FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   >>  
ith your hands. You can relax because you can get tired. Not us, by God. Not us!" "I envy you, George," Loveral said through his teeth. "Oh, like hell you do. You treat us like we were helpless infants. You feed and clothe us and do all our work, and you're so happy you damned near split your guts." "I'll take that, if you don't mind," Loveral said, reaching for the hammer, his voice suddenly icy cold. Atkinson slammed back against the table. "No, you won't. You won't take anything more at all. You've taken our spirit and our pride and the strength right out of our spines. You won't take anything more!" "George?" Loveral said, but not moving any further. Atkinson slid the hammer back of him onto the table, and his hands were searching among a dozen scattered pieces of metal and wood. He watched Loveral as he worked. "Let me show you what else I've made," he said. "I'd hate to do it," Loveral said, "but I can stop your food, your water, everything." Atkinson's hands moved swiftly, assembling the pieces. He nodded. "You can, but you won't." "I have the only keys to the storage units. I control everything, George." "Correction," said Atkinson, holding an assembled revolver in his hands. "You _did_." * * * * * Loveral looked at what Atkinson had in his hands. He blinked. "You're nearly dead," Atkinson said. Loveral looked at Atkinson, into his eyes. "If you wanted to kill me, you could have done it some other way." Atkinson shook his head. "Just this way. Just with something that took me dozens of days and nights to make. With something that made me sweat and swear to get. It was difficult--with no tools or proper materials--but that made it all the better. Now I've got it finished," he said, pushing a bullet into the chamber, "and ready to use." Loveral stood frozen, then he turned. "My dear," he said to the woman who moved her mouth as though her voice had been pumped out of her. He reached to touch her shoulder. She recoiled, as though his fingers held poison. "George," he said, turning back to the black-eyed man. "This is a great moment," Atkinson said, lifting the muzzle of the revolver. "When I squeeze the trigger, it'll be like blowing the lock off a prison door. I'll go yelling to the others, and we'll smash down the whole goddamned place. We'll smash it down, so we'll have to rebuild it. We'll pull apart every robot you've got. We'll tear apart th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   >>  



Top keywords:

Atkinson

 
Loveral
 

George

 
hammer
 

pieces

 

revolver

 
looked
 

finished

 

frozen

 

chamber


bullet

 
pushing
 

nights

 

dozens

 

proper

 

materials

 

difficult

 
turning
 

prison

 

blowing


muzzle

 

squeeze

 

trigger

 

yelling

 

rebuild

 
goddamned
 
lifting
 

moment

 
pumped
 

reached


shoulder
 

recoiled

 

fingers

 

poison

 
turned
 

swiftly

 

suddenly

 

slammed

 
reaching
 

spines


moving

 
strength
 

spirit

 

damned

 

clothe

 
helpless
 

infants

 
Correction
 

holding

 

assembled