James Axler Deathlands 039 Watersleep

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envelop her throat.
As she cried out, Poseidon stopped her voice with a squeeze so tight, his
fingers began to whiten from the pressure being applied.
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"Who's killing who now, Shauna, hmm?" he said in a voice so calmly modulated,
he might have been describing the weather.
Ryan reared to his feet like a surprised stallion, slamming his body toward
Poseidon, but the butt of the sec man's rifle caught him once again, this time
full across the back of the neck, blunting his frantic thrust. Ryan fell to
his knees, his breath coming in gasps.
He watched as Poseidon's viselike hands tightened and lifted up the dying
woman from the chair. Shauna barely had enough life force left to struggle.
Her legs kicked once, twice, then hung limp.
"Too late, Cawdor. Much& too& late."
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_39_-_Watersleep
Chapter Twenty
"Remove& that," Poseidon said, wiping his brow with an immaculate white
handkerchief.
The Admiral was once again seated behind his ma-jestic desk. He watched
impassively as the sec man summoned two assistants, who arrived almost
in-stantly and carried Shauna's lifeless body out of the office.
"I do what it takes. My enjoyment of such actions is an occasional rare bonus.
That bitch had been plot-ting against me for far too long," Poseidon said.
"The female mind is unfathomable."
"Well, I'm always impressed when a guy strangles a helpless woman to death.
That's three I owe you for, now."
"Three?"
"Three," Ryan said, but didn't elaborate.
Poseidon leaned back in his chair and cracked his knuckles. "As I was saying
earlier, my reputation is marred with innuendo and lies, but so is your own."
"What do you mean?" Ryan said.
"I've heard of you and your little mercenary group."
"Don't believe everything you hear," Ryan said.
"Oh, I never do. Besides, as they used to say back in wartime, loose lips sink
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_39_-_Watersleep ships," Poseidon replied, miming the
closing of a lock on his upper lip and throwing away the key. "Still, just
between you and me "
"And the tree trunk," Ryan added, glancing at the grim sec man who continued
to hold position behind him.
"Never mind Jonesy. He hears what I tell him to, right, Jonesy?"
"Hear what, sir?" the sec man asked on cue.
"Good man," Poseidon said brightly, as if talking to a beloved pet. "Now, back
to our discussion. There's change in the wind, Cawdor. Wild cards such as
yourself are due to be eliminated. The more pow-erful of the barons are
starting to communicate for the first time in decades. They speak on a regular
basis by radio and through intermediaries via travel-ing caravans, and do you
know why?"
"They were getting lonely?"
Poseidon looked at Ryan with a pitying expression. "Scuttle the sarcasm,
Cawdor.
You don't have the timing for it. No, they're starting to align themselves for
protection from murderous thugs like you, self-serving renegades who roam
Deathlands in packs, like mangy wolves, slinking into law-abiding villes and
stealing food and supplies."
Ryan couldn't help it. Even if it meant another blow from the rifle butt, he
had to laugh aloud. "You're crazier than I thought."
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"Don't mock civilization, Cawdor. It's what makes man rise above the animals."
"Civilization is also what destroyed the world. As I understand it, the barons
in power back then didn't bother to ask anybody's permission when they wanted
to do something, and it's still the same today. Once a baron gets some food in
his stomach and some prop-erty and the jack to hire a sec squad, he stops
listening to anyone but himself."
"But the ones in power will listen to their peers," Poseidon replied.
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Axler,_James_-_Deathlands_39_-_Watersleep
"I doubt it. Most of the villes I've been in have been hotbeds of hatred,
closed-off parcels full of ha-tred and inbreeding. There's no way in hell
there's going to be any sort of alliance."
"You're not thinking, Cawdor that, or you're just being thick to annoy me. As
many barons and villes as you and your merry band of outlaws have brought
down, how could you expect otherwise? You aren't alone in spreading the seed
of destruction, nor are you the first. There have always been the fringe
elements who refuse to conform."
Ryan leaned back farther in the chair slowly, so as not to give any indication
of an attack, then swung up one of his long legs, placing his boot heel on the
top of
Poseidon's desk. "Those arrogant bastards in charge of their pissant baronies
and villes couldn't stop shouting and posing long enough to make a group
decision on what kind of meat to serve at their first communal meal, much less
come to any kind of agreement."
"I shall be a part of a grand new alliance, where a council of baronies shall
rule,"
Poseidon said confi-dently. "I am at the forefront of the new wave to help
reconnect the world."
"How?"
Poseidon spread open his arms. "The sea, Cawdor, the sea! No air travel! No
safe and efficient way to crawl across the radiation pits scarring the
landscape! What does that leave?"
"Let me guess. The sea."
"Correct! From the day man crawled up from the muck and the slime onto dry
land, the control of the seas from whence he sprang has meant dominance. All
the great generals from all the great wars have been forced to take possession
of the waters surround-ing their territories, their lands. And once they lost
the sea, they lost the war, and they lost their com-mand." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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