Matrix Man Read Online Free Page A

that fact.
    Suddenly there was the cloth-ripping sound of automatic-weapons fire, and Kim cut back to Corvan's eye cam. The shot swayed from side to side as Corvan rushed for the door and bumped into the last trooper out.
    The aircraft had landed on a gravel bar where two small rivers came together. The rocks had been smoothed by a millennium of swiftly flowing water and crunched underfoot. Corvan found them hard to run on, and his eye cam wobbled over driftwood, evergreen trees, and the snow-capped mountains beyond.
    Kim sent the robo cam skimming along behind. She couldn't send the camera out ahead because it would appear in Corvan's shot, and besides, its low-powered transmitter wouldn't reach beyond fifty feet or so.
    There was another burst of gunfire up ahead, and Corvan remembered his concerns about the soldiers' weapons. He'd been right, but right about what?
    Corvan heard the dull thump of a grenade and saw smoke billow up to the right. He cleared the beach and followed a well-worn path toward the smoke.
    His words came out in short spurts as he tried to run and talk at the same time: "The action's up ahead . . . It's not clear what's going on . . . but you can hear more shooting."
    Then there were three loud bangs, followed by more automatic-weapons fire. "There," Corvan said, "that sounds like a high-powered hunting rifle . . . Wait a minute, a trooper's down."
    What had been a vague something on the ground up ahead quickly became a trooper with a sucking chest wound. The blood shot up in little spurts each time she took a breath. She looked up at the camera with-a pale, moonlike face.
    Corvan shouted, "Medic!" and kept on running.
    Suddenly Kim was on her feet. "Why, you cold-blooded bastard!"
    Corvan heard her voice via his implant but kept on running.
    A cluster of uniforms blocked the way up ahead. A trooper moved to intercept him, but Corvan went around him and came to a sudden halt.
    What he saw—and what the world saw with him— was a pathetic huddle of shelters and tents. They shivered in the stiff down draft from the aircraft's twin rotors and leaked streamers of gray and black smoke from a hundred bullet holes.
    Ten or twelve adults along with a handful of grubby children stood holding hands and singing. It was a sad song about leaving earth and traveling to distant stars.
    In the foreground, almost at Corvan's feet, lay three bodies, two men and a woman.
    Captain Dietrich stepped forward and pointed toward the ground. "As you can see, this is the woman who shot Trooper Horowitz.”
    Once again Dietrich's voice had the hard, aggressive quality of someone who's speaking for the record.
    Corvan looked down, saw the hunting rifle clutched in the woman's hands, and looked back up. Dietrich shook his head sadly and a single tear trickled down his face. For a split second Corvan almost bought it. Dietrich looked the very essence of the professional peacekeeper, violent when necessary but with a heart of gold. But the tear was too much. It didn't fit the rest of Dietrich's personality, and Corvan knew that he'd been had. The bastard was acting and the whole story had been stage-managed right from the start.
    Before he could take the matter any further, Corvan heard a man moan and call his name. He looked down and saw one of the bodies move.
    Corvan dropped to his knees and found himself face to face with an old friend. He zoomed in tight. Frank Neely had changed. A tangled beard covered his face and the eyes which had once danced with merriment were filled with pain. The spreading stain on Neely's stomach told Corvan why.
    They'd been friends once, fellow rebels at old Earth Net, baiting the suits and watching them freak. Now Neely was dying in front of millions of people and Corvan didn't know what to say.
    "Rex ..." Neely's voice was a low whisper, and as Corvan listened, he knew where he'd heard Captain Video before. Frank Neely and Captain Video were one and the same.
    "Yeah, Frank, I'm