Blood Will Tell by Christine Pope Read Free Book Online Page A

working the cannon controls. She could see from a quick glance at the screen that the ground in front of the compound’s gates was already thick with bodies.
    “You hold yours, I’ll hold mine,” she replied, fingers pounding away at the keyboard. She could steal some power from the environmental systems on the upper floors of the building, as no one was up there to care how hot it got. And of course—the refrigeration units in the kitchens. Several days ago Miala had transferred all the remaining edible food to one unit instead of having it scattered amongst four, but she hadn’t bothered to shut down the power to the three that were now empty. That would do nicely.
    The attacking vehicle fired again, and again, but once more the shields held. Beside her Thorn paused, and the endless firing of the defensive cannons ceased.
    “What—” she began, lifting her gaze once again to the screen that showed the front gates. Whoever the attackers were, she couldn’t think there were very many of them left. Mast had probably lost more people at the Malverdine Cliffs, but not that many more, and she guessed there weren’t a lot of crime lords in the area who could afford to sacrifice so many men.
    “Watch out,” Thorn said, and sure enough the vehicle fired again. This time there seemed something almost petulant in its attack, as if those manning the controls knew all too well that their ground forces had just been decimated.
    Miala pushed the back-up power she had just located into the shields, and although they lost a few percentage points, they were still holding just fine. “Why don’t we fire back?” she asked. “There are gun emplacements to the rear of the compound as well!”
    “No point,” he said. “We’d have to drop the shields, and right now the shields are doing better for us than the guns would. I’m not sure they’d even be enough to punch through the shielding on that thing.”
    He was probably right, but part of her was still annoyed that they couldn’t fire at the invaders, blow a hole in the huge unwieldy machine that continued to fire at them. Now that Thorn had stopped firing the forward guns, she did steal a little power from the cannons to bolster the shields. That seemed to have done it, for after one last shot the firing abruptly ceased, and the bulky vehicle slowly lumbered back into the inky blackness of the Iradian night.
    For a moment she watched the viewscreen, unbelieving, certain that reinforcements were just around the next dune. But all she could see was the restored bluish glow of the perimeter wards, as the security system reestablished itself now that the interlopers were gone. “We did it?” she asked finally.
    “Looks like it,” Thorn replied, easing himself down into one of the oversized chairs. Unlike her, he almost fit. Then he turned his hands over, looking down at the newly bloodied palms with mild interest.
    Despite herself, Miala let out a sound of shocked dismay. “Your hands!”
    “It’s nothing,” he said, closing his fists. “Guess I should have kept the bandages on.”
    Miala stared at him for a moment. His face was calm enough, but she could see from the tightness of his jaw that he was probably in considerable pain. Then, a little amazed by her own boldness, she went to him and reached out, forcing one of his hands open with both of hers. His skin felt rough and warm under her cold fingers.
    “You’ll be lucky if that doesn’t get infected,” she said. “I’m surprised the mech let you get up at all.”
    He kept his fingers outstretched under hers even as the dark eyes crinkled a bit at the corners. Was he laughing at her, at her feeble attempts to play nursemaid?
    “Let’s just say that the mech and I had a difference of opinion.”
    She recalled suddenly the crash she had heard as Thorn left the med unit. “You didn’t—”
    “I’m sure it can be repaired.” Again that swift, dark look from beneath the level black brows. “Are you any