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.In a single powerful motion,however, it flipped itself over again as thepaint dribbled away from the lens of its eye.Icrawled along the balcony to Nabeela,grabbed her by the shoulder, hissed, Comeon! She just shook her head and whimpered.The building shook again, hard enoughto send more cracks spreading outwards like 433/1048a chaotic family tree: the insect had head-butted the place where I d been a momentbefore.I cast around for anything that mightserve as a weapon, but the electricity hadbeen cut off long ago, and the mains cableswere buried too far below to be of use.Gaswas closer to the surface, but what use wereflames against a creature made from the re-mains of chimneys? Close at hand I heard ascratching sound: the monster had levereditself back up to the balcony.It was too large to fit in between floors,but it was compensating for this by startingto bash out the balcony above with the archof its back, splitting the walls and sendinggreat slabs of concrete tumbling all around.As an old building, scheduled to be demol-ished, this was already a place of decay,ready to crumble.I got down on my hands and knees,bending my fingers into the damp concretefloor& Something deeper lay there, a further 434/1048dampness beneath the mere surface coveringof drizzle.I pushed, and something answeredinside the building; I felt it rise, and withinmoments it was there in plain sight: agreenish-yellow stain beneath my fingers.Itbegan to spread outwards, crawling up thewalls and erupting in a sickly bloom betweenthe cracks in the concrete.Moving as swiftlyas water, already it had reached the metalfeet of the creature.I pressed my fingersdeeper into the concrete, until the grey sur-face beneath me began to smoke and hiss;then deeper still, until the concrete was li-quid, thick and cold.I pushed my arm in upto the wrist, then almost to the elbow, feelingthrough the clammy depths of the floor untilmy fingers sensed iron.I closed my fistaround it, and pulled with all my strength.The plague of lichen continued spread-ing.White and yellow encrustations burstacross the skin of the insect, instantly spawn-ing more growths, which then worked 435/1048through the gaps, embedding themselves be-neath the slates.The insect reared up like apoisonous creature wounded with its ownsting as it tried to scratch and burn away thissudden infection on its body.The metal I dseized from beneath the floor came free re-luctantly, snapping loose and bursting up-wards as suddenly as ketchup from a bottle,and knocking me backwards: a rusted ironbar once part of the building s framework.Still writhing back and forth, the creaturewas trying to chew off the lichen embeddedunder its skin, an itch it couldn t scratch.Iran towards it, and as it turned its head tolook at me I hurled the bar with all mystrength, point first down its open throat.The sound, the not-sound that was aforce itself, stopped.The mosquito reared up, its body shakingviolently, and clawed at its own head withtwo of its flailing limbs; then, overbalanced 436/1048by the effort, it slipped and fell backwardsfrom the balcony.I peered down after it.It was rolling and flapping, trying to pullthe bar from its throat and rub the lichenfrom its back.Not dead; maybe just annoyed.I ran to where Nabeela was slowly un-curling, streaked with blood from her earsand nose, and helped her to her feet.As I did so, she gave me a look.For a mo-ment there was something in her eyes,something dark and animal and not quiteright.But then she shook her head and it wasgone.She wheezed, The things I do for localgovernment. Penny? I called out as my apprenticedragged herself up by the cracked parapet. You all right? Do I look fucking all right? shehollered. Fucking monsters and fucking 437/1048magic and fucking sorcerers who can t fuck-ing bind& She s fine, I reassured Nabeela.Then, That thing s not dead and it s not happy.Shall we scarper? I suppose you ll be wanting a fucking liftnow? Penny shouted. That ll be grand, since you mention it.Let s go, right now. Penny s car was a few blocks away, by arow of shops featuring one off-licence, onepharmacy with a strong sideline in water pis-tols, and one greengrocer that sold mostlyplantain and butternut squash.As we passedthe pharmacy I paused, gasping betweeneach breath at a shooting agony the paink-illers had barely numbed, and said, Whoathere a moment! Penny turned to saysomething rude, saw my face, and hesitated [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.In a single powerful motion,however, it flipped itself over again as thepaint dribbled away from the lens of its eye.Icrawled along the balcony to Nabeela,grabbed her by the shoulder, hissed, Comeon! She just shook her head and whimpered.The building shook again, hard enoughto send more cracks spreading outwards like 433/1048a chaotic family tree: the insect had head-butted the place where I d been a momentbefore.I cast around for anything that mightserve as a weapon, but the electricity hadbeen cut off long ago, and the mains cableswere buried too far below to be of use.Gaswas closer to the surface, but what use wereflames against a creature made from the re-mains of chimneys? Close at hand I heard ascratching sound: the monster had levereditself back up to the balcony.It was too large to fit in between floors,but it was compensating for this by startingto bash out the balcony above with the archof its back, splitting the walls and sendinggreat slabs of concrete tumbling all around.As an old building, scheduled to be demol-ished, this was already a place of decay,ready to crumble.I got down on my hands and knees,bending my fingers into the damp concretefloor& Something deeper lay there, a further 434/1048dampness beneath the mere surface coveringof drizzle.I pushed, and something answeredinside the building; I felt it rise, and withinmoments it was there in plain sight: agreenish-yellow stain beneath my fingers.Itbegan to spread outwards, crawling up thewalls and erupting in a sickly bloom betweenthe cracks in the concrete.Moving as swiftlyas water, already it had reached the metalfeet of the creature.I pressed my fingersdeeper into the concrete, until the grey sur-face beneath me began to smoke and hiss;then deeper still, until the concrete was li-quid, thick and cold.I pushed my arm in upto the wrist, then almost to the elbow, feelingthrough the clammy depths of the floor untilmy fingers sensed iron.I closed my fistaround it, and pulled with all my strength.The plague of lichen continued spread-ing.White and yellow encrustations burstacross the skin of the insect, instantly spawn-ing more growths, which then worked 435/1048through the gaps, embedding themselves be-neath the slates.The insect reared up like apoisonous creature wounded with its ownsting as it tried to scratch and burn away thissudden infection on its body.The metal I dseized from beneath the floor came free re-luctantly, snapping loose and bursting up-wards as suddenly as ketchup from a bottle,and knocking me backwards: a rusted ironbar once part of the building s framework.Still writhing back and forth, the creaturewas trying to chew off the lichen embeddedunder its skin, an itch it couldn t scratch.Iran towards it, and as it turned its head tolook at me I hurled the bar with all mystrength, point first down its open throat.The sound, the not-sound that was aforce itself, stopped.The mosquito reared up, its body shakingviolently, and clawed at its own head withtwo of its flailing limbs; then, overbalanced 436/1048by the effort, it slipped and fell backwardsfrom the balcony.I peered down after it.It was rolling and flapping, trying to pullthe bar from its throat and rub the lichenfrom its back.Not dead; maybe just annoyed.I ran to where Nabeela was slowly un-curling, streaked with blood from her earsand nose, and helped her to her feet.As I did so, she gave me a look.For a mo-ment there was something in her eyes,something dark and animal and not quiteright.But then she shook her head and it wasgone.She wheezed, The things I do for localgovernment. Penny? I called out as my apprenticedragged herself up by the cracked parapet. You all right? Do I look fucking all right? shehollered. Fucking monsters and fucking 437/1048magic and fucking sorcerers who can t fuck-ing bind& She s fine, I reassured Nabeela.Then, That thing s not dead and it s not happy.Shall we scarper? I suppose you ll be wanting a fucking liftnow? Penny shouted. That ll be grand, since you mention it.Let s go, right now. Penny s car was a few blocks away, by arow of shops featuring one off-licence, onepharmacy with a strong sideline in water pis-tols, and one greengrocer that sold mostlyplantain and butternut squash.As we passedthe pharmacy I paused, gasping betweeneach breath at a shooting agony the paink-illers had barely numbed, and said, Whoathere a moment! Penny turned to saysomething rude, saw my face, and hesitated [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]