[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Satisfied his righthand had that part under control, Tirrell shifted his
attention skyward.
The other two kids were almost directly overhead, drifting slowly now as their
eyes swept the ground. Tonio, sitting right next to a large bush, was
temporarily out of their line of sight; but Tirrell was perfectly visible from
their position, and he knew he had seconds at the most before they spotted
him.
There was only one thing he could think of to try. "Get ready to catch me," he
muttered to Tonio.
Waiting until the searching eyes above them were looking elsewhere, he
scrambled to his feet and ran recklessly down the slope toward the refinery,
the tear-gas grenade he'd scooped up concealed in his left hand.
He hadn't covered more than five meters when his feet found themselves
treading air. Looking up, he saw one of the kids coming up behind him at a
height of a hundred meters or so. The second, close behind, was glaring at the
ground, and Tirrell got the impression that a teekay battle was underway
between him and Tonio. Mentally crossing his fingers, Tirrell glanced at the
ground, perhaps three meters beneath him now, and waved his empty hand at his
captor. "Not so high! Not so high!" he yelled, putting an edge of hysteria
Page 136
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
into his voice.
The kid responded exactly as Tirrell had hoped he would. Instead of lowering
the detective, he did just the opposite, yanking him swiftly upward as a
fisherman would reel in a catch. Higher and closer he was teeked... and as the
kid reached out toward him, Tirrell pulled the three-second fuse on his
grenade, counted two, and threw it.
He had aimed the device to go off directly between the two kids, but whether
or not it actually did so he never found out. The flat crack of the compressed
tear gas bursting free and the cool wave of moisture that followed immediately
afterward caught Tirrell with his head turned aside as far as possible, his
eyes squeezed tightly shut with hands protecting both them and his nose. That
his plan had indeed succeeded, however, was clear from the strangled gasps
above him and from his sudden, uncontrolled tumble toward the ground.
Falling blind was a far more unnerving experience than Tirrell had expected it
to be, but fortunately it didn't last long. A new teekay grip was on him in
seconds, pulling him to the side and down; and with a moment's hard
deceleration, the ground slapped at his feet.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/...thy%20Zahn%20-%20A%20Coming%20of%
20Age.htm (167 of 190) [12/31/2004 12:01:28 AM]
A Coming of Age
"Tonio?" he whispered loudly, dropping into a kneeling crouch. Brushing his
sleeve against the tear gas still clinging to his hair, he risked a quick
glance, saw nothing but tall grass.
"Back here," came a muffled whisper from a few meters to his right. "Here your
gas mask."
Something bumped lightly against the side of Tirrell's face. Grabbing it, he
slid it on, fumbling a bit before he got the straps properly tightened.
Exhaling what was left in his lungs to clear the mask of any traces of gas, he
cautiously took a breath. Just as cautiously, he opened his eyes.
Tonio, his own mask firmly in place, slid through the grass to Tirrell's side
a moment later, the remaining gas grenades held in a fingertip-and-teekay grip
in front of him. "Grack, but you took a chance there," he murmured.
"Had to be done," Tirrell grunted, taking a second to examine the righthand's
mask. Tightening one of the straps, he returned his gaze to the now empty sky.
"Did you see what happened to them?" he asked.
"I think their friends teeked them back into the refinery. They sure weren't
navigating on their own.
Are they going to be all right?"
"Oh, they're not in any danger. But I think we can scratch them from any
further action for the day."
Raising his head cautiously, Tirrell peered over the grasses at the refinery.
No activity was visible;
the window Martel had been using for his attacks was now sealed against the
bluish-looking cloud of tear gas that was slowly drifting toward the east in
the light breeze. "In fact, depending on how close everyone else is crowding
around them, we may be able to take out the rest of them, too. Grab another
grenade, Tonio, and let's try to teek it straight down Martel's throat."
Gasping and rubbing almost viciously at their eyes, Kalle and Barth were
teeked back in through the window. "Close that window tight!" Martel snapped
to Axel, his stomach threatening to climb up his throat. "All the windows as
tight as they'll go." The kids flew off to obey, leaving him staring out the
window. Not at the cloud of gas that had unexpectedly robbed him of a quick
victory, but at the place where the man who'd executed the maneuver had
disappeared back into cover.
Tirrell. It had been
Tirrell.
He swallowed once, hard, and as his brain slowly unfroze, he became aware of a
Page 137
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
sharp odor in the air. "Get over there all the way in the corner," he ordered
the two disabled kids. "Axel, teek them over there. Everyone else keep away;
they've got the stuff on their clothes."
"Something coming!" the boy on lookout two windows away snouted.
Martel jumped to his side. A small black object, heading straight for the
window. "Knock it down,"
he commanded the boy. "No, wait just stop it and try to pull on anything that
seems to be sticking out."
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/...thy%20Zahn%20-%20A%20Coming%20of%
20Age.htm (168 of 190) [12/31/2004 12:01:28 AM]
A Coming of Age
The cylinder hesitated in its flight, wobbled back and forth under the
opposing forces, and a small ring near the front abruptly popped free. Seconds
later the cylinder seemed to explode into another of the off-white clouds.
"What that stuff?" the boy asked nervously.
is
"Don't worry, it won't hurt you," Omega growled. "It just makes your eyes
water, like sliced onions."
Axel landed next to him. "Can we give Barth and Kalle some water? Maybe if
they wash "
"You!" Omega barked, turning on him. "That was
Tirrell, damn it! Why the hell didn't you teek him in here when he started
falling?"
Axel seemed to draw back from the outburst; but even through his anger Martel
could see it wasn't the recoil of puppylike subservience. Axel was regarding
him coolly, almost measuringly. "We were busy getting Barth and Kalle back in,
we had to pull Doane and that box in over there, and you were screaming at us
to hurry up and not let any of the smoke in. If you'd wanted us to grab him,
you should have said something."
With an effort, Martel forced himself to calm down. He couldn't afford to lose
control now. "Sorry.
But that was
Tirrell, damn it."
"I saw him. You told me he wouldn't be any more trouble."
"I know." Martel watched the latest cloud move across the landscape. How had
the detective escaped from the cabin? He didn't know, but he was for damn sure
going to find out. "Put one of your kids on each side of the room to watch for
attempts to break through the windows," he instructed Axel. "Someone else
should make sure Tirrell and whoever he's got out there don't move from where
they are. Then I want you, Axel, to stack the boxes we're taking with us in
front of the door to the rest of the building; I don't want anyone sneaking up
on our blind side."
Axel seemed to consider all that, then nodded. "All right. You just going to
stay here and supervise?"
Martel made a note of the preteen's sarcastic tone for future reference. "No.
I'm going to have a little talk with Dr. Jarvis." Without waiting for a
response he stalked away.
He found the scientist seated with his back against the huge furnace, a [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]