HAWK

CHAPTER ELEVEN: SPIDER (4/6)

The Ghoster was no doubt the most powerful weapon Kas owned. Just holding it charged her body with a current of power that she knew no being in the known universe should wield. This thing wasn't just illegal; it was immoral.

Her thumb rolled down over the gun's neck and an electric chime warned her it was set to non-organic. Not wanting to waste another second, Kas pulled herself to the doorway and thrust it behind her, propelling herself across the hold to the rear doors. She reached the red lever in a heartbeat and yanked it down before she could change her mind. While waiting for the doors to open, Kas tapped on her left arm and brought up the Domino's number-pad. This time she tapped in 1-9-3-7 and the rectangle turned solid red in warning. She held her finger on it and the red changed to orange, then yellow, and finally green. Once it disappeared completely, Kas took her finger away.

The euphoria of 1-9-3-7 is hard to explain, but if the clarity stimulant she used before sharpened her mind, this sharpened her entire body. Every cell, every molecule of her being was given a boost that made her feel like she could tear an X1 open with her bare hands. While that might not quite be the case, in her current state she certainly would qualify as super-human. And not only was she much stronger, but thanks to increased neural activity, she was temporarily much smarter.

The rear doors had opened enough by now for Kas to exit the ship, and she did so like lightning. As soon as she was outside, she touched her carbachrome boots to the Calista's hull and they anchored her in place. She ran up and across the Calista's roof, her movements so smooth and faultless she didn't even make a sound. When she reached the top of the ship she took a wide stance and looked up.

The frantic nest of black spiders was now a swarming ball in the air. Kas couldn't see through them enough to know if Hik was still OK, but she couldn't waste any time in finding out. The Ghoster was pulsating in her right hand as if it was only too aware of the mayhem it was about to cause. Kas raised it high above her head and took aim.

I really hate spiders...

She squeezed the trigger lightly and a concentrated tongue of heat blasted out of the Ghoster's barrel like a solar flare, a huge thick whip made of white flame that coiled and licked its way through the air as if it were the devil's tongue. It struck the spiders' nest dead centre and tasted X1 metal. The swarm of black bodies turned orange in an instant and Kas's ears were filled with a terrible crackling sound. She drew a line across the nest's centre and cut in half like a piece of rotten fruit. The two sides split open and let loose dozens of angry seeds, though many near the front were already seared in half.

The swarm scattered in all directions but Kas's newly photographic mind counted thirty-two. Her eyes didn't need to look to see; she could sense every one of them and predicted their individual movements before they knew themselves. Her right arm swung and lashed the white flare in precise sweeping gestures, carving up their paths until the air was thick with hot black dust. Her mind recalculated.

Twenty-one...

Several of the spiders tried to fire their red beams back at her, but Kas took them out before the tips of their legs had even turned red. The rest flocked together as one and attempted to soar sideways out of the Ghoster's trail, but Kas was already waiting. She made a subtle twist of her hips and slashed through their middle with rapture. One of them popped like a bubble of ashes bursting in a clear lake.

The surviving seven fled upwards and disappeared back into the hole in the ceiling where they'd earlier poured from. Kas released the trigger and smiled.

Don't go too far...

She looked back to where she'd split the nest open and her short-lived smile faded.

The thing that used to be Hik was floating uselessly in the air by the ceiling. His arms and legs were gone, melted down to stumps.