Koban Universe 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

the press might suddenly activate, and convert her into a messy organic replica of Krall chest armor.
    Other than the near hatchling sized Krall, the thick chests of the larger ones would not fit through the opening that had passed her slender frame. She could try other tricks like this, to slow them down. She felt confident she could shoot and hit them with her eyes closed, if they were within fifty to a hundred feet, and acoustically outlined. Her goal was to avoid letting them get that close, because the flare of a shot would identify her position to the entire volume of Krall seeking her. They would come swarming by multiple routes if she was seen.
    She pass ed a small dangling power cable and used her strength to flex it repeatedly, and broke off a thirty-foot length. She removed her jacket, and tied it in a bundle to one end while she walked, her eyes mostly closed. She was unable to resist the periodic need to open her eyes, to see some IR blemish of whatever she was passing. It was confirmation that her mental audio picture hadn’t misled her. That she wasn’t about to step off a catwalk.
    She found a place where a slender strip of metal stretched over a fifteen-foot gap between parallel walkways, with a long drop below. There was no clue what the strip was used for, but it was just lying there, and didn’t appear strong enough to hold her weight.
    She tied the other end of the cable around the strip, and shoved the looped knot out as far as she could, with the jacket hanging down over the drop, as a scent attractant and faint heat source. She lay prone, and scooted out as far as she could, to shove the knot farther away, and felt the metal strip start to sag. It didn’t seem attached to either side. It was a stupid trap, which wouldn’t sucker a four year old. Perhaps a feral Krall would “fall” for this.
    She worked her way through the factory maze, and knew from the accumulated sound sources and noise level, that the trackers had reached the crawl space through the press. It hardly delayed them at all, and they simply walked around. It was good she hadn’t wasted much time trying that.
    A short time later, two screeches, and a clattering of heavy bodies hitting far below proved that the trick with her jacket had worked, prompting a sardonic thought.
    Gee! Two more down and a bazillion to go!
    That was an exaggeration. Her ears actually reported there were only a few hundred down here searching for her. Apparently, none of the nearly mindless dolts was willing to branch off and search very far away from the main scent trail. Otherwise, she thought her movements would be sharply curtailed by their ability to see her heat signature from a distance, if they had simply spread out more.
    Having that thought proved prescient, and proof arrived only a few minutes later. Suddenly, there was an ultrasonic cry from a distant catwalk, well separated from the main group that was following her. This Krall had not been making any audible noise at all, and Maggi had been unaware of its position before this. Even now, it was only a dim IR glow to her at that distance. There wasn’t anything between her and it to block the view, and her hotter body glow had been easily spotted. She could handle just that one, but others would be drawn like moths to her IR flame.
    The cacophony of ultrasonic calls from the larger group told her the “first sighting” call wasn’t entirely inarticulate. It must have been an equivalent to “tally ho” or “prey here.”
    There was a benefit to her from the noise increase, as the huge underground cavity filled with high frequency hoots and howls. The definition of the structures around her improved for several seconds. She mentally scanned the acoustic mind picture for somewhere to make a stand, where they couldn’t get to her en masse. She found one, but it had no possibility of retreat once reached.
    The underground factory was centered under the dome, and the floor of the dome was