Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

VIP免费

2024-12-07 0 0 548.92KB 288 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

The Navaho leaned down and peered into the darkness inside the wag

"Tell him to watch out," J.B. called. "Could be grens or anything in there."

But the warrior was already climbing down, feeling with his feet on the steel

ladder. "Tell my brothers I count the first coup," he said. Now only his head and

shoulders were visible. "This is a good day to—"

With a startling violence, the young man disappeared, cut off in midsentence.

"Fireblast!" Ryan cocked the SIG-Sauer and stared into the dark interior of the

war wag, helpless to do anything to save the young Navaho from what had seized

him.

Out of the stillness, floating up, to the listeners, came a bubbling laugh, gentle and

loathsome.

"Nice trick, you 'pache butcher. Suck on this."

They heard a cry of pain and two bodies struggling with each other…then the

voice of the warrior, sounding thin and strained. "He's got a gren. Pin pulled!"

Ryan was stranded, literally sitting on top of the bomb. He kicked out at the open

hatch, watching it fall in almost slow motion, and rolled backward into a clumsy

somersault. When he landed on the ground, the breath was driven from his body.

Life was suddenly measured in tiny splinters of time.

Rider, Reaper

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (1 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

#22 in the Deathlands series

James Axler

A GOLD EAGLE BOOK FROM WORLDWIDE

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON AMSTERDAM • WRIS • 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."

Nobody deserves a dedication more than Joe J. Sirak, Junior, so this is for him.

With thanks for all the hours of reading he's put in over the years. And with every

possible good wish.

First edition August 1994

ISBN 0-373-62522-

RIDER, REAPER

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (2 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

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.

® 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.

Printed in U.S.A.

Happiness dwells within each heart, Until it's stolen by a thief. We all know well

that villain dark, Whose wretched name is grief.

—From Lives of Quiet Desperation, by Mary Lynn Britton, Bishop's Press, 1888

Chapter One

Ryan opened his good eye and blinked up into the early-morning sky, a bright

blue band etched between the high sandstone walls of the New Mexico canyon

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (3 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

where he lay resting from the glare of the sun.

The bird was a blur for a moment, its large wings flapping lazily. Then his sight

cleared and Ryan rec-ognized the creature as a snowy egret, rising from a bunch

of cottonwoods a hundred yards to the south.

At his side, Jak Lauren hadn't stirred.

A light breeze brought the familiar scent of sage-brush from farther down the trail.

A tiny lizard scuttled out from under a frost-riven boulder, looking for a moment

toward the two mo-tionless figures. It decided they represented no threat and

moved out into the band of sunshine, vanishing into a patch of Indian rice grass.

Ryan glanced at Jak, as the youth stirred in his sleep, his arm flung across his

pink, light-sensitive eyes. The familiar mane of snow-white hair was markedly

longer than in the old days when they'd ridden and fought to-gether, spilled out

over the dusty, cropped grass.

The albino teenager had always been a hardened survivor, but the dreadful events

of the past few days had etched fresh lines of pain around his deep-set eyes and

thin-lipped mouth.

The bottom of the canyon was cool, barely in the eighties. Out in the open it was

way over the hundred-degree mark.

The two men had come alone, drawn by a common purpose. By a remembering

and by a sadness.

The rest of the party of friends were camped among a bosk of aspens, by the clear

stream that trickled steadily from the higher ground. The stream had be-come the

main water supply for the spread where Jak Lauren had settled with his wife,

Christina Ballinger, and where the recent joy of their marriage had been the bright

little Jenny.

A gopher snake slithered from its hiding place and coiled itself, its delicate tongue

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (4 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

probing at the morning air, tasting the two human beings. It found the vanish-ing

flavor of the small lizard, balancing caution against hunger.

Hunger won and it moved out into the open, fol-lowing the tiny reptile.

Ryan watched it go.

Time was passing. His wrist chron showed that they'd been away from the others

for well over the hour. Krysty would already be worrying. J. B. Dix, the Armorer,

would probably be checking his own chron every now and again.

Mildred Wyeth, the black doctor they'd thawed in a cryocenter, would be resting,

maximizing her strength for the ordeal that they all knew would be starting very

soon.

