Awakening: Outlanders, Book 27 by James Axler

Author:James Axler [Axler, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2022-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

‘‘A Steyr Scout rifle!’’ Larry Robison exclaimed in wonder, turning her long blaster over in his hands. He had asked for and received permission, of course. It was a short boltaction rifle with a gray synthetic stick and detachable box magazines in .308 caliber. The scope was long eye-relief, mounted unusually far forward on the receiver. ‘‘Pretty fancy piece of ordnance. These things weren’t common back in our time. And they weren’t cheap.’’

She shrugged. ‘‘Got from guy in ville.’’ ‘‘Somebody in one of the baronies gave you this?’’

‘‘Not baron, that’s for sure! No, from Tartarus Pits. Under the ville. Pit boss. And I didn’t say he gave—I said I got.’’

Robison exchanged a look with Hays. ‘‘Indeed,’’ he said, slammed closed the bolt and handed the rifle back to her. She laid it solemnly on her pack—a sign both of trust in her new companions and in her own ability to handle the situation if that trust turned out ill-founded.

Despite having allowed Reichert to sneak up on her — which was not exactly a disgrace, since he was a professional, after all, and his snoop-and-poop skills were far the highest of the team, none of whom was slack in that regard—she was clearly a survivor and she knew the ground cold. She was also, well, a local to this time and place. Despite their briefings in the form of Gilgamesh Bates’s oddly comprehensive prophecies from the past, and the intel digests produced by UR AI systems from sensor readings made over two hundred years, there was plenty they didn’t know and badly needed to. They hoped she could fill in a few gaps. Now she was getting a close-up look at their vehicles, which obviously pleased her hugely. When Reichert first commed in he was bringing a female indig to camp, Major Mike had been gruff. Now he was acting like a dad whose kid brought home a puppy, declaring at the outset they couldn’t keep her and she’d have to go right away, then not ten minutes later wondering aloud what to call her and where she’d sleep.

And where she’ll sleep might be an interesting question, Robison thought. She seemed drawn to Reichert, right enough. Which wasn’t a surprise; he was the team’s youngest and most ingenue member.

‘‘Why’d you get out of your wags to attack the Mags?’’ she asked, as they moved back to the campfire. The two vehicles were parked with noses away from the fire, each aimed along a high-speed path of escape in case they got jumped and had to drive for it.

‘‘Two reasons,’’ Robison answered. ‘‘First of all we needed to take down those choppers as quickly as possible. If even one of them got into the air, we were in a world of hurt. That’s why we sent out our young master of disaster Sean to plant shaped-charges on the ones parked west of town. Second, we’re basically

ground-pounders. Infantry kind of guys. Once we softened the bad guys up a bit with Big Bob’s grenade launcher, it was our natural next step to come in on foot to mop up.

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