[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
urged her into motion.
They ran. Out of this latest cemetery, then along a metal-walled tunnel, then
up a slanting ramp that led them to a long imitation marble corridor that was
rich with shelves holding hundreds of gilded burial urns.
"I bet if you spent enough time down here," speculated Gomez as they ran,
"you'd end up thinking morbid thoughts."
After they entered yet another long metallic tunnel, Jill said, "I hear an odd
noise behind us."
"&; that's the patter of metal feet," he said. "At least one of those damned
robot tracking dogs is catching up."
"Sounds like more than one."
Gomez kicked up his pace, sprinting ahead.
He ran around a bend in the tunnel. After running for nearly a minute, he
looked back and found that Jill wasn't there anymore.
"Dios," he muttered as he stopped and went back.
She was on her hands and knees on the ribbed flooring.
Breathing shallowly, shaking her head slowly from side to side.
"I stumbled, Sid. Nothing major."
He looked beyond her and then yanked his stun gun frozn its shoulder holster.
"Roll over against the wall, Jill."
Coming through the shadows, not more than a hundred yards from them, was a
large robot hound. It was a gunmetal color and its plazeyes glowed a fierce
red. The mechanical creature's jaw was filled, crowded, with sharp-edged
silvery metal teeth.
The metal paws made hollow clattering sounds as, galloping, it narrowed the
distance between them. A tiny silver knob protruding from its skull was
giving out a continual reedy beeping.
Gomez knelt, knees wide, and swung up his gun. "Stay hunkered," he told the
woman.
The robot hound left the floor of the tunnel and launched itself into the air,
aiming straight for the fallen Jill.
The beam from Gomez' stunner took it in the chest.
The metallic dog gave a tinny yelp, quivered, dropped to the floor. It got
up, though, and starting heading for Jill again.
"Hey, perro, this is supposed to stop you in your damned tracks." Gomez fired
the stun gun once more.
The dog was nearly to Jill, teeth starting to snap. The second beam caused it
to swerve, slam into the wall as it lost its balance.
Leaping up, Gomez ran over and shot a third time, standing right above the
slowed mechanism.
The hound's teeth made a final try to bite at Jill before it collapsed.
"That's a very strong little madre," observed Gomez as he helped her to rise.
"Usually you can disable them with one shot from a stun gun
"Thanks again, Sid."
His arm around her, they started away.
Page 48
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The second dog that found them had two men with it.
Gomez was crouched before a narrow metal door at the end of a low tunnel.
"I'll get this lock device jobbed in a few more seconds, chiquita," he assured
her.
"Sid, I think I hear footsteps again." Jill was leaning against the wall,
arms folded under her breasts, breathing slowly in and out. "Not just a hot
dog either. And coming up fast."
"I hear them, too," he admitted. "But once we get this door open, we'll be in
the outside world once more."
The lock gave off a click and then a whir.
"Bueno." Gomez nudged the door with his elbow.
It didn't budge for a few seconds, then, with a rusty creaking, it swung open
outward. Grey daylight showed.
Jill took his hand and they ran out of the final tunnel and up into a small
battered kiosk.
Gomez shut the door behind them.
They stepped out into a large circular public plaza. Three sky vans were
parked near its edge and another van was dropping down through the early
morning. Copper-plated robots, most of them wearing bright blue overalls and
yellow straw hats, were in the process of setting up outdoor food stands and
counters. A pretty blonde android in an imitation gingham dress was arranging
a display of flowerpots with artificial plants in them.
A pair of robots was sending aloft a floating lite sign that proclaimed:
Welcome to the Pasadeaa Sector Farmers' Market.
"That's not too bad," commented Gomez as they jogged away from the
NecroPlex exit. "To come back from the dead in Pasadena."
"How do we get to the Cosmos Agency?"
They stopped and Gomez scanned the area. "I'm sure one of these rustic lads
would allow us to borrow a sky van
Back across the plaza the exit door flew free of its hinges, went hopping
across the flagstones and smacked over with a clang. Sooty smoke gushed out
into the morning and then a heavyset black man hefting a lazrifle lunged into
view. Another got hound, red eyes flashing, followed.
"The blue van," said Gomez, starting to run.
They dodged an overalled robot who was setting plazcartons of hydroponic
produce out on a neo wood stand. Across the bib of his trousers were the
words Naturally Yours! From Worldwide Drugs &
Food.
A second man, a short blond fellow wearing a checked suit, came up from below
ground to join in the pursuit.
Gomez and Jill reached the door of the blue sky van It had the familiar
Farmland Eaterprises lateraatioaal logo emblazoned on its side in yellow lite
letters
"In, bonita." He gave the woman a boost and then joined her in the cabin.
"Hey there, feller," called a rustic robot. "That there's my buggy."
Paying him no mind, Gomez pulled out a small black tube. He bounded into the
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]