Mulch- Security Camera

  Mulch fine tuned his aim. “Okay. Squeeze.”

  Juliet held her breath, and closed her fingers around the joint. The pressure sped up Mulch’s leg in a series of jolts. The dwarf fought to keep his aim true in spite of his thrashings. Pressure built in his abdomen and exploded through his bum flap with a dull thump. Juliet could only relate the experience to crouching beside a mortar. A missile of compressed air shot across the room, heat blur surrounding it like waves of water.

  “Too much topspin,” groaned Mulch. “I loaded it.”

  The air ball spiraled toward the ceiling, shedding layers like an onion.

  “Go right,” urged Mulch. “Right, a bit.”

  The unlikely missile impacted against the wall a meter ahead of its target. Luckily, the ricochet clipped the camera box, sending it spinning like a plate on a stick. The intruders waited with bated breath for it to settle. The camera finally creaked to a halt after a dozen revolutions.

  “Well?” asked Juliet.

  Mulch sat up, checking the camera’s ion stream through his visor.

  “Lucky,” he breathed. “Very lucky. We have a path straight through.”

-The Eternity Code, Chapter 9