text
stringlengths
0
4.23k
"We were already here."
"You're site security?"
"No."
"Then-?"
"This is special duty for us. We were assigned to stay here round the clock as dedicated protection. For you. In case something like this happened."
Downing had remarked that someone might still want Caine dead. Obviously, he had been correct. "Okay, so what do we-?"
"'We' don't do anything," muttered the small man as they moved into a slow trot. "Meyerson and I have one job: to get you to the roof."
"The roof?"
"For VTOL extraction. Contingency orders in the event the facility is compromised. And, sir?"
"Yes?"
"Unnecessary talking will get us killed."
Caine closed his mouth tightly, nodded, and followed.
MENTOR
"So who is our Calypso?"
Nolan tapped his compupad. "Opal Marie Patrone, born May 14, 2035, Knoxville, Tennessee. Grew up all over the place: an Army brat. Father was stationed in Cle...
"Sounds like she was going career military."
"Doesn't say. We don't have a lot of time to get her ready, though."
"I beg your pardon?"
"The virus that compromised her is a garden-variety terrorist construct that we can now eliminate with several different therapies. But her liver is a mess."
"Reparable?"
"No way. She was surgically stabilized before they put her in cryogenic suspension; she can function for a day or so, but then she's going to need regrowth th...
The commplex buzzed. Nolan tapped his collarcom: "Corcoran."
Downing had just raised the snifter when he heard Nolan's tone change. "They what? When? How many-no, forget it. Response code X-Ray Alpha. Yes-all of them. I...
Downing was already on his feet, coat on. "Sidearm?"
"If you've got it."
"What-?"
Nolan shrugged into his overcoat. "The safehouse in Alexandria. It's being hit. Right now."
"Bloody hell," breathed Downing.
ODYSSEUS
They moved using a modified version of a leapfrog advance: after the rear man moved forward, Caine swerved out of cover to follow him at a distance of about fiv...
Caine heard it too. Gunshots. Full automatic-breathy and extremely rapid. Almost like someone tearing a paperback in half: the individual reports were so quic...
"Damn."
Little Guy looked back, harpooned Meyerson with his eyes. "Until it's your turn to advance, you watch our six."
Meyerson looked to the rear-but his head spun back forward as the sounds resumed, closer this time, apparently rising up through the stairwell that was co-loc...
"Machine pistols. Silenced," Meyerson commented.
Before Caine could think the better of it, he was voicing his own assessment. "Maybe not. Each of those little snaps is a round going supersonic. But that hig...
Meyerson looked incredulously at Caine, then smirked. "Anything else?"
Caine shrugged, looked forward. "Probably bullpup weapons; they'll want something short and handy for close-quarters combat."
Meyerson grinned forward toward the back of Little Guy. "You believe this? He's a real-"
"He's right. And this is the last time I'm going to tell you to watch our six, Meyerson. We're heading for the roof, now. Let's go."
They rose, Little Guy's weapon up and ready. Caine edged closer to him. "Those guns-doesn't seem like amateur hour."
"No, sir. I think you're right about that."
Six meters from the elevator gallery.
"Probably had to come in on the ground."
"That's certain: we've got the airspace locked up tight. Sensors all over. Verticals on two-minute standby."
Two meters.
"Which they'd probably anticipate."
One meter. Little Guy paused. "What are you saying?"
"Even if they don't dare go to the roof themselves, wouldn't they try to prevent us from getting there? Send someone ahead?"
Little Guy turned to look at Caine. "A blocking force."