Ten Little Aliens: 50th Anniversary Edition Read Online Free

one of her spiels, the ‘most wanted pig-faced murdering Schirr in all space’ – always got her riled up. He noted spots of colour in both cheeks. Twin targets.
    Cellmek finally broke the interminable silence with more cheerfulness. ‘You’re here because you want to make Anti-Terror Elite. Because you want to hit back at the cowards who commit atrocities like on Toronto, or on New Jersey, or the Argentines. And the final stage of your combat training will be for real. Real ammo, not the peashooters you’ve been firing off. You’ve been grouped into tens, each group including one instructor. Your strengths and weaknesses, as extrapolated from the experiential web, have been inputted to Pentagon Central’s tactical computers. From this data the most appropriate training program and location will be selected from those in the systems. The e-rag will post your final training groups at twenty-one hundred. But for now – put on your websets.’ He paused for two hundred pairs of hands to fumble with the delicate metal headbands. ‘The experiences you’re about to endure were taken from the two dead men found in the pod. Now we can show you what the unit on that freighter was really up against.’
    Shade picked up his own webset and eagerly fitted it in place over his ears. Becoming someone else for a few hours, letting his own feelings, his own pain be swamped by a stranger’s impressions would be a blessing right now. The lights in Theatre One dimmed into darkness. He focused on his breathing, in and out, as his senses started to fall away.
    And suddenly we’re someone else, indestructible. Buoyed up with adrenaline and the camaraderie of our unit, barely waiting for the docking tube to clang home before we rush to board the freighter, to save the ship and everyone on it.
    An hour later the tiny detached part of him that still knew it was Colonel Adam Shade was screaming for his own pain, for the lights to be switched back on.
    III
    ‘Shade? You get your grouping?’
    Shade was woken from painful sleep by the sound of something yelling and kicking down his door.
    ‘Coming along for the greet?’ yelled the muffled voice.
    He checked the clock; it was gone twenty-two hundred. Rising stiffly, he peeled off the heal-pads from his arm and chest and padded across the cool floor. Hit the green button and watched the door swish open.
    Denni was leaning in the doorway. She was smiling, but it was hard to read the expression in her black eyes. ‘Sorry, Shade. Looks like we’re going to war together.’
    Shade half-smiled at her. ‘Lindey, Frog and Joiks too, right?’
    She nodded. ‘Best in squad.’
    ‘Uh-uh. We just need the most work.’
    ‘We must be good. You see who else is with us?’
    ‘I haven’t checked the rag,’ Shade admitted.
    Denni’s face softened a little. ‘You still hurting?’
    ‘Guess I had it coming.’
    ‘Guess Haunt is an uptight bitch.’ She paused. ‘She’s grouped with us.’
    Shade’s eyes widened. ‘She is?’
    Denni nodded slowly. She looked just a little concerned. ‘Her and Shel.’
    ‘Haunt’s mystery man,’ mused Shade. ‘Who else we got?’
    ‘Come to the greet, you’ll see.’ Denni grimaced. ‘Sorry. You’ve not seen the rag. The groups are meeting up. Just so we can see who’s going to be watching our backs.’
    ‘Joiks’ll be too busy ogling their fronts.’ Shade wondered about asking Denni into his room. But there was nothing in her look to encourage him.
    ‘Probably,’ she said. ‘You know, that big guy, Roba’s with us, remember him?’
    ‘Seen him around.’
    ‘And his best buddy, Tovel.’
    ‘The square-jawed hero. Sweet.’
    She paused. ‘And Joseph Creben, shining star of AT Elite.’
    Shade smiled tightly. ‘Think I’ll give the gathering a miss.’
    ‘You really hurting?’
    He looked into Denni’s eyes, hopeful she might actually care. No. Nothing there but polite interest.
    ‘I got things to do,’ he said. ‘Things to arrange,