Jack Vance To Live Forever (v5.0) (pdf)
Jay Caselberg Jack Stein 1 Wyrmhole
Jack London Iron Heel
Jack London The Sea Wolf
London, Jack Crucero del Snark
Jack Kerouac On the Road
Jo Clayton Drinker 01 Drinker Of Souls
Foster, Alan Dean Catechist 03 A Triumph of Souls
Lois McMaster Bujold Chalion 2 Paladin of Souls
Jack L. Chalker Changewinds 1 When the Changewinds Blow
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quarter of the way up in the sky, and it was burning through the thin
cloudiness that seemed impossible at this altitude.
"I think I see a peak over there!" Prola called ex-citedly. "And another,
there! Yes! I think it's clearing."
The Gedemondan suddenly stiffened and looked around nervously. "I don't think
all is well," he whis-pered. "I sense others near by. I I allowed my own
personal emotions to cloud my senses," he explained apologetically. "Now I can
read them. We are being watched!"
They tensed, and the Agitar drew his coppery swordlike tast, which could
conduct thousands of volts of electricity from his body. They waited tensely
to see who the hell could possibly have penetrated this fog
and found them at such a height.
"Helloooo . . . !" boomed a voice from somewhere just to the left of them, a
call that echoed back and forth between the peaks. "Hey! Nate! Where are you?"
it called. "Come on I won! I gotcha dead to rights. You can't move. I took
your challenge and I've won, Nate! I've won!"
Brazil gestured with his head to the Gedemondan, who placed a pad on his head
allowing speech.
"Over here!" he called wearily. "How the hell did you ever find us?"
A huge figure glided out of the fog and approached them carefully. It carried
in two of its six hands a small electronic device.
"This is a high-tech hex, Nate," Serge Ortega told him. "Haven't you ever
heard of radar?"
Above the Borgo Pass
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ortega had a fairly large force around, andas they walked with him the size
became more appar-ent.
They were also well armed and well equipped with the best in weaponry and
detection gear and obvi-ously digging in.
"I must say that it's damned hard to think of you as a pegasus," the Ulik said
jokingly. "And a passionate pink one at that! My, my!"
Brazil could only snort at this commentary, since the Gedemondan could only be
an effective speech conduit when they were standing still. He and Mavra could
only seethe and take it; all hope was now gone.
"The Borgo Pass," Ortega told them. "It's the nar-rowest point in the whole
chasm, barely ten meters clearance on either side of the Avenue and with nice,
natural fortifications on both sides. As you saw from the landscape above,
anyone who wants to reach the equator has to come up the Avenue itself and has
to get past this spot."
There was a lot of activity around the mostly obscured pass; they could see a
portable crane lifting some gun emplacement down into the mist and cloud layer
below, supervised by a number of small flying things.
"You might be interested to know how I figured out your plot," the Ulik
continued, gloating unashamedly. "To be truthful about it, I deduced it as you
went along and the final pieces only fell into place a couple of days ago, but
I'd already guessed the rough out-line. It was clear from the start, at least
after I dis-covered how you'd evaded our traps in Zone, that yours was a
campaign of misdirection. Still, nothing could deny the fact that, sooner or
later, you would have to move in force toward one or more of
the Ave-nues, and as soon as the Hakazit moved up the Isth-mus I knew from its
direction and the direction of the Dillians that you had to be coming to this
area. Al-though your double in the ship gave me some uneasy moments, I admit,
I rejected water Avenues as sim-ply too risky. That left Yaxa-Harbigor or
here. Now, you had an army for each, as did the council, and a double for
each, which drove us crazy. So, which Avenue?" He paused, savoring his moment
of triumph. "I rejected Yaxa-Harbigor not only because the inhabitants around
there are incredibly formidable anywhere and damn near absolute in their own
neigh-borhood, but also because that would put Gunit Sangh's army in between,
by far the more formidable of the two," he continued. "But a glance at a map
showed that, if you turned westward and started the other Awbrian force
northward, you'd have a massive double army coming down on a smaller and less
equipped council force. Ergo, Ellerbanta, since Verion is inhospitable, nasty,
alien, and probably lethal. I'm not sure those fancy charged-up glowworms can
be reasoned with. Good thing they're superstitious, though, or we couldn't
hold both sides of the pass."
Brazil halted and gestured with his head to the Gedemondan, who understood and
made the link.
"All right, Serge, but how did you get here?" he wanted to know. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
