Read Online The Knights of the Black Earth by Margaret Weis, Don Perrin - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Margaret Weis, Don Perrin
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illiterate
Corasians.
Nearing the back
end of the facility, close to the loading dock,
Xris entered the warm,
oozing water of the swamp. Behind him, he heard a splash and Ito’s soft,
disgusted grunt. The two agents crawled along the squishy bottom, propelling
themselves forward by grabbing on to whatever was growing down there. This was
the fastest method of traversing a swamp, though not the most pleasant. Try
walking and you’d end up either sunk to your knees in muck or hopelessly
tangled.
The trick was not
to think real hard about what it was you were using for handholds. Once Xris
grabbed what he thought was grass, only to feel it wriggle and slide out of his
hand. The shiver up his spine made ripples in the water and he knew—from the
sound of soft swearing—that Ito had encountered something similar.
But once again,
Xris gave Armstrong credit. This approach— through the swamp—was the best and
closest they could make. The swamp extended to within several meters of the
chain-link fence. And Armstrong had been right about the fence, although Xris
wouldn’t have called it “ordinary.” The fence was far simpler. No sensing
devices, no magnetic anomaly detectors, no defense systems, no nothing. It was
a plain hardware-store chain-link fence.
Xris touched Ito’s
arm, cautioned him to stay put. Xris slithered out of the swamp. Reaching
relatively dry land, he belly-crawled up to the fence. He pulled out his boot
knife, stood it handle-down on the ground, and then released it, letting the
metal blade fall onto the fence.
No spark.
Armstrong was right about that, too. The fence wasn’t electrified.
Xris pulled out his
night-vision goggles, took a long, careful look. Nothing moved anywhere in the
facility. Retrieving his knife, Xris slipped back into the water. He and Ito
spent an hour watching the loading dock and saw no signs of life except for
something that might have been a cat slinking from one shadow to another. By
now, the gas giant was on the rise again; Xris could see things swimming
through the swamp. From Ito’s muffled curse, he could see them, too. The two
returned to their spaceplane.
Once inside, they
peeled off their wet clothes. Ito wrinkled his nose, held his mud-covered
coveralls at arm’s length. “Man, that swamp stinks! And to think we’ve got to
go back tonight. I swear, Xris, I saw a snake three meters long and as thick
around as your leg. All that crap about it being more scared of me than me of
it ... hah! The damn thing floated right in front of me, stared at me with its
little snaky eyes.”
“It didn’t bite
you, did it?” Xris asked, grinning, scraping muck off his face.
“No,” Ito
retorted, “but probably because it had just chowed down on a warthog or
whatever kind of pork they grow around here. I’ll be glad to get this job over.
And if you think I’m bad, wait till Mr. Finicky white-lab-coat Rowan sets foot
in that slimy soup.”
“Maybe slogging
around in muck’ll take his mind off that female. I’ll see if I can’t find a
nice fat cephalopod to drop down his back.”
They changed into
denims, spread out their equipment to dry in the hot sun. Xris routed the
spaceplane’s sensors through his computer, set the sensors to pick up any
movement in the vicinity. The two went to sleep.
A light on the
portable comm unit started to flash, accompanied by a beeping sound. Xris was
immediately awake. He rose from the spaceplane’s bunk, and slid his feet into
his boots. He looked at the clock. 2700, Standard Military Time. Right on
schedule.
He shook Ito, who
could sleep through an artillery barrage. “The Vigilance is in orbit.”
Ito fumbled his
way out of his bunk. Xris sat down at the commlink. The channel was clear, and he
entered the decryption code into the comm unit to begin to receive encoded
messages. Earphones in place, he tested the link.
“Sunray, this is
Delta One. How do you read me, over?”
Immediately,
Armstrong was on the net. “Delta
Corasians.
Nearing the back
end of the facility, close to the loading dock,
Xris entered the warm,
oozing water of the swamp. Behind him, he heard a splash and Ito’s soft,
disgusted grunt. The two agents crawled along the squishy bottom, propelling
themselves forward by grabbing on to whatever was growing down there. This was
the fastest method of traversing a swamp, though not the most pleasant. Try
walking and you’d end up either sunk to your knees in muck or hopelessly
tangled.
The trick was not
to think real hard about what it was you were using for handholds. Once Xris
grabbed what he thought was grass, only to feel it wriggle and slide out of his
hand. The shiver up his spine made ripples in the water and he knew—from the
sound of soft swearing—that Ito had encountered something similar.
But once again,
Xris gave Armstrong credit. This approach— through the swamp—was the best and
closest they could make. The swamp extended to within several meters of the
chain-link fence. And Armstrong had been right about the fence, although Xris
wouldn’t have called it “ordinary.” The fence was far simpler. No sensing
devices, no magnetic anomaly detectors, no defense systems, no nothing. It was
a plain hardware-store chain-link fence.
Xris touched Ito’s
arm, cautioned him to stay put. Xris slithered out of the swamp. Reaching
relatively dry land, he belly-crawled up to the fence. He pulled out his boot
knife, stood it handle-down on the ground, and then released it, letting the
metal blade fall onto the fence.
No spark.
Armstrong was right about that, too. The fence wasn’t electrified.
Xris pulled out his
night-vision goggles, took a long, careful look. Nothing moved anywhere in the
facility. Retrieving his knife, Xris slipped back into the water. He and Ito
spent an hour watching the loading dock and saw no signs of life except for
something that might have been a cat slinking from one shadow to another. By
now, the gas giant was on the rise again; Xris could see things swimming
through the swamp. From Ito’s muffled curse, he could see them, too. The two
returned to their spaceplane.
Once inside, they
peeled off their wet clothes. Ito wrinkled his nose, held his mud-covered
coveralls at arm’s length. “Man, that swamp stinks! And to think we’ve got to
go back tonight. I swear, Xris, I saw a snake three meters long and as thick
around as your leg. All that crap about it being more scared of me than me of
it ... hah! The damn thing floated right in front of me, stared at me with its
little snaky eyes.”
“It didn’t bite
you, did it?” Xris asked, grinning, scraping muck off his face.
“No,” Ito
retorted, “but probably because it had just chowed down on a warthog or
whatever kind of pork they grow around here. I’ll be glad to get this job over.
And if you think I’m bad, wait till Mr. Finicky white-lab-coat Rowan sets foot
in that slimy soup.”
“Maybe slogging
around in muck’ll take his mind off that female. I’ll see if I can’t find a
nice fat cephalopod to drop down his back.”
They changed into
denims, spread out their equipment to dry in the hot sun. Xris routed the
spaceplane’s sensors through his computer, set the sensors to pick up any
movement in the vicinity. The two went to sleep.
A light on the
portable comm unit started to flash, accompanied by a beeping sound. Xris was
immediately awake. He rose from the spaceplane’s bunk, and slid his feet into
his boots. He looked at the clock. 2700, Standard Military Time. Right on
schedule.
He shook Ito, who
could sleep through an artillery barrage. “The Vigilance is in orbit.”
Ito fumbled his
way out of his bunk. Xris sat down at the commlink. The channel was clear, and he
entered the decryption code into the comm unit to begin to receive encoded
messages. Earphones in place, he tested the link.
“Sunray, this is
Delta One. How do you read me, over?”
Immediately,
Armstrong was on the net. “Delta
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