The Hallowed Cure: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Hallowed War Book 3) by T.E. Bakutis

Author:T.E. Bakutis [Bakutis, T.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

23

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CLUE?

My jets fired long before I hit the pavement. I landed at street level with another teeth-rattling thump, but I landed without killing myself. If we’d had jets like this on our armor back in the war, we would have had a lot more options for avoiding Mutes.

My jaw was starting to ache, unfortunately, and a headache was starting behind my eyes. That probably had something to do with slamming through the side of a building in a metal coffin. I belatedly hoped I hadn’t developed a concussion, but I had to trust my Hallowed regeneration to handle that if so.

As I’d suspected and Nine had confirmed, there wasn’t a single person in sight, nor were there any vehicles. Yet if Doctor Sharpe had dropped some sort of gas on the city that paralyzed everyone, it seemed to me that I should see some signs of people who’d been caught in the open. Abandoned cars, people collapsed on the street, some sign that people had been here before the gas arrived.

The park stood ahead, a huge flat expanse of fountains and bushes lit by gleaming LEDs on tall metal poles. There were a few wire trashcans, but there wasn’t nearly enough space to hide a child, let alone a full grown person. Yet there were no people in the park. Nothing moved.

The building behind me was metal and glass, just like most of the other buildings I’d seen. A large neon sign buzzed merrily, displaying the words “Corner Deli” in several additional languages. I risked putting my back to the park and peeked in through the street level windows. The lights were off inside the deli, though the shelves looked fully stocked. So there hadn’t been a panic or looting, yet.

The sign hanging inside the door on a thin string was simple, white, and red. While I didn’t know the language, I figured it said “Closed.” That made sense, given it was now past midnight, but still didn’t explain why the city was so quiet. Where did forty thousand people sneak off to in the middle of the night?

“Initial examinations of the air suggest no chemical agents,” Nine proclaimed proudly. “It is possible that my sensors simply cannot detect a gas, if there is one, but that seems unlikely.”

“Congratulations,” I told Nine. “Any luck breaking through that jamming?”

“Unfortunately no.”

“Can you even tell where it’s coming from?”

“My initial examinations suggest multiple sources, including several in the park and several in nearby buildings. That would suggest that the sources I’m detecting are simply a relay for the jamming, not the source of the jamming itself.”

I walked off toward Lincoln’s waypoint. “Keep trying. And keep scanning for any trace of a signal from Caitlyn’s plane or anything from Hahna or Saul’s people.”

“Yes, Sergeant Riven.”

As I walked along a sidewalk with neatly parked cars and no people, surrounded by gleaming metal and glass buildings covered in glowing neon, this entire mission felt like a really weird dream. Walking through my first foreign city was surreal enough.

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.