Dead Space by Kali Wallace

Author:Kali Wallace [Wallace, Kali]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-03-02T00:00:00+00:00

FOURTEEN

She was lying on her side with her eyes and mouth open. Her chest was a ruin of scorched flesh and shattered ribs. A twist of smoke rose from the wound, and blood seeped through ragged gaps in the cauterized flesh. The remains of the bot clung to the skin just below her collarbone with two intact legs; the rest of it had been destroyed. The acrid chemical smell faded, replaced by the scent of cooked meat. Nausea roiled in my gut and I gagged, coughed, struggled against the urge to vomit.

A second bot crept along her leg, illuminated by a delicate blue internal light. Its legs folded and unfolded elegantly, letting it cling with three one moment, six the next, constantly shifting its shape as it picked its way over the landscape of Ping’s body. The blue light flashed brighter for a second, and my heart squeezed with panic.

I grabbed the bot with my blood-smeared hand, not thinking, wanting nothing more than to pull it away from her. I felt a sting of pain and shook my hand frantically, stirring the bot into a whipping whirlwind of wire. It legs folded into its body until only two remained extended; those two grasped my palm and wrist, piercing the skin. The entire device emitted a biting chemical smell, powerful enough to make me cough.

I flung the bot away from me—tearing the legs from my hand—and sent it slamming into the side of a shipping container. One of the bot’s legs bent and worked, turning in a helpless circle as it tried to stand.

I scrambled to my feet—almost lost my balance again—and I stomped on it. It made a loud, satisfying crunch beneath my boot.

When I looked up, the person in the mech suit was still standing several meters away.

“Stop!” I shouted, although they hadn’t yet moved. My voice echoed dully from the shipping containers around us. “Don’t move!”

I reached for my radio, but I had dropped it along with my PD. I had to call for help. Blood trickled from the wounds on my hand, the metallic scent mingling with the acrid accelerant. I couldn’t take my eyes off the killer.

They remained eerily still. I could see absolutely nothing behind the blankness of their faceplate. They had no headlamp or flashlight. They stood just beyond the bright circle of the ceiling lights, not quite in shadow but not illuminated either. Everything about the suit was featureless and black, with its supple limbs blending seamlessly into hidden joints, and not a single external obvious vulnerability in its mechanical workings. I had never seen anything like it.

“I need you to identify yourself,” I said. I didn’t know if it was the right thing to say. It was never my job to bring suspects into custody. “Reach up very slowly and take off your helmet. Do you hear me? Take off your helmet and identify yourself.”

I glanced down again; my PD and radio had slid several meters away. One look at the map would tell me who was standing before me.

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.