[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
again in a flurry of hooks, right and left crosses and uppercuts. He was
encouraged by the lack of neuronic energy pouring into his brain from the
SQUID. Sindri had apparently knocked something askew, and Kane wasn't about to
allow the
imperator the opportunity to repair it.
Sam suddenly swung a fist from the hip, driving a blow into Kane's left side.
The cracking of bone was audible, and sharp razors of pain slashed through
Kane's torso. He doubled over, jackknifing around the fist. Slowly he fell,
coughing up a mixture of blood and phlegm. The blow had been too swift,
delivered with unerring accuracy and precision. Kane understood dimly that Sam
had been learning while he was being pummeled. He had processed all the finer
points of hand-to-hand combat. He knew exactly where to strike.
Kane lay doubled up around where the blow had landed, his eyes clouded with
tears of pain. He panted through his open mouth, tasting blood. He waited for
Sam to reach down and crush his larynx or kick him to death. Neither happened.
The imperator walked right past him and bumped against the rail. Kane gaped at
him as Sam extended his arms and waved them through the air. In a voice high
and wild with fear, he cried out, "I can't see!
Tanvirah! I can't see!"
Page 132
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Kane almost laughed. The blow Sindri had landed on his SQUID network had
damaged the optic nerve
TALON AND FANG 339
feed to his eyes. The imperator was blind. Tanvirah shrieked in horror and
tried to hurl Sindri away from her, but he held on by double handfuls of her
hair.
Kane forced himself to his feet, ignoring the grate of bone in his side. He
lashed out with a straight-leg kick, catching Sam in the center of the back.
Vertebrae crunched under the impact, but Sam didn't scream or plummet over the
rail. Instead, his mouth opened but no sound came out. He jerked and fell,
long limbs thrashing uncontrollably, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Kane guessed his entire network of neuronic energy was disrupted, but not
necessarily permanently. He leaned against the rail to ease the pain of his
shattered ribs and called, "Let her go, Sindri...time for us to implement the
last phase of our own great plan."
Snarling, Sindri punched Tanvirah in the side of the head before letting her
go. She flopped onto her back, arms and legs asprawl. Panting, Sindri
staggered over to him. "You've uploaded the data cards?"
Kane nodded. "So you knew that's what I was going to do?"
Sindri snorted, then winced as he touched the welts swelling on the side of
his face. "It was pretty damn obvious. I did everything I could to piss Sam
off and make him careless."
"You did a fine job."
"You might say it's a calling, Mr. Kane."
"How well I know that." Kane forced a smile to his face. From the pocket of
his bodysuit he withdrew
340 JAMES AXLER
the CD and handed it to Sindri. "Here you go. People's Exhibit A."
"And I guess I'm Exhibit B...providing I get to where you want me to go."
Sindri moved along the rail in the direction of the computers, peering over
the side into the pool. "How do you figure to inject me into the past?"
"The simplest way is to "
Kane's words were drowned out by the stuttering report of the SIG-AMT.
Tanvirah had pulled it from the soldier's hands and fired it in Kane and
Sindri's general direction. She shrieked wordlessly as she did so, the recoil
making her upper body shake violently. Bright brass arced from the ejector
port and clinked at her feet. Sindri uttered a howl of fright.
Kane lunged forward, kicking himself off the balcony floor, the roar of the
subgun a thundering drum roll hi his ears. He saw bullets smash into the
computer consoles, gouging through the plastic keyboards and tearing scars in
the metal. He felt two sledgehammer blows against his back, which hurled him
forward.
He slammed into Sindri.
The little man toppled over the balcony rail, but he clung to Kane's hand and
held it tightly for a long agonizing moment. The gunfire ended, replaced by
the mechanical clack and snap of a jammed cylinder.
Sindri stared up uncomprehendingly into his face. Kane opened his mouth to
speak, and blood vomited from his lips. Sindri uttered a short cry of disgust.
By summoning all the energy left in his broken body, TALON AND FANG
341
from toe-tip to the crown of his head, Kane managed to gasp out a half-gagged,
imploring sentence.
"When you get there, tell him tell me
who the imperator really is. He's "
He didn't finish saying the name when Tanvirah shrieked, hurling herself onto
Kane. She pounded hysterically at his back with the butt of the autorifle.
Kane's hand opened and Sindri plunged down, into the maw of the universe. When
he struck the pool, the microcosm of infinity, a cloud of star sparks shot up
Page 133
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
like a stream of embers cast from a burning log. Then he was gone.
Kane hitched around and pushed Tanvirah away from him. She sat down hard on
the floor, then crawled over to the spasming body of Sam. She cradled him in
her arms, but he did not speak. His eyes were vacant, his gape-mouthed face a
blank.
