Outlanders 39 Hydra's Ring, page 26
Fanning smoke away from their faces and coughing, Brigid, Kane and Grant rose to their feet and apprehensively approached the epicenter of the implosion. They saw Erica creeping out from the concealed door and Lakesh rising unsteadily from behind the statue.
Grant and Kane lifted away the broken ivory screen. There wasn't much to see underneath it—the bodies of Wei Qiang and his soldier were mangled lumps of flesh, their eardrums shattered by the brutal decompression, their eyeballs pulled from their sockets, blood from ruptured vessels springing out from every orifice, their lungs flattened wafers of tissue. It was impossible to differentiate the mangled heaps of scarlet-painted flesh and splintered bone. Wei Qiang and his trooper were joined together forever, arms, legs and even organs entangled with one another.
The Kai Bu Xiu, the Armor of Immortality, resembled a shapeless lump of fused, half-slagged jade smoldering in the center of the floor. Nothing remained of it but scorched, dark green fragments and tiny puddles of melted gold wire.
"I think the immortal Yellow Emperor has met his mortality at last," Lakesh said hoarsely. "And he took the secret of his immortality with him."
He speared Grant with a sharp, accusatory glare. "An implode grenade?"
Grant heaved the broad yoke of his shoulders in a shrug. "In an enclosed place like this, an implode with a limited effect radius was the best bet."
Kane looked at Brigid, who rubbed her shoulder and winced. With a mock severity, he said, "Why didn't you tell me what those keys would do to the robots?"
"Because I didn't know until I tried," she replied. "But since the sockets on the robots were the same as on the outside door, I figured it was a standardized system." She paused, grimaced and added, "However, I had no idea turning the keys would make the machines run amok. I thought it would turn them off. I must have engaged some sort of preset combat program instead. If we run into anything like them again, know better. I've learned my lesson."
Dourly, Kane said, "Just once I wish we'd learn a lesson without something blowing up."
"On the bright side," Grant commented, "Enlil will be royally pissed."
Erica knelt next to the clutter of smoking jade, poking and sifting through the shards. "Not too late," she whispered breathlessly. "Not too late."
"Too late for what?" Lakesh asked irritably.
Cupping her hands together, Erica scooped up a little heap of ash and jade. A Hydra's ring lay nestled among the fragments. The metal looked dull and lusterless, shot through with a network of hairline cracks.
Carefully, she stood up, holding the ring as if it were as fragile as spun sugar and eggshell. "We can analyze this one," she said in an urgent whisper. "Study it, find out how to make it work again. That's all any scientist needs, a starting point!"
"Give it a rest, Dragon Mama," Kane said wearily. "This kind of immortality the human race can do without."
She ignored him. Pursing her lips, Erica gently blew ash away from the jeweled eyes of the nine horned heads. Under the pressure of her breath, the Hydra's ring crumbled like a piece of ancient parchment and drifted to the floor in a scattering of dust.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
James Axler, Outlanders 39 Hydra's Ring
