"Christopher Hinz - Paratwa 03 - The Paratwa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hinz Christopher)

Muscle boy lost his smile. Saw-beard tightened his grip on the thruster and glanced at Impleton, waiting
for orders. Impleton's mouth squirmed. The fat smuggler released a loud belch.

The belch was a signal. Muscle boy hopped down from the ledge and took a step toward Gillian. "I'm
going toтАФ"

His words ended in a choking gasp as Gillian's right foot lashed out, slammed into his belly. Muscle boy
doubled over in pain.

Saw-beard pivoted, aimed his thruster at Gillian. He was far too late. Gillian, biting down hard, ignited
his defensive web, heard the near-invisible crescentsтАФfront and rearтАФhum softly as they came to life.
Saw-beard fired. Gillian, braced against the ledge, was hit by the discrete blast of energy, feeling it as a
gentle nudge against his front crescent.

A single-tube thruster, thought Gillian. A one-second recharge interval before it can be used again.

All the time in the world.

Gillian flexed his right wrist and compressed his knuckles, launching the Cohe wand from its slip-wrist
holster into his waiting palm. He squeezed the egg.

The twisting black beam whipped up the side of the mech-wall, the leading fifteen to twenty inches of the
hot particle stream disintegrating everything in its path, the remainder of the beam merely a trail of
harmless light. The fourth smuggler, perched twenty feet above the alley, screamed as twill tubes, relays,
and conduits exploded, showering him beneath a mix of hot liquids and pressurized gases. Live wires
arced; the alley's gloom vanished in a sizzling display of electrical madness. The smugglerтАФalong with a
melange of exploding flaresтАФwas jolted from the mech-wall, his arms flailing wildly, thruster rifle flying
from his grasp, his crescent web turning the color of red wine as it soared to full power, trying to
neutralize the thrashing high-voltage cables.

The smuggler was still in midair when Gillian twisted his wrist and turned the Cohe's deadly energy on
Saw-beard. For an instant, the black beam seemed to coil in upon itself, lancing into an expanding spiral
as it hurtled high into the air. Gillian squeezed the egg harder and jerked his wrist; the Cohe's deadly
energy stream performed a U-turn, plunged toward the ground. Saw-beard opened his mouth in
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astonishment as the Cohe's devastating energy sliced off the barrel of his thruster. Gillian released
pressure on the egg-shaped wand. The black beam vanished just as the plummeting smuggler slammed
onto the floor of the alley.

Muscle boy, still clutching his guts, reached into his pants pocket. Gillian jerked forward, extended his
left foot through the weak side portal of his web, and slammed his heel into muscle boy's chest. The
tattooed smuggler grunted hard, collapsed to his knees.

Get up, Gillian urged, feeling the excitement race through his body, unrestrained, as if his inner skin were
being tickled, as if there were feathers in his bloodstream. His breath came in short intense gasps and he
could feel tremendous waves of heat coursing up and down his chest. Full-body flush. Full-body