Tanvirah burst into tears, burying her face in her hands, sobbing as if her
heart would break. Kane hoped it would. Gritting his teeth, he tried to make
himself comfortable, but he knew that was an impossibility.
He ruefully eyed the raw, pulsing exit wounds on his chest. They were bleeding
profusely, and he thought he saw bits of lung tissue mixed in with the scarlet
flow, but he figured he would recover. He always did.
Then he chuckled at the absurd way his mind was constructed. It didn't seem
capable of accepting death
342 JAMES AXLER
or defeat, even in the face of utter and complete finality.
As darkness crept in on the edges of his vision, he wondered how long he would
be dead. Only time will tell, he thought.
T
Epilogue
Cerberus Redoubt
In the main operations complex, lights flashed and needle gauges flickered on
the primary mat-trans console. In the anteroom, a droning hum arose from the
gateway chamber.
Both Bry and Lakesh jumped in surprise. Brigid, seated at the main ops
console, spun her chair away from the keyboard and stared at the
armaglass-en-closed unit. "Is it a true matter stream carrier," she demanded,
"or another quantum fluctuation like happened the other day?"
Swiveling his head around, Lakesh stared at the Mercator relief map spanning
the entire length of one wall. Pinpoints of light shone steadily in almost
every country, connected by a thin pattern of glowing lines. They represented
the Cerberus network, the locations of all indexed functioning gateway units
across the planet.
His eyes searched for any one of them that blinked steadily. A flashing bulb
indicated a transmitting gateway, but there was none.
544 JAMES AXLER
Bry announced stridently, "We've definitely got a matter stream, Lakesh!
Coming into full phase!"
"How can that be?" Brigid asked, coming to stand beside Bry.
For a long moment, Lakesh didn't answer. He only shook his head in confusion.
The main reason for his bewilderment was pure shock. Long ago he had altered
the modulations of the Cerberus gateway unit's transit feed connections so its
transmissions were un-traceable. Nor could anyone jump into the redoubt's
mat-trans, or send in so much as a molecule, either by accident or design with
one notable, relatively recent exception.
Recalling that exception kept his mind from working properly, and the bright
flares, like bursts of heat lightning on the other side of the armaglass
walls, distracted him further. The low hum climbed rapidly in pitch to a
hurricane howl as the device cycled through the materialization process.
"We've definitely got a materialization," Bry said fearfully, pushing his
chair back from the console on squeaking casters.
Staring at the flares of energy on the other side of the brown armaglass, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl freetocraft.keep.pl
again in a flurry of hooks, right and left crosses and uppercuts. He was
encouraged by the lack of neuronic energy pouring into his brain from the
SQUID. Sindri had apparently knocked something askew, and Kane wasn't about to
allow the
imperator the opportunity to repair it.
Sam suddenly swung a fist from the hip, driving a blow into Kane's left side.
The cracking of bone was audible, and sharp razors of pain slashed through
Kane's torso. He doubled over, jackknifing around the fist. Slowly he fell,
coughing up a mixture of blood and phlegm. The blow had been too swift,
delivered with unerring accuracy and precision. Kane understood dimly that Sam
had been learning while he was being pummeled. He had processed all the finer
points of hand-to-hand combat. He knew exactly where to strike.
Kane lay doubled up around where the blow had landed, his eyes clouded with
tears of pain. He panted through his open mouth, tasting blood. He waited for
Sam to reach down and crush his larynx or kick him to death. Neither happened.
The imperator walked right past him and bumped against the rail. Kane gaped at
him as Sam extended his arms and waved them through the air. In a voice high
and wild with fear, he cried out, "I can't see!
Tanvirah! I can't see!"
Page 132
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Kane almost laughed. The blow Sindri had landed on his SQUID network had
damaged the optic nerve
TALON AND FANG 339
feed to his eyes. The imperator was blind. Tanvirah shrieked in horror and
tried to hurl Sindri away from her, but he held on by double handfuls of her
hair.
Kane forced himself to his feet, ignoring the grate of bone in his side. He
lashed out with a straight-leg kick, catching Sam in the center of the back.
Vertebrae crunched under the impact, but Sam didn't scream or plummet over the
rail. Instead, his mouth opened but no sound came out. He jerked and fell,
long limbs thrashing uncontrollably, like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
Kane guessed his entire network of neuronic energy was disrupted, but not
necessarily permanently. He leaned against the rail to ease the pain of his
shattered ribs and called, "Let her go, Sindri...time for us to implement the
last phase of our own great plan."
Snarling, Sindri punched Tanvirah in the side of the head before letting her
go. She flopped onto her back, arms and legs asprawl. Panting, Sindri
staggered over to him. "You've uploaded the data cards?"
Kane nodded. "So you knew that's what I was going to do?"
Sindri snorted, then winced as he touched the welts swelling on the side of
his face. "It was pretty damn obvious. I did everything I could to piss Sam
off and make him careless."
