The Temporal Void by Peter F. Hamilton Read Free Book Online Page B

Troblum.
    ‘Where are you?’ she muttered. Another heavily enriched human was moving slowly inside the villa. Hard to pinpoint with the tormented force field still obstinately functional. Her field function still couldn’t locate Troblum, he must be deeper inside, possibly underground.
    Lightning lashed down again. The combatbots added three proton laser strikes to the impact. It was too much. The force field collapsed in a devastating sonic shockwave that ripped the pool plants to shreds, sending a plume of smouldering leaves cascading up into the sodden sky. Windows burst apart, flinging long shards of glass across the paving slabs.
    Paula swooped into the pool area as the downpour saturated the villa. The Amazon women fired a barrage of X-ray lasers and disruptor pulses at her. Jelly gun shots slashed harmlessly across her armour’s force field. She was puzzled by that. Surely Stubsy or whoever had blown apart the glide boat had stronger weapons that this?
    ‘Deactivate your enrichments right now,’ Paula commanded. The combatbots streaked through the deluge towards the women. Two of them fired at the hulking bots as they withdrew back into the villa. Paula pushed a disruptor pulse into one of the waterfall boulders just as the one in the bright green bikini left it to scamper through a ruined patio door. The boulder detonated into thousands of fragments which embedded themselves in the villa walls. ‘Halt,’ she yelled. But the women scattered inside what she took to be a long lounge. Again they were in a defensive formation. ‘Troblum, come out. I’m here at your invitation for heaven’s sake.’
    Another fusillade of energy shots hammered into her force field. Dazzling purple static webs roared out from the impact points, vaporizing the rain pouring down her shoulders. Paula sighed, it was going to be difficult to neutralize the stupid women without damaging them. Her field function swept through the villa. The enriched person she’d spotted before was creeping along the back of the room the women were protecting. She still couldn’t locate Troblum.
    ‘Enough of this,’ Paula decided. The armour’s regrav lifted her off the ground, starting to power her forward. She fired a disruptor pulse, blasting apart the wall in front of her and half of the roof above, opening up the lounge. A cascade of debris came tumbling down along with the rain. The women dived for cover, immediately reorganizing their fire pattern.
    The sensor remotes outside the villa reported something approaching the estate through the torrent of rain. A large craft, keeping very low, flying the same route as Troblum’s scooter out of the forest. His starship. Paula slowed abruptly, uncertain of the ship’s ability.
    In front of her, yellow and purple petals of exotic energy erupted from the floor of the lounge. Eight of them, curving up like the jaws of some vicious predator. They swept past barely a metre from her armour, clashing together to form a broad column. It began to twist, the petals separating out again, stretching out towards her, elongating fast .
    Paula’s suit regrav shoved at her violently, pushing her backwards as she gasped in shock. She and the three combatbots unleashed a torrent of firepower at the base of the exotic energy manifestation. Trying to kill the generator. The tip of exotic energy stroked the front of her armour’s force field. Weird warning symbols erupted across her exovision.
    The ground exploded upwards.
    Paula was flung high into the air above the villa, spinning out of control. For a second she thought she’d punctured the exotic energy generator. But the yellow spectres were still leaping around like flames in a hurricane. They lasted for a second before snuffing out.
    Paula stabilized her tumbling flight fifty metres above the villa. When her sensors swept the scene below, she saw a huge crater had completely ruptured one side of the building. It was twenty metres wide, with walls of raw