Technomancer (Unspeakable Things: Book One)

free; Ezzie was too heavy. As it was, there was blood everywhere. The sands were black with it, and his legs didn’t look good. His clothes were smoldering, having gotten some of the backlash of heat when he’d unleashed his object at Ezzie. He still had the rag doll in his hand, his fingers squeezing in a death grip.
    We dragged him out into the desert behind the SUV. Rheinman was beating at the stone slugs from a distance with his hammer. Each strike caused a spark and a ringing report from the stone surface of the target. Tiny fountains of dust and rock chips flew where he struck them. Ezzie andher siblings finally retreated, complaining bitterly about the abuse.
    Fiona, Gilling, and I tried to tie tourniquets just above the knee on both of Souza’s ruined legs. He was losing a lot of blood. Before we could finish, he went limp and stopped breathing.
    Robert was going to pay for this. “Rheinman, keep the stones away from the SUV,” I said. “Fiona, you come with me. Gilling—stay here and help the others. I’ll be back.”
    Gilling nodded and I headed out into the desert with the bloodthirsty girl at my side. We had a flashlight and found tracks to follow, but they were sketchy. I wasn’t even sure they were Robert’s. A hundred yards out, I stopped. We’d lost him.
    “There,” Fiona said, panting.
    I followed her gesture. Something glimmered and twisted nearby. I ran to it, seeing a figure standing in front of a rip as it opened up. It was a small, dim whirlwind. But I was sure it led to another place.
    “Stick him,” I told Fiona. “Aim for his legs. We need to slow him down.”
    With an infernal grin on her face, she did as I asked. I heard a shout echo back to us. Then Robert stepped out. I ran faster. The rip, unlike those I’d seen Gilling or the Gray Men create, faded quickly. I ran to the spot and stepped out of my existence, blindly walking into another place.
    Fiona hadn’t followed me. I figured she hadn’t been able to run fast enough. I was alone in a new place.

Crossing into another existence didn’t happen all at once. It was rather like tuning in an old analog radio signal. It didn’t come in without some fine-tuning. At first, some elements were hazy while others sharpened. As I stepped out of the dying rip into this new place, the first thing I noticed was the ground. It wasn’t sand and spiky plants. Instead, it was comprised of hot, shifting mounds of slag and ash.
    Heat.
That was the next sensation I felt. All the sweat on my brow began to evaporate. It was dark, just as it had been back home, but there was a dim red glow coming from the ground here and there. I looked at the hottest spots and my mind knew what they had to be: lakes of lava.
    My mind panicked for a second. I had fully expected, for some silly reason, to step into the place of the Gray Men. Compared to this strange environment, stacks of alien cubes and multiple moons would have been comforting.
    I spotted Robert then, and my mind thawed. I realized with a shock that the rip behind me had faded and the way ahead was full of obstacles. If he vanished again, I might be stuck here until one of the hot little slugs swimming about found me and turned me to ash.
    I ran for him as I’d never run in my life. My footing was uneven, and I stumbled over loose stones. I went down at one point, sinking my knees into a black ridge of ash between two smoldering pools. I howled as my knees and hands burned.
    I was close enough now for Robert to hear me. He whirled and lifted a gun. The muzzle flashed orange. I threw myself down on the painfully hot ground and fired back with scorched fingers. At a range of around a hundred feet, our pistols were not terribly accurate. I had the advantage of hugging the ground. My arms were steadied by the ridge of hot ash. Unfortunately, I was also in pain, and the ash made my eyes blur.
    Two of his rounds came uncomfortably close. He fired a spray of bullets, emptying his pistol fast. Stones jumped behind me and then a block of obsidian sparked and split apart in front of my face. I returned fire. We both missed. I heard him dry-click then drop the gun with a curse. He turned back to his growing rip, but it wasn’t ready yet. He couldn’t step out.
    I stood up and charged after him, reloading and holding my fire until I got closer. I’d made it halfway when he tried to enter the rip again. It was ready now, brighter and stronger. His fingers pushed against the surface of it like a