Читать книгу Polestar Omega - James Axler - Страница 3

“Are you ready?” Ryan shouted

There was no answer.

Then he heard the deep, resonant hum of the mat-trans. He looked over his shoulder and his heart sank when he saw the door was sealed. The transfer was already in progress. The companions had left him behind.

To die.

He drew his panga and chopped down the first wave of stickies, lopping off heads, arms, hands indiscriminately. But he couldn’t keep up the pace for long; no one could. Before he could reach for his SIG SAUER, suckered hands gripped his arms and face, tearing at his flesh…

The sensation brought him back to consciousness.

His bed frame began trembling violently and the glass shimmied in the window frame. Was he dreaming this, too? Or was the redoubt coming apart?

The door opened, and whitecoats and blacksuits rushed in.

Ryan couldn’t move. Over the rattling bed and the pounding in his skull, he heard one of the women say, “His body temperature is 106. And climbing.”

“We need to get him into the tank at once. Uncuff him.”

Ryan was lifted under the arms and dumped feetfirst and fully clothed into the ice-filled water.

Tears streaming from his good eye, Ryan threw back his head and screamed. It didn’t feel cold.

It felt like molten metal.