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and crumple to the deck.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Next to her, a surprised hiss, an untrained yautja diving away from the hatch
controls
 and the freed queen screamed, ripping the last ropes away from the team,
fixing her sightless, slaver-ing face toward the opening not ten meters in
front of her. The nest, where they wanted her to go.
Where Noguchi stood, blocking her path.
She automatically raised the burner as the queen lunged forward. A few
well-placed bursts and

can't
Noguchi threw the burner, the queen close enough for her to see the bubbles in
her dripping string of sa-liva, see the stainless teeth of her inner jaws
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snap
 and crunch on the weapon's thickness. Noguchi spun and ran into the chamber,
the close sounds of rending metal lending her speed. Her racing thoughts, her
plans, were shadowed by a burst of self-disgust as she tore through the humid,
echoing dark of the nest.
Run run circle left goddamn honor
Killing the queen would have been easy and it would have made the deaths of
the other Hunters a waste, and she couldn't even blame their strange cul-ture
for her decision. This was her own honor at stake.
Noguchi sprinted, arms pumping, fully aware that the queen was faster. All she
heard was the thunder of the animal's pursuit, all she felt was the knot of
ice in her belly, the inner flinch of each heartbeat that told her she would
be jerked into the air and hurled into blackness before she even felt the
pain

now now NOW!
She could feel the air sliced behind and above and she threw herself left,
tucking smoothly into a shoulder roll and coming up running, not looking back.
The queen shrieked, a terrible sound but one that filled Noguchi's every fiber
with a kind of restrained re-lief. The enormous bug mother was fast but heavy,
un-able to change direction easily; the frustrated cry came from near the back
of the giant chamber and Noguchi was already halfway back to the door, only
twenty me-ters

almost, almost there and she's trapped
 and when she saw Topknot step into the open-ing, a flush of pride added
length to her strides, her heart pounding with more than just adrenaline.
She'd done the right thing, acted as bravely as any
Blooded Hunter
 and so sure was she that her prowess would fi-nally be acknowledged by the
Leader, she mistook his signal for one of celebration, a twist of talon that
meant "victory." It wasn't until she actually saw the silhou-ette of the
Leader disappearing, saw the ring of faces appear at the window and heard the
massive, resound-ing whoom of the hatch slamming down that she real-ized what
had happened.
Topknot had signaled victory, but not to Noguchi. And behind her, the queen
signaled her own triumph, Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter,
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
a scream of bloodlust that pounded at Noguchi even as her ringing, shuddering
footfalls pounded at the floor.
7
This message. Repeat: this is the shuttle from the Weyland/Yutani ship
Nemesis, re-questing emergency assistance from any ship or out-post receiving
this message ..."
Ellis's soft voice droned on, carrying back to where the Max rested, to where
Lara and Jess drifted silently. The young tech had been at it for almost three
hours and still managed to sound hopeful, as if he believed his voice might
actually reach farther than the distress beacon. As if with each pause, he
expected to hear a re-ply.
"Anyone listening would've picked up our code hours ago," Jess said quietly, a
touch of concern in his deep voice. Lara was glad to hear it; maybe it was
self-ish on her part, but Jess had tuned in again and it was a relief to have
him back.
She shrugged. "Let him talk, if it makes him feel better."
Jess sighed. "Yeah. What the hell, right?"
Rhetorical. Lara nodded anyway, wondering if the time was right to bring up
what she'd been thinking about. With both men so fragile, she'd been hesitant
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to talk about the specifics of what needed to be done but she knew that she
didn't want to spend her last min-utes of consciousness trying to breathe, and
she needed to know what position they would take.
7
can do myself, but they might need help, Ellis, anyway. And is either of them
strong enough to watch if I'm the only one wanting to sign out early?
"Still got Pop's standard issue?"
Lara blinked, then nodded again. It seemed that she wasn't the only one
considering their options.
"Twelve rounds," she said, before he could ask.
Jess looked at her, and she was grateful to see how composed he was. "Talked
to Ellis yet?"
"Not yet." Lara smiled a little. "There's not really any casual way to slip it
into a conversation."
Jess grinned suddenly, his gaze glittering with hu-mor that she'd thought he'd [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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