Read Online Alan E. Nourse - The Bladerunner by Alan E. Nourse, Karl Swanson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Alan E. Nourse, Karl Swanson
Ads: Link
grave trouble was brewing, transponder or no transponder.
Back in his room, Billy found it was 3:30 a.m.; he had been at the police station for over two hours. Following a hunch, he crossed the room and lifted the sweater from the floor. As he suspected, the bug was gone. He looked at the transponder on his wrist and sank wearily down into a chair.
Of course the bug was gone. They really didn't need it anymore.
PART TWO
DOC'S STORY
I
It had all happened to swiftly that Doc had already reacted before he had time to think. One moment he and Billy were stepping from the elevator onto the darkened rooftop of the Merrimans' apartment and walking across to board the waiting heli-cab; the next moment Doc had heard Billy's warning cry, and the roof was ablaze with light from the police spotlights. Already climbing into the heli-cab, Doc had boosted himself the rest of the way in, slammed the door behind him and thrown the fast takeoff switch. A moment later he had heard the idling motor surge into a roar as the heli-cab rose swiftly into the air.
It had been self-preservation and nothing more, a lesson he had learned years before in the jungle fighting around the little field hospital in the south of China where he had been stationed during the Great Eastern War in the late 1980s, and learned again during the Health Riots of '94, when angry torchlit mobs had swept through cities and suburbs, fire-bombing clinics and hospitals and tossing tear-gas grenades into the buildings to drive the doctors and nurses out. That Doc had survived those frightening days at all was a credit to his physical agility and his uncanny sense of precisely when to move, and how, in order to save his own skin. And now the lesson had come back full force as he coded the Health
Control Hospital address—the first he could think of— into the auto-pilot computer and sent the little cab banking into a long curve to the north, fully expecting hot pursuit by the police. As the cab turned away from the rooftop, he had seen Billy's figure down below, running for the stairwell, then tripping and falling spread-eagled on the roof as two or three dark figures pounced on him and the flight bag that had been thrown from his hand in the fall. It was not until the heli-cab was moving steadily to the north, with no sign of any pursuit, that Doc began thinking and recognized what had actually happened. Obviously Billy had made a sacrifice move; if he, too, had tried to clamber into the heli-cab, the police would have nailed the vehicle to the roof, or at b^st followed in swift pursuit. Billy had gone down deliberately to give Doc a chance to get away—a chance that Doc had seized without question or hesitation.
For a moment, then, he was half tempted to turn back and try something wild and foolish, a bravado rescue attempt or some such thing, but he instantly vetoed the idea, much as he felt guilty at leaving Billy in the lurch. He and Billy had long since agreed on the policy to follow in the event of an ambush such as this. If one were captured, they had agreed, the other should flee while he could, and then wait for the other to contact him when things were clear. Doc had recognized an unspoken obligation never to knowingly lead the law or Health Control forces to Billy or his bladerunning activity, and Billy had agreed never to knowingly implicate Doc in his medical underground activities, should he be apprehended. And in practice they had followed this policy before. Billy had been picked up more than once in police or Health Control dragnets thrown out as a result of underground medical blunders or disasters—all too common these days—but the blunders had never been Doc's, and Billy had always been released again after minor interrogation had cleared him in such cases.
What was more, Doc realized, there were others involved in this case than just Billy. Molly Barret was still in the Merrimans' apartment with the two recently treated children. Without some
Back in his room, Billy found it was 3:30 a.m.; he had been at the police station for over two hours. Following a hunch, he crossed the room and lifted the sweater from the floor. As he suspected, the bug was gone. He looked at the transponder on his wrist and sank wearily down into a chair.
Of course the bug was gone. They really didn't need it anymore.
PART TWO
DOC'S STORY
I
It had all happened to swiftly that Doc had already reacted before he had time to think. One moment he and Billy were stepping from the elevator onto the darkened rooftop of the Merrimans' apartment and walking across to board the waiting heli-cab; the next moment Doc had heard Billy's warning cry, and the roof was ablaze with light from the police spotlights. Already climbing into the heli-cab, Doc had boosted himself the rest of the way in, slammed the door behind him and thrown the fast takeoff switch. A moment later he had heard the idling motor surge into a roar as the heli-cab rose swiftly into the air.
It had been self-preservation and nothing more, a lesson he had learned years before in the jungle fighting around the little field hospital in the south of China where he had been stationed during the Great Eastern War in the late 1980s, and learned again during the Health Riots of '94, when angry torchlit mobs had swept through cities and suburbs, fire-bombing clinics and hospitals and tossing tear-gas grenades into the buildings to drive the doctors and nurses out. That Doc had survived those frightening days at all was a credit to his physical agility and his uncanny sense of precisely when to move, and how, in order to save his own skin. And now the lesson had come back full force as he coded the Health
Control Hospital address—the first he could think of— into the auto-pilot computer and sent the little cab banking into a long curve to the north, fully expecting hot pursuit by the police. As the cab turned away from the rooftop, he had seen Billy's figure down below, running for the stairwell, then tripping and falling spread-eagled on the roof as two or three dark figures pounced on him and the flight bag that had been thrown from his hand in the fall. It was not until the heli-cab was moving steadily to the north, with no sign of any pursuit, that Doc began thinking and recognized what had actually happened. Obviously Billy had made a sacrifice move; if he, too, had tried to clamber into the heli-cab, the police would have nailed the vehicle to the roof, or at b^st followed in swift pursuit. Billy had gone down deliberately to give Doc a chance to get away—a chance that Doc had seized without question or hesitation.
For a moment, then, he was half tempted to turn back and try something wild and foolish, a bravado rescue attempt or some such thing, but he instantly vetoed the idea, much as he felt guilty at leaving Billy in the lurch. He and Billy had long since agreed on the policy to follow in the event of an ambush such as this. If one were captured, they had agreed, the other should flee while he could, and then wait for the other to contact him when things were clear. Doc had recognized an unspoken obligation never to knowingly lead the law or Health Control forces to Billy or his bladerunning activity, and Billy had agreed never to knowingly implicate Doc in his medical underground activities, should he be apprehended. And in practice they had followed this policy before. Billy had been picked up more than once in police or Health Control dragnets thrown out as a result of underground medical blunders or disasters—all too common these days—but the blunders had never been Doc's, and Billy had always been released again after minor interrogation had cleared him in such cases.
What was more, Doc realized, there were others involved in this case than just Billy. Molly Barret was still in the Merrimans' apartment with the two recently treated children. Without some
Similar Books
