[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

defenses? The kind that the other physicians installed in Martine? Well, these
people all carry devices which are just as powerful."
"We have dealt with the barrean." Azure tried to reassure his friend. "I
myself have dodged their attacks on more than one occasion." There were a few
barely audible comments from other members of the Associative which might have
qualified as electronic snickers. Azure ignored them.
"We will extricate you from your present situation with minimal loss of
life," library said with great dignity. "Stay where you are. Give no
indication that you are in contact with us or that you know what is
happening."
"Naturally. Wait a minute. Don't you want us to tell you what to do, how
to proceed?"
A faint suggestion of a mental smile. "Credit us with the intelligence
you told your captors we possess. We will come for you before sunset, after we
have had the time to bring ourselves to full strength. Until then we need to
discuss how we are going to proceed among ourselves."
A last, cheery "Don't worry" came from Azure. Then the only voice in his
head was Martine's.
"We'd better try and get some rest. We want to be as alert as possible
when your friends come for us."
"I wonder if it's possible to sleep in this position." He struggled until
he'd worked his way onto his side. "I doubt it."
But he was wrong.
Chapter Fifteen
The changing of the guard woke him.Marline was already conscious. Evan
blinked sleepily, saw that Prism's intensely bright sun was just beginning to
set. Their new guard had familiar features to go with the large needier she
wore in her holster.
"Winona, right?"
The woman smiled thinly at him. "Hello again. Give me no trouble and I'll
deal you no pain. Shut up and go back to sleep. It'll be easier on all of us."
She turned away from him.
Page 151
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
A soft voice in his head. "It is beginning."
"What?" In his surprise he spoke aloud. Winona looked back at him and
frowned.
"Say again?"
"Nothing," Evan said sheepishly. "Just coming out of a bad dream."
"Better get used to them. I hear they're going to turn you two over to
Nodaway."
"They may have restored the station's defensive perimeter," Martine was
telling their would-be rescuers. "It's a powerful electric field that runs
between pylons, metal posts. You'll have to find some way to avoid it. I'm
sure the field is strong enough to wipe your memories if not kill you
outright."
"We know about the danger," Azure told them. "We have already bypassed
it."
"What?" Evan tried to look over the rim of the wind shield, past their
guard. There was no sign that anything was amiss in the camp.
Martine was equally confused. "If the fence is powered up and you came
through it you should have set off a flock of alarms."
"We determined not to disturb anything." Library was speaking now. "So we
set several of our number to divert the energy flow around us while we walked
past."
"That's impossible," Evan said flatly.
"You forget the conduits, my friend. They can carry other things besides
water."
Evan tried to envision his friends' approach, several conduits linked
together, perhaps forming a neat arch between two charged pylons, diverting
the lethal voltage harmlessly through their bodies while the other members of
the Associative calmly strolled into the camp beneath this bypass. Since
current continued to flow freely between pylons, there would be no
interruption. No interruption meant no blaring alarms inside the station
compound. It was an elegant solution.
"You still have to watch out for guns," Martine reminded them. "A needier
won't disrupt your own personal electrical fields but it will go right through
you."
Silence then for what felt like an agonizingly long time. It seemed
certain to Evan that the attack had faltered. Had library changed its mind?
Had they decided that their human friends were not worth the pain of deaths
within the Associative?
Then a pair of warriors clambered over the wind shield and things began
to happen very quickly.
One pounced on Winona while the other rushed to free the prisoners. Sharp
rotating teeth sliced through the bands that bound Evan at ankle and wrist. He
heard a moan from Winona. Thoughts of acid and other local forms of weaponry
Page 152
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
passed through his mind and he shuddered, not wishing that fate even on an
enemy.
As usual, his imagination was worse than the reality. Their guard was
lying on the observation deck, her legs curled beneath her, her hands
twitching slightly while the other warrior stood nearby. As it worked to free
Martine, Evan's rescuer explained.
"No acids. Library forbade it," the warrior told them in its usual
clipped, terse phrases. "Been analyzing your old exoskeleton. Gatherers found
the necessary ingredients, processors synthesized it. Spray it on your kind of
exoskeleton and it kills."
"Kills?" Evan murmured.
"Kills flexibility," the warrior corrected.
Martine bent over the guard, who was still moaning reassuringly. Sure [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

zanotowane.pl

doc.pisz.pl

pdf.pisz.pl

razem.keep.pl