dgl_2

Riviera

Apr 25th, 2024
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  1. “Now,” Terzibashjian said, and a brilliant beam of white light, directed from the rooftop of the building opposite the market, pinned the slender figure beside the ancient wooden door in a perfect circle. Bright eyes darted left, right, and the man crumpled. Case thought someone had shot him; he lay face down, blond hair pale against the old stone, his limp hands white and pathetic.
  2.  
  3. The floodlight never wavered.
  4.  
  5. The back of the fallen man’s jacket heaved and burst, blood splashing the wall and doorway. A pair of impossibly long, rope-tendoned arms flexed grayish-pink in the glare. The thing seemed to pull itself up out of the pavement, through the inert, bloody ruin that had been Riviera. It was two meters tall, stood on two legs, and seemed to be headless. Then it swung slowly to face them, and Case saw that it had a head, but no neck. It was eyeless, the skin gleaming a wet intestinal pink. The mouth, if it was a mouth, was circular, conical, shallow, and lined with a seething growth of hairs or bristles, glittering like black chrome. It kicked the rags of clothing and flesh aside and took a step, the mouth seeming to scan for them as it moved.
  6.  
  7. Terzibashjian said something in Greek or Turkish and rushed the thing, his arms spread like a man attempting to dive through a window. He went through it. Into the muzzle-flash of a pistol from the dark beyond the circle of light. Fragments of rock whizzed past Case’s head; the Finn jerked him down into a crouch.
  8.  
  9. The light from the rooftop vanished, leaving him with mismatched afterimages of muzzle-flash, monster, and white beam. His ears rang.
  10.  
  11. Then the light returned, bobbing now, searching the shadows. Terzibashjian was leaning against a steel door, his face very white in the glare. He held his left wrist and watched blood drip from a wound in his left hand. The blond man, whole again, unbloodied, lay at his feet.
  12.  
  13. Molly stepped out of the shadows, all in black, with her fletcher in her hand.
  14.  
  15. “Use the radio,” the Armenian said, through gritted teeth. “Call in Mahmut. We must get him out of here. This is not a good place.”
  16.  
  17. “Little prick nearly made it,” the Finn said, his knees cracking loudly as he stood up, brushing ineffectually at the legs of his trousers. “You were watching the horror-show, right? Not the hamburger that got tossed out of sight. Real cute. Well, help ’em get his ass outa here. I gotta scan all that gear before he wakes up, make sure Armitage is getting his money’s worth.”
  18.  
  19. Molly bent and picked something up. A pistol. “A Nambu,” she said. “Nice gun.”
  20.  
  21. Terzibashjian made a whining sound. Case saw that most of his middle finger was missing.
  22.  
  23. ***
  24.  
  25. Neuromancer ch 7
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