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under the low, acoustic- tile ceiling 300 DEATHLANDS and the banks of sputtering fluorescent lights. At Kaa's direction they deposited the bags on the floor beside the open door to the gateway. The odor of death was thick and noxious, despite the hum of the nuke-powered air-filtration system. That was because the source of the pollution was still inside the mat-bans chamber. Kaa could see the soles of bare feet, already blackened by decay. The chamber door was standing wide open, which, he thought, could have explained why no more reinforcements had arrived. Without a closed circuit at this end, the book had said it was very dangerous to send anything living through the system. Perhaps that's why there were so many dead inside. Had the last stickie out of the chamber forgotten to shut the door? Stickies were capable of great thickheadedness, especially when excited. Kaa stuck his head in the chamber and saw the sprawled bodies of half a dozen stickies. He knew right away they weren't mat-trans casualties because they didn't have the telltale marks of a failed remateriali-zation incomplete heads, fingers, toes. These stickies had been hacked to death, their skulls broken apart by multiple blows by a sharp, heavy weapon, a cfeaver or machete. Quite violent blows, from the look of them. Two of the stickies had their arms cut off at the elbows. "Get them out of there," Kaa said. "And get something to mop up the mess." The blood, vomit and excrement in the chamber was still in a semi liquid state. Before they used the gateway again, it needed to be Skydark 501 completely swabbed out. Either that or they risked arriving at their destination coated head to foot with a fine film of the stuff. The zoo muties rummaged around in the surrounding rows of desks and came up with various paper products, some more absorbent than others. They set to work Page 125 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html inside the chamber. "You," Kaa said to Jak, "what do you know about all this chilling?" The white-haired teen didn't lie and he didn't beat around the bush. He looked up at the mutant giant and said, "Was us or them. They didn't give us choice." He leaned over and pulled out one of his little black throwing knives from the throat of a dead stickie. He wiped off the blade on a desk blotter. "We were just trying get out here," he said. "Stickies didn't want to let us." Kaa looked at his Angelica, who nodded. It was the truth, and he accepted it "I understand," Kaa said to Jak. "You had no choice. Regrettable, but there's nothing more to be said." He watched the cleanup for a minute or two, then he said to Jak, "I want you to go up in file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...óDeathlands%20(12/55)/035%20-%20 Skydark.txt (94 of 109) [12/24/2004 11:24:46 PM] file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Axler,%20James/GÇóDeathland s%20(12/55)/035%20-%20Skydark.txt the elevator and bring the rest of the stickies down here to me." "Lion come, too?" "If he wants to," Kaa said, "but don't let him smack around any more of the stickies. They don't like it." "Can't blame 'em for that," Jak said. He trotted off for the elevator with the lion at his side. When the teenager was gone, Kaa took Krysty's 302 DEATHLANDS wrist and led her away from the others. She followed willingly. "Sit, Angelica," he said, indicating one of die office chairs behind a desk. She sat, gazing up at him expectantly with her clear green eyes. "I want to finish the conversation I started in the Apocalypticon vault,*' he told her. "I said that you are important to the future of the new people of Death-lands, but I didn't explain why. Now is the time for me to do so. I told you back in Willie ville about my worst fear, that I might succeed in uniting our land and its people during my lifetime, but that once I die, it will all pass into chaos again." "I remember," Krysty said. "Good." He smiled at her warmly. "From my study of the treasures of the Apocalypticon, I've learned one of the secrets of history. There is a single key to the forging of an empire that will outlast its creator. And that is, the siring of a true heir. In this case, one who carries Armageddon's gift of the third, all-seeing eye, one who believes in freedom and respect for all the mutant peoples. If a true heir does not appear to carry the standard, our noble cause is lost just as it begins." "I understand," she said. "Angelica, you and I will give our people such a prince, a prince to lead them into the future. He will be the fruit of our coupled loins." "Does it have to be a prince?" she asked. Kaa's brows furrowed in momentary confusion. "What?" "Couldn't it be a princess?" Krysty said. Skydark 303 He laughed. "Yes, of course. External sexual characteristics don't matter in the least. It is the seeing and the believing that matters, and possessing the will to complete the task." He caught both her hands in his. They were lost between his huge palms. "I ask you, Angelica, will you bear my offspring? My prince or princess? Will you help me breathe life into my beautiful dream?" Tears rolled down Krysty's cheeks. She was surprised to discover that she was no longer afraid of giving birth to a gaggle of monsters, needle toothed or otherwise. Monsters were long-suffering, noble, ill-used, capable of greatness, as Kaa had proved. Not degenerate, but evolving. If what he Page 126 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html proposed was her destiny, who was she to question it? "It would be my honor," she said, and she kissed the back of his hairless hand. By the time Jak returned with the stickies, the zoo muties had scrubbed out the gateway chamber. Kaa ordered the plastic bags moved into the mat-trans unit and when they were inside, he said, "There's only room for four travelers this first jump. Angelica, you will of course accompany me." "I want Jak to come with us," she said. Kaa nodded. "And lion?" Jak asked. "Of course." Kaa cracked open the chamber's control panel and made a few necessary adjustments so they could reach their intended destination. Krysty and Jak joined him 304 DEATHLANDS inside the gateway, but the lion refused to enter the chamber with them. It stood outside, roared ferociously and swiped at the air with its paw. And when Jak wouldn't come out, the lion tried to entice him by leaping around playfully and chasing its tail. "I don't want to leave him," Jak said. "It'll be all right," Kaa assured him. "It'll be safe here with the others. We'll be back shortly with another group of stickies, and you can rejoin it then." Jak stuck his head out of the chamber door, and the lion licked him from neck to forehead. Then Lord Kaa pulled the door closed. Because the door was shut, he didn't hear the clack and whine of the elevator as it started back up for the surface. RYAN AND HIS FRIENDS lost sight of their quarry as evening fell over the long valley. They had file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...óDeathlands%20(12/55)/035%20-%20 Skydark.txt (95 of 109) [12/24/2004 11:24:46 PM] file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Axler,%20James/GÇóDeathland s%20(12/55)/035%20-%20Skydark.txt followed them down the highway for many, many hours. It was all they could do to dog their trail; they were unable to make up any of the ground that separated them because the muties kept up such a chiller pace. Before they lost them in the lengthening purple shadows of the slope leading to the redoubt, Ryan and the others did get a better view of the people they were tracking, a view unobstructed by haze, glare and mirage. It was pretty obvious to all of them that Jak and Krysty were in the group, and that Kaa was in the lead. He loomed so much larger than the others, they looked like children tagging along behind him. They were too far away to be able to tell if Krysty Skydark 305 and Jak were being held at blasterpoint, or if they were tied or chained to the others. Ryan figured they were at least twenty minutes behind Kaa, which translated [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ] |