Binder1, page 29
Without warning, the east facade of the tower collapsed into the parking lot. Head-sized chunks of Tennessee-stone smashed at the patrol car, one of them ;missing Lome by inches. He looked up, blank-eyed, ;his hands lightly touching the corpse of his friend. Of ;its own volition, the right hand traced down Ben’s ;shoulder to the raw flesh of his elbow. The tower stairs ;spiralled out of the dust and rubble, laid bare to the ;steel framework when the wall fell. On the sagging floor ;of the pipe loft rested a machine like no other thing on ;Earth, and the creature was inside it. Tubes of silvery ;metal rose cradleform from a base of similar metal. The ;interstices were not filled with anything material, but ;the atmosphere seemed to shiver, blurring the creature’s outline.
And Lome’s hand was unwrapping Ben’s stiff fingers from the grips of his revolver.
Lome stood again, his left hand locking his right on the butt of the big magnum. He was familiar with the ;weapon: it was the one Ben had carried in Nam, the ;same tool he had used for five of his thirteen kills. It ;would kill again tonight.
Even in the soaring holocaust the sharp crack of Lome’s shot was audible. Lome’s forearms rocked up ;as a unit with the recoiling handgun. The creature ;lurched sideways to touch the shimmering construct ;around it. A red surface discharge rippled across the ;exoskeleton from the point of contact. Lome fired again. ;He could see the armor dull at his point of aim in the ;center of the thorax. Again the creature jumped. Neither bullet had penetrated, but the splashing lead of ;the second cut an upright from the machine. The creature spun, extending previously-unglimpsed tendrils from ;the region of its mouth parts. They flickered over a ;control plate in the base. Machinery chimed in response.
The shivering quickened. The machine itself and the thing it enclosed seemed to fade. Lome thumb-cocked ;the magnum, lowered the red vertical of the front sight ;until it was even with the rear notch; the creature was a ;white blur beyond them. The gun bucked back hard ;when he squeezed; the muzzle blast was sharper, flatter, than before. The first of the armor-piercing bullets ;hit the creature between the paired tendrils. The exoskeleton surrounding them shattered like safety glass ;struck by a brick.
The creature straightened in silent agony, rising onto its hind legs with its tail lying rigidly against its back. ;Its ovipositor was fully extended, thumb-thick and six ;inches long.
“Was it fun to kill them, bug?” Lome screamed. “Was it as much fun as this is?” His fourth shot slammed, ;dimpling a belly plate which then burst outward in an ugly gush of fluids. The creature’s members clamped ;tightly about its spasming thorax. The tail lashed the ;uprights in red spurts. The machine was fading and the ;torn paneling of the loft was beginning to show through ;the dying creature’s body.
There was one shot left in the cylinder and Lome steadied his sights on the control plate. He had already ;begun taking up the last pressure when he stopped and ;lowered the muzzle. No, let it go home, whatever place ;or time that might be. Let its fellows see that Earth was ;not their hunting ground alone. And if they came back ;anyway—if they only wouldl
There was a flash as penetrating as the first microsecond of a nuclear blast. The implosion dragged Lome off his feet and sucked in the flames so suddenly that all ;sound seemed frozen. Then both sidewalls collapsed ;into the nave and the ruins of the tower twisted down ;on top of them. In the last instant, the pipe loft was ;empty of all but memory.
A fire truck picked its way through the rubble in the parking lot. Its headlights flooded across the figure of a ;sandy-haired man wearing scorched clothing and a neck ;brace. He was kneeling beside a body, and the tears ;were bright on his face.
Have You Missed?
DRAKE, DAVID
At Any Price
Hammer’s Slammers are back—and Baen Books has them! Now the 23rd-century armored division faces its deadliest ;enemies ever: aliens who teleport into combat.
55978-8 $3.50
DRAKE, DAVID
Hammers Slammers
A special expanded edition of the book that began the legend of Colonel Alois Hammer. Now the toughest, meanest meres who ever killed for a dollar or wrecked a world ;for pay have come home—to Baen Books—and they’ve ;brought a secret weapon: “The Tank Lords,” a brand-new ;short novel, included in this special Baen edition of Hammers Slammers. ; ; ; ;65632-5 $3.50
DRAKE, DAVID
Lacey and His Friends
In Jed Lacey’s time the United States computers scan every citizen, every hour of the day. When crime is detected, it’s Lacey’s turn. There are a few things worse than ;having him come after you, but they’re not survivable ;either. But things aren’t really that bad—not for Lacey and ;his friends. By the author of Hammers Slammers and At ;Any Price. ; ; ; ;65593-0 $3.50
CARD, ORSON SCOTT; DRAKE, DAVID;
& BUJOLD, LOIS MCMASTER
(edited by Elizabeth Mitchell)
Free Lancers (Alien Stars, Vol. IV)
Three short novels about mercenary soldiers—never before in print! Card’s hero leads a ragtag group of scientific refugees to sanctuary in Utah; Drake contributes a new ;“Hammer’s Slammers” story; Bujold tells a new tale of ;Miles Vorkosigan, hero of The Warriors Apprentice.
65352-0 $2.95
DRAKE, DAVID
Birds of Prey
The time: 262 A. D. The place: Imperial Rome. There had never been a greater empire, but now it is dying. Everywhere its armies are in retreat, and what had been civilization seethes with riots and bizarre cults. Against the ;imminent fall of the Long Night stands Aulus Perennius, ;an Imperial secret agent as tough and ruthless as the age ;in which he lives. But he stands alone—until a traveller ;from Earth’s far future recruits him for a mission so strange ;it cannot be disclosed.
55912-5 (trade paper) $7.95 55909-5 (hardcover) $14.95
DRAKE. DAVID
Ranks of Bronze
Disguised alien traders bought captured Roman soldiers on the slave market because they needed troops who ;could win battles without high-tech weaponry. The leigionaires provided victories, smashing barbarian armies with ;the swords, javelins, and discipline that had won a world. ;But the worlds on which they now fought were strange ;ones, and the spoils of victory did not include freedom. If ;the legionaires went home, it would be through the use of ;the beam weapons and force screens of their ruthless alien ;owners. It’s been 2000 years—and now they want to go ;home. ; ; ; ;65568-X $3.50
Unknown Author, Binder1
