The Nano Flower Part 63

'Maybe. That's one of the reasons I'm b.l.o.o.d.y glad it's you and Snowy who arrived. You see, you only really need one cell, no, one complete gene sphere, and the whole thing starts over. That's what you must understand before you make your decision.'

'Decision?' Julia asked in a dead tone.

'Yes, Snowy. It's all or nothing. If you chose against the Hexaemeron, then the entire disseminator plant must be destroyed. Every cell and microbe, If not, then the Hexaemeron will be resurrected one day. Maybe not intentionally, but it'll happen. That's why the gamma mines are a last resort; they wouldn't end the problem, only the more immediate part of it. Of course, if I had triggered them, I hoped you'd question why I felt I had to. That way you'd THE NANO FLOWER515.

exhibit a lot more caution with the disseminator plant cells that were left. After all, it's only my stupidity with this oneman-band act which has put everyone in such a ridiculous situation in the first place.'

'Yes,' Julia drawled.

It wasn't the answer Royan wanted, he was looking for sympathy. Greg could sense the anguish peak in his mind.

Abruptly, he was aware of another mental voice, a cry of pain and rage, toxic with shock. Suzi.

CHAPTER THURTYNINE.

S.

uzi saw the rock wall lurch forward, then disintegrate into a tho~usand flying chunks. The wave behind it held together until it was halfway across the village cave. She was dropping to the floor as soon as the first motion began, grabbing the mouth of the crack. Her photon amp gave her a single glimpse of the debris ploughed up by the leading edge of the wave, a line of foam, stones, muscle-armour suits, scorched saplings, and burnt remnants of the huts and their furnis.h.i.+ngs, all bearing down on her at a terrific speed.

It hit, blinding her sensors. She was suddenly, frighteningly confined in a padded iron maiden, unable to see, unable to feel, unable to hear. Something solid cannoned into her, a very m.u.f.fled thud. The suit s.h.i.+fted position slightly. Yellow and green graphics winked up, an outline of the suit, showing her the damage on her left side, the metalloceramic had been weakened by the impact, there was a dent, some of the chest musde bands were inoperative. Her implant began a suit systems-status review She clung to the details, using them to fight off the hot claustrophobic panic erupting at the back of her skull.

A timer was counting off the seconds below the suit outlines. Five seconds so far, it couldn't be such a short time. A minute at least.

She could feel a movement, something giving below her arms. It developed into a full-blown slide. The rock around the mouth of the crack was giving way. She lost her hold.

Instinct made her want to curl up, tuck her head into her chest; but the armour prevented that. She ended up bending her knees as far as the muscle bands would allow, and folding her arms across her torso.

Her inertial guidance display showed her she was jouncing back down the crack, impacts rattled her teeth and spine. The feed from the photon amp turned a deep grey, as if she 517.

was wrapped in pre-dawn mist, then there were flashes of blue, crimson streaks as the water threw her about.

She bounced to a halt against a sharp corner, and the water sank down around her. It was smooth and fast flowing, icy black. She struggled against the current and made it on to all fours. Water was trickling down her left leg, inside the muscle bands.

The suit 'ware was pus.h.i.+ng out a fast sequence of status graphics. Suzi coughed, feeling sour creamy liquid in her gullet. Tight snaps of pain in her chest made it impossible to focus on any of the graphics. Her knee was h.e.l.l; she thought the bioware sheath had torn.

'Call in,' Melvyn said.

There was a string of responses, names and curses.'Yeah, here, Melvyn.'

'OK, everyone into the village cave. There were still some tekmercs left.'

She climbed to her feet. There was very little light in the gash. Her infrared helmet beams came on, showing about five centimetres of water slos.h.i.+ng around her ankles. Where the h.e.l.l had it all gone? It had looked like a small sea cras.h.i.+ng into the village cave. Greg must be up to his neck in it. Wherever the f.u.c.k he was.

The graphics were coming into focus now. Nothing seriously wrong, not with the suit; three muscle bands dead, power reserves OK, two sets of sensors on backup. The suit 'ware was already calculating new load paths for the remaining muscle bands. She could move, she could fight.

Her mike picked up the blast of rip gun fire.

'Thro of them,' the radio squawked. It sounded like Robbie. 'Cave 3B, hostile and active.'

'Got 'em.' ~ 'Isaac, let's have some airbusters in there.'

'Coming up.'

'Lilian, launch a reconnaissance disk down 4C, Isaac thought he saw a hostile in it.'

