Cenotaxis Read Online Free PDF

to the edge and peer over. The binoculars add further augmentation to my vision, so the rain seems to evaporate from the air. I sweep the far side of the ravine but can still find no sign of the sniper. The team I sent to the nearest six-wheeler is moving from cover to cover with all due haste. Of the six vehicles, two are critically damaged. I am certain we can scavenge enough tires to keep three of the other four roadworthy. When Alice-Angeles arrives, that will make six left of the original nine. We are down but not out.
    One of the AI turrets explodes into flame, casting a ghastly yellow light across the ravine. The sniper has fired again. A second later, another turret goes up. I curse under my breath. Our adversary is targeting the undamaged vehicles, using our own munitions against us. My boxer is tense on his belly beside me, but does not return fire. We don't want to draw attention up here just yet. The others provide enough noise and threat to cover our absence.
    Movement on the far side catches my eye. The other team has arrived. Silhouetted against the gray sky, they creep like shadows through a dim, crepuscular world. I feel a moment's disorientation, as though I'm watching an old flatscreen movie that has suddenly taken on three dimensions. I fear that dawn is about to hit Station Zero, and I stab my gloved fingers into the mud.
    No! I cannot leave now! There's too much left unfinished!
    The view doesn't shift. I remain firmly in the same location. Dawn is hours away yet. I am simply anxious.
    The boxer fires his rifle and I snap out of my spell. Raising the binoculars, I discern a glassy, translucent figure making impressive speed across the far cliff face. The others have flushed the sniper from hiding! Long-limbed and agile, and almost certainly male, he sports camouflage more sophisticated than anything we have, but raindrops render him more visible than he would prefer to be. With a pistol in each hand, he fires over his shoulder at the frags who stumbled across him. One drops like a sack, pierced by a round through the skull. Two more go down. My boxer snaps off three more shots, and the sniper lifts his head to look in our direction. Blood turns to rainwater in my veins as he raises both guns to fire at us.
    Five rounds strike him simultaneously. Two from below, two from the far side of the ravine, and one from the boxer. The sniper loses his balance and falls to the mud below. Frags break cover and converge on him to make certain he has been neutralized. My companions stand up, obviously keen to join them and get moving again.
    "Wait," I tell them, raising my visor to speak aloud. "It's not over yet. Alice-Angeles and the others are late."
    A voice crackles over the radio. "So you took out Freer. Well done. Understand, however, that I have the rest of your people hostage. If you want to see them again, turn yourselves in now. Otherwise, I'll have them executed and come in after you myself. You don't want that."
    It's Bergamasc, hard on my heels like a bloodhound. Gritting my teeth, I test the airwaves. The jamming has eased, which is small consolation for the capture of Alice-Angeles and the others, and the position I now find myself in.
    My hands shake as I slip off my gloves and reach into my pocket.
    "Release them immediately, Bergamasc," I say over the radio. "That's an order."
    "I don't take orders from anyone, especially not you."
    My rain-slick fingers close over the dead man's switch and pull it out into view. The boxer watches impassively as I activate it and grip it tightly in my fist.
    "I have a nuclear weapon in my possession," I tell Bergamasc down the open channel. My voice is surprisingly calm. "It's armed and will detonate at my command—or upon my death, should you send any more snipers. Release my people now, and let us go on our way, or I'll use it."
    "You can't be serious."
    I let the rain do the talking for almost a full minute. "It's your choice, Bergamasc. I've made mine."
    While