Furious, the Armorer did as she asked, cursing his inability to help.
SWIRLING COLORS FILLED Krysty’s vision, and only the thundering blood in her ears could be heard. Death was near, and Krysty knew she had only one chance. Calling on Gaia to aid her, mentally saying the prayers that would summon inhuman strength, the woman experienced a rush of electric power that banished the pain and returned the feelings to her arms. Now Krysty tried again to break free from the baron’s grasp, and his arms parted easily, his face reflecting his utter astonishment.
As she got loose, Langford aimed his blaster and Krysty knocked it aside, the miniball tugging at her khaki jumpsuit as it tore a new hole in the cloth.
His left wrist throbbing, Langford dropped the exhausted weapon and threw a punch. Krysty swayed out of the way, feeling it brush her chin, then leaned in and hit him twice with blows that would have aced a norm. Snarling, the baron buried a fist into her stomach, but the blow, although devastating, seemed to have no effect on her.
Backing away, she kicked dirt in his eyes, but the giant laughed and grabbed for her throat. Krysty feinted to the right, and incalculable agony shattered the universe. Langford had yanked loose a handful of her animated hair.
In spite of the pain, Krysty swung out her legs for a trip, and the baron cursed as he landed sprawling, red filaments still clenched in his fist. The sight fueled her anger, and Krysty rolled on top of the man to slap cupped hands onto his ears. Howling, the giant rose to his knees, throwing her off. Rolling to her knees, Krysty saw trickles of blood flowing down his neck and knew she had successfully burst his eardrums.
Spinning on a heel, Langford kicked at her, lightning fast. The boot scraped her side, and Krysty swayed out of the way just in time to avoid the expected second kick from his other boot.
Her hand brushed one of the dropped blasters on the ground, and she threw it at his face. He ducked and then lunged, arms splayed wide for a deadly bear hug again. Krysty dropped and rolled, the baron plowing into the wall of the tunnel, shaking the huge structure.
As he turned, Krysty stepped in close and rammed the heel of her hand into his nose, intending to drive the fragments into his brain. She heard the bones snap and felt them move. Instantly the baron’s face went slack, and he fell to his knees drooling. Fumbling for her belt knife again, this time she found it and slashed him twice across the throat, then stabbed the blade into an armpit to sever the major artery hidden there.
Langford limply fell forward onto the ground. He shuddered all over just once, then went completely still.
Minutes later, as Krysty weakly stood in the tunnel, a faint sound permeated her consciousness. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were chanting, their voices swelling in power in volume until the very ground seemed to shake with the endless repetition—-their hailing her as the new baron.
Chapter Thirteen
“There!” a sec man shouted, pointing at the distant horizon. “Black dust, it’s the biggest I’ve ever seen!”
“Silence, fool,” Brandon hissed, leaning over the railing that surrounded a .50-caliber machine gun attached to a gimbal stanchion. The officer held a pair of binocs to his face, and manually dialed the focus. The batteries were long dead, and many of the functions of the complex device were unknown, but the prism-based optics worked just fine.
“Shitfire, it’s a monster!” Brandon cursed, then lowered his tone to a hush. “Pilot, kill the engines. I want dead silence.”
Keeping one hand on the wheel, the pilot of PT 264 threw a switch, disengaging the propellers from the thumping steam engine.
“Engine room to bridge,” a voice shouted up the speaking tube. “What’s going on up there?”
“Shut up. There’s a sea mutie on the horizon,” the pilot said clearly into the tube, his lips less than an inch away. “No sounds, no walking, nothing until the lieutenant says so.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” the engineer whispered up the tube, his voice barely audible.