James Axler – Shadow World

“Fireblast,” the Armorer groaned. “I’m awake. Stop smacking me.”

Can you reach Doc?” Mildred asked.

“Reach him?” J.B. repeated. “The old geezer’s fogging up my glasses.”

Krysty felt a shuddering movement above her.

“Hey, Doc,” J.B. said, “wake up.”

Then there was the sound of another slap.

“By the Three”

The old man’s exclamation was shut off by Dix’s palm. “Easy, Doc, just be quiet.”

It was getting lighter by the second. Krysty could now see the figures clearly as they walked around the foot of the gantry. She also noticed something much closer that she hadn’t been able to see before. About fifteen feet away, over against the ruined curb, stood the squat black cube on wheels. Beside it was the canister that dispensed the flesh-eating foam. That didn’t bode well.

“Okay, Jak,” she said, “use that blade.”

“Cut top out of net. We slip away.” The pressure of mesh against Krysty’s head gradually lessened, then the weight pinning her to the ground lifted. J.B. helped Jak peel the net down, so Krysty and the others could get free.

They had no more than straightened when a harsh male voice barked at them, “Stay right where you are!”

It was too late to run. Two of the armored figures held them covered with light blasters. A third walked casually over to the curb, picked up the canister and shrugged into its harness straps. The fourth hung back, watching.

J.B. ignored the three-barreled longblaster pointed at his chest and demanded of the figure closest,”Are you bastards human? Or are you rad-blasted mutie cockroaches?”

“Okay, let’s detint,” the figure said. Krysty watched as the black helmets turned clear. They were all men, between the ages of thirty and forty. The one with the canister wore a red, bill-less cap.

“You’ve got human heads, anyway,” J.B. said, leaning forward for a better look. “Do the suits come off?”

“Of course.”

“How about the heads?”

“We don’t have time to play with them, Colonel,” said the other rifleman. “We’re set to launch in T-minus four minutes.”

“Put the launch on standby.”

“Colonel”

“Do it.”

The rifleman turned away and headed for what had to be the makeshift missile control centera table pulled out of one of the gaudies with whitecoat electronic gear stacked on it.

“We were going to let you live until after the launch,” Gabhart said. “Now you’ve given us no choice. We can’t have you running around loose while we’re trying to get the missile away. We’ve got to take care of you before we proceed.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Krysty saw Jak move. With a flick of his wrist he sent the leaf-bladed knife spinning toward the colonel’s throat at a speed almost too fast to follow. Three feet from the target, the blade was slapped away by an invisible hand, and it dropped harmlessly to the dirt.

I thought you said you searched these people for weapons?” the colonel said.

“Sorry, sir,” the man with the canister said. “That kid had so much metal sewn into his clothes, there was no way of telling what he was carrying. The only way to make sure he was unarmed was to strip him naked. Pedro didn’t want to do it. Neither did I.”

“Where’s Ryan?” Krysty said to the man in charge. “What have you done to him?”

“Ryan? You mean the guy with the eye patch? He’s long gone. I wouldn’t count on seeing him again in this life.” The colonel waved the fourth man forward. “Hylander,” he said, “go ahead and take your samples now.”

The guy with the walrus mustache stepped over to the squat cube and from behind it took out a gleaming silver apparatus. It had a pistol grip and a latticework, cylindrical frame. He gripped a small knob at the frame’s opening and gave it a pull.

Krysty was standing close enough to see the razor-sharp inner ring slide back and lock in place.

“Are you sure you want him to do this, Colonel?” the canister man said. “If we just tie them up again, they can’t interfere with the launch.”

“We’ve each got our own jobs to do, Ockerman,” the colonel said. “Part of Hylander’s job is to analyze tissue samples for disease vectors. It’s important work, or FIVE wouldn’t have asked him to do it. They need the information if they’re going to protect our people after they arrive.”