Free Alexander Jablokov - Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov Page A

third.
    Ah. He wriggled out of it and was finally able to stand with his legs free. Then, moving deliberately, he set off after Charis and Hesketh.

12

    The right-of-way crossed a road. Bernal saw Cha-ris’s Hummer parked a few yards away, but it was dark.
    Scratches on the asphalt ran across the road and back into the grass. The damaged Hesketh was still going strong.
    Bernal moved more quickly. Beyond the road, the right-of-way swept wide to the left, where it met a high chain-link fence. Tracking Hesketh was easier than it might have been, because the right-of-way was hemmed by back fences and other barriers on both sides, and because Hesketh made an astonishing amount of noise pulling its body along on its remaining functioning legs.
    He almost went past it, but some noise beyond the fence redirected his attention.
    Something had ripped a hole in the fence, partially screened by dried weeds. Some of the weeds were freshly broken.
    He pushed his way through.

    The giant shapes of tire shredders bulked in the darkness and the air smelled of burned rubber. Dishwashers and clothes driers stood in crushed rows. Two bulldozers stood in mid task, construction waste for recycling piled up in front of their blades. Above them rose a tire hill, with a subpeak of giant truck tires, and a sinuous wave of car tires.
    _______
    Charis carried another  of her blocky, cheesy-looking weapons. She should hire a decent props department, Bernal thought. She’d climbed partway up the slope and was now looking downward, almost at Bernal.
    Below her, Hesketh climbed tenaciously up the slope of tires, its legs spread wide. Two of the legs on the left side were dead and dragged uselessly, while one on the right jerked spastically. It was a wonder it was going anywhere.
    Charis bent over, heaved, and toppled tires down on top of Hesketh, yelling something Bernal couldn’t hear. It slid a few feet back, then spread its legs out farther and climbed more deliberately. Charis chucked a couple more tires, but they bounced harmlessly off its carapace and off a projection on its back.
    It was an antenna. The thing had a high-frequency antenna on its back.
    Why was it still heading toward her, instead of fleeing?
    “Charis!” he yelled up.
    He thought back to their fight. She probably could have taken him out at any time, much more effectively than the guy with the cast-iron doggie doorstop had. But, at every point, she’d only used as much force as she needed to.
    “Give me a minute.” Her voice was surprisingly calm. “Then we can have a talk.”
    She shouldered her weapon and fired. It seemed to be some kind of crowd-control hoser and fired padded pellets. They were meant to stun unarmed rioters. And it had the desired effect, knocking Hesketh completely off its legs and rolling it down the hill. She charged down after it.
    He was finally close enough to get a look at Hesketh.
    It looked really slapped together, with bubblegum welds that would have shamed a first-year shop student. Nothing about this operation was as high class as he would have liked.
    She knelt over Hesketh and looked up at him. “You okay? I mean, I had to—”
    “Charis,” he said urgently. “That thing is radio-controlled. I’ll bet it has no more processing in it than a remote-controlled airplane. It’s nothing but a decoy.”
    “Then why the hell would it be—” She glanced down at it, then ran.
    She’d almost gotten out of range when the thing exploded.
    _______
    He felt the  compression wave of the explosion. He stumbled backward, hands in front of his face.
    But he was still there. He hadn’t been knocked into blackness. But, for a moment, he remembered what had happened to him, and huddled, curled up, hoping to protect himself.
    “Where are you injured?” Charis’s big hand on his shoulder, her wide face shoved into his.
    “I’m ...” He took a breath. “I’m fine. Just... I had something happen once. Still cracks, here and there. Give me a