Silver Shark by Ilona Andrews Page A

bionet training. If she had time, she would have bowed in appreciation.
    He advanced toward her, menacing, flames swirling around him. She feigned fear and backed away.
    A step.
    Another.
    She would not get another chance. This was her very last one.
    Her hind paw found air. She was to the edge of the spire.
    Venturo leaned forward, the fire roaring around him.
    If he was fire, she would be ice.
    Glacial mist shot from her. Claire charged into the depth of the inferno. His fire licked her ice barrier.
    They collided.
    Claire let go, emptying every last reserve. Spears of ice shot from her, locking him into blocks of ice. She saw his enraged eyes before the ice swallowed him whole.
    Claire ran. She ran like she had never before ran in her life, swallowing distance in hungry gulps. She tore through jungle, ignoring branches and thorns tearing at her hide. Her mind fired brisk, calm commands, sending the signals down the established links to her team.
    "Disconnect. Mission complete. Disconnect now."
    A roar of pure rage shook the jungle. Ven had broken through the ice. Mere five seconds, maybe less. It had to be some sort of a record.
    She had no way of knowing if her team made the hub, so she just kept broadcasting. "Mission complete. Incoming threat. Disconnect."
    Her mind shuddered under the strain. Her legs began to cramp. Every breath was a fire exploding in her lungs. Up the mountain, up, up, up.
    She whirled at the mountain top and dared a single look back. A fiery glow was making its way through the canopy below. He was close. Claire ran.
    The world began to fade. Darkness encroached. She was running too fast.
    Venturo's furious growl shook the leaves behind her.
    Claire burst into the hub clearing. Charles-Bull ran in a circle around the hub fountain, chased by an AI dog.
    "I'm the last!" he cried out.
    "Disconnect," she commanded.
    The AI beast leaped at her, and she crushed its spine with one impatient snap of her teeth.
    The bull vanished, exploding into dark ribbons.
    Venturo shot into the clearing.
    She let go of the bionet, hurling up the tunnel into the hotel room. A long shuddering moan ripped from her lips, and Claire took her first breath.
    The reality of the hotel room slammed into her. She sat up and pulled the unit off her head.
    Mittali lay on her back next to her, wincing as Tonya rubbed her feet. Charles was breathing hard, as if he'd carried a sack of rocks up a mountain. Zinaida smiled at her. Saim waved. In the corner Kosta sat in a clump, dark head hung down.
    Everyone got out alive.
    The medic stood by the hub, a glass vial in his hand. Acid, she guessed. "Dump it."
    The medic poured the acid into the liquid interface. The liquid hissed as synthetic neurons boiled into nothing.
    "Are you alright, Kosta?" she asked him.
    "He got careless," Saim said. "He was bitten."
    "May I?"
    Kosta nodded.
    Claire swept over his mind. The lesion was small, but his mind glowed with the imprint of the AI's teeth.
    "It will be alright," she said. "Just stay off the bionet for about a month."
    He nodded.
    "I saw him," Charles said, his voice filled with wonder. "I saw him. Was that a psycher?"
    "Yes," she told him.
    "It's a miracle we're alive," he said. "You are that miracle."
    She shook her head. "You've had no experience and no weapons. You've made it possible."
    "We should drink," Saim said.
    "Yes. Yes, that's a great idea," Mittali rolled to her feet. "Ow. As soon as I can walk."
    "Don't worry," Saim told her. "Tell me what you want, and I'll bring it to you."
    Doreem Nagi rose off his chair and walked over to Claire.
    "It is done," she told him softly. "Your grandson should be safe."
    The old man bowed to her.

Chapter Six
    Claire walked down the hallway toward Venturo's office. The shell over her mind was paper-thin. Accreting it took time, and she barely had thirty-six hours to recuperate.
    Saturday night, after she'd returned to her apartment, she pulled the ingredients out of the refrigerator and continued her