Dean Cawdor, Ryan's eleven-year-old son, might be throwing pebbles into the fast-

flowing stream, or sleeping, or hunting for snakes to chill.

Doc Tanner, the oldest of the group of companions, born in 1868 and time-trawled

to the bleak postholocaust world of Deathlands, would likely be asleep, flat on his

back, his eyes covered with the distinctive swallow's-eye kerchief he always

carried. The massive gold-plated commemorative Le Mat pistol would be

holstered at his hip, and the ebony sword stick with the silver lion's-head handle

lying at his side.

Jak stirred and sighed, then looked sideways at Ryan. "Time to move?"

"Guess so."

The young man stood, stretching, showing the fe-line grace that made him one of

the finest hand-to-hand fighters that Ryan had ever known, though he had to admit

that Michael Brother had the edge on anyone for sheer combat-reflex speed.

"It's like time never existed."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (5 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

"How do you mean, Jak?"

"Like I'm still with you. Like quiet months were dream. Like dark's always with

me."

"Least you had them, Jak. Krysty often talks about us settling down like you and

Christina. Says how she wants to stop the running and the fighting."

Jak nodded. He took a long, slow breath, running a finger around the collar of his

denim shirt. His right hand rested easily on the butt of the huge satin-finish ,357

Colt Python Magnum, with its six-inch barrel. Ryan and J.B. had used to tease the

white-haired youth about carrying such an enormous cannon, but Jak had shown

repeatedly that he was able to handle it.

Christina had never liked the gun, and on their last visit she'd insisted that Jak put

it away.

"Never really took to us," Ryan said.

"Chris?"

"Yeah."

"She appreciated how you saved her."

"By chilling her brothers and her father. Sure. Good way to become friends."

They'd encountered the Ballinger family many months earlier—R.G., the father,

the triple-stupe, vi-cious brothers, Jim and Larry, and their sister, limp-ing with a

built-up boot on her crippled left foot. Her blue eyes would never look at anyone,

in case she got a fist in the face for rudeness. The girl's brutal world had been low

on childhood and love, and high on vio-lence.

"Best say goodbye." Jak looked around the canyon. "Favorite place."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (6 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

"It's beautiful."

"Others not want to come?"

"Don't think so, Jak. Not really anything left for any of the others to say."

"Suppose not."

The wind fell away, and the steep-walled canyon became totally silent.

They walked together through the hot, deeply crimson sand, toward the three

graves. Each of them had a marker, carved from wood, the letters burned neatly

into the slab of beech.

The two men stood side by side, silently united in grief.

Two of the graves were large, the middle one much smaller. All three lay in shade,

beneath a wall of red rock that rose vertically and vanished into the deep blue of

the morning sky.

It was a place of great quiet. Jak and Ryan glanced up as the ghostly egret floated

above their heads and vanished away toward the ruins of an Indian cliff dwelling.

None of the markers carried any date or age.

One read Christina Lauren, Beloved Wife of Jak and Mother of Jenny. Murdered.

The small grave bore the legend Jenny Lauren, Dear Daughter of Jak and

Christina. Murdered.

The third marker claimed Michael Brother. Good Friend from Another Time.

That was all.

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (7 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

Ryan laid a hand on the slim shoulders of the teenager and stood with him in the

stillness while they both remembered everything that had happened in the

pre-vious few weeks, since the companions had arrived unexpectedly in New

Mexico after the last jump.

Chapter Two

Michael was weeping, which was the first sound that Ryan heard as he started to

come around from the jump.

His eye opened, slowly and painfully. It felt like something had been spitting hot

sand under the lid. Ryan closed his eye again, aware that he had a fero-cious

headache, situated behind the empty socket of his missing left eye.

"Fireblast!" He groaned in pain, wishing that Mi-chael would stop crying. The

rasping noise was al-ready starting to get on his nerves.

In between the throttled, choking sobs, it seemed like the youth was trying to say a

name. It sounded to Ryan like "Dorothy." The name was vaguely familiar, but he

couldn't quite work out where he'd heard it before.

Ryan risked easing open his right eye again and saw that the walls of light purple

armaglass had vanished, which was the last thing he'd seen as they started the

matter-transfer jump from the buried military re-doubt. Where had it been?

