"Jak Koke - Shadowrun 28 - Dragon Heart Saga 02 - Clockwork Asylum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Koke Jak)

puppeteers who control Aztechnology the power they need to construct their metaplanar bridge to the tzitzi-mine тАФ
demons who live off torture and suffering. When
the bridge is completed, the demons will come into this world and ravage it. Aztechnology believes it will be
rewarded as the tzitzimine scourge the land, bringing a millennium of pain.
Only Ryan Mercury can stop them. He is an undercover operative who worked for the recently assassinated great
dragon, Dunkelzahn. Ryan must take the Dragon Heart тАФ a magical item of immeasurable powerтАФto the
meta-planar bridge and give it to Thayla, the woman whose song protects the world from the demons she
calls the Enemy. The Dragon Heart will give Thayla the power to destroy the bridge.
Recently, Thayla's power over the bridge was breached by Aztechnology. And at the same time Ryan Mercury
struggled to overcome the selfish personality inside that inspired him to keep the Dragon Heart for himself. The evil
part of him that allowed the cyberzombie, Burnout, to steal the artifact.
Ryan defeated Burnout, throwing him into the depths of Hells Canyon, but the cyberzombie reached out and
snatched the Dragon Heart. Burnout plummeted into the chasm, taking the salvation of the world with him.
 Now, Ryan Mercury must get the Dragon Heart back.

Prologue

Lethe fell.
The last crimson rays of the waning sunset painted the walls of Hells Canyon. The dark scar of the Snake River
below grew thicker as he plummeted toward it. He willed himself to follow Burnout into the abyss, pushing his spirit
close as the cyberzombie dropped. The cliffs on either side narrowed, and the universe contracted around Lethe as he
fell after the cyberzombie called Burnout.
The cyberzombie looked human for the most part, but Lethe felt a cold, inhuman radiance from him. In the physical
world, Burnout was very big, at least two and a half meters, with a density to him that spoke of cybernetic limbs and
torso. His bald head was perfectly symmetrical and looked tiny on his massive shoulders and chest. His legs were
strangely proportioned, with elongated shins and shortened, overly muscled thighs.
This ... creature is perhaps the opposite of me, Lethe thought. Lethe was pure spirit, and unable to manifest in the
physical world at all.
In the astral, Lethe saw that most of Burnout's spirit was gone. His aura was a dark shadow amid a glowing
constellation of magic and spells. His true spirit was somehow separated from his body. Out of phase.
Lethe had never seen anything like it. He noticed a slight hazing in the astral wherever the cyberzombie passed. This
creature was polluting astral space by its mere existence. Highly unnatural.
In one hand, Burnout clutched the Dragon Heart тАФan artifact that glowed gold and white-hot in the astral. Very
powerful magic.
Lethe willed himself into Burnout's body of metal and
flesh. He possessed the cyberzombie and overwhelmed the man's spirit, which flickered like a weak candle,
barely tethered to the meager amount of natural flesh that remained inside the machinery.
I must protect the Dragon Heart, Lethe thought. I can still save Thayla.
Burnout's body crashed into the cliff wall, bouncing off with a grinding crunch. Lethe tried to extend his will into
Burnout's cybernetic arms, to make the man bring the Dragon Heart close to his chest. To protect it. Despite massive
exertion, Lethe could not influence the creature's metal parts.
That brought the first wave of panic. Lethe was a pow-erful spirit, a creature of will and energy who was not bound
by flesh and could not influence the physical world except by possessing the bodies of living creatures. He had only
tried it twice before, that he could remember, and only in emergencies, but each time he had gained full control over the
host body.
Here he was merely an observer. A passenger.
The canyon walls closed around him. Narrower and narrower. It was pitch dark; Lethe didn't know when he would
hit bottom. Burnout was falling like a bullet now, his metal growing hot from the speed. He impacted on the rock
again, smashing his left shoulder. And again, scraping a wide patch of skin off the shiny metal
sheathing.