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keeps it to himself. We get what he wants us to get, nothing more.
Blake kicked the pinned android, hitting his hip with her boot. Fine, she said. Let s kill him
now.
Go ahead, Mbutu, bust his head with your rock, no point in wasting a bullet or a charge on
him.
Ease off, Blake, Bueller said. This guy came out of the vats and got programmed for this.
It s not his fault. Not everybody gets a choice,
Blake stared at Bueller. Yeah. I guess I hear that.
I hate to point this out, but 1 hear something coming this way from inside the nest, Smith said.
And even a plasma rifle won t stop a whole herd of these bugs. What say we go play outside?
Bueller glanced down the corridor. He heard the rattle of alien feet and claws on the material.
Let s move it, people. Get to the downed pods, there might be more guns or supplies, something.
And then go where? the android asked. You re trapped on the planet without pods or an
APC.
Maybe so, pal, but we ain t trapped in this anthill. Let s go, marines.
Nobody needed to be told again.
Billie moved carefully through the ship, hiding when she heard people approaching. She had the
carbine over her shoulder and clutched the rolling pin and peeler in her hands. She kept moving away
from the voices and bootfalls until she realized she was in the ship s crew and commanding officer s
quarters. She snaked her way around doorways and stayed flat against the walls, edging along, trying
to stay invisible. If somebody should see her, she would be in deep shit in a real hurry.
Ahead was Stephens s cabin, and something drew Billie that way. He wouldn t be using
it one of the bodies she d seen spaced had been the colonel. Surprised her, that he would die
defending the ship, but maybe she d read him wrong.
As Billie approached the door, it started to open.
Damn, somebody was inside!
She glanced up and down the corridor. She d never get clear in time. Whoever came out of
Stephens s cabin would see her before she could get to cover. If he was armed, she d catch one in
the back.
Billie raised the rolling pin, triggered the freezer, and flattened herself against the wall to the
right of the sliding door. She hoped it was only one of them.
As the man stepped out into the corridor, Billie swung the rolling pin. The liquid inside hadn t
solidified yet, but the pin was still heavy.
She smashed the pin into the man s head, angled just over his left ear. She put her shoulder and
back into it, it was a good swing, powered further by her fear. The thick plastic shattered as it met
bone, probably cracking the skull as well. Viscous blue coolant splashed from the broken pin,
covering the man s face with cold globules.
He didn t go down. He staggered, slammed into the doorjamb, and wobbled, but he didn t go
down.
Billie stepped in and drove her left hand at the man s belly, just below the sternum. The peeler
sank into his flesh all the way to her hand.
White fluid sprayed from the wound onto her as she jerked the peeler out.
Android blood, she realized, as she tried for the second stab. He was an artificial person.
The android managed to twist and slap at her hand, partially deflecting the second thrust so it
missed his solar plexus and skidded over his ribs, gouging chunks of his uniform and flesh out, leaving
a shallow ditch that stretched from the center of his chest almost to his shoulder.
The coolant from the rolling pin clouded his vision, though, and his own punch missed Billie by
a hair. As he wiped at his eyes, it gave Billie enough time for one more shot. If she didn t drop him
with it, he would have her. Even a wounded android was soil stronger than an ordinary human.
Billie jabbed, a long stroke, aiming at his eye. Growing up in a hospital you learned something
about anatomy. The eyes were the easiest path through the skull to the brain.
The peeler hit just under her target, bounced up, and sank through the softer eye tissue. Jelly
oozed from the ruined eye as the peeler went in.
The android jerked away from Billie, reached up with both hands, and jerked the peeler out.
The serrated edge brought most of the eye out with it, clearing the socket until milky white circulating
fluid welled and spilled.
He stood here for what seemed a long time, then collapsed. He didn t say anything, not even a
groan, just dropped as if his bones had vanished, and died.
Billie s heart raced, pounding as though trying to dig its way out of her body. She still held part
of the shattered rolling pin in her right hand. She let it fall. The clatter it made seemed loud in the
corridor.
Her first reaction was to turn and run, but she didn t. Instead, she wondered why the android
had been in Stephens s cabin.
Inside, she figured it out. The parts missing from the carbines were stacked neatly in rows on
the colonel s bed. Who would have put them there? Somebody had sabotaged the weapons, and it
looked like she had found out who. Why had he done it? It didn t matter, she could worry about that
later. Right now, she had other things on her mind.
Billie picked up one of the feed ramps, stripped the receiver on her weapon, and replaced the
missing part. She snapped the connector into place and the ramp toggled through a diagnostic code
and then clicked into place. She shoved a magazine into the carbine, touched the bolt control, and
cycled a round into the firing chamber. The magazine s counter showed ninety-nine antipersonnel
rounds remaining.
Billie smiled. It was tight, but she felt a lot better. If the headshrinkers in the clinic could see her
now, they d really have something to worry about: good God, it s a crazy woman with a gun!
Damn straight. And if anybody gave her any shit, she was going to invite them onto the dance
floor for a fast and deadly tattoo tango.
Wilks. She would go find Wilks and get him loose. He d know how to handle this. And once
she got Wilks, they could collect Mitch and get the hell out of this mess. Maybe it wasn t the best
plan in the universe, but it would do for now.
She hoped.
21
Massey watched as the other six air pods arrived in the vicinity of the 1st Squad s hive.
Watched the various angles the cameras gave him as the marines began shooting the pods out
of the sky.
Well, well. They must have gotten hold of some of the downed weaponry. At least two plasma
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