[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
rigged. The roof was meant to come down, and it would bring the sec-
ond floor down with it. That would crush and obliterate everything
beneath: the factory, the cleanrooms, the auditorium.
No one would suspect murderous colleagues who had gone into
hiding not until the ruins could be completely sifted, however many
days that took. Until then, there would have been only that many
more Garner Nanotech employees missing and presumed dead in the
rubble. No one would be assessing the flattened decoy reaction vats to
detect theft.
He might have stopped Charles and Morgan and the rest, but their
bombs kept ticking. And people remained trapped in the building.
Aaron! Get out now! There s no second floor above R and D.
They ran back to the stairwell. And why the interior? Aaron asked.
Maybe a minute and a half left, Brent guessed. Away from the exits.
I don t know if the door bombs will blow at the same time. With a
crash, they burst out of the stairwell onto the main level. You clear
the front of the building. I ll clear back here.
They parted ways, shouting as they ran. When the great bulk of the
building collapsed, then what? Debris flying everywhere. Fires. Sec-
ondary explosions, maybe. Taking shelter in R & D would help, but it
might not be enough. He had to get everyone out, and before the roof
came down.
Call it a minute and fifteen seconds.
An image, horrific, took shape in Brent s mind: explosion, building
collapse, another slaughter of innocents. It was memory and omen
both. For an instant he froze.
Not again!
He shook off the paralysis and ran to a forklift.
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EDWARD M. LERNER
...............
Kim and Harry were halfway to R & D when Aaron fell in alongside
her. She read fear and determination in his eyes.
He shouted, The second floor is about to come crashing down!
Which explained R & D: that part of the facility had no second
floor. Aaron squeezed between Kim and Harry, and together they hur-
ried Alan s chair the rest of the way to an R & D conference room. She
was gasping for breath by the time they arrived. Eight people had
crowded in ahead of them.
Will we be . . . safe here? Kim asked.
Safer, Aaron said. Be right back.
But
Aaron left before she could finish her objection, returning almost as
quickly. Be ready to run again, he bellowed.
Kim thought Aaron looked terribly sad. And where was Brent?
At its top speed of fifteen miles per hour, the forklift lurched across the
factory floor. It struck the double doors off center, ripping one side
from its hinges. Brent swore and overcorrected, impaling a wall with
one of the fork tines. He backed up and tried again, veering from side
to side, gouging walls as he went.
The motor was electric and quiet; he bellowed over its drone, Be
ready to run. Be ready to run. You won t have much time.
Aaron peeked out of a cross aisle, his eyes wide with understanding
and horror. He ducked back as the forklift bore down on him and
didn t argue.
Thirty seconds, best guess, and then the roof came down. Ready,
people!
Brent careened through a wall-mangling turn. A fire exit loomed
ahead. A red LED stared balefully from the bomb rigged to the door.
Closer . . . closer . . .
Brent took his hands from the steering wheel to seal the final gaps in
332
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SMALL MI RACLES
the nanosuit as futile as the precaution seemed. Flick/blink, he set
his visor to near opacity, until he could hardly sense the door straight
ahead. At the top of his lungs, he screamed, Get ready!
He had a final moment to remember his failure at Angleton, and the
evil he had done since, and to wonder about closure. The exit was
about twenty feet ahead.
Brent dove over the seat back, behind the forklift. He just had time
to think, I m sorry
Then blinding glare and deafening sound and an invisible fist sent
him into oblivion.
Blam!
The conference room shook. Kim s ears rang and she couldn t hear
what Aaron was shouting. Maybe no one could: he was shoving
people out the door. Harry pushed Alan, still taped into his chair.
Aaron grabbed Kim s arm and they followed.
The emergency exit at end of the hall had ceased to exist, replaced
by a gaping hole half-choked with debris. Coughing from the smoke
and dust, people slogged through fallen chunks of wall and ceiling.
They ducked under the dangling, sparking wires and squeezed past a
mangled forklift where had that come from? tipped onto its side.
They scrambled over the detritus where the door had been, out of the
building. Two men on the outside helped Harry lift out Alan and chair.
Aaron yelled although Kim still couldn t hear anything and
pointed behind her, away from the outside and safety. Two arms and
two legs, covered in dust, deathly still, peeked from a hole caved into
the wallboard. One sleeve bore a familiar keypad: a nanosuit. Brent!
Did they dare move him? Did they dare not?
Brent had been right on top of this explosion. Could he even still be
alive?
Aaron took hold of an arm. Hurry, he mouthed.
Kim punched in the test code to make Brent s nanosuit rigid a full-
body cast and grabbed his other arm. They heaved, and something
333
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 334
EDWARD M. LERNER
in the wall shifted ominously. They heaved again, and something in
her back tore. A final yank, Kim screaming in pain, and they had Brent
out of the shattered wall.
Then they were stumbling through snow, and Aaron was still tug-
ging. She just barely heard, Keep moving! After a few steps her feet
skidded out from under her and they tumbled into a heap. In the dis-
tance, toward town, red and blue lights flashed: squad cars, fire en-
gines, and ambulances racing toward them.
With a roar like the end of the world, the building behind them
started to collapse.
334
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epi l ogue
..............................
