Free The God Class: The Third Nick Wolfe Sci Fi Adventure (Nick Wolfe Adventure Series Book 3) by Ross H Henderson

guardians.”
    “I really like eggs, especially omelets with lots of cheese,” Heath was almost having fun. Almost.
    “Nope, you are their slaves. Not even their slaves, really. More like their tools. At the most you’re their watchdogs,” Nick continued.
    “Do you like omelets with peppers?”
    The combination of Nick’s tough questions, and Heath’s nonsensical statements was too much for the giant insect formerly known as Beverly Beckett to bear. She didn’t notice she was squeezing the head of the man who was acting as her voice.
    “Stop it, both of you. One at a time!”
    Then the man’s screams took over. Beckett was so enraged at this final interruption that she finished the job she had inadvertently started and crushed his skull. Nick took the opportunity to throw his knife into the heart of the other former hooligan.
    The lines of communication had been severed, and it was finally time to fight.
     

Chapter 16
     
    Nick went to get his knife back, and was followed quickly by the new queen of the hive, who turned toward him, spreading her mandibles and rolling her eyes back. Wolfe pulled the dying man up and used him as a shield against whatever was coming.
    The human shield screamed with his last breath, as Beverly shot a blast of concentrated acid, covering his back and the back of his head. While holding onto his knife, Nick let him fall away. His back, almost completely eaten away, made a squishy noise as he hit the floor.
    While her eyes were fixed on Nick, Heath jumped up and plunged the butterfly knife into the base of the creature’s skill, putting it between the exo-skull and an armor plate on her shoulders. He held on and pushed it with the butt of his hand until only the handle showed.
    Beckett screamed, not a psychic scream of anger, but a shrill, piercing insect scream of pain. She swung around, but her arm swung limply. Momentum and its attachment to the rest of her body permitted it to catch up. She swung the other way suddenly, and her left hand thrust out and seized Heath by the throat.
    Nick leapt forward behind the Hive Queen and stabbed repeatedly into her right armpit. The pain was more than she could bear, and she dropped Heath to attack Nick. She checked behind her once as Heath was getting back on his feet, and then started swinging wildly, hitting Nick in his already broken nose. The torment was blinding — he roared with agony despite his usual stoicism in the face of pain.
    When she drew back for her second swing, Heath grabbed onto the knife sticking out of the back of the Hive Queen. He twisted the handle with little success. Then he rocked the knife back and forth in an attempt to reach her spinal column, but couldn’t get the knife to go any deeper. She shrieked, the last of her own human voice drowned out by a piercing, prolonged squeal.
    The creature collapsed face first, kneeling. Her blouse ripped as her back expanded and split open to reveal wings underneath, like a giant beetle. Her once-human face was only a slipping mask, the features pushed aside to reveal giant insect-like eyes. Metallic-looking mandibles pierced through her cheeks. One didn’t have to look for long to see the bug behind the human façade. The mandibles stretched the mask into a sort of leer, but it was otherwise expressionless.
    She flew up near the top of the room, unsteadily at first, but quickly gained control. Nick and Heath made a run for the staircase but Beckett swooped in, gliding to ram Heath, sending him violently to the floor. Nick turned to the side to see Beckett rising up, on top of Heath, mandibles stretched and ready to strike. He ran as fast as he could and knocked the creature off of his comrade. She rolled to her back and had some trouble getting up.
    Heath lay unconscious in the filth on the floor. Nick gave him a few short slaps, “Heath, we’ve got to go. Come on, get up!” Heath Chesterfield was still in a daze as Nick helped him to his feet. His head hurt, but he was