Free The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core by T C Southwell Page A

donkeys from the shed next door and harnessed
them while Tassin tapped her foot and chewed her lip, anxiety
consuming her. What were the priests planning? They were up to
something, she was sure. They would not let them leave so
easily.
     
     
    The sun peeped
over the horizon as Sabre led the donkeys into the street. Tassin
and Dena climbed aboard the cart, and Dena gave him directions for
the quickest way out of the city. The donkeys' little hooves tapped
on the concrete road, their ears flapping with the nodding of their
heads. Sabre led them at a trot, pulling them along. Halfway along
a deserted street, the priestess stepped out in front of them, her
triumphant smile back.
    "I will not
let you leave the city."
    Sabre
increased his pace. "So you keep saying."
    Jassine was
forced to get out of his way or be run down, and her expression
grew wrathful. She waved her arms, and mutant men stepped out of
the buildings and side streets all around them, each holding a
stick tipped with a piece of black glass. Sabre halted the donkeys
and drew the sonlar from his harness as he leapt onto the narrow
board that served as the cart’s seat.
    "Get down,
Tassin!"
    More and more
men emerged, forming a ring. Tassin crawled into the back of the
cart, pulling Dena, who was trying to aim one of the big lasers,
with her. Sabre pointed the sonlar at Jassine.
    "Call them
off, or you'll be the first to die!"
    The priestess
laughed and stepped behind a wall, beyond the sonlar's affective
range. Sabre cursed. There was nothing else for it. The men walked
closer, the black glass held before them. Jassine must be counting
on the fact that he would not be able to kill all the men before
some reached Tassin, but he had other ideas. There was more than
one way to use a sonlar, and he knew all of them.
    Sabre aimed
the sonlar at the closing ring of men and activated it, then spun.
The weapon's blinding beam swept around him, obliterating the
mutants in a roar of blasted concrete. The swathe of destruction
hurled debris and dust into the air, and some of the shacks beyond
disintegrated in clouds of dust. As the last man was vaporised,
Sabre deactivated the sonlar and lowered it, gazing at the havoc he
had wrought and the circular crater in the road. All that remained
of the men was an odd red streak on the concrete. Revolted, he
jumped down and hauled on the donkeys' halters, starting the
terrified animals forward. They bumped through the crater, and
Sabre broke into a trot, the cart rattling. As they turned the
corner, he glimpsed the priestess standing in the street, watching
them go.
    Sabre did not
slow down until they were back in the scrubland, where he let the
donkeys walk. Tassin emerged, pale and tight-lipped, and Dena
stared back at the receding city, her expression unreadable. Sabre
set a brisk pace, wanting to put as much distance between them and
the city as possible. By the afternoon, he relaxed a little, for
there seemed to be no pursuit. No one spoke, and he assumed the
girls were sunk deep in sombre reflection or retrospection.
    Towards the
end of the day, Sabre located a rivulet that was free from
radiation. They stopped for the night, and after a frugal supper
Tassin offered to share her tent with Dena, but the child opted to
sleep under the cart. As Tassin headed for her tent, Sabre rose
from his seat beside the fire and stepped into her path. She
stopped and looked up at him, clearly startled.
    "I just wanted
to say thank you," he said.
    She lowered
her eyes, becoming interested in her hands. "How could I not try to
save you, after all that you've done for me?"
    Sabre wondered
why she appeared to be holding her breath, and tension had sprung
up between them. That she had risked her life to save him caused
the strange warmth to invade his chest again, and his throat was
tight. People did not rescue cybers; it only worked the other way
around. Of course, she needed his help to return to Arlin, but
somehow that did not matter. Even if