Pale Mars
Page 9
"The shock of this experience has left her hopelessly insane," Nadezhda said. "As a citizen of the USSR, we'll be taking her with us to Earth."
"I think that would be best." Macready finished his brushing. He glanced around at the devastation of the landing pad; the fallen gantry and charred concrete. "A tragedy, what happened here. Do you have any idea what this installation is worth?"
"The cost in human lives alone …"
"Billions." He shook his head. "We'll have to train another group of colonists, ship them out here—at great expense—before this place can start turning a profit again."
"A tragedy," Nadezhda agreed.
But she was thinking about people who couldn't be replaced. Yegor. Gennady. And a certain lanky Texan who'd shown more spirit than any Cosmonaut she'd ever known. Goodbye, Ramos. 'Death does not take the old, but the ripe,' as her grandmother would say. She'd begun this mission with a eulogy for Lieutenant Bohdan, and she'd end it writing three more.
The least of her concerns. She faced having to fly the Sokol back to earth with half a crew, and a madwoman for cargo.
And then there was the creature itself. I'm not from around here.
So where was it from?
Overhead the sky was darkening to indigo, and distant stars began to wink. The dry Martian wind cut right through her vacc suit, chilling bone and soul beneath.
†
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Garnett Elliott lives and works in Tucson, Arizona. He's had stories appear in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Needle: A Magazine of Noir, Reloaded (Both Barrels 2), Uncle B's Drive-In Fiction, Blood and Tacos, Battling Boxing Stories, and numerous online magazines and print anthologies. You can follow him on Twitter @TonyAmtrak.
DRAGON BY THE BAY
A fistful of East vs. West Mayhem!
Kindle edition and paperback
It's 1866. The Civil War is over and no-account grifter Carson Lowe pays a visit to the bustling Gold Rush city of San Francisco. But instead of quick riches he finds big trouble in and under a fledgling Chinatown, when a Taoist immortal threatens to wake the … Dragon by the Bay!
* * *
More with the Krasnyy Sokol crew:
RED VENUS
Superpowers clash on the deadliest planet in the solar system
Kindle edition and paperback
Fog-shrouded Venus had refused to give up her mysteries, until the USSR sent their best and brightest on a top-secret scientific mission. Now the crew of the Krasnyy Sokol, led by gorgeous Cosmonaut Nadezhda Gura, must brave a hellish hothouse of jungle swampland crawling with monstrous life. It's Russians and rayguns against a death planet—and that's before the Americans show up.
* * *
SCORCHED NOIR
A collection of Southwestern crime tales
Kindle edition and paperback
The Border … an alkaline limbo between two worlds, where desperation and violence loom like the ever-present sun. Scorched Noir takes a blistering look at crime along the desert corridos, the creosote bushes and dead arroyos where only scorpions thrive. Eight tales in the triple-digits by hardboiled author Garnett Elliott. From organ smugglers to drug-crazed brujas, this is one collection of Southwestern noir you don't want to miss. Caliente!
* * *
From the "KYLER KNIGHTLY and DAMON COLE" series:
CARNOSAUR WEEKEND
It's a dirty job …
Kindle edition and paperback
Policing the timelines has always been dangerous, but the brave agents of Continuity Inc. have arguably the most important job in human history. Protecting human history. Newly promoted agent Kyler Knightly teams up with his uncle, Damon Cole, to stop unscrupulous developers from exploiting the Late Cretaceous. A luxury subdivision smack-dab in the middle of dinosaur country threatens not only the present, but super-rich homeowners looking for the ultimate getaway.
* * *
APOCALYPSE SOON
The dirty work of policing the chronosphere continues …
Kindle edition and paperback
Continuity Inc. agent Kyler Knightly and his uncle, Damon Cole, travel back to Old Vegas, circa 2035, to nab a rogue scientist bent on turning pre-apocalypse America into his own personal demolition derby. It's monster trucks versus monster preppers in a nitro burning, high octane adventure reminiscent of Mad Max.
* * *
Offering short story collections and novellas in a variety of genres (from noir and hardboiled crime to Westerns, from science fiction to the undefinable), BEAT to a PULP is sure to have something for every pulp enthusiast. See what's new in our catalog from some of the finest pulp writers of today.
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