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 336
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 337
sunday, may 21, 2017 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl exclamation.htw.pl
rigged. The roof was meant to come down, and it would bring the sec-
ond floor down with it. That would crush and obliterate everything
beneath: the factory, the cleanrooms, the auditorium.
No one would suspect murderous colleagues who had gone into
hiding not until the ruins could be completely sifted, however many
days that took. Until then, there would have been only that many
more Garner Nanotech employees missing and presumed dead in the
rubble. No one would be assessing the flattened decoy reaction vats to
detect theft.
He might have stopped Charles and Morgan and the rest, but their
bombs kept ticking. And people remained trapped in the building.
Aaron! Get out now! There s no second floor above R and D.
They ran back to the stairwell. And why the interior? Aaron asked.
Maybe a minute and a half left, Brent guessed. Away from the exits.
I don t know if the door bombs will blow at the same time. With a
crash, they burst out of the stairwell onto the main level. You clear
the front of the building. I ll clear back here.
They parted ways, shouting as they ran. When the great bulk of the
building collapsed, then what? Debris flying everywhere. Fires. Sec-
ondary explosions, maybe. Taking shelter in R & D would help, but it
might not be enough. He had to get everyone out, and before the roof
came down.
Call it a minute and fifteen seconds.
An image, horrific, took shape in Brent s mind: explosion, building
collapse, another slaughter of innocents. It was memory and omen
both. For an instant he froze.
Not again!
He shook off the paralysis and ran to a forklift.
331
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 332
EDWARD M. LERNER
...............
Kim and Harry were halfway to R & D when Aaron fell in alongside
her. She read fear and determination in his eyes.
He shouted, The second floor is about to come crashing down!
Which explained R & D: that part of the facility had no second
floor. Aaron squeezed between Kim and Harry, and together they hur-
ried Alan s chair the rest of the way to an R & D conference room. She
was gasping for breath by the time they arrived. Eight people had
crowded in ahead of them.
Will we be . . . safe here? Kim asked.
Safer, Aaron said. Be right back.
But
Aaron left before she could finish her objection, returning almost as
quickly. Be ready to run again, he bellowed.
Kim thought Aaron looked terribly sad. And where was Brent?
At its top speed of fifteen miles per hour, the forklift lurched across the
factory floor. It struck the double doors off center, ripping one side
from its hinges. Brent swore and overcorrected, impaling a wall with
one of the fork tines. He backed up and tried again, veering from side
to side, gouging walls as he went.
The motor was electric and quiet; he bellowed over its drone, Be
ready to run. Be ready to run. You won t have much time.
Aaron peeked out of a cross aisle, his eyes wide with understanding
and horror. He ducked back as the forklift bore down on him and
didn t argue.
Thirty seconds, best guess, and then the roof came down. Ready,
people!
Brent careened through a wall-mangling turn. A fire exit loomed
ahead. A red LED stared balefully from the bomb rigged to the door.
Closer . . . closer . . .
Brent took his hands from the steering wheel to seal the final gaps in
332
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 333
SMALL MI RACLES
the nanosuit as futile as the precaution seemed. Flick/blink, he set
his visor to near opacity, until he could hardly sense the door straight
ahead. At the top of his lungs, he screamed, Get ready!
He had a final moment to remember his failure at Angleton, and the
evil he had done since, and to wonder about closure. The exit was
about twenty feet ahead.
Brent dove over the seat back, behind the forklift. He just had time
to think, I m sorry
Then blinding glare and deafening sound and an invisible fist sent
him into oblivion.
Blam!
The conference room shook. Kim s ears rang and she couldn t hear
what Aaron was shouting. Maybe no one could: he was shoving
people out the door. Harry pushed Alan, still taped into his chair.
Aaron grabbed Kim s arm and they followed.
The emergency exit at end of the hall had ceased to exist, replaced
by a gaping hole half-choked with debris. Coughing from the smoke
and dust, people slogged through fallen chunks of wall and ceiling.
They ducked under the dangling, sparking wires and squeezed past a
mangled forklift where had that come from? tipped onto its side.
They scrambled over the detritus where the door had been, out of the
building. Two men on the outside helped Harry lift out Alan and chair.
Aaron yelled although Kim still couldn t hear anything and
pointed behind her, away from the outside and safety. Two arms and
two legs, covered in dust, deathly still, peeked from a hole caved into
the wallboard. One sleeve bore a familiar keypad: a nanosuit. Brent!
Did they dare move him? Did they dare not?
Brent had been right on top of this explosion. Could he even still be
alive?
Aaron took hold of an arm. Hurry, he mouthed.
Kim punched in the test code to make Brent s nanosuit rigid a full-
body cast and grabbed his other arm. They heaved, and something
333
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 334
EDWARD M. LERNER
in the wall shifted ominously. They heaved again, and something in
her back tore. A final yank, Kim screaming in pain, and they had Brent
out of the shattered wall.
Then they were stumbling through snow, and Aaron was still tug-
ging. She just barely heard, Keep moving! After a few steps her feet
skidded out from under her and they tumbled into a heap. In the dis-
tance, toward town, red and blue lights flashed: squad cars, fire en-
gines, and ambulances racing toward them.
With a roar like the end of the world, the building behind them
started to collapse.
334
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 335
epi l ogue
..............................
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 336
039-40813_ch01_3P.qxp 7/30/09 12:12 PM Page 337
sunday, may 21, 2017 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]