Mardock Scramble полностью

A large elliptical object emerged from the rubble, bouncing with a plop, then rolling across the room. It looked almost like a giant white rubber ball.

A crack opened from the top, and from it emerged the figure of Balot, hugging her knees tightly to her chest. She jumped down to the ground.

The rubber ball-like object spat out a snow-white garment that started slithering back into place around Balot’s body, hugging her tight, like leather bondage gear. Shock-absorbent material peeled off, sprinkling the floor like a cracked eggshell.

“Balot, are you all right?”

Balot surveyed her surroundings, scowling, staring at the still-flickering flames.

–I’m never having my body go up in flames again. I hate it.

Then she kissed her silk gloves, showing her gratitude to a shell of her very own.

–So, where’s the last of our prey? The basement, they said?

“Don’t refer to them that way—you’re not supposed to be enjoying yourself. Are you?”

Balot laughed.

–I don’t know if I am or if I’m not. All I know is that I’m doing just what you two taught me to do.

“But I…”

–And I want to get better. Like that guy just then. Close up.

“And the idea of hand-to-hand combat doesn’t scare you?”

–Why should it? It’s what I’ve got to do, right?

“Well, yes, but…”

–What a half-baked little thing you are, my soft-boiled Oeufcoque.

Balot impishly called out his name, a play on words, playing with him, and kissed her other hand.

–Don’t you worry. Trust me. I’ll pull it off, she informed him, matter-of-fact, smiling.

03

Welldone reached the bottom of the stairs and arrived at the basement in front of the door to the garage.

All of a sudden the whole building seemed to shake.

–What was that vibration?

Welldone raised his gun as he asked the question, but Flesh’s reply was bemused.

–It doesn’t make sense. The sensors just showed a heat reading large enough for an exploding bomb, but it came from a room that had absolutely no heat readings up till now. No one could have been in there. Maybe a trap that they set—something could have triggered it?

–But those vibrations tugged at my chest. Almost as if one of us had blown himself up.

Welldone was transmitting in a whisper now.

–Surely not, Well! After all, everyone’s heading right your way just this moment!

–Everyone…?

–Medi, Rare, Mincemeat…

Flesh hesitated.

–But according to Rare’s report, Mincemeat’s gone down, right, Flesh?

–That’s true…but all my circuits are secure now, so all our info should be completely safe from the hacker.

–The enemy could have extracted Mincemeat’s transmitter from his head. The marker with Mincemeat’s name—that’s him.

–I guess so…

–Or possibly—the same thing could have happened to the others too…

–Huh?

–Will this damn door still not open, Flesh?

–Wait a second longer—I’ve just got the lock off. Boy, this is some security system. I don’t get it; it must be so inconvenient to go through all this on a daily basis…

Welldone ignored Flesh’s words and watched the barrier walls as they opened out to both sides.

As a wall, it really was quite something. According to their calculations it was up there with a full-on nuclear shelter in terms of strength and impact resistance.

Welldone passed through the door and stood in the parking lot.

It looked like a perfectly run-of-the-mill lot, with spaces for about ten cars, delineated by thick pillars and steel frames. There were two freight elevators lined up side by side, and one of these had its door left open.