Through the Killing Glass Read Online Free PDF Page B

right thing to
do. She went to visit each of the families who had lost children in the attack.
She told them about what had happened in the Biter Reservation and promised
them that she would not allow such a thing to happen again.
    Then she called
Arjun and Satish for a meeting in her room.
    'Guys, there is
no way such a thing can take place ever again. I've told Hatter and Bunny Ears,
but you know that discipline is too much to expect from every Biter out there.
So we need to help.'
    'What do you
have in mind?'
    'Arjun, we need
more security patrols inside Wonderland to watch the borders from the inside.'
    Arjun sadly
shook his head. 'It’s not as simple as that now we number so many. Now we'd
need it voted in the Council, and you know how Arun and his friends feel.'
    'Come on, they
would think differently after the attack, wouldn't they?'
    Arjun looked at
Alice grimly. He realized that for all her combat skills she was but a child,
and unschooled in the murky world of politics that Arun had mastered.
    'Alice, Arun
was very nice to you when he last met you, but he's been telling anyone who'll
listen that he doesn't believe the story about it being Biters from the
outside. He says he's sure it was Biters from the Reservation. He won't vote to
increase patrols; he'd much rather put the blame on you for being too soft on
the Biters.'
    Alice gritted
her teeth. 'So what does he want to do?'
    'He hasn't said
it out loud as such, but he thinks we should move the Biters far away, and of
course, he'd rather he run this place all by himself as leader instead of a
Council where you have such a large say given your past. That's why he keeps
asking for elections for a single leader.'
    Satish broke
his silence. 'I can help.'
    Both Arjun and
Alice looked at him as he elaborated.
    'I could have
two of my recon teams come in closer to the city centre.'
    Arjun spotted
the obvious problem in the suggestion. 'We send the deep recon boys out to
watch for Red Guard incursions and wild bands of Biters to intercept them
before they get close. Your move would leave us exposed.'
    'Yes, but only
till the situation stabilizes.'
    Alice shook her
head. 'Word will get out. Some of those boys will speak to their wives in the
city. Others will talk too much over a drink. Arun and his friends will throw a
fit and accuse us of overriding them.'
    Just then,
Alice's tactical radio crackled to life.
    'White Queen,
this is Looking Glass.'
    It was Danish.
    'Looking Glass,
what do you have to report?'
    'One of our
recon teams called in and said that they found fresh footprints, many of them,
leading into the city. I don't know how they evaded our patrols, but they say
the footprints must be of Biters by the way they seem to have moved. Then Rahul
down at the farms just called on his radio, saying he saw what seemed to be a
group of Biters down the road.'
    The words sent
a chill down Alice's spine. Satish and Arjun had both heard the transmission
and they knew what the implications of another Biter attack would be. Without a
word being said between them, they gathered their weapons. Alice was the first
out the door, and roared down the road on Danish’s bike, with Satish and Arjun
following closely behind in a jeep. There was no time to call for
reinforcements. They would have to handle this themselves.
    Alice
remembered the bodies of the children and vowed to make these Biters pay dearly
for what they had done.
     
    ***
     
    Alice cursed as
her first burst went wide, and the Biters in front of her scattered behind the
bushes overlooking the farmlands north of the city center where the Biters had
been reported. Alice had let her anger get the better of her and fired even
before her bike had come to a complete halt. Firing her assault rifle
one-handed and on the move was something her trainers back at her settlement
would have frowned upon, but then they had also always advised her never to
fight angry.
    Stilling her
mind she slipped off the bike, selecting