"You did a fine job."
"You might say it's a calling, Mr. Kane."
"How well I know that." Kane forced a smile to his face. From the pocket of
his bodysuit he withdrew
340 JAMES AXLER
the CD and handed it to Sindri. "Here you go. People's Exhibit A."
"And I guess I'm Exhibit B...providing I get to where you want me to go."
Sindri moved along the rail in the direction of the computers, peering over
the side into the pool. "How do you figure to inject me into the past?"
"The simplest way is to "
Kane's words were drowned out by the stuttering report of the SIG-AMT.
Tanvirah had pulled it from the soldier's hands and fired it in Kane and
Sindri's general direction. She shrieked wordlessly as she did so, the recoil
making her upper body shake violently. Bright brass arced from the ejector
port and clinked at her feet. Sindri uttered a howl of fright.
Kane lunged forward, kicking himself off the balcony floor, the roar of the
subgun a thundering drum roll hi his ears. He saw bullets smash into the
computer consoles, gouging through the plastic keyboards and tearing scars in
the metal. He felt two sledgehammer blows against his back, which hurled him
forward.
He slammed into Sindri.
The little man toppled over the balcony rail, but he clung to Kane's hand and
held it tightly for a long agonizing moment. The gunfire ended, replaced by
the mechanical clack and snap of a jammed cylinder.
Sindri stared up uncomprehendingly into his face. Kane opened his mouth to
speak, and blood vomited from his lips. Sindri uttered a short cry of disgust.
By summoning all the energy left in his broken body, TALON AND FANG
341
from toe-tip to the crown of his head, Kane managed to gasp out a half-gagged,
imploring sentence.
"When you get there, tell him tell me
who the imperator really is. He's "
He didn't finish saying the name when Tanvirah shrieked, hurling herself onto
Kane. She pounded hysterically at his back with the butt of the autorifle.
Kane's hand opened and Sindri plunged down, into the maw of the universe. When
he struck the pool, the microcosm of infinity, a cloud of star sparks shot up
Page 133
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
like a stream of embers cast from a burning log. Then he was gone.
Kane hitched around and pushed Tanvirah away from him. She sat down hard on
the floor, then crawled over to the spasming body of Sam. She cradled him in
her arms, but he did not speak. His eyes were vacant, his gape-mouthed face a
blank.
Tanvirah burst into tears, burying her face in her hands, sobbing as if her
heart would break. Kane hoped it would. Gritting his teeth, he tried to make
himself comfortable, but he knew that was an impossibility.
He ruefully eyed the raw, pulsing exit wounds on his chest. They were bleeding
profusely, and he thought he saw bits of lung tissue mixed in with the scarlet
flow, but he figured he would recover. He always did.
Then he chuckled at the absurd way his mind was constructed. It didn't seem
capable of accepting death
342 JAMES AXLER
or defeat, even in the face of utter and complete finality.
As darkness crept in on the edges of his vision, he wondered how long he would
be dead. Only time will tell, he thought.
T
Epilogue
Cerberus Redoubt
In the main operations complex, lights flashed and needle gauges flickered on
the primary mat-trans console. In the anteroom, a droning hum arose from the
gateway chamber.
Both Bry and Lakesh jumped in surprise. Brigid, seated at the main ops
console, spun her chair away from the keyboard and stared at the
armaglass-en-closed unit. "Is it a true matter stream carrier," she demanded,
"or another quantum fluctuation like happened the other day?"
Swiveling his head around, Lakesh stared at the Mercator relief map spanning
the entire length of one wall. Pinpoints of light shone steadily in almost
every country, connected by a thin pattern of glowing lines. They represented
the Cerberus network, the locations of all indexed functioning gateway units
across the planet.
His eyes searched for any one of them that blinked steadily. A flashing bulb
indicated a transmitting gateway, but there was none.
544 JAMES AXLER
Bry announced stridently, "We've definitely got a matter stream, Lakesh!
Coming into full phase!"
"How can that be?" Brigid asked, coming to stand beside Bry.
For a long moment, Lakesh didn't answer. He only shook his head in confusion.
The main reason for his bewilderment was pure shock. Long ago he had altered
the modulations of the Cerberus gateway unit's transit feed connections so its
transmissions were un-traceable. Nor could anyone jump into the redoubt's
mat-trans, or send in so much as a molecule, either by accident or design with
one notable, relatively recent exception.
Recalling that exception kept his mind from working properly, and the bright
flares, like bursts of heat lightning on the other side of the armaglass
walls, distracted him further. The low hum climbed rapidly in pitch to a
hurricane howl as the device cycled through the materialization process.
"We've definitely got a materialization," Bry said fearfully, pushing his
chair back from the console on squeaking casters.
Staring at the flares of energy on the other side of the brown armaglass, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]