Species II by Yvonne Navarro

Author:Yvonne Navarro
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 0812570758
Publisher: TOR BOOKS
Published: 1998-07-13T07:00:00+00:00

“Why are you looking at me like that?” demanded Dennis. “Who were you just talking to?”

“No one important,” Press answered. But Dennis knew he was lying, could see it in the set of the man’s jaw and the way his eyes had narrowed when they focused on him.

“Relax, Mr. Gamble,” said one of the biology technicians moving around the lab. At least this one hadn’t jabbed him with a syringe. “It’ll be just a few more seconds and we’ll have everything we need to know.”

Dennis ignored the biologist and turned his attention to Colonel Burgess. “About Annie,” he said, “what was the cause of death?”

Burgess stared at him for a second. “We don’t know,” was all he would finally say.

Shit, Dennis thought. Another liar—this place is infested with them. “Come on, give me some information here—how did she die? She was my friend and I have a right to. know.” When Burgess just stared at him without answering, Dennis felt his fists curl up in frustration.

“The sequence is almost complete,” said the biology technician from her place at a computer console a few feet away.

Dennis glanced at her, then began to frown. “Wait a minute,” he said slowly. His eyes felt red and sore, itchy from exhaustion. Fury was making him sweat, making water collect along his forehead and under the arms of his shirt. “I think I get it now. I don’t know what happened to her, but I think I’ve figured out why you’re taking my blood. You fuckers think I did it—”

“Data retrieval is on line,” said the biologist.

To Dennis her voice sounded flat and dangerous, like some sort of automated assassin. That’s probably what all these men were, Lennox included—assassins. Well, they could jam their guns up their backsides if they thought Dennis Gamble was going down without a fight for something he didn’t do. “I did not kill Annie,” he snarled at the same time he sprang from the chair. He registered with a sort of detached, careless alarm that the guards in the room, every damned one of them, had instantly leveled their weapons at him. And what were those anyway? Not all the standard issue M-16s, but some kind of spray-nozzle rigged canisters that reminded him of flamethrowers. “I’m leaving.”

“Halt,” ordered the guards’ leader. His finger was twitching against the trigger of a rifle rather than one of the spray canisters. “You freeze where you are or we’ll fire—”

“Now just hold on, Dennis,” Press said hastily. He held out a hand in an imploring gesture, planting himself bodily between Dennis and the guard. “If you’ll just stay calm—”

“I said I’m leaving—”

“Wait! The computer says he’s normal,” the technician suddenly blared. “He’s normal—there’s no sign of infection!”

For a single, endless moment, no one moved.

“Infected with what!” Dennis shrilled.

Press gestured at the guards and they lowered their weapons, sending him nervous, slightly ashamed smiles while Burgess, that rat-souled son of a bitch, had the balls to give him a fatherly pat on the shoulder. “Go on home, son,” he said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.