Chrono Spasm Read Online Free PDF

sentry detail, the latter assuring the one-eyed man that he had finally recovered from the effects of the mat-trans jump. Ryan peered through the trees at the snow-dappled ground all around them. Visibility was poor, but that meant that anyone sneaking up on them would have just as much chance of missing the companions as they did them. Anyway, Ryan figured, there wasn’t much to see. All there was was another pest-hole full of chillers.
    “The girl’s calmed down,” Mildred said as Ryan surveyed the area. Beside him, J.B. carefully stowed away his battered map. A chill breeze cut through the trees, tossing the falling snowflakes on the air like dancers at a predark ball.
    Ryan nodded, pacing across to where the young woman sat with her back propped against the trunk of a tree. She looked frozen, hugging herself as she tried to keep warm. Mildred had given her a blanket from their supplies and had handed over her spare socks in place of her missing shoes. It wasn’t much, and Mildred felt it was even odds that the young woman might lose a foot before the night was over unless they got her somewhere warmer.
    “You okay now?” Ryan asked the shivering woman as he stood before her.
    She looked at him, and Ryan eyed her closely for the first time. Behind the smudges of dirt and the messy tangle of hair she was young and quite beautiful. He estimated she was no more than nineteen, but it was hard to tell, given how thin she looked. Probably not much food going spare if the weather’s always like this up here, Ryan realized.
    The teenager was staring at Ryan’s eye patch, as if unable to look away. She began to say something, but it was unintelligible to Ryan.
    “I think she wants to know why you wear your patch,” Doc suggested.
    Ryan nodded solemnly. “You want to know how I got this?” he asked, and the young woman nodded once. “Fight with my brother. You have a brother? Or a sister mebbe?”
    She nodded. “Tri,” she said. “ Dve sestry... end brother.”
    “They around?” Ryan asked.
    She averted her eyes, looking at the ground as she shook her head.
    “I’m Ryan,” he told her. “You have a name?”
    “Nyarla,” she said timidly after a moment’s consideration.
    Ryan held his empty hands out to her. “You’re okay now,” he told her. “You’re safe.”
    Nyarla nodded again, taking his hands for just a moment in gratitude. After that, Ryan stepped back to confer with his companions.
    “Any sign from Jak or Ricky?” Ryan asked.
    J.B. shook his head. “They’re out there, we’ll know if they spot anything.”
    * * *
    J AK STALKED through the icy undergrowth with Ricky a few steps behind him. They held their bodies low to create smaller targets. Jak was a natural loner, used to operating alone even while playing his role in Ryan’s hodgepodge team. Having Ricky at his side was new. He liked the kid, had seen and admired the way he handled a blaster when all hell was breaking loose. But it still took some getting used to having the kid at his side like this.
    Jak brushed at his collar, smiled momentarily at the snow that had settled across the line of his shoulders, clinging to the sharp shards of glass and metal that were sewn there. In this environment the snow was good—it provided camouflage, helping him and Ricky blend into the surroundings.
    Jak was an expert tracker, blessed with enhanced senses far superior to an average person’s. Right now, as the two of them made a circuit around the copse of trees, Jak smelled something. He sniffed again, scenting the air. It was blood, and even with the wind whipping around the trees the way it was, he could tell it wasn’t coming from the direction of the bloodbath at the redoubt. Something else had lost blood out here this night, and Jak wanted to know what.
    Ricky saw Jak slow. “What is it, Jak?” he whispered from behind him, hunkering low to the ground. He had never seen weather like this, never felt cold like this. Alaska was a hell of