'Could be one of ours.'

'No answer from Harris.'

518.

Suzi realized her rip gun was missing. She started to walk towards the village cave. The suit responded stiffly at first, almost as if she had to carry the weight herself. Then the 'ware finished reprogramming the muscle bands, and she began to pick up speed. It was a lot easier on her knee.

'Dennis?'

'No response from Dennis yet, Suzi,' Melvyn said. 'Did you see him?'

'Didn't see s.h.i.+t after that wall went.'

The wave had scoured the village cave clean. The only thing she recognized at first glance was the stone staircase. Where the wall had blown out was a pile of big boulders. It looked like half Of the lake cave beyond had collapsed. Two solaris spots were intact, one of them swinging on the end of its wiring, rocking shadows across the walls. All that was left of the village was a line of burnt splintered wood and soggy reeds along the wall opposite the lake. Water was lying a couple of centimetres deep. Torn sheets of crumpled, saturated moss floated past. Fish were everywhere, jumping and flipping about.

Melvyn was marshalling his remaining troops. She counted thirteen others surviving. Plus another two medic cases. One was already out of his armour, Neil, bruised and b.l.o.o.d.y. Three of the team were working to extract the second casualty from under a rockfall which had crushed his legs.

There were eight dead tekmercs lying about, their armour inert. They looked as if they had been battered by the wave, the metalloceramic was badly scratched and dented. She saw Talbot Lombard, face down in the water, his jumpsuit charred, blackened flesh underneath.

She walked over to Neil. 'What happened?'

'Boulder,' he said. 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d rolled over me.' She guessed he'd been given an infusion, his mouth had the slack look, face grey with pain.

'Use your rip gun?' she asked.

'Sure, help yourself.'

It was lying next to his bent armour suit. She picked it up.

Weapons Integration: Konica Neutral Beam Rifle.

The key on her left shoulder began to interface with the 519.

rip gun's 'ware. Red target graphics appeared. She was whole again, size and strength no longer a disadvantage, equal to the rest of the world.

It was time for the last deal with Leol f.u.c.king Reiger.

Melvyn was handing out a.s.signments, sending the active crash team members down into the caves and cracks, scouting for tekmercs.

Suzi pulled the guidance package out of her suit 'ware, and used it to place the five troughs. There was no sign of them, not even when she went over to check, boots splas.h.i.+ng the thin layer of water. All she found was flat rock. She stood where the third one had been, amid the contortions of dying fish, and looked back to the broken lake cave, trying to work out the angle the wave had hit the troughs. If she carried the line on, Reiger would have been swept against the wall thirty metres away. There were two possible caves there, 6B, and 7B. According to her suit 'ware they joined up in a big cavern fifty metres back, another wide cave leading off from the junction.

'Melvyn, I'll check 6B, OK?' She got it in before he could a.s.sign her one.

'Roger, Suzi. Do you want anyone with you?' Something in his tone suggested he'd guessed the reason.

'Nah,' she said. 'I'll solo.'

6B was a pinched oval pa.s.sage, just under two metres high, five wide, laced with veins of tarnished copper. Her helmet sc.r.a.ped the roof as she walked towards the junction. The rock was slick with water, a steady rain of large drops pattered down from the roof. Light from the village cave illuminated the entrance, but the pa.s.sage curved, and after ten metres she had to switch to infrared. The water level crept up her legs; she could see fish racing away ahead of her.

She called up the map package, and bled in her suit's inertial guidance read-out. When she was fifteen metres short of the junction, she killed the infrared beams, using the photon amp as a pa.s.sive sensor. The image showed her pitchblack pa.s.sage walls and faint neon-blue water, even the fish were blue blobs. No hot spots, but her field of view was very 520.

limited, if Reiger was in the junction cavern, the s.h.i.+t would make sure he couldn't be detected from the pa.s.sage.

She took an airbuster grenade from the retainer loop on her waist, a seamless metallic cylinder fifteen centimetres long, six wide, with a locking ridge running along its length. It slotted into the latch rail on her left forearm with a solid d.i.c.k.

Expedite Grenade Launch Program.

The red targeting circles turned white. She brought her left arm up until the circles interlocked over the junction cavern entrance. Grey droplets were still falling from the roof, hazing the photon-amp image.

Disengage Safety Lock. Set Fuse for Twenty Metres.

The targeting circles turned violet and started flas.h.i.+ng.

