[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
whip at Biron. You heard milord. Get your cloak and snap it up!
Biron stepped back as slowly as he dared. He retreated to the bookcase and squatted, groping
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
behind the chair for his nonexistent cloak. And as his fingers clawed at the empty space behind the chair,
he waited tensely for Gillbret.
The visisonor was just a queer knobbed object to the guards. It would mean nothing to them that
Gillbret fingered and stroked the knobs gently. Biron watched the muzzle of the whip intensely and
allowed it to fill his mind. Certainly nothing else he saw or heard(thought he saw or heard) must enter.
But how much longer?
The armed guard said, Is your cloak behind that chair? Stand up! He took an impatient step
forward, and then stopped. His eyes narrowed in deep amazement and he looked sharply to his left.
That was it! Biron straightened and threw himself forward and down. He clasped the guard s
knees and jerked. The guard was down with a jarring thud, and Biron s large fist closed over the other s
hand, grasping for the neuronic whip it contained.
The other guard had his weapon out, but for the moment it was useless. With his free hand, he
was brushing wildly at the space before his eyes.
Gillbret s high-pitched laugh sounded. Anything bothering you, Farrill?
Don t see a thing, he grunted, and then, except this whip I ve got now.
All right, then leave. They can t do anything to stop you. Their minds are full of sights and
sounds that don t exist. Gillbret skipped out of the way of the writhing tangle of bodies.
Biron wrenched his arms free and heaved upward. He brought his arm down solidly just below
the other s ribs. The guard s face twisted in agony and his body doubled convulsively. Biron rose, whip
in hand.
Careful, cried Gillbret.
But Biron did not turn quickly enough. The second guard was upon him, bearing him down again.
It was a blind attack. What it was that the guard thought he was grasping, it was impossible to tell. That
he knew nothing of Biron at the moment was certain. His breath rasped in Biron s ear and there was a
continuous incoherent gurgle bubbling in his throat.
Biron twisted in an attempt to bring his captured weapon into play and was frighteningly aware of
the blank and empty eyes that must be aware of some horror invisible to anyone else.
Biron braced his legs and shifted weight in an effort to break loose, quite uselessly. Three times
he felt the guard s whip flung hard against his hip, and flinched at the contact.
And then the guard s gurgle dissolved into words. He yelled, I ll get you all! and the very pale,
almost invisible shimmer of the ionized air in the path of the whip s energy beam made its appearance. It
swept wide through the air, and the path of the beam intersected Biron s foot.
It was as though he had stepped into a bath of boiling lead. Or as if a granite block had toppled
upon it. Or as if it had been crunched off by a shark. Actually, nothing had happened to it physically. It
was only that the nerve endings that governed the sensation of pain had been universally and maximally
stimulated, Boiling lead could have done no more.
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
Biron s yell tore his throat raw, and he collapsed. It did not even occur to him that the fight was
over. Nothing mattered but the ballooning pain.
Yet, though Biron did not know it, the guard s grip had relaxed, and minutes later, when the
young man could force his eyes open and blink away the tears, he found the guard backed against the
wall, pushing feebly at nothing with both hands and giggling to himself. The first guard was still on his
back, arms and legs spread-eagled now. He was conscious, but silent. His eyes were following
something in an erratic path, and his body quivered a little. There was froth on his lips.
Biron forced himself to his feet. He limped badly as he made his way to the wall. He used the
butt of the whip and the guard slumped. Then back to the first, who made no defense either, his eyes
moving silently to the very moment of unconsciousness.
Biron sat down again, nursing his foot. He stripped shoe and stocking from it, and stared in
surprise at the unbroken skin. He chafed it and grunted at the burning sensation. He looked up at Gillbret,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plalternate.pev.pl
|
