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Sasha appeared by my side, held the .44 with both hands, and loosed a round through the doorway. The recoil pulled the gun up overhead. She brought it back down. Someone
screamed and she grinned.
Come on! I grabbed her hand and jerked her towards the rear of the office. There were cubicles, storage rooms, and yes, a door with the words Emergency Exit lit up above
it. Bullets whipped past us as we pushed it open, spied the circular staircase, and started downwards. The corpies were only seconds behind us. I had my client back. The question was,
for how long?
5
We re not proposing to pump it dry, for god s sake& just pave it over.
Land Commissioner Donald Siranni on plans to cap Puget Sound
A massive concrete pillar ran down through the center of the spiral staircase. One of Sasha s spiked heels caught in the open mesh. She managed to pull it out and continued on tiptoes.
A door slammed and the stairs shook as the rent-a-cops started down. We had a two-or three-minute lead. Not enough at the speed we were traveling. Sasha! Lose the boots! We
won t make it otherwise!
The kid grabbed the rail and stopped. I squeezed past, turned, and gestured for a boot. She shoved one in my face. I grabbed, pulled, and felt it come loose. The second boot
was easier. I threw both aside.
I heard a shout, sent a slug up the stairwell, and headed down. Sasha followed. We took the stairs two, sometimes three at a time, always conscious of the fact that the corpies
were close behind. There were lots of landings, and doors off each, but all of them were locked. I kept going, knowing the stairs had to end sometime, and hoping that maybe, just
maybe, there would be a way out.
The landings were numbered and the numbers got larger. Finally we were on Level 50, and nothing but a door stood between us and whatever lay beyond. I pushed and
nothing happened. We were trapped.
Stand aside. Sasha held the .44 in both hands. She was already in the process of squeezing the trigger when I yelled No! The word was lost in the boom that followed.
The bullet bounced off the steel plate that protected the lock mechanism, hit the wall next to my shoulder, and whined up the stairwell. I hoped it would hit a corpie and knew that
kind of luck had been reserved for someone else. My ears rang as Sasha brought the gun down for another try. I told her what to do.
Ebertok asu nabledock!
Sasha frowned and her finger tightened on the trigger.
I tried again. Aim for the keypad instead!
She nodded and corrected her aim.
I turned and was watching the stairs when she fired the next shot. It was as loud as the first. A few more of those and I d be deaf.
Maxon! Look!
I looked. The slug had transformed the keypad into a mass of shattered plastic and tangled wires. Sparks sputtered and a tendril of smoke drifted away. I kicked the door and it
swung inwards. We entered together. I saw a corridor and a second door. There was no sign of a lock. Good. Sasha gestured to the corner next to the door. Stay here and slow em
down. I ll scout ahead.
Who the hell had died and left her in charge? I started to ask, but she was gone before I could organize the necessary words. So I stayed where I was, watched the stairs, and
fired when I saw legs. They retreated upwards in a hurry. The corpies yelled something, tried to draw me out, and I ignored them. I heard the now-familiar boom of the .44.
Maxon! Come on!
I wished there was some way to lock the door, couldn t think of one, and backed away. Sasha held a second door open and gestured with the .44. The bore looked big enough
to drive a truck through. I made a note to teach her something about gun safety. Assuming we lived long enough to make the effort worthwhile, that is.
I moved through the door and out onto a concrete jetty. Dark water lapped all around. There was a variety of equipment, including a pair of light-duty cranes, fuel pumps, cargo
modules, and a high-speed launch that sat on a cradle. The line of bullet holes just above the heavily stained waterline gave mute testimony to what had happened. That, plus the fact that
the security station resembled a small-scale fortress, hinted at unseen dangers.
The apparent dangers, both naked from the waist down, stood with their hands behind their heads. The woman had nice legs and an attitude to go with them. Her nudity didn t
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