Revolution by L. E. Erickson

Author:L. E. Erickson [Erickson, L.E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: dystopian cyberpunk thriller
Publisher: JMA Publishing
Published: 2017-08-17T00:00:00+00:00

3

DESPITE her attempts to seem cool and collected, Gid’s pulse beat a bass rhythm in her throat fast enough to back any half-competent punk band. She made her feet keep moving, anyhow, summer-crisped grass dragging against her legs and overheated brick bumping her elbow.

From the sound of Daria’s breathing, she wasn’t a lot more thrilled about their proximity to the turret dog-infested Mancer army just on the other side of the NZ wall than Gid was.

At least the Mancers are just standing there. We’ve got that going for us.

An instinct nagged at Gid, to glance back at Daria and offer some smart-ass version of a reassurance that would ease the tension, both of the moment and between them. After all, Seven and Alex were alive. Seven’s dad, too—bonus.

But that didn’t change the choice Daria had made. They weren’t alive because of Daria, but in spite of her. And maybe Gid had lost it, just a little. But that didn’t make her wrong.

Right?

…and damn it, now was not the right time for thinking about shit like this anyhow.

Gid reached what she judged to be a good distance from the ruins of what had once been a solid section of NZ wall.

“Good” distance. As if.

She stopped, because now was also not the time to be fumbling with her lens monitor and attempting to walk at the same time. Behind her, twin sets of grass rustling faded, indicating that Daria and Kaiden had also stopped.

Gid raised the opacity of her monitor, where two windows already stood open. One held the program she’d spent the last twenty-four hours cobbling together from Ric Sou’s—the program that would hopefully restore the dogs to their original settings. The other window contained her connections indicator. It blinked fitfully with the same depressing message it had been delivering since they’d left the city.

No network hubs detected.

Gid gave it a few seconds, but the same tired words kept blinking.

Not close enough. Swell.

Gid lowered her monitor’s opacity and peered through it toward Bian, whose tiny form remained barely visible just inside the cover of the trees. Bian’s head turned a fraction as she evidently checked in with her guys. In the meantime, Bian kept one hand held out, thumb up.

Hector’s head turned north toward Radu and then south again toward Bian. Those other two kept their thumbs up like Bian’s, too.

Talk about your primitive alert system.

Gid edged another step forward, careful to remain just short of the opening’s jagged edge. Waited.

Nothing.

Gid glanced toward Bian again. Edged forward again.

Finally, the third time Gid stopped to check, the “no network hubs detected” stalled out. The connections indicator window went blank. Gid held her breath.

A millisecond later, a network address flashed. Then another below it. And another, as all the turret dogs in range showed up.

“Jackpot,” Gid whispered. “Child’s play from here on out.”

That didn’t prevent Gid’s throat from closing up as she loaded up the reset program, yanked down the first dog’s back door, and delivered the program.

Moment of truth. Am I a

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.