Jade Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.
    Conor spun his whole body in two fluid motions, and deep red lines appeared across the winged creature's calves. It leapt into the air, whole-again wings spread to block out the blood-red sky. In an instant it disappeared, washed out by the rising sun. Matt's identity struggled back into his consciousness.
    Conor shrieked at the sky. "GIVE ME BACK MY KNIFE, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"
    "Matt," Jeff said in Matt's ear. "Are you okay?"
    Matt's automatic assessment kicked in with the help of an implanted medical chip. BP 110/60, pulse 58, regenerates not triggered, no major trauma. "Yeah." The feeling of submission had faded to a dull, yearning ache. "I'm fine."
    He picked up his combat shotgun and realized he had no clear targets.
    Garrett lifted a bonk by the knee and thrust it sideways, then shot it in the groin while it stumbled. Blossom and Conor flashed around the second, their movements traceable only by the lines of blood that appeared on its thick, gnarled hide. The thing raised a knee, and Conor flew sideways in a spray of blood, his face a ruined mass of pulped meat. Undeterred, Blossom jammed a carbon-fiber knife into its back and wrenched the blade sidewise. She snarled as the bonk’s legs collapsed, dodged a clumsy grapple attempt, and pulled the knife out, to bury it halfway into its temple.
    It grabbed her wrist with one hand and squeezed, crushing bone, then shook her like a rag doll. She screamed and tried in vain to twist out of the monstrous grip as it smashed her onto Conor. Matt bolted forward and leapt, slamming his shoulder into the pommel of the knife. It punched through thickened skull and into the bonk's brain. It let go of Blossom. She stumbled to the side and collapsed. The bonk fell on its face.
    It twitched. Matt placed the combat shotgun against the back of its head and fired. The microgrenade blew its skull to pieces in a splatter of brains and blood. He looked up just in time to see Conor sever the other bonk's spine, grab its hair as it dropped to its knees, saw back and forth across its neck with his katana, and tear the head from the body. Steaming red gore fountained from the massive neck as Conor stepped back and flicked blood from his blade in a single, efficient motion.
    "Fucking brilliant," he said, beaming through a broken jaw, his face a massive, bloody bruise. He helped Blossom up. He carried the head to Matt, dropped it at his feet, and clapped him on the shoulder. "Done is done is fun, am I right?"
    "Status?" Jeff asked in his ear.
    As Matt formulated a reply, people stumbled out of the mine, jaws slack, eyes vacant. Dozens of them. "Uh . . . ." They stank of body odor and piss and Jade, and shuffled their feet through the dirt. "I . . . ."
    Blossom saved him from having to reply. Her brow scrunched in worry, she spoke into her helmet. "One augmented subject escaped. Multiple injuries, nothing serious."
    Garrett and Akash stumbled up to him. Akash, his face a worried mask, held Garrett up with an arm around his waist. Dark blood stained the giant marine's abdomen, a stark contrast to his pallid face. Behind them, more slack-jawed civilians emerged.
    "What the hell just happened?" Matt asked.
    Garrett grunted and pushed himself off Akash's shoulder. He spat toward the severed head. "I got in that thing's way, and it likes to hug. I'll be fine"—he stumbled and dropped to one knee—"in a few minutes." For whatever reason, Garrett healed slower and not quite as well as the rest of the team, despite the same regenerates.
    Jeff's order came through the ear-bud. "Secure the civilians."
    Blossom and Conor corralled the perps, pulling off their filthy, hooded capes and herding the naked group into a rough human conglomerate. They complied with dazed expressions and offered not the slightest resistance. Matt frowned. Even before a full bonk-out, Jade could induce violent schizophrenia in severe addicts and a cocaine-like manic happiness in the casual user. This looked more like too much