Free John Golden: Freelance Debugger by Django Wexler Page A

time, try not to be so good at your job.”
    The claw-blades came at me at head height. I closed my eyes and tried to pop out of the burrow, but that takes a few seconds and more concentration than I could muster. In the distance, I heard Sarah scream [73] .
    — [73] I did not scream . Shouted, maybe.—
    A line of brilliant light flashed in front of my eyes, and then I was falling. I hit the grating in a painful sprawl, the puppeteer's tentacled hand still wrapped around my throat. The arm that had been holding me had been severed halfway up by an energy blast, and my dazzled eyes tracked back along the path of the beam to find Delphi, eyes very wide but sighting down the barrel of the gun in an extremely professional-looking manner.
    ~
    The puppeteer gave another warbling screech. I clawed at my throat and managed to get my fingers under the clinging cables, tearing off the Falmer-thing's severed hand as I clambered to my feet. The creature itself was already turning toward Delphi.
    “ Delphi, run!” I shouted.
    She needed no encouragement, though I was glad to see she held on to the gun. She headed straight for the nearest of the fairy cages, the puppeteer lumbering behind her, claws snapping. It was quick on a straightaway, I could see, but not terribly agile. Delphi cut left at the last minute, veering behind the cage, and the Falmer-thing couldn't turn in time. It plowed into the fragile structure at a dead run, tangling itself in the struts and chicken wire.
    The pixies inside the cage took the opportunity to attack their tormentor en masse , hauling themselves through rents in the cage and grabbing for holds on the puppeteer's misshapen body. They couldn't really injure it, though, and the Falmer-thing was already righting itself, using its three remaining arms to pluck the pixies off and toss them away or simply snip them into pieces that vanished in puffs of blue-green smoke.
    I circled around the other way, putting the central hill between the creature and me, heading for Delphi. I itched to run straight to Sarah, but the cables holding her were as thick as my wrist, and I'd need the gun to have a chance of getting her free quickly. Besides, I could imagine all too well what was going through Delphi's mind. I spotted her on the other side of the ring of cages, back against the chicken wire and breathing hard.
    “ Delphi!” I grabbed her arm, then ducked as she automatically brought the gun up. “Whoa! Delphi, it's me! It's all right.”
    “ John?” She blinked, eyes focusing. “What the fuck is going on?”
    “ Try to stay calm.” I was pretty far from calm myself, but I could remember my first time in a burrow. The transition is not conducive to an organized state of mind. “We're okay for the moment. The first time takes us all this way.”
    “ What do you mean us?” She gestured wildly, unfortunately with the hand holding the gun. I ducked again and gently pushed her arm to her side.
    “ Debuggers. You're a debugger, Delphi. We're inside the burrow.”
    She blinked. “But that's not...I can't...”
    “ Do you remember what happened?”
    “ I was trying to help you. And I couldn't get that stupid system to do anything useful [74] , and I just...reached out...”
    — [74] All right, all right . Spring cleaning next week!—
    “You twisted yourself into the burrow. And saved my life, incidentally. Thanks. That was a good shot.”
    She looked down at the gun in her hand. “I used to...spend a lot of time at the firing range . It was my thing. In college.”
    Her breathing was getting steadier, and her eyes clearer. Knowing Delphi, I might have guessed she'd be a quick adapter. Unfortunately, we didn't exactly have time to spare.
    “Deli?” Falmer's voice—the voice he'd had as a human—drifted over the burrow. “Was that little Deli I saw? You're in here too? Man, what are the odds!” He laughed, a human sound that shifted horribly into an electronic squeal, and his voice returned to the