[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
shadows, they looked like hideous travesties of humanity. Taller than Grant,
lea-ner by far than Kane, double rows of lizard-things sat upright on thrones,
their bowed, powerful legs tucked beneath them. Brigid, Grant and Kane stared
wide-eyed, stunned, shocked and awed. And terrified.
The Serpent Kings had been buried royally, each one carefully embalmed and
positioned upright on a funerary throne, wearing all the trappings of the
god-hood they had assumed upon Earth. The beautifully polished stone of the
ceilings and walls had been carved in reliefs showing events in the lives of
the various Annunaki who sat stiffly all down the length of the great hall.
Grant, Kane and Brigid could easily imagine car-pets on the cold floor and a
great deal of ornate fur-
nishings. But all of that ancient splendor was long gone. The excavations of
the human explorers had caved in the rock-cut chambers and the explorers
themselves had taken all the funeral finery. Only the thrones and the Serpent
Kings remained, shriveled corpses staring into nothingness. The three humans
gazed at the cadavers, their flesh crawling and their minds reeling with
conjectures.
"The pantheon of Sumerian gods," Brigid half whispered. "This is what Philboyd
meant when he said they found them."
In a harsh, gravelly voice, Grant said, "Let's get the hell out of here."
The hall of the dead led straight ahead. The three of them moved as fast they
dared, watching for cracks and splits irt the floor. There seemed to be
nothing but shadows behind them, and ahead of them only
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%...0Moon%20-%20The%20Dragon%2
0Kings,%20Book%201.html (157 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon murk.
The tomb opened suddenly into a vault-walled chamber of huge proportions, so
vast that its nether end was lost in the shadows. The floor was so flat and
smooth they knew it had been leveled artificially. A
broken ring of Cyclopean blocks stood alone.
Silently, they wended their way around them. Kane glanced up, trying to see
the ceiling. Instead he saw a wedge of starlight far above. Beneath it a shelf
of stone jutted out, allowing access to the opening. He gusted out a relieved
Page 125
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
sigh. "I think we're almost out of here."
The three people quickened their pace. As they came around the base of one
looming mass of stone, they were suddenly confronted by three carnobots.
Chapter 22
The lights shining from atop their helmets gleamed dully against gray alloyed
flesh. Red, multifaceted eyes stared expressionlessly at the three people.
Then they sprang, their needlelike incisors glittering briefly in the glow of
the lights.
Grant and Kane immediately squeezed off shots with their Copperheads, though
they knew the rounds would only bounce off the dense coatings of the mechanoid
creatures. They kept the rate-of-fire selec-
tor switch on single shot, for fear of being driven backward by the continuous
recoil. Sparks jumped from the droid's surfaces as the bullets ricocheted
away.
The trio of carnobots didn't move for a moment, their immobility puzzling.
Then Kane saw a pack of the unearthly gray automatons come racing out the
shadows from behind the three. The uncanny silence in which the creatures
advanced was more blood-chilling than if they'd howled like wolves.
Their fangs gleamed brightly against the murk. Kane, Grant and Brigid knew if
they were bowled off their feet by the horde, the vicious talons and teeth
would rip the Kevlar weave of their environmental suits and all of them would
die, either by asphyxia-tion, freezing or decompression.
"Make for the ledge!" Grant shouted.
The three people lunged forward, sprinting through the shadows and boulders
toward the shelflike projec-tion of rock. Kane didn't look behind him toward
the droids, but he doubted they could reach the ledge be-fore the mechanoids
overtook them.
The carnobots closed in on them by leaps and bounds, and the ledge was still a
hundred feet ahead. Kane felt certain they could never reach it before they
were overwhelmed. Then Brigid made a diversion.
She whirled, opening the valve of the oxygen tank, flinging a plume of frozen
atmosphere. The creatures in the lead recoiled in momentary confusion, their
vi-sion sensors coated by frost. The respite gave
file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/James%20Axler%20-%...0Moon%20-%20The%20Dragon%2
0Kings,%20Book%201.html (158 of 174)17-2-2006 3:18:23
James Axler - Outlanders - Devil in the Moon
Grant and Kane time to reach the ledge and bound atop it. The top was nearly
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]