Chapter 130
Chapter One Hundred Thirty
Years of combat experience and intense training took over for Connor as Selen brought her weapon up. Earlier, he’d gotten a sense of the huge room’s layout and had noted the columns.
He dove behind the nearest one an instant before the gunfire erupted.
A few things processed as he landed on an elbow, then a shoulder, then skidded to a stop.
First was the smell. He should have noticed it immediately but hadn’t.
The stench of death was coming off of Selen.
He could only hope she wasn’t actually dead.
Second was heat she was giving off: like being in a room with a furnace. That might have been because it had felt like being in a freezer until she’d come into the room, but what mattered was that she was hot.
Finally, there was the look in her eyes: cold and distant.
It was as if she were a visitor in her body watching someone else control it.
Connor knew exactly what to do when he came to a stop. “Get too cover!”
He drew his pistol, leaned around the column, and squeezed off three shots, forcing Selen behind a column of her own.
But only Elise seemed to have understood his intent.
She was running for a column on the opposite side of the room, but the Moon twins and Mosiah seemed frozen into place.
The old man looked from where Selen was hiding to Connor. “What’s going on here?”
In response, Selen swept the room with a spray of fire, knocking Tim and Tom Moon to the floor.
Mosiah grunted, then collapsed, clutching his gut.
Selen fired another burst at the column Elise was hiding behind, then fired again.
The archaeologist screamed.
Connor switched his sword to his right hand and pushed up from the floor. He ducked low and darted to the nearest column.
That put him only two columns away from Selen.
He glanced over at the Moons. Tim was convulsing and coughing up blood. His breathing was wet and weak.
She must have gotten a round through the armor opening around the arms.
Tom was a little better, writhing and squeezing an ugly thigh wound.
That was a lot of blood, maybe an femoral artery nick.
Once again, Connor wished he’d stood up to Selen’s decision to leave Lem behind. It was a mistake—a deadly and irresponsible mistake.
Connor waved for Tom to stay down, then pointed at Selen.
The taller of the twins nodded.
Mosiah was gone, only a trail of blood marking where he’d fallen and where he’d crawled to: behind the crates.
For Selen to kill her employer, she’d have to come out from cover.
But Connor couldn’t wait for that. She could keep them all pinned down long enough for the Moon brothers to bleed out.
Connor squeezed the hilt of his sword and shifted his grip on the pistol.
Pop around the corner, squeeze off three rounds, and charge to the next column: That was the plan.
Just as he started to duck around the column, the Asp screamed from the other side of the chamber.
Bullets cracked against the columns and the wall all around.
Selen hissed a curse, then what sounded like boots scraping across loose debris moved away from him.
Elise had driven Selen farther away!
Connor darted to the next column. “Elise! Hold your fire!”
“I nearly got her! Stupid bit—!”
“Hold your fire! I mean it!”
Selen laughed. “Afraid of killing me, Connor? You still have feelings? Why don’t you come give me a hug?”
It sounded like she might be playing with her rifle.
A ploy? Loading a new magazine?
He poked his head around the column, ready to shoot, saw nothing, and sprinted for the next column.
His boot slid on a loose piece of wall.
That probably saved his life.
As he fell, Selen jumped from cover and sprayed a burst over his head.
An instant earlier, and she would have blasted his head off.
Instead, he tumbled awkwardly into the column. The impact against his shoulder numbed the arm so that he couldn’t keep his grip on the sword.
It skipped out onto the main floor, coming to a stop with a slow spin.
Tittering came from just ahead, where Selen was hidden.
It was a barely human sound—a mad sound—that left Connor questioning his hope that she might still be human somewhere beneath this alien’s control.
“Selen?” He started to draw his other sword, then thought better of it.
“What is it, my love?”
She’d never called him that. Was this creature making that up, or did she really have feelings for Connor? “I know this thing has control of you. I know it’s doing all of these terrible things, but I believe in you.”
The chamber fell silent except for Tim’s wet gasping and convulsing.
Then a growl came from where Selen was hidden, a growl that was smothered by another wild spray of automatic fire.
It hadn’t been Connor’s intent, but when the weapon fire abruptly stopped, he realized that the thing inside Selen had let emotions get to it and had emptied the magazine.
Numbed arm and all, Connor charged.
Selen slapped a fresh magazine into the receiver and looked up—
—just as Connor planted a foot and kicked out.
His boot caught her square in the chest plate, knocking her weapon away and launching her into the air a meter before she arced down to the floor.
When she hit, she immediately got back to her feet.
It wasn’t training. It wasn’t even freakish luck.
She hit the hard floor, and rather than go limp or bounce around painfully, she simply got back to her feet.
There was no hint she’d just been kicked across a room.
Elise popped out from cover and fired, but Selen dove under the hail of bullets.
Then she hopped up, bolted to where one of the Moon twins’ guns had fallen, scooped it up, fired at Connor before disappearing through the doorway she’d come through.
Connor brushed off the powdered debris Selen’s shots had rained down on him. She’d taken a kick that should have left her gasping for air, armor or not, and then she’d sprinted away.
If there’d been any question before, there wasn’t any now: The alien prisoner had transformed her physically.
Now there might be no choice but to kill her…if that was even possible.
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
