Axler, James - Deathlands 07 - Dectra Chain

VIP免费

2024-12-07 0 0 543.52KB 276 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

d12

The wind had become a full-blown gale, howling like a cemetery banshee

Ryan paused, blinking the ocean spray out of his eye, and stared upward. He could

see only a few feet ahead, but he made out the sharp edge of concrete only a half-

dozen rungs above his head.

Drained by the struggle of leading the others into unknowable blackness, Ryan

finally heaved himself over the rim and collapsed on hands and knees onto smooth

stone. Krysty joined him a moment later, her breath surging harshly.

"I've done easier things, lover," she panted. "Hope the others can make it."

"Only one way. Can't go down," he replied, feeling the strength already seeping

back into his body.

Ryan moved to explore the rear of the platform and found a small iron door

covered with lichen. He pushed, and the door swung easily open. His eye winced

at the brightness of light, startling after the long blackness.

But he could see enough to make out a slackly grinning mouth and shadowed

eyes… and the twin barrels of a sawed-off shotgun.

Dectra Chain

James Axler

A GOLD EAGLE BOOK FROM WORLDWIDE

TORONTO • NEW YORK -LONDON • PARIS • AMSTERDAM •

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (1 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

STOCKHOLM • HAMBURG

ATHENS • MILAN • TOKYO • SYDNEY

"Elegantiae arbiter," said Tacitus of Petronius. It could apply equally well to

Feroze Mohammed. This book is for him, with my thanks for his ceaseless help,

advice and encouragement.

First edition September 1988 ISBN 0-373-62507-

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 permission of the publisher, Worldwide Library, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don

Mills, Ontario, Canada MSB 3K9.

All the 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 the incidents are pure invention.

® are Trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office

and in other countries.

Printed in the U.S.A.

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (2 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

They that go down to the sea in ships and occupy their business in great waters;

These men see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.

—The Book of Common Prayer, Psalm

Chapter One

RYAN CAWDOR OPENED HIS EYE, then closed it again, feeling the certainty

that to try to move would make him throw up. He took several rapid, shallow

breaths, fighting the nausea, swallowing hard. Sweat beaded his forehead, and his

stomach was cramping. A mat-trans jump through one of the gateways always

resulted in unconsciousness and a gut-churning sickness as every molecule was

sucked into infinity and then reassembled in another gateway.

Ryan had never made an attempt to understand the technology of the hidden mat-

trans chambers. Indeed, virtually all knowledge of anything technical or scientific

had vanished on that January morning when the world disappeared under a

nuclear haze, about a hundred years ago.

He could hear someone moaning and retching on the far side of the hexagonal

room, which was protected with thick walls of colored, armored glass. Ryan still

didn't feel confident enough to risk opening his eye again. All but one of the six

people with him had made several jumps before and they knew what to expect.

But for one it was the first time.

Man Whose Eyes See More had been until very recently the wise man, or shaman,

to a subtribe of the Mescalero Apaches, who lived among the jagged red canyons

of the land that had once been called New Mexico. He'd never been more than

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (3 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

fifty miles from his birthplace in Drowned Squaw Canyon, but now he didn't

know where he was. All he knew was that his head was spinning, as though Ysun,

giver of all life, had scooped out the pink-gray mush that filled his skull and taken

it into its mouth only to spit it out again.

His mirrored sunglasses had fallen from his face, and he fumbled for them, not

wanting to risk opening his eyes in case he saw… What? Nothing? Death? An

endless darkness beyond all time? The shaman didn't know.

Very, very cautiously, he eased open his dark brown eyes.

"Nothing," he said to himself, conscious of how harsh and dry his voice sounded,

as though it hadn't been used for several days. "Nothing has happened here at all."

They were exactly where they'd been when Ryan Cawdor, known to the Indian's

people as One Eye Chills, had closed the ponderous door. His new companions sat

or lay just where they'd been before the swooping raven of blackness had come

and plucked away his mind for a while.

The metal disks in the floor and the ceiling were no longer glowing, and the

tendrils of pale mist had long evaporated. The shaman recalled a distant humming

that had seemed to come simultaneously from inside and outside the chamber and

had hurt the head.

He sighed, swallowing to clear the pressure on his ears. Then he noticed that

something was different. Even though the six-sided room looked precisely the

same, the walls had changed color. When they'd entered the gateway in New

Mexico, the glass walls had been a rich golden hue. Now they were a deep

turquoise, tinted like old Navaho jewelry.

"All right?" someone asked from his left. Man Whose Eyes See More nodded,

regretting the sharp movement and the pain it caused him.

"I am not yet dead," he said carefully.

"Good."

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (4 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

The Apache knew that the speaker, John Barrymore Dix, was a man of very few

words, never using two when one would be enough. Short and wiry, J.B. was the

Armorer of the traveling group of friends that the shaman had joined. His sallow

face rarely showed any emotion unless he was talking about blasters— about

weapons of any sort. His blue eyes would glitter behind his wire-rimmed

spectacles, and he would push back the brim of the battered fedora he habitually

wore. He could tell you all there was to know about rifles, carbines, automatics,

revolvers and muskets.

