The Push Chronicles (Book 3): Incorruptible Read Free Page B

approaching.
    "I'm sorry."  It was an empty apology.  Oh, I meant it, but what good did it do him or anyone else really?  I ran towards the doctor and he flinched away, no doubt expecting another assault.  Instead I snatched up the key and ran on, out the exit of the airlock.
     
    The hallway was plain cinder block with a fresh coat of white paint.  It could have been in any windowless municipal building or correctional facility on the planet.  There were two other similar heavy steel doors before the hallway turned on either end.  Seeing no immediate guns or superpowers pointed at me, I fumbled with the key and the manacles, fingers shivering from the edges of the chill I was barely keeping at bay.
    The cuffs, then the shackles on my ankles, hit the floor with a heavy clunk.  It felt like it was forever since my limbs weren't burdened by all of that metal.  For the first time since this sudden escape attempt had started, there was a glimmer of a chance of success, at least if my body or my willpower didn't fail me.
    That moment of distraction, fighting my own stupid fingers, had been enough.  I hadn't heard those last heavy footfalls to either side of me and I certainly hadn't seen the four guards, two on each side, make the last careful turn around the corner and aim their rifles.
    "Indomitable," came the shout that brought me back to the moment.  Stupid Irene, I chided myself.  "You will raise your hands above your head and surrender.  Failure to do so will force us to use maximum force in taking you down."
    They certainly didn't sound like your run-of-the-mill corrections officers.  They weren't Pushed either.  Just what the hell had gone on in the past week?  What the hell was I going to do?  At my best, sure, I wouldn't have been too worried.  I could have fought my way out of this.   In my current condition, though...
    "You have three seconds to comply."  I couldn't let them take me back in there.  I would never get out.
    "Three!"  I made a show of slowly raising my hands, hoping to make them slow the count as I tried to think.
    "Two!"  So much for that.  In desperation, I formed a crazy plan in my mind.  I slid my right foot ever so slightly under the chain connecting the two open ankle cuffs.
    "One!"  The moment the spokesman said that, I pivoted and kicked, my foot catching the chain.  As I snapped the kick off, the momentum sent the chain and cuffs flying.  The crude missile smashed into the guardsman's face mask, sending the man flying back with the sound of shattering plastic and pained screams.
    The inhuman speed of the movement had startled the guards, giving me just a hair of a chance.  I scooped up the other set of chains with one hand and swung them with an underhand toss, sending that pair arcing at the other guardsman on the leader's side of the hall.  I couldn't spare the time to see if I even hit my target, instead turning to charge the other two gunmen.
    "Shoot shoot shoot!" one of them ahead of me shouted.  Without the burden of the shackles, I moved much quicker, though still not up to my best form.  It was enough though.  Before he could fully press his trigger, I was practically in his face.  I wrenched the rifle aside and bullets fired wild down the hall.  With a shove, I smashed the butt of his rifle, still gripped in both of his hands, down into his chest.  The guard let out a pained wheeze and obligingly crumpled.
    The other shooter though ... I heard the loud report of his rifle.  At so close a range, there was no chance I could possibly avoid a fatal hit.  Just to add to the surprises this day was giving me, I had no such bullet wound sprout in my body.
    The guardsman next to me hadn't shot at me.  He had shot down the hall, just as the man who I had missed with those cuffs had taken a bead on my head.
    "What the hell do you think you're doing, Dr. Roman?" the guardsman said.  It wasn't a voice I recognized, but the very fact he called me by my actual