[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Zälek snorted. "I'm always up to something. Right now, what I'm up to could
see your company armed properly. I'm not going to guarantee victory over these
Page 93
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
vampires that you've got so annoyed, but you'd at least have a fighting
chance."
"What makes you think we need or want your help?"
Sinclair folded his arms, feeling his patience erode rapidly.
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
195
"Such pugnacity! But you know as well as I do that one can't win a firefight
with attitude alone. Captain, I know how much ammunition you have and it is
nowhere near enough
.
But if you call your quartermaster right now and ask him about your reserves,
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised."
"What are you up to?"
Zälek merely smiled and nodded in the direction of the telephone. Grimacing,
Captain Sinclair lifted the receiver and dialed the stores. "Sinclair here.
What's our situation with regards to ammunition? Yes, soldier, I know I asked
you that three hours ago. Yes, I
know what's on the form, Corporal.
I'm asking you to go down and look again." He paused.
"Corporal, don't think I'm not damn well giving you an order.
Just look and tell me."
A few moments later, Zälek heard an excited chatter on the other end of the
phone. He cocked his head to one side and grinned. "Anything new?"
"Look, Zälek, I don't know what your game is, but I
haven't the time to play along..."
"Of course you don't! Furthermore, you don't trust me an inch, my voice and
dress sense annoy you, you think I'm up to something and you've half a mind to
blow my greasy head off, just to shut me up. Am I right?"
"What the Hell do you think?"
"What do I think? I think you'd appreciate a second good faith gesture." His
voice lowered to a conspiratorial tone, suddenly deadly serious. "Would you
like to know who attempted to kill Major Jayce?"
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
196
That struck home. Captain Sinclair composed himself before going further,
speaking with all the icy calm of a poker player. "I've got my suspicions."
"And I've got your suspect: I caught him for you." Zälek waved a hand, and a
wooden crate faded from non-existence into plain sight. Sinclair heard muffled
complaints and banging from within.
"What the Hell is "
Zälek had disappeared.
* * * *
Dejected and lonely, Brode had tried to keep himself busy, marking time until
Noawhane's return, whenever that might be. Checking his snares, he found two
dead muskrats and two dozen crawfish. Sighing, he passed two days in a bleak
haze, worried sick about his wife who had still not come home. He tried to
talk himself down by reminding himself that if anyone could make the trek from
Fort Laurie back to the waystation safely on foot, it was his Noawhane. He
hesitated to use the term 'unarmed', as Nabaren's teeth and claws meant they
were never short of a sidearm, but times were getting tough and he would feel
a lot less worried if she had a more substantial sidearm on her. The law
against Nabaren bearing arms could go to Hell: things were different this far
from civilization.
He hung his carbine from his shoulder as he started up the bank to the house,
Page 94
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
and was just passing the little jetty where he and Noawhane kept their boats
tied, when he heard inhuman, croaking voices of the far side of the house.
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
197
"On'y one og dem. I know 'im. I get 'im dis time easy
."
remarked a deep, croaking voice.
"Ssssssilenccce!" urged a higher, sibilant being. "Zis is wayssstationnn. Zere
iss a reassson why zis one survivessssss."
"I no ssssee nussing," said a third voice, deeper than the second. "He dead
already. We wasssste time."
Brode approached his house in a low crouch, set his bucket by one of the
uprights, and unshouldered his carbine. He spotted four demons, all of
reptilian aspect and, for want of a better word, native to his swamps. Three
of them resembled pythons with arms and legs, seven feet tall and twenty feet
long from tail to snout, while the third and largest looked like an upright
gator. Brode knew this demon as a 'crocadevil': a huge and muscular figure
covered with a thick hide that was practically bullet-proof. This one was an
old enemy of his; last time they fought six years ago he managed to scare it
off by shooting its eye out. Since then, the demons that infested his swamp
had given his waystation a wide berth.
Now, it seemed, they had finally outgrown their fear of him.
Brode raised his carbine, but refrained from firing. He reckoned he could hit
and kill one of the snake demons, but the rest would most likely scatter and
attack him from all directions. Without his sub-machine gun, still locked away
in his house, he did not have much of a chance. Even the snakes, officially
called 'ophidires' but colloquially known as
'hissers', were stronger and faster than him, and their tails could easily
constrict an unarmored man to death. Brode
Mother Damnation [The Blessed and the Damned I]
by Janrae Frank, Phil Smith
198
adjusted his aim, looking at the scarred, one-eyed crocadevil.
He took a deep breath and held it. He gambled on being able to scare the
demons off if he could shoot the crockadevil's remaining eye out. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]