Read Online Revolution's Shore by Kate Elliott - Free Book Online Page A

nostalgia in an instant because it was time to act. “Let’s go.”
    They came out into the tunnel just as a low, moaning alarm began to wail, seeming to come from deep beneath the walls of the main tunnel. The beam of Lily’s helmet lamp swept a sheen of smooth wall and ceiling, stopped on a dead surveillance camera, moved to Yehoshua.
    â€œYou and Alsayid and Jenny, take out the A Block guards. Kyosti, Rainbow: with me.”
    She set off at a lope down the straight corridor. They met no one until they had crossed the circular intersection that surrounded the huge central elevator shaft, but coming around the curve they almost ran into two guards, helmet lights still off as they stood surprised by the blackout.
    Lily took one down with a sweep of her rifle, clubbing him to the floor. Turned to see Kyosti with a hard grip on the second, his rifle pressed against the guard’s head. All Lily could see was the terrified widening, the plea, in the guard’s eyes; the rest of his face was hidden by the breathing mask.
    â€œKill him,” said Kyosti as she stood staring. He fired, and a blast of light streaked out. The guard collapsed.
    She hesitated, still straddling the unconscious man at her feet. Kyosti swung his gun around and shot.
    The stench of heat rose up to her, a fine thread. She felt sick, was afraid to look down to see what now lay beneath her. Rainbow had already moved on, up the C Block corridor, rifle raised.
    â€œYou’ve never killed anyone, have you,” Kyosti said.
    She barely managed to shake her head.
    â€œCatch,” he said, and she just caught his rifle as he tossed it to her.
    â€œWhat—”
    â€œThat’s yours until you’ve killed someone.”
    â€œBut you’re unarmed!”
    â€œAnd I’m going straight in,” he promised as he followed Rainbow.
    She gasped out an unvoiced curse, moved, stumbled on the body, and ran after Kyosti. Needing him as a vital part of the team, it had simply not occurred to her that she might put him in danger. Or else, she realized, as she passed him, passed Rainbow, that when she acted, all other considerations vanished. At the C Block lock she pounded frantically at the door. It opened to reveal a guard, tense but unsuspecting.
    â€œEmergency,” Lily gasped out, thrust past him, past the second open lock door, and into the main guardroom.
    Opened up with her rifle as she dove behind a console.
    It was over in seconds. Rainbow evidently shot the man in the lock, because moments later, as Lily sweated and shuddered in the silence, huddling behind the console, she saw Kyosti enter, distinctive by the relaxed precision of his walk.
    â€œOne’s still alive,” he said, and she had to stand up, to survey the five dead guards: three were half-dressed, as if they had just woken up. Most were sprayed with blood and gaping wounds. Kyosti just stood there as the wounded man rolled, reached for the gun dropped by his dead compatriot, and lifted it to aim at his nearest clear target: Hawk.
    Lily shot him in the head, and he slumped forward over the other body. Rainbow came forward and began to search the bodies.
    Lily walked to the door, paused by Kyosti long enough to shove his rifle into him so hard that he had to take three steps back.
    â€œI hate you,” she muttered. “Rainbow! What are you doing?”
    â€œGot it.” Rainbow rose. “Ya manual keypad for ya cells. Free ya prisoners.”
    Her voice seemed so nonchalant that Lily was filled with a wrenching rage at the Ridani’s seeming ability to kill so casually. She whirled and stalked out. Had to wait in the empty corridor until Kyosti and Rainbow emerged a few minutes later.
    â€œWe checked the other rooms,” Kyosti said. “They’re clear.”
    From some deep recess of memory that she had forgotten existed, there flashed a vivid picture of Master Heredes sitting cross-legged on the floor of his