[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.David raised the M-16 and pointedit at him, prepared to fire if they were seen.Too bad we can't just shoot him now.but a shotwould alert the others, and while David wasn't con-cerned with the fence men, the one posted at the vancould be a problem; he was far enough away that hemight radio before coming in to check.These two will be easy enough, but how to approachhim? There was no cover if the man at the minispotted them coming.That could wait; they had work to do before worry-ing about the guards.Crouching, David waved Claireand Rebecca across, the M-16 trained on the shadowyfigure at the fence.He held his breath as they slippedacross the open space, but they managed it withhardly a sound.As soon as they were across, David followed, hisyears of training allowing him to move as silently as aghost.Once they were cloaked by the building'sshadow, David relaxed a bit, the worst of it over.Theycould cross to the middle building in the thick blackof the corridor between the structures.In less than a minute, they'd reached the crossingpoint.Nodding at the women to stay back, Davidwent across, stopping at the closed door to theirdestination.He touched the icy metal of the handleand pushed it down, nodding to himself as he heardthe tiny click of the unlocked door.It's communications, then; the team leader wouldhave left it open for the men posted, access to a satelliteuplink in case we returned.A calculated guess, but agood one.It was time to pray for a bit of luck; if the lights wereon, opening the door would be like a beacon toanyone even glancing in their direction.The guardshad been facing away from the compound when he'dreconned, but that didn't mean much.A deep breath, and David pushed the door open,registering that the light was low as he slid inside andclosed it behind him.He leaned against the door and counted ten, then relaxed, inhaling the warm airthankfully as he studied the interior.The warehouse-type structure had apparently been divided intoRooms - and the one he'd stepped into was packedwith computer equipment, thick cables trailing acrossthe floor and up the walls, dish connectors.everything that links this facility to the worldoutside.David hit the wall switch, turning off the singleceiling light, and grinning, opened the door forRebecca and Claire to join him."Back against the wall!" Leon shouted, and Coledid it before he even knew why.The phlegmy rattlingsounds seemed to be coming from somewhereahead -- and then he saw the creature coming slowlytoward them from behind, making it impossible toretreat, and barely held back a scream.It stoppedfifteen or twenty feet away, and Cole still couldn'tseem to get a good look; it was just too bizarre.Oh, Jesus, what is it?It was four-legged, with split hooves, like a ram orgoat, and was about the same size - but there was nofur, no horns, nothing else that even remotely resem-bled a natural development.Its slender body wascoated with tiny reddish-brown scales, like a snake'sskin, but dull instead of shiny; at first glance, it lookedlike it was covered in dried blood.Its head wassomehow amphibian, like a frog's - an earless flatface, small dark eyes that bulged out at the sides, atoo-wide mouth - except there were pointed teethsticking up from a protruding lower jaw, a bulldog'sjaw, its head also covered in the dried-blood scales.The thing opened its mouth, exposing only a fewsharp teeth, upper and lower, none of them in thefront - and that terrible wet rattling sound came fromthe darkness of its throat, the bizarre call matched byothers, somewhere on the other side of the artificialmountaintop.The call built, going louder and deeper as the thingraised its head, turning its hideous face to theceiling -- and in one sudden, jerking motion, it dropped itshead and spat at them.A thick, tarry blob of reddishsemiliquid flew at them, at Leon, across the wideopen space -- and Leon raised his arm to block it even as Johnstarted to shoot, stepping away from the wall andspraying the monster -- Spitter - - with bullets.The goop hit Leon's arm, wouldhave hit his face if he hadn't blocked, and in responseto the hail of clattering rounds, the Spitter turned andjumped up the sculpted mountain in long, easyjumps that took it to the top in seconds, that didn'tdenote panic or pain or any stress at all.It loped backabout twenty feet, then skipped nimbly back down tothe ground, stopping in front of the connecting hatch.As if it knew it was blocking their escape.And it didn't even flinch, holy shit.The multiple cries from just out of sight didn't getany louder, but they didn't retreat, either.The gar-gling noises stopped, one at a time, the lack of targetsgiving them no reason; suddenly, it was silent again,as quiet as it had been when they'd entered."What the good goddamn was that?" John said,grabbing another magazine from his pack, his expres-sion one of total incredulity."Wasn't even hurt," Cole whispered, holding thenine-millimeter so tight that his fingers started to gonumb.He barely noticed, watching as Leon touchedthe thick, wet handful of maroon goop on his sleeveand hissed in pain, drawing his hand back as ifhe'd been burned."Stuff's toxic," he said, quickly wiping his fingerson his shirt and holding them up.The tips of theindex and middle fingers on his left hand had gone anangry, inflamed red.He immediately stuck his hand-gun in his belt and pulled the black shirt off, carefullyavoiding contact with the acidic ooze, dropping it tothe stone floor.Cole felt sick.If Leon hadn't blocked."Okay-okay-okay," John breathed, his brow fur-rowed.'This is bad, we want out of here as fast aspossible.you say there's a bridge?""Yeah, goes over the, uh, trench," Cole saidquickly."Like twenty feet across, I didn't see howdeep it was.""Come on," John said.He started walking towardwhere the path turned out of sight, striding quickly.Cole followed, Leon right behind.John stopped aboutten feet short of the turn and backed against the wallagain, glancing at Leon."You want to cover, or me?" Leon asked softly."Me," John said."I step out first, draw their fire.You run, Henry, right behind him - and head down,got it? Get across, get to the door - if you can, helpme out -"John's face was solemn."- if you can't, you can't."Cole felt a by-now-too-familiar rush of shame
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]