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of flakes about us that was gone in a few moments. A thin sun shone down on
the blindingly white landscape. Snow, nothing but snow in all directions.
Wait, something dark ahead, a stone wall or building of some kind, obscured an
instant later. We plodded on and tried to ignore the numbness in my hands and
face. Yet our destination was still a good two hundred meters away. My body
and feet were warm enough, but my exposed skin was something else again.
We were roughly halfway from the ship to our waiting warm haven when another
miniblizzard swept down upon us, a roaring snow squall. Just before it hit I
slipped and fell, pulling one of my captors down with me as he slid on the icy
surface. He made no complaints, though the sadist holding the torture box did
give me a quick blast of pain as a warning to watch my step. All done in
silence. Silence on my part too because I had managed to get a loop of cable
from the box over my shoulder when I went down and then caught it in my mouth.
And bit it in two.
This is not as hard to do as it sounds, since under the caps of my front teeth
were set serrated edges of silicon carbide. They were invisible to X-ray,
having the same density as the enamel of my teeth-but were as hard as tool
steel. The caps on my teeth chipped and splintered away as I ground down,
chewing desperately before anyone noticed what was happening. The swirling
snow concealed what I was doing for the vital seconds needed . The human jaw
muscles can exert thirty-five kilos of pressure on each side and I was
exerting, chomping and biting to my utmost.
The cable parted. As it did I twisted to the side and brought my knee up into
the groin of the captor on my right. He grunted loudly and folded and released
my arm. For a quick cross chop into the throat of the other man. Then my hands
were free and I spun about.
The man behind me lost vital seconds depending on technology rather than on
his reflexes. My back was to him all the time I was chopping up his partners.
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And he did nothing. Nothing that is other than push wildly at the buttons on
the torture box. He was still pushing when my foot caught him in the pit of
the stomach. As be fell I got under him so he collapsed onto my shoulder.
I did not stop to see who was doing the yelling as I staggered off with him
into the snow-
filled, stormbeaten, frozen wastes.
All of this may seem like madness--but what greater madness to go quietly to
the slaughter at the hands of these creatures? I had been there once before
and still had the scars. Now there was a good chance I would freeze to death.
But that was also better than giving in to them. Plus the very remote chance
that I might stay free for a while, cause them trouble, anything.
Nor was I as weak as I pretended to be; this had been only a simple ruse to
get them off guard. Though now I was weakening--and freezing--very fast. My
limp ex-captor weighed at least as much as I did, which necessarily slowed my
pace. Yet I kept going, at right angles to our previous track, until I
stumbled and fell headfirst into the snow. My face and hands were too numb to
feel anything.
People were calling out on all sides, but none were in sight at the moment as
the snow swirled down heavily. My fingers were like thick clubs as I pawed the
man's hat from his head and put it on mine. It was almost impossible to open
the closures on his suit but I managed it finally. Then plunged my arms
inside, pushing my hands up into his armpits. They burned worse than the
torture bad, as feeling began to return.
Unconscious as he was, this chill clasp brought the gray man around. As soon
as his eyes opened I pulled one hand out just long enough to make a fist and
drive it into his jaw. He slept better then and I crouched there, half-covered
with snow, until most of the pain had gone. One of the pursuers went by, very
close, but never saw us. I felt no compunction in taking my captive's gloves,
though I noticed he was stirring again as I pushed off through the snowdrifts.
After this I ran hard, panting but still going on. I was no longer cold and
that was the only solace. When the rushing snowflakes began to thin I hurled
myself backward into a snowbank, sinking well below the surface. There were
still a lot of shouts, but they were weaker and in the distance now. I lay
there until my breathing slowed down and I could feel the sweat freezing on my
file:///F|/rah/Harry%20Harrison/Harry%20Harriso...The%20Stainless%20Steel%20Ra
t%20wants%20you.txt (43 of 87) [1/17/03 7:26:25 PM]
file:///F|/rah/Harry%20Harrison/Harry%20Harrison%20-%2007%20-%20The%20Stainles
s%20Steel%20Rat%20wants%20you.txt face. Only then did I roll over carefully
and poke an opening in the side of the snow near my face.
There was no one in sight. I waited until the snowfall started again, then ran
on--full-tilt into a chainmetal fence. It vanished in the snow in both
directions and rose up high above me. If it were wired for an alarm I had
already tripped it so I might as well keep going. I clambered halfway up it,
thought better of the idea--then dropped back into the soft snow below. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]