the table and clutched Brandon’s hand excitedly.
    Jason reappeared. ‘We might have a problem,’ he informed them.
    Kat withdrew her hand swiftly. ‘I made you a burger,’ she told her brother.
    ‘Great! Thanks.’
    ‘Jason,’ Brandon said. ‘What’s going on?’
    ‘I found us a boat,’ he said between mouthfuls. ‘But you might want to come and check out what you can see from the top of the dome. There’s a war going on out there, and both sides are closing in on our position.’
    The top of the dome! Brandon and Kat followed Jason as he led them through the maze of fruit machines, coin waterfalls and zombie-shooting games until they came to a back door. Outside again, but in an area not accessible to the public, they found a narrow metal ladder that ran up the side of the dome to the top, forty metres up. Another ladder led down to a jetty under the pier.
    Jason led the way up. The ladder creaked and rattled as they climbed. At the top was a small maintenance platform that was just about big enough for them all to fit. It was windy and cold, despite the sun.
    ‘We can just slide back down if we need to leave in a hurry!’ Kat pointed out.
    A loud explosion caught their attention. On the esplanade around the entrance to the pier, a noisy firefight was taking place. Smoke from an amusement arcade fire was drifting over the road. Brandon could see figures moving between cover, and could hear the rattle of guns and the fizz of lasers. Brutes versus black-clad soldiers.
    ‘Who do we want to win?’ Jason asked.
    ‘Looks like the creatures are outnumbering the soldiers,’ Brandon said, peering across the distance. ‘And the way that they’re running into the clouds of smoke, it looks like they can see and breathe through it.’
    The soldiers were pinned down behind a beachfront cafe. Their situation didn’t look good. Then something hovered into view from behind a large hotel: a small black box with four arms that ended in rotor blades.
    ‘What’s that?’ Kat said. ‘An alien robot?’
    ‘It’s a military scout drone,’ Brandon said. ‘The aliens will want to shoot it down as soon as possible.’ He could see that one of the soldiers was operating a touch-screen control pad.
    The brutes didn’t even spot it, let alone shoot it down, and seconds later a shower of tiny but accurate missiles rained down on the targets that the drone had scouted out, eliminating almost all of the alien horde in one strike. The special ops team were freed from cover, and they quickly shot down the remaining enemies.
    Jason was impressed. ‘Nice job,’ he commented.
    ‘Looks like we’re next,’ Kat said. The soldiers had regrouped at the foot of the pier. They left two men as guards, and the remaining eight began to march up towards the dome.
    Brandon recognised Lieutenant Hewson leading the squad.
    ‘I think we should get down to the boat,’ Jason said.
    ‘Not yet,’ Brandon said. ‘I want to talk to him.’
    ‘Maybe we should do the right thing and give him the thingy,’ Kat suggested. ‘Now that we know it’s not a weapon and