Weird Space 2: Satan's Reach Read Online Free PDF

as the woman struggled, he reached out with his free hand and attempted to push at the doughy bulk, at the same time pulling his left arm.
    It came free suddenly, robbed of all feeling from being crushed for hours. Seconds later he felt the painful, tingling sensation of pins and needles. He rubbed his arm vigorously, attempting to massage life back into the useless limb.
    Zeela lost no time and set to forcing the bars apart. Ahead, the Ajantan’s attention was still on the water. Harper slipped his shoulders through the gap, and Zeela took his arm and eased him head first into the tepid water. He slipped the rest of the way with a splash, submerged, and came up seconds later trying not to splutter.
    He trod water and glanced at the barge. It was sailing slowly away, engine puttering. He made for the bank, swimming in Zeela’s wake.
    He was allowing himself to feel the first flutterings of relief when, as he pulled himself from the water, he heard a cry from the boat.
    He turned in time to see the Ajantan leap to its feet and aim a weapon. A bolus of fire leapt from the rifle’s splayed muzzle and burst against a tree beside Harper’s head.
    Zeela gripped his wrist. “Run!”
    Then he was stumbling at speed through the jungle, the night rent with the fluting cries of the alien and the accompanying blast of its incendiary weapon. Behind them the jungle blazed.
    There were no incandescent insects here to light their way, just the glow of the fire which grew fainter as they ran. Soon they were crashing through pitch black jungle. He felt vines and tendrils whip and slash at his face and arms and found his ankles clutched by barbed undergrowth.
    “Do you know...” he panted, “exactly where we’re heading?”
    “Approximately,” she shouted, “to the spaceport.”
    “How far?”
    “Again, approximately, ten kilometres.”
    He ran on, considering their plight. A minute later he glanced over his shoulder. There was no sign of the pursuing Ajantan. The fire was faint, a distant glow in the darkness.
    “Okay,” he gasped, “slow down. I have an idea.”
    She came to a sudden halt, still gripping his wrist, and he almost barrelled into her. He heard her breathing a matter of inches from his face. “Yes?” she asked.
    “A better... better idea than trying to make for the ’port through... through all this,” he panted. “I can summon the ship to me.”
    “You can? Then do it!”
    He slumped to the jungle floor and heard Zeela squat beside him. He fingered his wrist-com in the absolute darkness and cursed the jungle canopy. Where was the light of just one of the planet’s seven moons when it was needed?
    He activated his com and got through to Judi .
    “A slight change of plan,” he said. “Get a bearing on my current position.”
    “You are eleven point two kilometres south west of the ’port. I judge that you are in the jungle, but surely that is incorrect?”
    “Think again, Judi . That’s just where I am. I’ll fill you in later. Now, I want you to leave the ’port and make for my position, understood?”
    “Affirmative.”
    “The landing might be rough, but no matter. And come down twenty metres north of where I am, or you’ll fry us.”
    “Understood. I’m on my way.”
    He cut the connection. Zeela’s gripped tightened on his wrist. “Your co-pilot?”
    “Something like that.”
    “And now?”
    “We sit tight until she gets here.”
    Her fingers bit into his arm as if she were afraid of letting him go.
    He said, “Thank you for saving my life.”
    “And thank you for agreeing to take me away from here.”
    He smiled in the darkness. “That makes us even, doesn’t it? Always assuming we do get away from here.”
    He listened for sounds of pursuit, but heard only anonymous animal noises near and far: low moans and high piccolo notes, then something booming deafeningly not too far away.
    “How long will your ship take to reach us?” Zeela asked.
    “There are various procedures to go