James Axler - Deathlands 055 - Shadow Fortress

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"We will not leave those clouds alive," Doc warned.

Ryan drew his blaster and started firing, the red-hot rounds easily punching

through the tough polymer and deflating the balloons. "Water!" Krysty called out,

pointing ahead.

There was a wide break in the stygian forest, a calm river that traversed the valley

floor. Their target was a slim area of flat mud between the rocks, impossible to hit

at their current speed.

"That's our best chance," Ryan shouted, slashing at the side ropes. "Wait for it…

Now!" In unison the companions dived from the pallet, and a split second later

the Pegasus rammed into the trees and was torn apart by a thousand sharp

branches.

Only the babbling of the shallow river disturbed the heavy silence. Then swatches

of light bobbed through the darkness, and armed men stepped from the bushes

along the riverbank to approach the still figures sprawled in the bloody mud.

Shadow Fortress

by James Axler

THE SKYDARK CHRONICLES Book

III

A GOLD EAGLE BOOK FROM WORLDWIDE

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E...%20Fortress%20-%20Nick%20Pollotta%201.0.html (1 of 283) [12/24/2004 11:33:50 PM]

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY •

HAMBURG

STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN MADRID • WARSAW •

BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is

stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and

neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped

book."

To Rich Tucholka, a good friend, and a good man

First edition September

ISBN 0-373-62565-

SHADOW FORTRESS

of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or

other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography,

photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is

forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library,

225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author

and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names.

They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the

author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are

registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade

Marks Office and in other countries.

Storm'd at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well

Came thro' the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of Hell,

All that was left of them…

—Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809-

Printed in U.S.A.

THE DEATHLANDS SAGA

This world is their legacy, a world born in the violent nuclear spasm of 2001 that

was the bitter outcome of a struggle for global dominance.

There is no real escape from this shockscape where life always hangs in the

balance, vulnerable to newly demonic nature, barbarism, lawlessness.

But they are the warrior survivalists, and they endure—in the way of the lion, the

hawk and the tiger, true to nature's heart despite its ruination.

Ryan Cawdor: The privileged son of an East Coast baron. Acquainted with

betrayal from a tender age, he is a master of the hard realities.

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Krysty Wroth: Harmony ville's own Titian-haired beauty, a woman with the

strength of tempered steel. Her premonitions and Gaia powers have been fostered

by her Mother Sonja.

J. B. Dix, the Armorer: Weapons master and Ryan's close ally, he, too, honed

his skills traversing the Deathlands with the legendary Trader.

Doctor Theophilus Tanner: Torn from his family and a gentler life in 1896, Doc

has been thrown into a future he couldn't have imagined.

Dr. Mildred Wyeth: Her father was killed by the Ku Klux Klan, but her fate is

not much lighter. Restored from predark cryogenic suspension, she brings

twentieth-century healing skills to a nightmare.

Jak Lauren: A true child of the wastelands, reared on adversity, loss and danger,

the albino teenager is a fierce fighter and loyal friend.

Dean Cawdor: Ryan's young son by Sharona accepts the only world he knows,

and yet he is the seedling bearing the promise of tomorrow.

In a world where all was lost, they are humanity's last hope…

Chapter One

Slithering through the jungle brush, the huge cobra reared its head and hissed

loudly at the sight of the approaching humans.

Both of his hands splayed wide to force a path through the tangled vines, Ryan

Cawdor didn't pause at the sight of the reptile, but instantly stomped down with

his combat boot, pinning it. Struggling furiously, the cobra uprooted small plants

as the man pulled a panga from its sheath on his belt and sliced downward with

all of his strength. The blade neatly severed the head, pale blood spraying from

the neck stump as the long body thrashed madly about in the leaves.

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But as the snake head hit the ground, its eyes flared wide and the mutie spit out a

long stream of greenish fluid. Ryan bent out of the way and the poison hit a tree,

the bark turning white almost instantly. Stomping harder on the reptile, the one-

eyed warrior felt bones crack, but the creature still struggled to get free. Muttering

a curse, Ryan kept his boot in place and drew his 9 mm SIG-Sauer blaster from

the holster at his hip. Racking the slide to chamber a round under the hammer, he

lifted his boot and fired twice, the soft chugs of the sound-suppressed weapon lost

in the rustle of the trees overhead from the ocean breeze. The soft-nosed slugs

punched through both of the cobra's eyes, blowing its head apart, bones and

brains splashing across the stubby grass under the papaya plants.

Three feet away, the hanging cluster of flowery vines burst apart and out stepped

a short wiry man with a pump-action shotgun in his callused hands. The

newcomer was wearing a fedora hat and wire-rimmed glasses. An Uzi machine

pistol was slung across a shoulder, and a bulging canvas bag hung at his side. His

leather bomber jacket was stained with sweat, and his clothes were discolored

with quicksand and dried blood.

"Centipede?" John Barrymore Dix asked, the maw of his S&W M-4000 blaster

sweeping the area for possible targets.

"Just a snake this time," Ryan grunted in reply, stabbing the panga into the moist

soil to clean away any possible trace of the venom. "Nothing serious."

On the ground, the headless body of the mutie reptile still wiggled about as if

unwilling to accept its unexpected demise. Ryan kicked it aside.

"Well, anything's better than those triple-damn leeches," J.B. said with a scowl,

easing his stance.

Holstering his blaster, Ryan grunted in agreement, then ripped a leaf from a

breadfruit tree to wipe the soft dirt off the steel before sheathing his blade.

Ryan towered over J.B. Long curly black hair framed a humorless face covered

with a network of scars, an old leather patch masking the puckered ruin of his left

eye. A 7.62 mm bolt-action Steyr sniper rifle was slung over a powerful shoulder,

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摘要：

D4"Wewillnotleavethosecloudsalive,"Docwarned.Ryandrewhisblasterandstartedfiring,thered-hotroundseasilypunchingthroughthetoughpolymeranddeflatingtheballoons."Water!"Krystycalledout,pointingahead.Therewasawidebreakinthestygianforest,acalmriverthattraversedthevalleyfloor.Theirtargetwasaslimareaoffla...

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