The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mutineer, by Robert J. Shea

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Title: Mutineer

Author: Robert J. Shea

Release Date: June 21, 2009 [EBook #29196]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

MUTINEER

By ROBERT J. SHEA

_For every weapon there was a defense, but not against the deadliest
weapon--man himself!_

Raging, Trooper Lane hovered three thousand feet above Tammany Square.

The cool cybrain surgically implanted in him was working on the problem.
But Lane had no more patience. They'd sweat, he thought, hating the
chill air-currents that threw his hovering body this way and that. He
glared down at the three towers bordering on the Square. He spat, and
watched the little white speck fall, fall. _Lock me up in barracks. All
I wanted was a little time off. Did I fight in Chi for them? Damn right
I did. Just a little time off, so I shouldn't blow my top. Now the lid's
gone._

He was going over all their heads. He'd bowled those city cops over like
paper dolls, back at the Armory. The black dog was on Lane's back. Old
Mayor himself was going to hear about it.

_Why not? Ain't old Mayor the CinC of the Newyork Troopers?_

The humming paragrav-paks embedded beneath his shoulder blades held him
motionless above Newyork's three administrative towers. Tammany Hall.
Mayor's Palace. Court House. Lane cursed his stupidity. He hadn't found
out which one was which ahead of time. _They keep Troopers in the Armory
and teach them how to fight. They don't teach them about their own city,
that they'll be fighting for. There's no time. From seven years old up,
Troopers have too much to learn about fighting._

The Mayor was behind one of those thousands of windows.

Old cybrain, a gift from the Trooper surgeons, compliments of the city,
would have to figure out which one. Blood churned in his veins, nerves
shrieked with impatience. Lane waited for the electronic brain to come
up with the answer.

Then his head jerked up, to a distant buzz. There