Re: BLOOD ... LC 9.2 ( A Tale of The Croft )
McG.
McG.
"Gordian Slash" <rolob...@earthLEADlink.com> wrote in message
news:4A1E4FEB...@earthLEADlink.com...
> In the daylight one could have seen the Great Prague Castle from where
> she crouched, the verdigris hued domes of St. Vitas Cathedral rising
> behind its walls. It was one of the largest in the world, where reclined
> the crown jewels of Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors and other
> such historically weighty stuff. At night through a haze of falling snow
> and river mists, Lara could only see a swath of acheronic darkness and a
> few dimly blinking street lights.
>
> A light footfall crunched in the thin veneer of snow that had now
> adhered to the cobbled street. The sound had come from the direction of
> the metro station's exit. Lara shifted her gaze in that direction
> without any betraying movement of her head or body.
>
> Backlit by the wan glow from a distant yellow bulb, a tall thin
> silhouette could be seen standing off-center in the street about a half
> block away. Lara hissed between her teeth, an almost imperceptible sound
> of disgust. How had it gotten that close before she saw it? It stood
> very still, wrapped in layers of dark garments, its head and face hidden
> by manifolds of woolen scarves. They did not much like the cold either.
> Its head was cocked to one side in an attitude of bemused wariness, the
> long-fingered hands hanging at its sides twitched every few seconds.
>
> Just the one then.
>
> Lara wanted to follow it back to its lair, which she was certain was in
> the Old Town cadastral. That had been the whole point of the exercise.
> It was clear, however, that the wraith was aware of her - if not of her
> personally, then of a sense of something it did not like concerning the
> area between it and the bridge. There was another bridge across the
> Vitava, but it was over a mile away...
>
> The silhouette darted forward a few steps, the movement looking like
> nothing so much as a kind of mincing insectoid hop. Lara found herself
> fascinated, the whole of her attention drawn to the figure despite her
> native caution. She knew they could move very fast over short distances.
> This one however seemed the personification of nervous uncertainty.
> Another darting hop brought it to rest along the curbing a few dozen
> yards away, its cloth wrapped head slowly turning from side to side like
> the dish of a scanning radar. How they moved amongst the people of
> Prague largely unnoticed was a constant amazement to her, so pronounced
> were the differences in body language and poise.
>
> A small drift of dust rained down on Lara. The woman looked at the
> red-brown grit spattered across the sleeve of her jacket - it was clay,
> glazed but so old it was turning to powder. Just like the tiles commonly
> found in Central Europe on older building's...
>
> ...roofs!
>
> Throwing herself away from the building at her back, Lara executed a
> full body roll out into the street. The velcro seals she had sewn into
> the front of her coat tore away as she yanked the Skorpions free of
> their harness, her thumbs snapping open the quick release clasps holding
> them in place. She came up with a large long-barreled machine pistol in
> each gloved hand, and aimed the weapons skywards.
>
> There, on the side of the building, just below the roof tiles but still
> above the higher windows, descended another cloak wrapped form. It slid
> down the building in a spider's crawl, but faster...much faster. Long
> fingers digging into plaster. The first one had been meant to distract
> her, and had the falling dust not alerted her to the presence of its
> conspirator the second one would have been right on top of her in
> another few seconds. They were learning tactics!
>
> The Skorpions stuttered death up into the night. There was surprisingly
> little muzzle flash because of the bulky silencers, which also reduced
> the pistol's rapid reports to a loud pneumatic wheezing. Not exactly
> 'silent'...but nothing identifiable at a distance as gunfire either.
>
> The one on the side of the building fell out of the air, plummeting to
> smash down meatily on the cobbles below. If the Makarovs had not done
> the job the fall certainly had, Lara had heard its neck snap from clear
> out in the middle of the road. Wheeling around, Lara found the other
> one almost upon her.
>
> Very fast indeed!
>
> She barely got the pistols lined up in time. Twin bursts of full auto
> fire took the other one high in the torso...their bodies were different,
> but not THAT different. The multiple hits flipped it over backwards. It
> clawed the air, and thrashed violently as it fell into the grimy snow -
> then lay still. Blood had sprayed from its wounds and patterned the snow
> around it. Even rendered black by the darkness, the blood looked
> deceptively human.
>
> Lara scanned the street. It was as empty as before, the skirmish had not
> attracted any unwanted attention. Returning one of the pistols to its
> hanger under her coat, Lara flipped the selector over to single fire on
> the other one and put a bullet into the heads of both the bodies. The
> things where like wild hogs in that regard, they did not always know
> when they were dead. She did not need one suddenly leaping for her
> throat while she did what had to come next.
>
> She hadn't expected to find anything useful on the bodies and she was
> not disappointed. They had no papers, no money, no keys...none of the
> portable ephemera of normal life. One had a folding knife with a
> wickedly hooked blade, like a raptor's claw. The other had small nylon
> bag containing five gold teeth, all of different sizes, and a small pair
> of needle-nose pliers. No clue to where they had come from or where they
> laired.
>
> Nothing to lead Lara to Her.
>
> ---
>
> ENDS PART TWO ( LC 9.2 )
Pistol Whipped
BrightHouse's new(-ish) news server seemed to stutter the other day. Only with
your last posting did I realize what it couldn't get out.
Guess I missed the follow-up as well, since it briefly stated there were six
posts. Let's hope that was a on-time glitch, or, at least, an infrequent one!
Good read, by the way. A lot of history to cover in a short space, but
necessary for those who are unfamiliar with the previous stories. Still quite
succinctly, and yet descriptively, done, as well as fitting nicely in context of
the scene.
Can't wait to see how this develops!
PW
P.S. I'd hate to think my sole comment would deter you from *trying* something
with Pliskin! ;) Or am I concluding prematurely?
From Gordian Slash, on 05/30/2009 01:36 AM, said ...
> Reposting for PW, hope he sees this one:
>
<snip>
>> ---
>>
>> ENDS PART TWO ( LC 9.2 ) REPRINT
Pistol Whipped
> 'ripening' before seeing e-paper. :-)
Whoa. You just love skirting the legal line ... don't you!
"e-paper" (T) is the trademarked name used by makers of the Kindle (T) screen.
You best watch yoursef boy! ;)
PW
Irena
forward to the possible scathes or near miss circumstances that these two
would more than likely have. And the support team this villain would have in
carry out her schemes. Thanks GS.