Fire.

The airbuster grenade streaked into the cavern, exploding into a seething energy cloud a metre below the roof. Stark white light stabbed back down the pa.s.sage. She saw lightning tendrils whipping violently backwards and forwards, clawing at the rock outcrops above the water.

The spent grenade canister was flipped off her forearm latch rail, spinning away. She moved into the cavern at a run, pus.h.i.+ng her recalcitrant left leg hard.

There was n.o.body inside. Little columns of steam were rising into the air. Dead fish bobbed on the surface of the water.

'Not that easy, Suzi b.i.t.c.h,' said Leol Reiger.

She jumped with shock. He was using a general broadcast frequency. Her electronic warfare gear couldn't locate the radio transmission source; rock did weird things with radio, bouncing it or absorbing it. But not much, he couldn't be far away. She checked pa.s.sage 7B quickly. Empty. That meant the cave at the back of the junction cavern.

'I know it's you, Suzi b.i.t.c.h. Because you know I'm in here, that's why you let off the airbuster.'

She clipped a fresh airbuster grenade on the rail.

According to the map, the rear cave twisted to the left after fifteen metres. There was no data after that. She primed the grenade for twelve metres, then fished around for a loose rock.

521.

'Always hiding, Leol,' she said. 'But then, running scared is your scene. Right?'

She crouched down, and lobbed the rock high across the entrance of the. rear cave. Th'o rip gun bolts pulverized it in midair. But she was already diving underneath, twisting.

Fire.

She landed on her side, momentum rolling her, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Then she was up and racing for the cave, suit boots kicking up sheets of foam. The airbuster's energy cloud was flaring, fingers of vivid white light pouring out of the entrance. As it began to dim she fired the rip gun up the cave, hosing the bolts around at random until the magazine was drained.

Leol Reiger didn't shoot back. She smacked a fresh power magazine into the rip gun, and walked forward. The cave walls were covered in bright infrared scars where the rip gun bolts had struck. Runnels of lava dripped into the water, sizzling loudly. Long twisters of steam rose up all around her, licking at the roof.

There were two ways she could do it; rip gun firing the whole time, chewing up the cave walls and triggering any anti-personnel mines he'd scattered; or the quiet way. But he knew she'd be coming, that gave him an advantage.

'Did Julia Evans get the nuclear force generator data, Suzi?

Or is it still up for grabs?'

'Don't tell me,' she said. 'You and I can deal, s.n.a.t.c.h it for ourselves. Right?'

The cave ended ten metres in front of her, a narrow jagged opening into another cavern. All the photon-amp image gave her was blackness, as if the universe ended beyond the opening. Reiger was in there, waiting; and he knew she had airbusters. She tried a.n.a.lysing it from his position. Hide under the water? It was almost up to her knees, and getting deeper. A side cave that gave him a line of fire on the opening she'd come out of?

'You see anything wrong with that, Suzi? It's worth billions.

And you and I, we haven't got a quarrel, not really. We just got hired by different people, that's all. Did what we got paid for, shot the s.h.i.+t out of each other. We don't have to do that 522.

no more, we can buy them with atomic structuring. Evans and Jepson, we can own them, Suzi.'

The roof? Was he clinging to the roof? A muscle-armour suit could hold him up there effortlessly.

Arm Loral Missiles. Target Image: Muscle-Armour Suit.

She smiled. The Lorals could just give her the edge; he'd be expecting another airbuster.

'Who said I was getting paid?' she asked.

'What? You do this for free? Like c.r.a.p you do, Suzi.'

She fed a flight path into the Lorals' 'ware: into the cavern, then a loiter manoeuvre while the smart seeker heads performed their target acquisition, scanning with microwave radar and infrared. Once they locked on, Reiger would have to shoot them, revealing his position. If he didn't, he'd be dead. Either way, she'd nail the s.h.i.+t.

'f.u.c.k no, not free, Leol. Something you don't know.'

'Oh yeah, like what?'

'Friends.h.i.+p.'

'Load of bulls.h.i.+t, Suzi. All tekmercs have is deals. You a real tekmerc, Suzi? You want to deal over atomic structuring?

Or do you want to die?'

'b.o.l.l.o.c.ks to you, Reiger.'

Launch Two Missiles.

A blast of compressed air pushed the missiles out of their tubes, small triangle fins unfolded, then the solid fuel motors ignited. Her infrared image was momentarily overwhelmed by the twin exhaust plumes.