Next to J.B., whom the Indians had christened Weapons Strike Fear, was the

slumped and unconscious figure of a boy. Eyes of Wolf had been his name, but

the Mescalero knew his proper name was Jak Lauren. He was only three inches

over five feet in height, nearly two feet below Man Whose Eyes See More's

towering seven feet, and weighed in at 105 pounds.

The boy's eyes were ruby red, and his hair was as pure white as the snow that

dappled the high peaks of the distant Sierras. In his lap, Jak was clenching a

massive .357 Magnum with a six-inch barrel. He was a brilliant hand-to-hand

fighter who the Indian knew had killed an amazing number of men.

He also knew that Jak Lauren was just fourteen years old.

Feeling a little better, the shaman stretched out his long legs, bare feet scraping on

the floor of the chamber. He was wearing his favorite pair of pants—seersucker,

with one leg missing. His brocade vest had a cherry-red kerchief dangling from it,

and he sported a silver stickpin in a scarlet cravat, its claw setting empty of a

stone. The shaman's own decorated .50-caliber Sharps buffalo rifle lay at his side.

Next around the chamber, lying together, both showing the first signs of recovery,

were the two women in the group. Man Whose Eyes See More came from a

warrior society where women came third- or fourth-best—if they came anywhere

at all.

One of the women moaned, clenching her fingers. Her name was Krysty Wroth,

called Fire Hair Woman by the Mescalero. Man Whose Eyes See More was a

priest of the Apache, with a mutie power of seeing a little into the future, of

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (5 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

sensing things that others couldn't see. He knew that this woman with the bizarre,

fiery crimson hair also had something of that doomie power.

She was tall, close to six feet, and was dressed in khaki coveralls. Her feet,

pointed toward the shaman, were shod in dark blue leather cowboy boots that had

chiseled heels and were ornamented with silver spread-wing falcons. The sharp

toes were also silver. Her pistol was plated and polished—a Heckler & Koch P7A-

13 9 mm blaster that fired thirteen rounds. And the Apache had firsthand

knowledge that the girl knew how to use her gun.

He was a little scared of Krysty Wroth.

As he looked at her she blinked, opening the startling green eyes, managing a

smile.

"Hey," she said quietly. "Enjoy your first jump with us?"

"No," he replied honestly.

"Mebbe you should have stayed where you were, shaman," she whispered.

Jak sat up, coughing, a thin string of bile dribbling from his slack lips, and

dripping onto the front of his canvas camouflage jacket.

"Bastard jump makes feel ill every time," he said, shaking his head, the long white

hair floating around his narrow skull like winter smoke.

The other girl also sat up, burying her face in her hands. She was one of the most

beautiful women the Apache had ever seen. Indeed, on the strength of that she had

been gifted by the Apache with the name of Keeps Night Warm. Her Anglo name

was Lori Quint, and she was in her sixteenth year of life. She was even taller than

Krysty Wroth, topping the six-foot mark by close to an inch. Lori was a startling

blonde with blue eyes.

"I want to feel best, but I always feel badder than best," she said, smoothing her

dark navy cotton skirt over her long thighs. As she shifted her position the shaman

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (6 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

heard the silvery tinkling of the tiny spurs on her crimson high-heeled boots.

"How you feeling?" came a voice from the shaman's right. It was the leader of the

small group, Ryan Cawdor. He was an imposing sight, built like the killing

machine that he was. The man stretched two inches above six feet, weighing just

on two hundred pounds. His right eye was a deathly, melt-ice blue, the left hidden

beneath a patch of black leather. A savage scar furrowed his face from his right

eye to the corner of his mouth. Both injuries, the Indian knew, were the result of a

deadly fight between Ryan and an older brother.

"My head is still in space," replied Man Whose Eyes See More. "I will be pleased

when it catches up with the other parts of me."

"Doc's still out cold," Krysty put in. "He takes it harder than the rest of us."

Doc Tanner was the last member of the group, someone whom the shaman found

disturbing. Normally his seeing power enabled him to weigh up strangers, but not

the gray-haired, skinny old man in the green-mottled frock coat and cracked knee

boots. When Man Whose Eyes See More talked with Doc, he had the feeling that

he was seeing a misty, unreal person. He had refused to allow Doc to carry an

Indian name, and the old man hadn't seemed unduly surprised. From hints

dropped by the others, the shaman suspected that Doc Tanner had come,

somehow, from another time.

And, of course, the Apache was right.

Dr. Theophihis Algernon Tanner had been born in South Strafford, Vermont, on

the fourteenth day of February in the year of our Lord 1868. Married, the father of

two young children, a leading scientist of his time, Doc had been "trawled"

forward to the year 1998. He was the first and, as far as he knew, the only

successful subject of a time-travel experiment, which was a part of the infamous

Cerberus Project.

Because he had caused the twentieth-century scientists such trouble, they used

him once more as the unwilling subject for an experiment. This time they sent him

forward to the bleak scenario of Deathlands, nearly a hundred years in the future.

