Gabriel: Zero Point (Evan Gabriel Trilogy) by Steve Umstead Page A

clenched his teeth, remembering there was still a woman he needed to find.
    He noticed the woman had a waist pouch strapped to her body armor. He leaned over and unsnapped the pouch. Inside were two frag grenades and two gas canisters. He grabbed the frags and shoved them into his left thigh pocket. He shifted the pulse rifle from his right arm to his left and picked up one of the gas grenades. The black stencil on its silver surface read, “CS-30.” His neuretics immediately ran the code through a database and displayed “2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile 30-s” across his Mindseye image. He frowned and reprocessed the data, asking for plain English. Tear Gas - Temporary Effect , came the response. Well, these might come in handy . He put both into his right thigh pocket.
    He pushed up from his kneeling position and checked the position of the other two hostiles. They were taking advantage of the cover provided by the far elevator bay and stayed motionless. He glanced in that direction. The elevator bay where the dead woman had been hiding was just twenty feet away. He had a choice: take cover behind this bay and wait for the hostiles to come to him, or take the fight to them. He squeezed the pulse rifle’s trigger guard and knew what his strategy would be.  
    Still shoeless, Gabriel took off at a dead run.

    The icons hadn’t moved. Both were still behind the defilade created by the wide elevator bay. At this distance, still over two hundred feet, Gabriel wasn’t able to determine their armament, but based on the last three, he had to assume pulse rifles and possibly grenades.
    Grenades. As he ran, holding the rifle with his undamaged left arm, he patted his right thigh pocket and felt the two tear gas grenades. He remembered the other three hostiles had half helmets only, no gas protection. If the other two were the same, he could use their own weapons against them.
    He slowed to a jog, 140 feet from the bay. The icons were still unmoving, but he had no doubt they heard the explosion and the rifle fire. They were waiting for him. He pulled one gas grenade from his pocket and his mouth twitched in a small smile. They may be waiting for someone, but they probably aren’t expecting me , he thought as he flicked the arming switch.  
    He stepped his pace back up to a sprint and threw the grenade overhand. It bounced once a few feet from the elevator bay, then detonated with a flash and pop. Smoke spewed from the top of the canister as it rolled past the elevator bay and came to a stop just feet from where Gabriel’s heads-up showed the hostiles taking cover.
    It wasn’t long before two gasping, choking forms came out from behind the bay. Gabriel was on them in seconds. The closest one to him brought his rifle up with one hand while the other hand pawed at his face. Gabriel knocked the rifle aside with his own and smashed the stock into the man’s face. The man staggered backwards into his partner, who at least had the good sense to throw the man aside and bring a magnetic pistol to bear.
    Gabriel’s momentum from his run carried him into the second man and the two crashed together. Gabriel heard the pistol click twice before the two of them fell to the floor, and his neuretics blared an impact alarm in his head.  
    As they landed in a heap, Gabriel slammed his pulse rifle into the forearm of the other man’s gun hand. The gunman cried out in pain as bones shattered, and the pistol fell from his grip. Gabriel pulled his other hand back, curled it into a fist, and swung. The impact of his fist with the new power of enhanced muscles snapped the man’s jaw, and his eyes rolled up into his head. He fell to the floor, gurgling coming from his throat. He lay still as blood pooled under his mouth.
    Gabriel looked over at the other man, who was lying on his side, unconscious and bleeding from his shattered nose. He stood up from the second man and rubbed his eyes. The tear gas was as advertised, a temporary effect. It smoked