The Omega Cage Read Online Free PDF Page A

maybe he should just stand where he was and wait. In the long run, it probably wouldn't make much difference.
    He decided on the latter course. Whatever procedure the inmates had devised for checking out new meat would swing into action no matter what he did, so there was no sense in delaying the inevitable.
    Maro looked around. To his left, a group of five men stood around an old-style weight bench, watching. A woman, not particularly large but extremely well muscled, lay on her back upon the bench. She wore a pair of shorts, a halter, and half-fingered lifting gloves. Across the supports was a bar loaded with steel plates. This was a one-gee world, or thereabouts, and Maro quickly estimated the amount of weight stacked on the bar. It looked to be about a hundred and ninety kilos, counting the bar itself. His eyebrows went up slightly. He might be able to bench that much, if his life depended on it. Then again, the woman looked like she weighed no more than sixty kilos, which made the amount of iron she was working with more than three times her own body weight. That would put her in world-class range on most worlds, for men or women. He doubted she would be able to get steroids in the Cage, and that made it even more impressive.
    As he watched, the woman gripped the bar, lifted it from the supports without any of the watchers spotting her, and proceeded to bench press the weight eight times in a smooth, easy motion.
    Maro turned away. If she was doing reps with that much, it was likely she could push a lot more for a single or double. Which made her stronger than just about anyone he had ever seen; certainly much stronger than he was.
    Behind him, a voice said, "The woman you've been admiring is called Raze.
    She's from Tatsu, just like Lepto. It's a heavy-gravity world."
    Maro turned slowly to see a short, slightly built man of about forty-five T.S., with a professorial air. The left side of his head was permanently depilated, and he wore a flat-pack droud plugged into an inset skull socket.
    "They call me Scanner," the man said, raising a hand in a palm-out greeting.
    Maro returned the gesture. "Dain Maro." He looked back at Raze, who was now on her third set. A light sheen of perspiration coated her skin, and the muscles were pumped to an impressive degree.
    "High-gee or not," he said, "she's strong." He looked back at Scanner. "A mue?"
    Scanner looked back at Raze and smiled slightly. "Not exactly, though she's had a few genes spliced. But the primary trick is forced superdense musculature growth, alloy-reinforced bone structure, and nylon ligaments. She can probably punch through steel." He paused, then said, "Our psychopathic friend who brought you out here would like very much to have carnal knowledge of Raze.
    But the warden doesn't like fraternization. Except, of course, for Juete and him."
    Juete… "The albino."
    "You saw her?"
    Maro nodded. "I saw her."
    Scanner laughed. "She's an Exotic, from the Dark world. Genetic playtoys, originally, but they bred true. Pheromonically potent and designed to attract anything remotely human, male or female. You felt her pull, I take it?"
    "I felt it."
    The small man laughed again. "Oh, yeah, everybody who gets close to Juete feels it. But she's the warden's property, top to bottom. Lay a hand on her and you're dead. Believe me, more than a few have tried."
    Maro was about to reply, when suddenly there was a shriek like torn metal, and a batwinged shadow blotted out the sun. Scanner hurled himself toward Maro, knocking the smuggler off his feet. "Get down!" he shouted.
    Maro rolled over and looked up, shielding his eyes against the sun. He had a confused impression of something banking and diving toward him with the sun at its back, something huge, with leathery, claw-tipped wings and a giant hammerhead split with gleaming teeth. Then it was past him and arrowing toward the weightlifter.
    Maro saw Raze, now off the bench and standing amidst a pile of iron plates and other