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.My node took over my reflexes before I knew what happened, and I jumped off the midwalk the instant before a laser blasted the pathway.I landed on the canal floor in knee-deep dust, my legs bending, my hydraulics absorbing the impact.Powder swirled around me and the acrid stink of fused powder saturated the air, activating the filters in my nose.I sprinted down the canal, kicking up more dust, obstructing the view of whoever had fired.The jammer would shield me from their sensors—I hoped.Another shot hit the ground behind me.Damn! That was from the other side of the canal.I zigzagged in the clouds of powder.Shots came from the midwalks, the ceiling, the ground.The shooters were mostly firing at each other, but another blast hit the canal just meters ahead of me.I crouched down, hiding under an outcropping with an overhang.Max, can you tell who is shooting, and from where?A Vakaar is hiding in the canal floor to your right, he answered.Another Vakaar is on the opposite midwalk and someone is in the ceiling above her, Vakaar I’d guess since he isn’t attacking the punker below him.Two shooters on this side, identity unknown, probably Kajada.Got it.The dust was settling, so I edged farther under the overhang.Powder went up my nose and I choked.Clearing obstruction, Max thought.The dust stopped bothering me as my filters broke the particles down into molecules my body could absorb.A lightshow of shots suddenly crisscrossed the canal, flaring bolts that attacked the ground, the walls, and the columns that supported the aqueduct.Slagged rock flew everywhere, mixed with the swirling dust.I gagged on the stench of melted dust.Goddamn it! I lifted my gun.They’re going to destroy the canal.If you start firing, they will locate and kill you, Max thought.I’m not shooting at anyone.Damned if I didn’t want to, though.Good.Because you’re the only one with a pulse revolver, and both sides probably want you dead.Not Dig.I hoped.True.But her people are unlikely to have the same compunctions about killing you.Are you picking up anyone else in the area besides punkers?Possibly, Max thought.It’s hard to tell with all the laser fire.As if to punctuate his words, more shots flared in the canal.I’ve picked up signs of two people hiding in the midwalk wall, neither with nanomed tech in their bodies, which means they probably aren’t punkers.How do you know they’re here if they have no meds for you to detect?The red beetle went in close enough to pick up their heartbeats.Can I reach them without being seen?Maybe.I’ve mapped this area, but I don’t know all the hidden passages.He paused.Get to the canal wall closest to where you’re hiding.You might fit into a hole there that might take put you into a tunnel that I think slopes up to the midwalk in the adjacent canal.From there, I think you can reach the trapped people.That’s a lot of mights.Yes.Unfortunately, it’s the best I can do.I peered through the dusty air.It felt sticky against my skin.Someone fired a shot that hit the ground a few meters beyond me, and partially melted debris plumed into the air.Under that cover, I sprinted for the canal wall, keeping low to the ground, scuffing up red dust.I doubted anyone noticed, given how much grit already filled in the air.I reached the wall—And it didn’t have a single damn hole.Max! Where is the entrance? I crouched down, pressing against the wall.Any moment the dust would settle enough for someone to see me here.Try to your right, Max thought.I inched along, half blinded by grit, which was cooling into glassy sand that rained out of the air.My hand hit a cone of rock taller than my height.Reaching around it, I found a hole in the canal wall.Unfortunately, the cone was too close to the wall for me to squeeze past it into the opening.Max, is this what you meant? I asked.Yes.Apparently you won’t fit.Yah, brilliant deduction.I brought up my gun, waited until someone took another shot, and under that cover, I fired at the cone.Hopefully I also fried the sensors of anyone close enough to detect me.The cone broke apart while a new deluge of dust filled the air.As I squeezed into the hole, jagged edges of rock caught at my jacket and skin.The smart leather didn’t tear, but a spike gauged my face and blood ran down my neck.I’m sending meds through your bloodstream to treat your wounds, Max thought.Yah, fine.I had no time to worry about injuries.I was crammed into a hole with no outlet in the middle of a battle.If the midwalk above me collapsed, it would crush me as flat as flint.I turned around in the cavity, squeezing my way to the back.A vertical slit cut the rock there.I reached into the opening, but it was so narrow, I couldn’t even get my elbow through.Some sort of open area lay beyond.I didn’t have room to kick open the slit, which meant I had to fire my gun again, this time in a confined space.I flicked off the EM pulse so the close quarters wouldn’t fry Max.Gritting my teeth, I waited until the noise out in the canal ratcheted up and then I fired, protecting my face with my arm.Debris blasted my body, ripping at my clothes and skin.A sliver of rock penetrated even my smart clothes and buried itself in my leg and something hard hit my temple.With a groan, I sagged forward and fell through the opening I had just created.You should stop, Max thought.Treat your wounds.Later.I climbed to my feet with my hand over my head.I barely had enough room to straighten up.Just pray this place doesn’t collapse on me.I wouldn’t advise shooting anything else.No kidding.I felt woozy and blood ran down my arm, but I was otherwise intact.My head bumped the roof when I walked forward, but I was able to make my way forward.The passage wasn’t a tunnel so much as a natural warren of holes and jagged spaces.The air smelled better, less acrid that out in the canal.I reached a slope and climbed upward, my feet dislodging dirt and rocks.Max, how did you know about this tunnel? I asked.I mapped the area earlier by sending pulses of sound into the rock to find hollows.Smart EI.Thank you.Got a suggestion for how I can get out?Yes.Veer to your left and keep climbing.I went left and soon spotted a line of light ahead, dim, grey, and welcome.When I reached the top of the incline, I stood up.Only two meters of flat, rocky ground separated me from that light.It came from a crack in the wall about two handspans wide and taller than my height.Where are the beetles? I asked.Monitoring the combat, Max thought.I still heard the rumble of falling rock in the canal behind me.How much injury could these ruins take? They had lasted for millennia, but that was with relatively little use.If the one behind me collapsed, it could damage this canal as well.Bring a beetle here, I thought.I need its eyes.I walked to the crack in the wall and stood to the side with my gun up and ready.The canal out there looked empty.It wasn’t completely dark; diffuse light came from somewhere.Here’s the bot, Max thought.The red beetle flew over my shoulder and hovered by my face.Max activated the red lights in its eyes and it blinked at me, glimmering.When Max turned off the lights, the bot became almost invisible.I barely saw it fly out into the canal.I’m linking you to its eyes, Max thought.I was suddenly flying over the canal, a wide one in good condition.The light came from a street lamp some distance up the midwalk.The city authority didn’t maintain lamps any deeper than this canal, which lay only one level below the Concourse.I didn’t think they realized people lived deeper than this.I spoke to Max [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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