The Ramal Extraction Read Online Free PDF

slipped into a pocket, the magazine held twenty 2mm poisoned fléchettes. It had an effective range of thirty meters. Sufficient for unarmored soft targets.
    The augware bio-capacitor in Sims would fire a single electrical bolt eight meters; however, it would take half an hour to recharge for another shot.
    “T&T,” Kay said.
Teeth and talons.
    Kay listened as the others in their party rattled off their concealed weaponry:
    “Pulse wand.” That from Dr. Wink.
    “Willis four-point-four,” Gunny said. “Also a thermex mini and a Rilke knife.”
    “Where the hell are you hiding all that?” Gramps said.
    “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
    A Willis 4.4mm pistol was only slightly smaller than a standard service sidearm. Its double-stack electric magazine held thirty rounds of explosive pellets and on full auto would chop a large human in half with five hits in a line. A thermex minigrenade would cook unprotected soft targets in a five-meter radius of the detonation. A sharp Rilke knife would pierce softweave and flex-ceramic armor with little effort.
    Gunny Sayeed was well armed for somebody supposedly not in that mode. Of course, she always was well armed.
    “All right,” Cutter said, “let’s stay on track for the vehicles—”
    Kay sensed the guard’s intent to move. Before he had his carbine unslung, she sprang; by the time he had both hands on the stock, she was only eight meters away. As he lifted the weapon and began to bring it to bear on the Rajah, she was five meters, still increasing her speed.
    Almost close enough to leap—
    Jo had also moved; she was two meters back and two to Kay’s right, and in slow-vision-predator mode, Kay saw two more guards unshipping their weapons.
    Were they intending to protect the Rajah? Simply copying their fellows? Or part of an assassination attempt?
    The guards appeared focused on the Rajah and not each other, and as Kay leaped and snapped her claws out, she hoped Jo could see that the other two were part of the problem—
    She hit the guard just as he triggered his weapon, knocking him and the firing carbine flying. Projectiles splashed off the plastcrete, sparking as they hit, but it did not appear any of them struck the Rajah—
    Kay tore out the guard’s throat with her right hand and pushed him away with her right foot, already past him and arcing into a long forward roll—she was going too fast to stop—
    She heard the second guard scream as Jo bowled into him, and became aware of the third guard’s head exploding into a spew of blood and bone and brains as she rolled up and half turned to face the rest of the Rajah’s party—
    One of the guards swung his weapon in her direction—
    “Tell your guards to stand down!” Cutter yelled. “It’s over!”
    The Rajah yelled at the guards: “Do not shoot!”
    She was already sidling to her right, putting the Rajah between herself and the guard tracking her—
    The guard with the gun pointing toward her froze as he covered the Rajah. He jerked the muzzle away.
    Not an assassin, then. Or one who thought it better not to try now.
    The Rajah yelled again. “Do
not
shoot! Guns down!”
    The guards lowered their weapons.
    Still in a crouch and ready to move, Kay took in the scene.
    Her target was down, already mostly bled out; Jo’s target lay on his back, his arm obviously broken. The third guard, missing the top half of his skull, was sprawled boneless, certainly dead.
    Twenty meters away, Gunny Sayeed stood holding her pistol with two hands, muzzle pointing skyward, alert for more threats.
    “Head shot,” Gramps said. “What a fucking show-off.”
    Gunny grinned. “Those who can, do, old man.”
    The colonel was wrong, though. It wasn’t quite over. The driver of the bus stepped out of the vehicle’s door with a short rifle and swung it up to point at the Rajah—
    Jo, who was closest, pointed her right forefinger at him, and said, “Stop!”
    She didn’t wait to see if the driver would obey. A crackling