The Clone Redemption by Steven L. Kent Read Free Book Online Page B

until he reached the landing by the second deck, then I drilled several shots into him. The fléchettes did no damage, but they kept the guy on my tail.
    I called Freeman over the interLink as I ran to the bottom deck. He did not answer, but I knew he was listening. “Have you found your computer yet?” I asked, though I already knew the answer. We’d only parted ways a minute ago; there was no way he could have found it yet.
    â€œYou in trouble?” he asked.
    â€œNo, I’m good,” I said. I heard a soft thwack , thwack , thwack , and looked back in time to see the last of the fléchettes bore a wire-thin hole in the landing wall above me. “I’m having a great time keeping our friend off the second deck.”
    Freeman did not respond.
    â€œI think I’ll take my new friend for a tour of the bottom deck,” I said.
    Freeman did not answer.
    My job was to keep the Marine off the second deck so Freeman could search. No problem. The trap I had in mind could only be sprung on the bottom deck.
    Trying not to offer myself as a target, I spun and fired a couple of shots to let the bastard know which way I was going.
    Having survived being shot in the face multiple times, the Marine had come to realize that I could not harm him. Now he stormed the hall like a bull in a china shop, firing badly aimed fléchettes that skimmed the walls and the ceiling.
    I leaped over dead sailors lying in frozen heaps along the floor. When we had blown holes in the hull, we exposed these men to space, with its vacuum conditions and true-zero temperatures. They froze in a flash, dying too quickly to suffocate ; but as the spy ship’s atmosphere leaked, bodies broke open from their own internal pressure.
    The hall before me was long and straight, with no place for me to hide. If the Marine had had better training, he would have drilled those fléchettes into my back.
    â€œHow are you doing?” I asked Freeman. Only a minute had passed since the last time I asked.
    â€œYou okay?” he asked.
    â€œPeachy,” I said.
    He did not respond.
    The first of the landing bays was just a few yards up the corridor. The door slid open, revealing ten thousand square feet of empty hangar floor without paper, furniture, or bodies. Everything had been sucked out through the jagged thirtyfoot wound in the far wall.
    The area was full of shadows, but my night-for-day lenses let me see through the darkness. There was no other way out than the hatch I had just used, so I hid in a corner, squeezed in as best I could, and hoped I could sneak out of the dead end.
    The hatch opened, and the glow of shielded armor spilled in. Seconds passed. Then the bastard walked into the landing bay without so much as a glance to the side, marching right past me. If this was what passed as a Marine in the Unified Authority these days, I was glad the clones revolted. No selfrespecting clone Marine would make such a foolish mistake.
    He walked straight to the far wall and examined the gaping hole that looked like a mural of open space. If I’d thrown a grenade, the percussion might have knocked the bastard through the gap, and he could have floated to the next galaxy for all I cared. I couldn’t risk it, though. I waited a second, then dashed toward the hatch.
    This time his fléchettes barely missed me. I saw holes appear on the wall ahead of me and laughed. He was toying with me. He thought he was a cat playing with a mouse, but he was mistaken. Sure, he had the protective armor, and that made him confident, but I controlled this fight. Unless he got very lucky, his time in the U.A. Marines was about to end.
    â€œAny luck finding your computer?” I asked as I sprinted down the hall.
    â€œYes,” Freeman said. “These guys were at Olympus Kri.” Olympus Kri was another planet that the Avatari had burned.
    â€œSounds like they had a disaster fetish,” I said.
    â€œYou safe?” asked