By the Book by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch Read Free Book Online

said, "and piles of rubble along the left side of the street."
    "Building!" both Novakovich and Anderson said at the same time.
    "The Martians are coming," Mayweather said again. He was almost singing the words. Then he froze as he too got caught in the game. "What are they armed with?"
    "Long knives, sharp claws, sharp teeth," Cutler said.
    "Poison in their bites, I bet," Mayweather said.
    "I wouldn't give you much chance of survival if you're bit by one," Cutler said, sorry that he was ahead of her again.
    "How many are there?" Anderson asked.
    "A dozen," Cutler said.
    "Hold your fire," Mayweather said, "until you see the green of their eyes."
    "They're closing in," Culter said.
    "Can we see the green of their eyes?" Mayweather asked.
    "I don't know," Cutler said. "We haven't rolled to see how good your vision is."
    Anderson gave her a withering look, then said, "Fire now!"
    "Firing," Novakovich said.
    "Shoot low, Sheriff," Mayweather said, "the Martians are riding ponies."
    Cutler looked at the young pilot. "What?"
    "Old joke," Mayweather said, waving the explanation away. "My father told it to me."
    She shook her head at him. The joke had broken the illusion for her. The mess hall's chill had vanished, though, in all the excitement.
    "You know I'm firing too, don't you?" Mayweather asked.
    "Now I do," Cutler said as she rolled the bolts.
    "Did we stop them?" Anderson asked.
    Cutler stared at the bolts. Eight red. Eight times three meant the dozen Martians were more than stopped. "Mowed them down."
    "But I bet all the noise is going to bring more," Anderson said.
    "No doubt in my mind," Mayweather said. "I'm sure Cutler still has a few tricks up her sleeve."
    Cutler smiled. That was exactly what a game master liked to hear. "You're right," she said to Anderson. "Martian reinforcements are on the way."
    "How many?" Novakovich asked.
    "You can't tell yet," Cutler said.
    "No fair," Anderson said.
    "It's a game, James," Cutler said. "No one ever said anything about fair."
    "We need some kind of device that lets us read things far away. How come you didn't give us one?" Mayweather said.
    "For exactly this reason," Cutler said.
    "How far away are they?" Novakovich asked.
    Cutler shrugged. "If you can't see them, you have no idea. I just confirmed your guess. Now I'm kind of sorry I did, since there's no way you'd know they were coming."
    "We figured it out," Anderson said. "You didn't give anything away."
    She did, but she wasn't going to say any more. She should have let them continue with their suppositions, hit them with a few other hidden surprises and made them forget about the Martians, and then had the Martian reinforcements attack. Next time. It would all be easier on the next game.
    "How much ammunition do we have left?" Anderson asked.
    Good question. She wondered if anyone would get to that.
    "You used one-quarter of your rounds," Cutler said.
    "I'd say this would be a good time to get my favorite alien Unk into a building," Mayweather said. "You two coming?"
    "Right behind you," Anderson said.
    "Rust is with you as well," Novakovich said.
    "Which building are you going into?" Cutler said. She had a timer going on her padd, but she didn't tell them that. If they continued to play the game in real time, they only had fifteen minutes until the second wave of Martians attacked.
    "Which building. She asks us which building." Mayweather rolled his eyes. "The closest one, of course."
    "Yeah," Anderson said.
    Discipline was breaking down in the ranks. Cutler suppressed a grin. If anyone talked to the captain like that on an away mission, there'd be trouble.
    "All right," Cutler said. "You find a big room inside the closest building. The room's mostly dark, but you have enough light to see a wide, open ramp leading up to a second floor."
    "Let's go up," Anderson said.
    The other two nodded.
    "Second floor looks much like the first. Windows are missing and the holes give you more light, so you can see the garbage and rubble