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burst of solid slugs fragmented not that far overhead, as the cyb ducked out
of the middle corridor and hosed the corridor again, the fragments imbedding
in the receptive hard insulated finish of the corridor. If I'd been on the
right side, I'd have gathered enough holes to qualify as an antique sieve or
whatever.
When the pin clicked on the empty chamber, I moved, ignoring the pain and the
knives of red that shot through me as muscles and nerves coordinated the
step-up at the top edge of physical capability.
The cyb didn't even get his weapon up as a block before I reached him. Three
blows were enough. Then I retched over the other side of the corridor, even
before I released the overrides on the emergency lighting.
White flashes flickered across my vision for a moment, and I had to take a
handful of deep breaths. After that, I looked down wished I'd looked sooner.
The half-dead figure on the floor wore a cyb-originated night-suit and
matching goggles. The goggles hadn't helped that much because they were
light-enhancers, and they're not that much good when there's no light. What
bothered me most was the high thick collar and the helmet with the bulge at
the back.
Despite the cyb's crushed throat and temple, his hands had begun to move, and
to grasp for the holstered handgun. Good thing I was still in step-up, or I
could have been dead or wounded.
"Compboost ..." I muttered, and snapped his neck with my boot heel. Another
wave of pain, nausea, and white dots washed across me, and I leaned against
the corridor wall. There wasn't anything left in my gut to lose.
The man twitched one last time, but even the compboost couldn't revive someone
with a smashed temple, or move the limbs of a body with a crushed spinal cord.
I staggered to the door to the lower ramps and manually locked the access from
the lower levels. I didn't need any more witnesses to the carnage I was going
to find elsewhere in the maintenance level.
"Crucelle, get a cleanup detail over here." I pushed the net because the
repeater system in the building was dead.
"Here?"
"Power level of the admin building." I filled him in on the details.
"You can't keep this quiet, Ecktor."
"Announce a malfunction, and two unfortunate deaths from the equipment
failure. I'm the only one here."
"Who's on the net?"
"Anyone who could be on this level should know better than to spread rumors."
That was both statement and threat, and anyone who had the ability to
infiltrate the uppernet should have understood both. Besides, anyone on that
level would use net-to-net, and my concern was not letting the draff community
know immediately, especially after the mess between Majer Henslom and Nislaki
that I still hadn't resolved.
I left the dead cyb where he was and went to the main boards. The trail of
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smashed composite and plastic covers was obvious enough. So were the two dead
draff techs. I had seen both before, but didn't know either the man or woman
by name. The cybs still viewed the draffs as cattle, and that bothered me.
They hadn't learned anything in millennia.
"Crucelle. There are three. One of theirs, and two of ours. Let Locatio know.
They'll try something there tomorrow, most likely while I'm out doing the
prairie dog town." "To see if the response is the same elsewhere?" "That's my
guess."
"Mine, too. What do you want done?" "If it's possible, I want the next one to
disappear without a sign."
"We'll try." A pause followed. "It'll be another fifteen before we're there."
"That's fine. I'll do what I can."
Although it hadn't been that long since I'd done mech maintenance, I felt like
I fumbled my way to finding the bypasses and getting partial power back into
the building, enough for light and the basic net.
The cyb had been very crude. He'd just started smashing things, and if you
smash enough things, something usually breaks, and someone investigates. That
was what he, or his superiors, had had in mind. It was crude designed to prod
us and not even designed to be successful. It was designed more to see our
response, both technically and politically.
We weren't going to provide any obvious response, but the compboost would have
relayed more than I would have liked.
I dropped out of step-up, trying not to shake too hard, found some supplies,
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