"Stephen Kenson - Technobabel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenson Stephen)

somewhere behind me. "The parts are always best when they're fresh."
When I hear those words I feel the adrenaline rush into my body like a dam
breaking. Synapses fire and connect, newfound energy shoots through my nervous
system and I find the strength to plant my feet on the floor and shove Weizack
away. As he stumbles back with a yell into the tray of instruments, I grab for
his gun. Time goes strange and everything seems to be moving in slow motion to
me.
Weizack crashes to the tiled floor along with all of the sharp and shining
surgical gear as I flick the safety off on the gun and spin on his partner. I
faintly hear the gray creature cry out not to damage me too much as I level
the gun at the ork.
A look of total and utter surprise on Riley's face makes him look almost
innocent and comical for a moment before I fire and the rounds from Weizack's
gun erase his face in a blur of red. He topples back toward the floor with the
top of his head blown off.
Before I can turn toward the ghoul, he is upon me, slamming into my side with
surprising speed and strength. His skin is like leather and his eyes are
hideous, wide and staring. The smell of him is as overpowering as the charnel
smell of the meat-wagon, and he sends us both crashing to the cold tile floor
near the steel table. The gun flies from my hand and slides across the tile
floor just out of reach. I struggle to get to it, but too late.
The creature is hideously strong and I am still weak and moving too slow. It
grabs me and throws me down onto the floor on my back, pushing the air out of
my lungs with a whoosh and sending pain lancing up my spine. A blow to my
stomach makes me want to retch, and another upside my head has me seeing
stars. I struggle to throw the thing off me as it straddles my legs and
strikes at me with its wiry arms, but it is too strong, too heavy.
The gun is out of my reach and Weizack is stirring and cursing, bleeding from
several cuts and gashes the surgical tools have given him. The hot, metallic
smell of blood is everywhere in the room, and it seems to drive the creature
pinning me into a rage. It smiles and licks its thin lips, revealing a
mouthful of sharp teeth and an animal-like tongue.
I shrink back in fear. Something cold and primal uncoils inside me and seems
to take over, a basic instinct. There is a metallic click, and I strike out at
one of the wiry gray arms pinning me down. The ghoul arcs back, howling in
pain, a scream that scratches against my brain like a monofilament edge parts
flesh and bone like water. Blood spurts out in dark gouts from the stump of
the ghoul's arm. I kick the screaming thing off of me and scramble onto my
hands and knees toward the gun. The dark, carbon-fiber blade slides silently
back into my forearm, shedding the blood and gore from its slick surface as it
goes, my skin sealing perfectly over the opening with only the slightest mark
to reveal its passage.
Grabbing the gun from the floor as Weizack begins to get back to his feet, I
shoot him in the leg, shattering his thigh bone and leaving a exit wound I
could fit my fist through. He goes down yelling "Frag!" over and over again at
the top of his lungs as the ghoul also continues to howl and roll on the floor
in agony. I have to get out of here before I find out if they've got
reinforcements nearby. I move over to where Weizack is leaning against the
wall and clutching at his leg.
"Keys," I say as I level the gun at him. He looks for a moment like he's going