Cypher (The Dragon's Bidding Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

down the
ramp.
    Captain Nickolai Costos
had graduated from the academy two years ahead of Fitz and spent most of his
career there as an instructor. Nearing the end of his service, that’s where he
belonged, behind a desk. But she had to use what resources she could scrape
together. The overweight, balding man had jumped at the chance to participate
in a field op one last time before TKS sidelined him permanently. At the other
end of the career scale, Becky Chin was still technically a cadet. Green and
scared, she tried to hide it with tough talk and too-loud laughter. Fitz saw a
lot of her younger self in Chin, and thought she’d make an excellent SpecOps
agent—if she managed to survive her baptism of firepower.
    Fitz hit hyperkinetic
speed and sprinted past Bartonelli. Weapons fire erupted out of the building
and from a laser emplacement on the roof, aimed primarily at the SpecFor troops
closing on the other three sides. They would keep their targets pinned down and
contained, while she went inside with her people.
    Intelligence speculated
that Tritico had several augies with him and an undetermined number of Normal
troopers. The latter she could discount; they wouldn’t have the reflexes to hit
an augie moving flat out in the half light, as the bolts kicking up sand around
her proved.
    A shot pranged off her
armor, briefly staggering her.
    Or they could get
lucky.
    Fitz zig-zagged more
creatively.
    She reached the terrace
and vaulted over its low wall, taking up a position to one side of a set of
ornate double doors. Costos covered the other side, breathing hard despite his
augmentations. Fitz jumped out and drove the butt of her rifle against the
door. The shock of the blow rattled up her arms, and she reeled back. They must
have replaced the old glass panes with armorglass. Bartonelli appeared next to
her, sooner than expected, and bumped her aside. With her pulse rifle on full
auto, she walked the blasts up the door and down in a broad X pattern,
following it up with a round from the EM launcher. Exploding clouds of
armorglass shards and pieces of molding clattered and bounced across the marble
floor of the empty dining room beyond.
    “That’s how it’s done,
Chima,” the sergeant said.
    Yep, if connotation was
any indication, Chima definitely meant dumb ass.
    Braylin Pike tossed a
small object through the shattered doorway. The canister bounced and slid across
the floor, coming to rest against the far wall and did…nothing.
    “Uh… is that all it’s
supposed to do?” Pike asked.
    Fitz checked her inhead
display. Still functioning. “You have your augs?”
    He nodded, tapping the
side of his helmet. “But these are supposed to shield our spikes. Only the bad
guys will get burned.”
    Cyber-tech’s newest
toy, the EMP grenade, used the same principle as the remote she’d faced on
Baldark: frying the circuitry on any exposed spike. Doctor Joachim DeWitt, the
head of CyberOps, had assured her they’d be protected by the shielding in their
helmets. He had that part right, but had the device shut down the other augies
they were about to take on?
    Weapons fire erupted at
the front of the lodge. That would be Major Baltasar’s diversion, hopefully
keeping the majority of their opponents too busy to deal with the incursion
from the rear.
    Fitz signaled the
others to follow, and eased into the empty dining room, glass gritting under
her boots while each footstep echoed off the barren marble floor. She fought
the urge to sneeze, spawned by the stench of decades of rot and neglect. The
space retained little of its previous opulence, its wall coverings water-stained,
and woodwork riddled by insects. Exits on either side led to the service areas
and kitchens, and at the front she noticed a pair of stained glass doors, one
standing open. With hand signals, she directed Costos and Chin to check out
what lay beyond that, then gestured for Bartonelli to watch the entrance they’d
just blasted through. The twist of the