Hellbound Fury Mark Ellis(1)

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The eyes beneath delicately arched supraorbital
ridges were big and slanted, but white could be de-
tected around the irises. Their steps were graceful,
almost mincing, their hands long and slender. Several
of the men wore plastic tube-shaped holsters strapped
to their thighs.
Kane was assailed by an instant of irrational dread
when he �aw the holsters. One part of his mind knew
the infrasound batons converted electrical current to
sound waves by a maser and were very precise weap-
ons-a necessity in a facility with so much fragile
equipment-but they were very limited in range.
He had only witnessed demonstrations of the
wands and never been on the receiving end of their
ultrasonic kick. But now he had the distinct and un-
easy impression that he had been, but he couldn't lay
his mental hands on the vaporous trace of memory
to examine it closely.
Increasing the length of his stride, he caught up
with Thrush. "I was told there was a security
breach."
"You were told correctly," Thrush replied
smoothly. "We have the intruder in custody. Lieu-
tenant Colonel Salvo is administering the first appli-
cation of interrogation. Thus far, no useful informa-
tion has been forthcoming, and your brother
suggested you and Major Grant might have some
ideas."
Thrush gave him a swift sideways look that held
no particular expression. "I understand you two are
very good at this sort of thing."
Tension coiled in the pit of Kane's belly, like a
length of heavy rope.
Thrush turned to the right, pushing open a pair of
glass-and-chrome doors. A tiny female, pretty and
crisp in her whites despite her large cranium and
oversized eyes, sat behind a solid oak reception desk.
Her huge blue eyes were startlingly clear and calm.
"How is the patient?" Thrush asked.
"No chang~," the woman answered blandly.
"You may go in."
"Baptiste hung back uncertainly. "Perhaps I should
wait out here."
Thrush regarded her with amusement. "Nonsense,
Captain. Since Major Kane saw fit to bring you here,
there's no reason why your movements should be
restricted. You'll come with us."
Although his tone was flat, it was apparent the field
marshal was not making a request.
Crossing the room, Thrush pushed open a metal-
sheathed door with the word Examination stenciled
in red upon it. The room was fairly spacious and
bare-walled. Light spilling from an overhead fixture
blazed down on a stainless-steel table in the center
of the room.
Wide bands of canvas bound a slight, white form.
to the surface of the table. The straps ran across the
naked girl's waist and ankles, her slender arms
pinned to her sides. Her skin was white, as was her
ragged mop of close-cropped hair. The only color
about her was a pair of glaring eyes, as red as a
cutting torch flame-and the numerous blue-black
bruises marring the pearly perfection of her sleek,
petite figure.
Salvo stood next to her head, stroking the girl's
sweat-soaked hair and crooning to her. In his left
hand he held a humming infrasound wand. He
grinned when he saw Kane, but it didn't reach his
mud-colored eyes.
"Brother mine," he said by way of a greeting.
"Figured you might have some ideas on how to
loosen this slut's tongue. She's stubborn like all her
kind."
He hefted the wand, its silvery length made hazy
with vibration. "She's running out of bones to break.
I've given her a choice about the next ones. She
hasn't made up her mind yet."
It was more than a struggle to keep the riot of
conflicting emotions from showing on Kane's face-
it was a knock-down-drag-out internal brawl. Salvo's
flat, sallow face was all too familiar, as was his very
short, gray-threaded dark hair. He was a couple of
inches shorter than Kane, a few years older and con-
siderably heavier.
Anger, remorse and a craving for revenge all
warred for dominance within Kane's heart and mind.
At the outer fringes of his awareness, he noticed an
absence of a physical characteristic-where there
should have been a wealed scar seaming his broad
forehead, cutting down to the corner of his left eye,
there was only unblemished flesh. Another vague
echo of a memory drifted incompletely through his
mind-he saw himself slashing the barrel of a Sin
Eater across the side of Salvo's scalp, splitting open
the scalp in a gush of blood.
Coinciding with the image, like a sympathetic
pain, a drill bit seemed to bore into his skull. He
barely managed to turn a startled cry into a disinter-
ested grunt before it passed.
Grant's voice, sounding strangely unsteady asked,
"Who is she?"
Kane tossed a quick look over his shoulder. Per-
spiration glistened on Grant's dark face despite the
cool air, and his jaw muscles bunched in knots. He
was either in pain or angry-and doing his damned-
est not to show it.
Another surreptitious glance showed him Bap-
tiste's pale and stricken face, emerald eyes disturb-
ingly bright. As soon as she felt Kane's gaze, her
expression smoothed itself into a clinical, impersonal
mask.
"Says her name is Domi," Salvo replied with a
cheerful insouciance. "That's all she's admitted to,
but we know what she did and tried to do."
"Which is?" Baptiste inquired, as if she were
scarcely interested and just asking to be polite.
Thrush answered the question, curtly and quickly.
The girl had killed a careless sentry on the far outer
perimeter. She used a long knife with a serrated
blade, expertly cutting his throat.
She had hooked electronic circuits to the alarm
system on the fence, which bypassed their transmit-
ters. A compact acetylene torch burned through the
links of the fence.
Pointing to shapeless black mass of a semiglossy
fabric on the floor, Thrush said, "A Stealth cloak,
blocking body-heat signatures and wired with reflec-
tive circuitry, which scrambled the motion detec-
tors."
Domi then made her way to the third fence, but
she got overconfident. She overlooked that at the
third perimeter, all alarms were equipped with redun-
dancies. She was discovered and captured.
"What did she have on her?" Kane asked not [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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