LE Modesitt Archform Beauty 02 Flash

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my head.
I dropped to the floor and darted a look around the door frame.All ten were in
shielded armor. My darts would have been useless, but the whips wouldn't be,
provided that they got within another ten meters.
Let's step back and wait until they get closer.
Paula eased back, and we waited.
"Last chance to come out with your hands empty." The voice boomed down the
corridor.
"Last chance for you to let us go without getting charged with obstruction of
justice and armed resistance against authority," Paula snapped back.
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There was another volley of heavy slugs. That strongly suggested to me that
the guards had no intention of letting us go anywhere alive. I checked the
whips and the distance. They were still about ten meters back, leapfrogging
forward, but quickly, confident that their armor would protect them. I
couldn't help a tight smile, realizing why CorPak wanted the heavy whips. The
PAMD agitators were probably using their own surface armor to shield
themselves against the standard CorPak stunners and whips.
Ready?
Yes.
I started with two quick slash-blasts from floor level, catching the point
guards.
Slugs flew everywhere, and some came close, but the guards hadn't expected
that kind of weaponry, and most of them went down. Two were still firing, and
I'd exhausted the charge in the one whip.
Paula lurched forward, throwing a slash with her whip across the face of the
nearer guard. Then she spun away. By then I'd used the other whip on the
remaining guard, and all of them were down.
So was Paula. Her face was white.
My arm. Pressure dressing in the kit.
I got the dressing out and on, almost as quickly as if it had been years
earlier, then dragged her to her feet.
Can we leave the kits?
Yes.
She was walking, but the pain had to have been terrible, the way she put one
foot in front of the other.
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It seemed liked a quarter of an hour before we reached the guard shack, but it
wasmore like aquarter of aminute. I couldn't believe it. The console was live.
Paula got in a single burst transmission, somehow, subverting the system,
before the lights and everything else went out. Someone hadn't figured out how
to isolate the console and just depowered everything.
Too late for that,Paula said.
Strike force is coming in.
I couldn't help grinning for a moment in the darkness. Without any power in
the tunnels, the advantage was ours.
Let's get out of here.
I stuffed a neuralwhip into my belt. We might need it on the way out.
You lead.Her "voice" sounded weak, and I put an arm around her as we headed
down the ramp. I
could just barely make out things, but without my enhancements, I would have
been totally blind. As it was I almost ran into the half-open door to the main
tunnel.
The outer door was closed, naturally, because there was no power.
Is there a manual lever?
Here ... access door ...Paula fumbled, and a panel slid aside. Inside was a
small wheel. Paula started to slump, and I caught her before she collapsed.
After lowering her to the permacrete floor, I began to spin the wheel. It took
over a hundred turns before the small personnel door was wide enough for me to
squeeze out, half-carrying Paula.
Overhead, there were flitters everywhere, or so it seemed.
I got Paula to the van. It was locked.
Central Four... Paula's hurt, and the van's locked.
Locks are off. You have authority to drive. Van is being reset to Safety
Office markings, and transponder is on. Follow the console map to emergency
medical.
I laid Paula in the back as quickly and gently as I could, and then scrambled
into the driver's seat. I had the van at speed by the time we were on the main
road. The front gate of ISS was being held by four safos in combat armor. I'd
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never seen safos wearing it before. They waved me through without stopping.
I didn't see the ISS security types at all and didn't care if I ever did.
As I raced southward, following the map toward the northwest division
substation, my mind began to turn over what had happened. The ISS guards had
been shooting to kill. That told me that they didn't want anyone in their
facility, including the Safety Office. They'd advanced within range of the
neuralwhips, though, and that meant that they didn't know what was in the
storeroom. I had to wonder what else was in the place and what else SPD was
involved in.
I pushed that thought away and concentrated on driving. Before all that long,
I was within a block of the substation.
Go past the station and turn right. Two thirds of the way back is an open
vehicle bay. Drive right inside.
You'll be met.
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Two cydroids were already opening the rear of the van even before I was out of
the driver's seat. I left the whip in the van. The vehicle door to the street
was closed. I followed the gurney into the same kind of room I'd been in. It
wasn't the same facility, but it could have been.
Within moments, Paula was in a medcrib, and I was standing there, looking
down. Her face, what I
could see of it, was pale, and her eyes were closed. I wanted to reach down
and hug her, or stroke her forehead. I didn't. I wasn't sure I knew who she
was, or what parts of her were her and what parts belonged to Central Four.
There were clearly two sides to her personality ... if not more.
She will recover completely. She is far less severely injured than you were.
How badly?
There is shrapnel in her chest in several places, and her arm will need some
rebuilding.
I'd never seen the wounds in her chest.
You also could use some superficial treatment for your scalp wounds.
Scalp wounds. I could feel dampness running down my neck, but I'd thought that
had been sweat. I put my hand on the back of my neck. It came away bloody.
There is a portable unit in the corner.
I walked over and let one of the cydroids position the healer, and the nanite
film disinfected, cleaned, and sealed the gouges in my scalp.
I need to get back to the children.
Take the van. Amos will accompany you and drive it back. A security detail is
already in position around the VanOkar house.
I walked back to the medcrib and took another look at Paula. She was still
pale, but not quite so pallid, I thought. Maybe that was just hope.
Then, I walked back to the van. One of the silent cydroids followed me.
Chapter62
Safety Officer Yenci stepped into the apparently empty briefing room. She
looked around. "Central
Four?"
"Yes, Officer Yenci?" The projected figure of a brown-haired and
broad-shouldered male safo appeared before Yenci.
"Don't do that. You know I don't like that."
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Central Four waited.
"Has Lieutenant Meara offered any more information about leaks from the Safety
Office?"
"There have been no public releases."
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"Has the lieutenant said anything?"
"There is nothing in the logs or on the record."
"A while back, the lieutenant had mentioned ISS. Is there anything on the
record about that?"
"There is a strike force taking action at this moment, Officer Yenci."
"What kind of action?"
"That information is restricted."
Yenci turned, without speaking, to find Lieutenant Meara standing to one side.
"Were you going somewhere, Yenci?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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