Read Online The Burning Skies by David J. Williams - Free Book Online Page A

“What the hell makes you say that?”
    “I’ve seen your file. I recognize your face. You dye your hair silver. You’re not that hard to pick out of a crowd.”
    “You’ve hacked through to the heart of our systems.”
    “I’d hardly say your file is at the heart of the Praetorian systems, Stefan.”
    “Shut up,” he snaps. “All your zone tricks can’t save you now. Because I’m the one who’s got the gun—
don’t
move your hands. Keep them
right where they are.”
    “I’m not moving.”
    “Good.”
    “What do you want?”
    “To gaze upon the face of Rain before I obliterate your face.”
    “I’m here to fight the Rain, Stefan.”
    “You
are
the Rain, bitch.”
    “You’d better check your orders. Your Throne wouldn’t want me killed. Your Throne would have ordered me taken alive. And I can assure you right now he’d be pretty fucking livid if—”
    “Shut up!” She stops talking. “Don’t try to twist my mind!” But she realizes there’s some doubt in his head. That he’s trying to psyche himself up to kill her.
    Or else he’s just savoring the moment.
    “Start begging for your life.”
    “What?”
    “You heard me, Rain whore. Let’s see you fucking
plead.”
    “You’ll kill me anyway,” she says.
    Near-instantaneous swivel: the gun fires. A shot streaks past her head. “Not good enough,” he says.
    “Strom Carson,” she says. “Where is he?”
    “Who?”
    “The leader of your triad.”
    “Say that name again,” he says.
    “He’s got different orders, doesn’t he?”
    “What the fuck makes you say that?”
    “Your team’s been fucked with, Stefan.
Where’s Carson?”
    And for a moment she thinks she’s gone too far. Lynx takes aim at her chest—and then suddenly leaps toward her, grabs her by the neck as he pulls out a pistol, and shoves it up against her temple. And now he’s switched to audio piped from his suit’s speakers.
“He’s right behind you
. Come out asshole!
Right fucking now!”
    She’s staring in the same direction he is, across the fields at the nearest wall. She still can’t see it. But then they switch off their camo and she does: two figures in two doorways. One of them is advancing. The other is staying put. Haskell notices that they’ve got their camo patterns adjusted so that they’re only visible along the line of vision in which she and Lynx are standing. The figure that’s still standing in a doorway is covering the whole area with a pulse-rifle. The other figure’s still closing.
    “That’s far enough,” says Lynx.
    “Deactivate your weapons.”
    Lynx laughs. “I got a better idea, Carson.
You
deactivate
yours
. Before I do your Rain girlfriend.”
    “That’s not the Rain. That’s the Manilishi. Which belongs to the president.”
    “Don’t think you can make up words and impress me, Carson. She’s Rain. She’s pulling your strings.”
    “No,” snarls the third man—whom Haskell figures to be Leo Sarmax. “The Rain’s pulling
yours.”
    “Shut up, Leo,” says Lynx. “You don’t know shit.”
    “None
of you do!” screams Haskell. Lynx’s arm tightens around her, but she keeps talking anyway. “We don’t have time for this! The Rain are closing on us even now!”
    “Don’t think I don’t know that,” says Carson.
    T his could kick off at any moment,” says Spencer. “It may already have,” says Linehan. “Are you armed?”
    “Just sidearms. Nothing as fancy as you’ve got.”
    “If the shit hits the fan on this ship—”
    “It’s more likely to hit it down there.”
    “It’s
definitely
about to fucking hit it down there. The Rain are in that cylinder for sure. They’re betting they can beat whatever trap’s been set.”
    “And reach the asteroid in which the Throne’s sitting.”
    “The Aerie where he’s waiting for them. Daring them to come and fucking get him.”
    “It’s a magnet,” says Linehan.
“A
fucking magnet.”
    “Look at the size of those Aeries.” Spencer transmits