The Lawgivers: Gabriel Read online

  As much as she would’ve preferred to think the latter, she realized she already knew the answer. She’d caught no more than a glimpse. She’d been too shocked and frightened to really put the images together in her mind, but she’d seen the trappings of cognition--they were wearing loincloths and bearing weapons.

  These were not animals that might get tired and go away to look for something easier to get. These were intelligent creatures bent on figuring out a way to get to her.

  Dismissing it for the moment, she checked the weapons to make certain all were loaded and ready to fire. She knew very little about weapons--as Sinclair had pointed out--but she did know where the trigger was. She knew which end was the business end and she could read the display that told her it was fully loaded and ready to fire. She only had three, however, and she had no idea whether they were powerful enough to kill a full grown man--or man sized being.

  She was very much afraid that she was about to find out.

  They’d begun hammering on the portholes and on the hull where the crash had already weakened the structure. She shifted her position so that she could keep an eye on every place she could hear them trying to get in, wondering what they thought they’d find when they did.

  Food?

  She felt a wave of nausea at that thought. She was the only thing onboard that could be considered edible.

  She’d seen Dr. Boyd’s body, though.

  Undoubtedly their goal was merely to scavenge the lander for anything useful.

  She hoped that was all they had in mind.

  She frowned, trying to visualize how many were outside. She’d seen four heads at the portal, but she could recall that she’d heard the pounding on other areas at the same time. Maybe a dozen?

  She checked the weapon in her lap. It had twenty four rounds. If she was right, she had enough to put several holes in each--assuming she could hit them at all--and she felt a little upsurge of hopefulness. Unless they managed to pry the door open, they’d most likely only be able to attack one at the time. Even if they did manage to pry the door open, it wasn’t big enough for more than two to pass through at the time.

  They were big.

  A shiver ran through her as the image of their faces flashed in her mind again. There was something about them that felt threatening that went well beyond the attack itself. She allowed her mind to pick at the puzzle while she waited.

  When enlightenment dawned, a cold shiver raced over her.

  They looked like images she’d seen in ancient texts.

  They were the human concept of evil in fleshly form--the image of the beast one of Earth’s ancient myth’s had called Satan.

  They’d been to Earth!