By a fluke of good or bad luck Doc was chron-jumped only a couple of weeks

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (7 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

before the fire and light that swept so much of the United States clean of life and

living. He had been rescued by Ryan Cawdor from the ville of Mocsin, up in the

Darks, saved from Baron Jordan Teague and his supremely evil sec boss, Cort

Strasser.

In recent bloody fighting, with Ryan and his companions siding with Man Whose

Eyes See More and the Mescalero against killers in cavalry uniforms, the wheel

had come full circle. The gang of butchers had been led by Cort Strasser.

Gradually all seven within the glass-walled chamber managed to struggle to their

feet. Doc was the last to come around, helped up by Lori on one side and young

Jak on the other. He was coughing and gasping, doubled over.

"By the three Kennedys! I fear that I am too far I gone in years to relish this mat-

trans jumping. The blackness grows ever deeper, and my heart sinks when I think

of all the jumps to come."

"Mebbe there won't be any more jumps, Doc," Ryan suggested, running a finger

around the collar of his long, fur-trimmed coat.

"Sure," Krysty added. "And this might be the very place in all the Deathlands

where we can find what we're looking for, a place, mebbe, with a future."

"Maybe pigs fly, was what Father said." Jak grinned.

"How d'you feel, Man Whose Eyes See More?" J.B. asked, automatically

checking the action on his mini-Uzi, cocking the Steyr AUG handblaster that he

wore in a holster on his hip.

The shaman noticed that each member of the group was taking out their armory of

weapons, doing so with a casual, professional ease that told much of how they had

all survived so long.

The albino boy hefted his cannon, which looked too big for him to even hold.

Lori, on the other hand, was reloading a delicate little Walther PPK .22 with

polished pearl handles.

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (8 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

Ryan favored a SIG-Sauer P-226 9 mm pistol with a built-in baffle silencer that

fired fifteen rounds.

Slung across his shoulders was a gun like nothing Man Whose Eyes See More had

ever seen before. It was a pale gray rectangular automatic rifle. Jak had told him

that it was a Heckler & Koch G-12.

Doc was the only one of the group who carried a gun that most of the Apaches

would have recognized. It was a monstrously heavy and outdated blaster, called a

Le Mat, a conventional revolver that fired nine rounds of .36 ammo. But there was

also a second barrel that could be used to fire a single round of .63-caliber

scattergun ball, like a sawed-off shotgun. Doc told the shaman that the gun was

"just about as old as me, son. About as old as me."

Man Whose Eyes See More realized that he had allowed his thoughts to drift as he

stared around at the weaponry of his six new friends.

"Sorry, J.B., what did you ask me? My mind was elsewhere."

The Armorer adjusted his fedora. "Asked how you were feeling, Man Whose Eyes

See More."

Ryan stepped toward the door to the mat-trans chamber, then paused. "Man

Whose Eyes See More?"

"Yes, Ryan?"

"Your name."

"It is the one given me because I have the power that—"

"I know, I know. Just that it's too long to say. If we're in a firefight, and I want

you to cover me, by the time I shout your name, I'm likely dead meat."

"I don't—"

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (9 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

d12

"We've all got short names. Ryan, Jak, J.B., Doc, Lori, Krysty and… Man Whose

Eyes See More. We can't call you 'Man'… it'd be confusing."

"Don't have other name?" Jak asked, rubbing his finger across the side of his nose.

"No," the tall Indian replied.

"Must be a name you'd like to be called," Krysty suggested, "Some special reason

for a name. Know what I mean?"

"I know what you… There is a name, but you would think me foolish." He

shuffled his bare feet on the cool metal disks, looking down in embarrassment.

Ryan laughed. "You want to ride with us, brother, then you learn not to feel bad

about anything. Tell us. If we laugh, then we laugh. That's all."

"It won't signify," Doc said kindly, baring his excellent front teeth in a rather

frightening smile.

"Well… We had an antique ceedee player in the rancheria. I don't know where it

came from but it was old, years before my time. And there was music. One that

was my favorite."

"Go on," Lori prompted. "We gotten lotsa cee-dees in our redoubt. Keeper's

favorite was Barry someone. I doesn't remember. I liked Scum Legion and old

Brucey. What did you like?"

"They were very old, I think. Brothers. I played their disk over and over until I

knew all their songs. Such harmonies that even White Painted Woman could not

imagine."

Doc pointed a gnarled finger at the Apache. "I know them. Two brothers from

Kentucky. Can't rightly recall…"

file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra%20Chain.html (10 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:50 PM]

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：

d12Thewindhadbecomeafull-blowngale,howlinglikeacemeterybansheeRyanpaused,blinkingtheoceansprayoutofhiseye,andstaredupward.Hecouldseeonlyafewfeetahead,buthemadeoutthesharpedgeofconcreteonlyahalf-dozenrungsabovehishead.Drainedbythestruggleofleadingtheothersintounknowableblackness,Ryanfinallyheavedh...

展开>> 收起<<

Axler, James - Deathlands 07 - Dectra Chain.pdf

共276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 07 - Dectra Chain

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: