The Trilisk Supersedure - By Michael McCloskey Page 0,55

noises. She wondered how bad the wound was. She landed on acid. The bite of it came through her legs, and something in her undersides reacted sharply. She jumped away before she had a chance to think it over.

It skips by, I follow it, and Magnus and that woman are slower than us, so they end up shooting at me. They don’t even realize I’m following it.

The other Konuan shot off into the next room. Telisa hid behind a metal machine attached to the ceiling. It looked like it could be anything from an old printing press to a laundry steamer. There was a handle that could press two flat plates together. She hid under them both.

If I make noise now, it will just distract them from it. And if I keep chasing it, I’ll just get shot more. I should be smarter.

She had to think carefully to even distinguish between the ceiling, walls, and floor. She flitted over toward a wall. There she scratched another message: “two konuan.”

Then she pursued the other again. It was lurking only one room away from the woman. Telisa darted into the same room with it again. In a flash, she spit acid and leaped toward it. Only in flight did she realize she would land in her own acid. But she had sprayed it across a wide area this time, trying to make sure she at least grazed the target.

The other leaped away. A few droplets struck it as it headed away. Telisa could not alter her own course much in midair, but she tried.

A huge noise boomed over them. It made Telisa’s body shake. But it was worse for the other: a chunk of its hide flew off with a round that punched through the corner of its body.

***

The creature is toying with us.

Magnus felt waste heat in his weapon from the rounds he’d fired. One of his bullets had reported a hit before disintegrating on a wall. Arakaki’s laser hissed, but Magnus didn’t stop to wonder if it had hit.

He slipped the last grenade off his belt and armed it with the Konuan signature. It took him one more second to make sure it wouldn’t detonate near Arakaki, since she wasn’t on his predesignated safe list. Then the grenade whizzed off, bouncing along the ground like a tire that had flown off a dune buggy at high speed. It bounded straight through a grille into an adjacent chamber.

Magnus reacquired the blocked grille on his rifle and waited. If it tried to escape the grenade, it might fly into his vision again. He waited for two breaths; then the grenade flew into the far room, little more than a streak of black. Magnus narrowed his eyes.

The grenade exploded, sending flashes of white flame blasting through the ruined grille. The device had reported an imminent hit before detonation.

Got it! I think.

***

Her hearing had been damaged. Yet she could still hear the Terran approaching as if she had bells and whistles attached to her. Then she heard Magnus again. He must have turned off the stealth sphere. She easily picked up the sound of their clothing rubbing as they moved and the crunch of their feet on the dusty floor. Two of them now. Magnus and the other one. The odd pain feeling had returned and intensified, along with the confusing shock of loud noise. Her body did not respond to her.

I have to move again, I have to get out of here…

The pain was so severe she almost changed her mind and wished for death. On queue, Death slipped into the room. The woman with the laser and the carbine. The laser was pointed right at Telisa. Her Konuan body trembled. She was not sure she could jump again. At least not in a way she could land on her feet like before.

Then Magnus walked through. He looked at the other woman for a moment, then trained his own weapon at Telisa.

No, Magnus, it’s me, it’s me…

Her legs started to scratch out a message. They opened fire.

Chapter 20

Holtzclaw couldn’t reach most of his own men by link, and he hadn’t been able to get an update on the assault in orbit, either. The squads that had moved out had been able to daisy chain their communications when the jamming had turned against them, but nothing outside his assault group could be reached. That included the Hellrakers.

“Sir, take a look to the east,” a member of his squad transmitted. Holtzclaw turned in his powered