Glory Lane by Alan Dean Foster

Author:Alan Dean Foster
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Fiction, Science Fiction, American, General, Fantasy
ISBN: 9780441516643
Published: 2011-08-11T15:09:00+00:00

8

Falling rapidly, but not accelerating, Kerwin opened his eyes, promptly closed them again. His body told him everything was under control but his mind saw him smashing noisily against a solid surface far below, blood and guts flying, bone shattering. A hand wrapped around his and he opened his eyes again to see Miranda smiling confidently at him. She gave his fingers a slight squeeze, then drifted away with swimming motions.

They slowed and exited the shaft thirty levels below the one that had grown almost familiar. In aspect and atmosphere this one was very different from the one they'd left. There was trash lying in the street and the storefronts looked considerably seedier than those above. Miranda pointed.

"I saw them stop and go that way when they left the shoot." They followed her up the street. Sure enough, three squat figures could be glimpsed trundling a fourth shape between them. Izmir's abductors were not fleet of foot despite the fact that each possessed an additional pair.

"How can they run at all with such short legs?" Kerwin said, panting as they pursued.

"Hey, lay off the short jokes." Seeth was having a difficult time keeping up with Miranda, who seemed to flow effortlessly across the pavement.

As they drew closer they could hear the aphids buzzing among themselves. As Kerwin wondered if they knew they were being followed, one of them turned, pulled something from inside its cape, and leveled it at the three humans. Seeth grabbed Kerwin with one hand and gave Miranda a shove with the other. Together they tumbled to the street behind a pyramidal tower that might have been a restroom or trashcan. Something that sounded like a berserk dragonfly slammed into the other side of the tower, making it ring like an out-of-tune church bell.

Seeth rolled, looked up the street. "Right, let's go. Bastards."

As they scrambled to their feet and rushed around the tower, Kerwin saw that the opposite side had been blown open. Twisted metal groped at air.

"How'd you know that was a gun?"

"C'mon, brother. Use your pinhead. What do you think somebody you were chasing would point at you? A feather duster?"

They were starting to run out of breath. A sharp pain was running up Kerwin's side (he'd drunk too much at dinner), and even Miranda was starting to slow. But they'd closed the distance between themselves and Izmir's captors, who weren't possessed of inexhaustible energy either.

Two of them held onto the apparently unperturbable and indifferent Astarach. They were huddled in front of an abandoned storefront that dominated the end of a cul-de-sac. Save for the presence of one feeble streetlight set in the roof overhead, they might all have been on some isolated moon.

Seeth slowed, stopped, still breathing hard. "Right. That's our property. Turn him loose or we're gonna take your little bug heads off, comprende?"

"Hey, wait a minute." Kerwin was looking around anxiously. "Where's the third one?"

A high-pitched buzz brought his head around and answered the question at the same time. The third member of the insectoid trio appeared from behind the concealing bulk of a transformer housing.

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