Odnośniki
|
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
was on the ground, her right angled against the back wall
and she'd sprinted only two steps when the crash came. The queen hit the wall close enough for a
spatter of her flinging drool to hit the back of Noguchi's neck. She found her second wind as the sliver of
hot, viscous foam crawled down her spine, as close to panic as she could allow.
Fasterfaster!
To her right now, the seamless stretch of dark metal wall, ahead and to her right a shade of empty
blackness, broken by slashes of filtered light from ob-servation slits. Hunter masks had infrared capability
al-though they rarely used it, the bugs didn't radiate heat but she'd long ago disabled hers, confused by
the yautja symbols that flashed across the field of view; now, she wished she hadn't, running blind. No
more than twenty meters, surely, she had to be getting close
there! The dull glint of metal, motionless and slender, two meters up. Noguchi stretched her arms up
and out, tensed as she took her final leaping step
andfuck that hurts, pulled, swinging herself around the thick and leaden chain by one aching arm, the
other hand already reaching for the next hold. The heavy links barely swayed, Noguchi's feet in the air,
and thebam, bam of the queen's pursuit too close.
Hand over hand, Noguchi flew up the chain, climb-ing so fast that she barely felt the rough metal
brushing against her legs or the sheath of sweat that dripped be-neath her armor. She could already feel
the blast of moist air coming from the rounded tunnel to her left and above, running parallel to the ceiling.
Two meters, one, and Noguchi was facing the mesh grate that blocked her escape.
Gripping the chain with her right hand, she leaned back and hooked her left arm, aiming for the center of
the screen. The stream of brilliant blue light from the small shoulder weapon smashed through the holed
metal, twigs of the heated mesh hissing to the wet floor of the shaft. She was so close, both hands on the
tun-nel
and when the queen's skeletal fingers slid into her hair, she didn't hesitate, didn't think about
ex-tending her right hand's blades and reaching over her own shoulder to cut. The thin, impossibly hard
knives that shot out from the forearm mechanism worked as claws, slicing as easily through braided,
beaded hair as through the bony dusk of the queen's talons
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
and even as the enraged, agonized shriek as-saulted Noguchi's ears, she had boosted herself into the
tunnel before she realized that she was free. As quickly as it had begun, it was over. Below, the queen
screamed on as Noguchi scrambled forward, elbowing through the warm, humid dark back toward the
land-ing dock, the awareness of what had happened seeping in.
She had me. Shetouchedme.
And yet Noguchi was alive, unharmed, while the alien breeder bled acid, at least three of her long digits
slashed away. The rush of light and energy that swept through her as she crawled the last few meters of
shaft was as exhilarating and beautiful as only victory could be.
Victory, narrow but true and well deserved. And with all of them watching...
With the alien's hollow howls fading behind, she could consider the others. With only a few exceptions,
everyone onShell would have seen the incident, Blooded and novice alike, an infrared show of her
prowess. They couldn't continue to ignore her, the training group would have to cease their blatantly
deri-sive treatment of her they'd probably never like her, but there would at last be some bare minimum
of re-spect.
Noguchi saw the curve ahead in the close air shaft, muted light shining up in thin lines around a floor
hatch. She grinned, high from being alive and capable,
hearing the Hunters shifting restlessly below as she popped the edge of the hatch.
She touched me, you impassive bastards, you can't pre-tend that there's no honor in walking away from
that. Can't.
The drop was only four meters, the hatch directly over a high, sloping storage rack. Noguchi landed in a
crouch, then hopped lightly to the floor, not ten meters from the front hatch of the nest chamber. Topknot
and Minikui and Tress and Shorty, the wounded Scar, all of them stood and looked at her, silent, masks
still in place. For a moment, there was no movement at all.
Noguchi grinned again, reaching up to pop the line that connected her mask to her armor. A tiny hiss of
es-caping air and the normal heat of the ship seemed like a cool breeze across the sweat on her skin, the
dull light too bright for a few blinks.
The line of masks watched her, not speaking, Topknot in front. The others would look to their Leader
for an appropriate response, and he couldn't punish her after such a competent display . . .
Topknot didn't. Noguchi gritted her teeth as he turned away instead, reaching up to take off his own
mask as he growled an order to one of the unBlooded, to see to Slats. Randomly, one by one, the
Hunters all turned away. They removed masks, moved to store them, shelved burners, and clattered to
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plblacksoulman.xlx.pl
|
