The Astral Hacker (Cryptopunk Revolution Book 1) Brian Terenna (best novels to read to improve english txt) 📖

tires transform into tracks, and a long barrel stretches from the front.

I shake my head in awe. Diablo.

“Corefense XM20 fast strike tank. With its fusion-powered electric motors, it can reach seventy miles an hour. Its main gun is a sixty-millimeter, no line of sight cannon that can hit targets from ten miles away.”

“Now that’s impressive. Where did you get it?”

He grins. “Americus has connections. Maybe we can use it in the war. I wish they’d give us another update.”

Hell, they mean business.

He motions me on. “Here’s the training room.”

We peek into a room with blue padding on the walls. On one side, several people dressed in sparring gear practice hand-to-hand combat. Astrid tests a low kick against a Loyalist I don’t know. He jerks back.

“You can’t just dodge all day, Silas,” says Astrid.

Silas lowers his eyebrows and lunges at her. She dips low, grabs his legs, and flips him over her shoulder. Silas flies through the air and crashes to the mat.

“Come on, Silas,” says Asher, who whips around nunchucks nearby. “Americus taught you better, and Navin knows I’ve reinforced the lessons enough.”

Large-nosed Silas groans and wipes sweat from his face. “I’m not a natural like you and Astrid. Laser battle me, and I’ll crush you.”

On the other side of the room, teams of Loyalists run around an obstacle course, rolling under barricades, leaping hurdles, and firing practice guns at each other. The match progresses until Americus stands alone against four Loyalists.

“Looks like you taught me too well, Americus,” says Brandon, from behind a barrier. “The student becomes the master.”

Americus growls, dashes forward, and leaps over the tall barrier with the agility of a much younger man. Brandon and the others fumble with their guns, completely unprepared for the sudden attack. Americus fires four times in a blur. His opponents drop to the ground as if paralyzed.

Hell, I’d hate to fight him. “Americus is talented.”

“He was a Marine Raider,” says Alexander. “They’re one of the fiercest most lethal small strike forces in the world.”

Good to have around. “How do those guns work?”

“It’s the suits. When it registers a hit from the lasers, it temporarily paralyzes that part of the body.”

Good training method. It would have been cool to have the suits for Silent City.

Americus helps Brandon stand. “You’re getting better. Always stay alert, though. Let’s finish talking about the improvements the new constitution made over the old one later.”

Brandon nods excitedly as he removes his suit. “Sounds good. Let’s focus on the ‘no personhood for corporations’ amendment.”

Alexander motions me away from the room. “Let’s go shoot.”

We go to another area that has several long hallways, separated by walls. A small window allows me to see two other Loyalists shooting. We enter one of the ranges.

“Do you mind if I run some sprints before we start?” I ask. “This looks like a great place.”

“Sure, let’s race first.”

I shrug but glance at his long legs. Might be tough to beat.

We line up, he counts to three, and we dash forward. He gets a better start, but it’s not long before I catch up and overtake him.

When we reach the end, he says, “You sure are fast.”

I’ve always been fast, and I trained regularly since I never knew when I’d have to run from abuse. I started slacking while with Barbra, though, and need to get back on track. Speed is about the most essential thing in the world right now.

Not long after, I come to a ragged halt after my fiftieth sprint.

“Fast and a hard worker,” he says. “I like it.”

I pull at my damp tank top and try to fan myself.

“How’s your bullet wound, by the way?”

I peel up the patch to look.

“That’s a lot of healing overnight. When I was shot, it took a week to look like that.”

“You were shot?”

“Some friends and I were playing the game where you shoot at people’s feet, and they dance away from the bullets. Unfortunately, I didn’t dance fast enough.”

I definitely never heard of that game.

“It was no big deal. The bullet slipped between my bones. Ready to shoot?”

The second most important thing…or probably the third after hacking. I think he’ll be surprised by my skill. I did fire off a million rounds in Silent City. “I’m ready.”

“Prepare to learn from the master.”

I chuckle.

“Safety first, though.” He hands me a pair of shooting glasses and two small sticky dots.

I put on the glasses, but I’m not sure what to do with the dots. I don’t want to seem stupid, though. What would they be for? Hearing, but they’re too small. Stupid it is. “What are these?”

“These are great,” he says. “Just put them in your ears.”

I do, still confused since they’re too small to block sound.

“Caesar,” he says into his q-link. “Activate hearing protection.”

The dots in my ears expand to fill the entire hole. I flinch at the strange feeling but then smile.

“See,” he says, his voice dulled by the hearing protection. “It’s so you can wear them all the time and quickly expand them whenever a gunfight breaks out. They can also be used as headphones.”

“Impressive.”

“Let’s see what gun might work best for you,” he says and walks over to a gun cabinet.

I wish he had a Trexstar K10 laser, but I’ll have to make do.

He returns with a sniper rifle I don’t recognize from my time in Silent City.

“It’s a three-oh-eight. It’s smaller than my favorite, the fifty caliber, but you’re small. You can only use the big ones if you’re stationary anyway. All right, first, always check to make sure it’s unloaded or loaded, which it is since I always keep my guns loaded. So here’s how you do that.” He steps up, unlocks the magazine,