Grace rumbled open and Hale stepped into the huge cell. As part of the security team, it had been a simple matter to walk down a flight of metal stairs and enter the huge cube.
“Like hell we will,” Hale growled as he raised the carbine. “Traitors don’t speak for the citizens of the United States. This is
Most of the shadow people looked the same to Daedalus. But some—like Hannah—were unforgettable.
“Hale?” Daedalus said, the words coming more easily now. “So you’re still alive… Who are you going to shoot?”
The Sentinel looked from one to the other, made his choice, and corrected his aim. Grace’s eyes widened in response, and the President’s lips started to form the word “No” as Hale’s finger squeezed the trigger. The sharp
Then Hale was swinging the weapon around, hoping to put a bullet into what remained of Daedalus’s human brain, when a bolt of mental energy killed three people and brought every other human being within two hundred yards of the cell to their knees. That included the scientist who had her hand on the dead man’s switch that had been installed for just such a situation. As she fell, 5,000 volts of electricity arced between the nearest wall and the electrode located inside Daedalus. He screamed, and the stench of burning flesh filled the air, until the circuit was automatically broken.
Hale was lying on his back, his mind still reeling as a powerful bolt of plasma struck the top of the cell and blew it open. Chunks of concrete rained down, some of which struck Daedalus as his body rose steadily upward. He—or more accurately it—looked like a gas-filled balloon which, having escaped a child’s hand, was free to roam.
But a shuttle was waiting to receive Daedalus a few hundred feet above—and the Chimeran battleship was there to take the smaller vessel aboard.
All hell broke loose as a vengeful Daedalus must have given orders for the battleship to rake the area. Most of the base was belowground, so while it suffered some damage, the city of Sheridan soon ceased to exist. Then, having accomplished its mission, the huge ship sailed north, seemingly oblivious to the Sabre Jets that sought to bring it down.
Hale recovered enough to stand, locked his hands behind his neck, and stood impassively as Blake and two dozen security people flooded into the roofless cell with weapons drawn. Six of them were Secret Service agents, but the rest were Sentinels. A doctor knelt next to Grace’s bloodied body, and felt for a pulse, but knew it was hopeless.
He looked at Blake and shook his head. “The President is dead.”
“God
There was silence for a moment as Blake considered what Grace had been willing to do. Finally he spoke. “Get the Vice President on the horn. He has a country to lead. Do you have a problem with that?”
Stoly scanned the faces around him. There was a whispering sound as his .38 Special slid back into its holster. “No, Major,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
Blake turned toward Hale. “As you were, Lieutenant. The stinks may
Hale bent over to retrieve his carbine. It was, the Sentinel decided, the one thing he could count on.
Copyright
A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2009 by Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
RESISTANCE is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51347-2
v3.0
