[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
target or incinerate a mob. The guns had their limitations: they were brutally
heavy, they couldn't be reloaded except by the Sparks, and you had only a few
shots on any one setting. Still, if you liked a lot of options for wanton
destruction, an Element gun fit the bill. You could fire each barrel
separately, or mix and match to tailor your attack to your target.
The Keeper fired all four barrels at Annah. Simultaneously. The resulting
blast was a pandemonium of light and sound, a blare of pure chaos that lasted
only a fraction of a second; but in my mind's eye, it seemed to break into
distinct pieces that each lasted forever.
I imagined the bullets reaching her first: an eruption of lead traveling
faster than sound. Since she'd been diving forward, facing the shooter, the
slugs would hit her in the head, the shoulders, and chest.
The hypersonics would arrive next. It was the same kind of attack Opal had
talked about the pistol she'd been carrying in the tobacco field. It hadn't
affected the Lucifer, but I prayed it would work on Annah: frazzling her
nervous system, hammering her into merciful unconsciousness so she couldn't
feel the horrors to come.
Then fire. A flammable gas, something that blazed bright orange, pouring in a
burning jet. Igniting her clothes, her hair, her beautiful skin.
Finally, the acid, its spray traveling slower than bullets, sound, and fire.
Acid splashing onto the flames. I couldn't tell whether the acid would burn
off harmlessly, or if the heat would make it work that much faster:
disintegrating what was left of Annah's corpse.
Annah'scorpse.
Then it was all over. The Keeper toppled forward across the furniture
barricade, smoke pouring off his body. The gun clattered from his hands.
Impervia leapt to the floor as if there was something she could do for Annah,
but I remained frozen where I was.
The Caryatid slumped beside me. Her face was damp; not tears, but
perspiration. "Ugh," she said. "Let's not do that again."
I stared at her, shocked at her lack of feeling for Annah. Before I could
speak, something fluttered down in the room: Impervia had just kicked Annah's
cloak and a few more pieces of clothing halfway across the floor. "Get down
here, Phil!" Impervia snapped. "We need your first aid kit."
We?
I leaned over the edge of the hole. Lying tight against the wall was Annah,
stripped to her underwear and blood drenching her left arm, but still very
much alive.
She looked at me and smiled. "Keepers might be good with electrical things,
but they sure are lousy shots."
I held her in my arms as Impervia bandaged Annah's only wound: a bullet had
passed in and out of her left biceps muscle, missing the bone and all major
Page 191
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
blood vessels. As she'd said, the Keeper had been a lousy shot not too
surprising for a man who'd lost one eye and was dazed from being battered
unconscious. All but one of the bullets had gone wild, and the hypersonic
stun-wave was off target too.
Annah would still have been cremated by the flamethrower if not for quick
work by the Caryatid our mistress of fire had redirected the blaze back at the
shooter before Annah was hit. (Good-bye, poor misguided Keeper.) That left
only the acid, also badly aimed; Annah's thick winter outfit protected her
from the caustic splash, and she'd managed to peel off her clothes before the
corrosive fluids ate through to her flesh. (Smoke still rose from the
discarded bundle of cloth. Her long parka was pocked through with holes, as if
chewed by huge moths. The black cloak that let her vanish in the dark had
vanished itself totally consumed by the ravaging chemicals.)
But Annah was safe. Shot, yes, and trying not to wince as Impervia wrapped
bright white bandages around her dark arm; but when I considered the
alternative...
I held her tightly and lowered my face against the top of her head. I didn't
cry; I just breathed in the warm fragrance of her hair.
"Phil... Phil!" The Caryatid was shaking my shoulder. "We have to get going
right now."
"Can't we let Annah rest "
"No," the Caryatid interrupted. "I heard voices up the elevator shaft.
They're whispering, but the shaft carries echoes a long way."
"Probably the Ring of Knives," Impervia said. "No doubt, Mother Tzekich has
been running around Niagara Falls, asking at every hotel if they've seen
Sebastian and her daughter. She must have found someone who saw the two
heading this way."
Either that, I thought, or Tzekich noticed the Falls had stopped flowing and
came to investigate. She'd have seen Pelinor's body in the roadway,
immediately in front of the power plant. After that, it was just a matter of
following our tracks.
Annah put her hand on my cheek. She was bandaged now looking painfully
vulnerable in nothing but underwear, and probably weak from blood loss but her
smile was genuine. "We have to go before they get here. I'm strong enough.
Really."
I helped her to her feet. As I did, Impervia slipped off her own winter coat
and draped it around Annah's shoulders. "No," I said, "I'll give hermy coat."
"She's already got mine," Impervia said. "I don't need it this place is
heated. Anyway, a coat will only slow me down if the time comes for...
punishing the wicked."
Impervia smacked her right fist into her left palm. I stifled a laugh. In the
past twenty-four hours, Impervia had been kicked by fishermen, gut-punched by
Hump, kicked by Zunctweed, tossed around by Sebastian... andstill she was
looking for a fight.
Annah whispered softly in my ear, "That's what happens to some people when
Page 192
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
they take a vow of celibacy."
When I stifled the laugh this time, I nearly hurt myself.
I kept my arm around Annah as we moved forward; I don't know if she really
needed my support, but she didn't push me away.
As we passed the fallen Keepers, Annah suddenly stopped. I thought she just
needed to rest but she bent down and pried an Element gun from its dead
owner's grip.
"You want one too?" she asked.
Thinking of Pelinor and Myoko, I nodded. This was not just a quest; this was
war.
22: HALF A LEAGUE, HALF A LEAGUE, HALF A LEAGUE ONWARD
A single door led forward. It had once been equipped with a fancy electronic
lock connected to a keypad. Half the keypad was missing now, along with a
chunk of the door frame. Sebastian hadn't wasted time on delicacy.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]