"New England," Ryan croaked triumphantly. This was good. The scrambling of

the brain that was al-ways a consequence of a jump was healing already.

Now the walls were a pale silver. That color also rang a dim and distant bell in the

far-off reaches of Ryan's mind. But too dim and distant for him to claw it out of

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (8 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

the shorted memory banks.

The silvered disks in floor and ceiling had all lost their brightness, and the last

tendrils of ghostly white mist were disappearing above his head.

Michael was doubled up in a fetal position, tears streaming down his cheeks, still

repeating the name Dorothy.

Now Ryan remembered. That was the name of the young woman Michael had

fallen in love with and who had been about to join them on the jump and then

changed her mind at the final moment.

Correction—beyond the final moment. She'd opened the door of the gateway and

risked the de-struction of the triggering mechanism that could have sent all of

them into a whirling, infinite oblivion. There was no way of knowing whether

Dorothy had sur-vived, and there never would be.

Ryan wriggled himself into a seated position, his back against the wall. His mouth

felt like a stickie had been sick in it, and his stomach still churned. There was a

sore place on his neck that he couldn't recall injur-ing.

Other than Michael, no one else had recovered from the jump.

Next to Ryan was Krysty, lying on her back, hands neatly folded in her lap, her

flaming red sentient hair packed tightly around her nape. The woman's green eyes

were closed, and she was breathing steadily. Her legs were crossed, the cuffs of

her pants ridden up to reveal her dark blue leather Western boots, with the

chiseled silver points on the toes and the silver spread-wing falcons embroidered

on the fronts.

Dean sat next to his father. He was stirring, mum-bling to himself, a thin string of

yellow bile dribbling from his lips. His head rocked back and forth, and his fingers

kept opening and closing. He was as pale as wind-washed ivory.

J.B. lay on his side, as though he'd tipped forward during the jump. Ryan's oldest

friend, the Armorer, had joined the legendary Trader and his war wags about the

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...0Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (9 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

same time as the one-eyed warrior. His fe-dora had rolled across onto the far side

of the cham-ber and lay by the door. Ryan could just see the folded glasses

protruding from the top pocket of J.B.'s jacket.

Mildred was next in the circle. She had been born on December 17, 1964, into a

politically active Baptist family. She hadn't even been a year old when the good

old boys of the KKK rode out of the night with their burning crosses and

murdered her father.

Three days before the end of the year 2000, Mildred had gone into a hospital for

minor abdominal surgery. She had been an expert in the field of cryosurgery and

cryogenics, and it had been logical, when something went wrong during the

operation, to have her trauma-tized body deep frozen.

Then the nukings of the following month had dev-astated the entire world,

decimating the population.

Millions died during the sky dark, and tens of millions more of the rad sickness

during the long winters. Civ-ilization vanished, never to return.

The United States of America reverted to a number of scattered communities,

some of them small villages of a few dozen, some of them larger villes with up to

four or five hundred souls, run by gun-carrying bar-ons.

It became Deathlands.

For nearly a century, Mildred had slept on, dream-less and dark. Then she had

been jerked back to life by Ryan and his companions,

The last of the group was Doctor Theophilus Alger-non Tanner. In November of

1896, Doc had awakened to another normal cool, bright morning in Omaha,

Nebraska, and kissed his beloved young wife and two children goodbye. Then his

world had ended at the whim of blank-faced scientists of 1998. They were

working on an ultrasecret time-traveling project, pick-ing victims—or candidates,

as they were known—and plucking them from their past into the uncertain

pres-ent. Operation Chronos.

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...Deathlands%2022%20-%20Rider,%20Reaper.html (10 of 288) [12/29/2004 12:16:19 AM]

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

Axler,James-Deathlands22-Rider,ReaperTheNavaholeaneddownandpeeredintothedarknessinsidethewag"Tellhimtowatchout,"J.B.called."Couldbegrensoranythinginthe e."Butthewarriorwasalreadyclimbingdown,feelingwithhisfeetonthesteelladder."TellmybrothersIcountthefirstcoup,"hesaid.Nowonlyhisheadandshoulderswer...

展开>> 收起<<

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper.pdf

共288页,预览10页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Axler, James - Deathlands 22 - Rider, Reaper

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: