The answer became apparent as something dropped out of an overhead vent, landed on Rebo’s right shoulder, and went for the runner’s jugular. The norm felt needle-sharp teeth penetrate his skin and made an ineffectual grab for the creature. But it was Norr who got a grip on the attacker’s pointy tail, jerked the reptilian beast free, and smashed it against the nearest wall.
Whatever it was fell, jerked spasmodically, and produced a tendril of black smoke. “It’s some sort of machine!” Norr exclaimed, her shotgun at the ready.
“Not ‘some sort,’ ” Sogol put in. “The guardian in question is a Porto Industries 8812-B specially enhanced mechanimal. Back when Socket was fi?rst commissioned, thousands of security robots were introduced to the satellite’s crawl spaces and air ducts.”
“Then why did it attack you?” Rebo wanted to know.
“It didn’t attack me,” Sogol replied tartly. “It attacked you. Which would explain why Tepho and his party are having so much trouble. Come on . . . let’s make the jump!”
“Oh, goody,” Rebo said, and he followed the other two down the corridor. “That should be fun.”
Norr felt as if she was going to throw up as the radiation produced by the power core grew even stronger. Because the mechanimals were machines, they lacked auras, which meant the sensitive was just as vulnerable as Rebo was. But the shotgun imbued the variant with a sense of confi?dence and seemed to fi?re itself when a sleek body launched itself off a ledge, only to disintegrate in midair. The rotary magazine made a clacking sound as the next shell was advanced.
“Nice shooting,” the runner said approvingly, as they entered what had once been a standard decontamination chamber but had long since been converted into what looked like a hothouse for exotic plants. The invaders lined both sides of the chamber, and judging from the bits of bone that stuck up out of the dirt, had originally been sustained by a corpse. Perhaps a wing, who, curious as to what might lie behind the outer door, had been so foolish as to venture inside.
Some of the plants glowed as if lit from within, some turned to track Norr’s progress, and one of them sent a stream of fl?uid squirting into the air. It fell short of the sensitive, but made a sizzling sound as it hit, and left another burn mark on the fi?lthy fl?oor. Rebo gave the plants a wide berth, heard something move over his head, and fi?red three energy bolts into the ceiling. The noise stopped. The star gate itself was no better. The actual platform had been cleared of debris, but all sorts of vegetation had grown in and around it, and Sogol didn’t like the looks of what she saw. “I think other life-forms may have passed through long before Tepho and his party arrived,” the AI warned. “Socket has been contaminated.”
“Terrifi?c,” Rebo said sarcastically. “Just what I wanted to hear.”
Norr pushed the only button there was to push, but it wouldn’t budge. But then, as she stepped out onto the transfer platform, the now-familiar female voice started into its usual spiel. That meant anything could have passed through the gate over the years. The sensitive held the shotgun with one hand and extended the other to Rebo. “Come on, hon,” Norr said, “we’re almost there.”
It was the fi?rst and only time that Norr had ever called Rebo “hon,” and there was something about the way it felt that caused Rebo to step out onto the platform and take her hand. The recording was followed by a fl?ash of light and a long fall into nothingness.
FIFTEEN
Aboard Socket
—Standard disclaimer engraved into durasteel plaques welded to each transport platform
Rebo absorbed the shock with his knees, nearly fell, but managed to keep his balance. Norr arrived on the platform a fraction of a second later, went facedown, but broke the fall with her hands. “Uh-oh,” the sensitive said as she came to her feet. “Look at that!”
Rebo looked and didn’t like what he saw. The body that lay sprawled in front of the blood-splashed platform had a machete clutched in its right hand. The corpse looked as though something, or a number of somethings, had been gnawing on it. “The guardians killed him,” Sogol remarked.
“Be careful, there are more of them.”
“Words to live by,” the runner said grimly, as he eyed the dismembered mechanimals that lay scattered about.
“This guy’s dressed like a fi?sherman,” Norr remarked, as she bent over the body.
“How much would you like to bet that Tepho sent him through fi?rst?” Rebo inquired cynically. “Just to see what would happen.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised,” the sensitive agreed. “Look!
There are some dead mechanimals over by the hatch . . . except they have bullet holes in them.”
“Which suggests that Tepho and his crowd shot them,”
the runner concluded.
“I’m picking up some jumbled radio traffi?c,” Sogol announced. “The technos are one level up. They’re battling a group of enforcers.”
“Enforcers?” Rebo asked. “How are they different from guardians?”
“They’re larger, more heavily armed, and they can fl?y,”
the AI responded simply.
