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Like clockwork, the cries of newly agitated subhus that lined the street
Skyler ran
Pus as hard as his injury would allow, he beat a direct path to the office tower He could hear rapid footfalls behind hilance over his shoulder--at least ten of the He forced his attention ahead and in doing so caught ed from an old house and raced toward him Skyler squeezed off a burst of bullets fro stop, utterly liht a chorus of mindless howls fros burning as he sprinted the last few
Thick planks of wood and pieces of sheet metal covered the entrance, with rows of razor wire nailed across it in haphazard fashion With despair he ran past the barricade, circled around to find the side door in the sa
In back there was a sht-iron fence An electric gate provided the only way in, but it had been chained closed and padlocked Next to it was a s sounds just led toward the tiny structure The booth’s ere intact Skyler fired a single round into the one facing him and watched it transform from a clear pane to thousands of teun held before hilass in a shower of sharp bits
There was no tilass fell fronored a few sh the openeven as he fired Bullets tore through the creature’s chest but ht into Skyler’s torso, driving him back into the far wall of the tiny shack
Air rushed fro cracked, and pain lanced up his side His head snapped backward and knocked into the ith a deep thu, unsteady, he pushed the liain at the next one This sub had some sense of self-preservation and ducked away Those that followed it slowed, too, and looked at one another as if deciding what to do
Skyler grasped the opportunity and stu area now, he hobbled toward the building’s rear entrance, fighting to keep his balance the whole way His torso burned, the pain groith each movement
Desperate now, he fired blindly behind hi He linoring the fierce agony co from his ribs
The doors were locked
Skyler spun around and saw four subhurunt The weapon felt like it had a sack of stones tied to it Searing pain flared along his torso with the effort but he could do nothing about it Skyler aimed at one sub as it reached the top of the barrier He pulled the trigger
Click
He fumbled for his last clip of ammunition, which he’d stuffed into his jacket as the Melville plunged toward Earth The black round
For a split second Skyler welcomed his fate He slus to coralanced and saw a stairwell tucked up against the side of the building, leading down into darkness
He went for it, pausing only to grab the a step toward the stairs produced a spike of pain in his ribs that felt like knives He shouted through it as he slapped the clip of bullets into the center of his gun
The stairs he took three at a time, more of a controlled fall than a descent A door loomed at the bottom, and it was all Skyler could do to raise one arht andthe door wide
Skyler fell, hard His cheek slapped against a carpeted floor that s feral, like an anirow dark
He spun onto his back and aimed back up the stairwell even as the first subhuer and kept firing until the bullets ran out
As consciousness began to fade, he was vaguely aware of crawling toward the door, reaching for it
The rest was blackness
Chapter Twenty-four
Darwin, Australia
5FEB2283
Well after ht in the Gardens, a poorly named slum in southern Darwin, a caravan of are
Half the vehicles skidded to a stop in the street outside Black-clad police leapt out andfrohtcliff security, not that any doubt existed
The other half of the caravan did not slon They followed one especially large truck adorned with a thick corrugated steal wedge bolted to the front grill The truck’s electric e’s entrance The old bars broke away fro away into the darkness
The vehicles flowed into the open hole like roaches They barreled down the concrete spiral, spewing sparks whenever their rough-plated edges scraped the cracked sidewall
Hardly dented froh the final corner and made short work of the feeble chain-link fence at the end The barricade collapsed and parted easily, leaving nothing but a large door between the intruders and the interior of the building
This door didn’t hold, either When the ra a shower of debris into the warehouse and headquarters of Mr Pruler and a chief supplier of Darwin’s black hty vehicle backed out of the way, police flowed into the hole
Russell Blackfield enjoyed watching his elite do their work
He entered behind the only a pistol From inside he heard shouts of "clear" as hisAbove, he knew they would be working through the upper floors, though reconnaissance said those were long abandoned Worth a look anyway, he had decided during the planning session
According to the intelligence Russell had paid for, Pruoods stored in this rank tomb of a hideout
"So much for resistance"
The htcliff ht He should have arrested the informants who sold Prue if it didn’t pan out
His soldiers ressiveness despite the lack of an eneanized e to scatter it all required more self-control than he usually exercised
At the very end of the last aisle in the roo place--another rooround space