Read Tunnels 06 - Terminal for Free Online

interrogation kit in the stores,’ he said. ‘Of course, it’s only fit for a museum of human rights now that the Geneva Convention precludes the torture of POWs, but I’m not sure it would apply to these combatants.’
    The MO picked up a metal probe connected to the device by a cable. ‘I’ve set the charge at 200 volts,’ he said, then extended it towards the Armagi and touched his forearm.
    A small spark sprang across from the probe to the Armagi’s skin when it was close enough. The MO didn’t stop there, pushing the probe hard against the Armagi’s arm. ‘Note the lack of a normal reaction at this voltage,’ the MO said. He was right – there was no convulsion of the muscles as there would have been with a human being, even when unconscious.
    Instead the most curious thing happened. Spreading out from the probe where it made contact, the skin was becoming silvery and crystalline, as if diamond-shaped scales were spreading across the arm. Then the whole limb suddenly became transparent, and began to transform into something else altogether.
    ‘We think it’s changing into a wing,’ the orderly beside Parry said. Parry had to agree – the arm was flattening all the way up to the shoulder, and it certainly did appear to be more than a little bird-like.
    The MO removed the probe, and the limb lost its translucency and immediately reverted to its original form. ‘So they shape-shift, and electrical impulses are somehow involved. Like nerve impulses, I presume.’
    ‘The Major has experimented with a range of different voltages,’ the orderly said, holding up his clipboard to show Parry the small sketches he’d made. ‘We got a wing as you started to see there, and also something like a flipper.’
    ‘Sea, air and land,’ Parry remembered. ‘Eddie told us that they can transform into different entities with different morphologies to suit whatever environment they’re in.’
    ‘Yes, what we’ve seen here would bear that out,’ the MO said.
    Parry’s brow was furrowed as his mind raced. ‘So …’ he began, ‘… is this their Achilles’ heel? Can we use electricity to defeat them?’
    ‘Good suggestion. Why don’t I up the ante and see what some more juice produces?’ the MO replied. ‘I’ll ramp it up to 500 volts.’ He went over to the device on the bench and twisted one of the dials as far as it would go, then extended the probe towards the Armagi’s hand. An even brighter spark arced when the probe was close to the skin, and the lightsflickered in the room.
    ‘There it goes,’ the orderly said, as, the limb again began to turn transparent. But this time the fingers merged together, and what had been the hand elongated and thickened, with three vicious-looking claws appearing at the end.
    ‘I’ve no idea what that is,’ the orderly said, as he frantically tried to sketch this new configuration.
    Something caught Parry’s eye. ‘Major, behind you! The arm!’
    The severed arm had transformed too, taking on precisely the same form, complete with the three deadly-looking claws at the extremity. It was too long for the stainless steel dish and had tipped it over, so the limb flopped onto the bench, like a dead fish.
    ‘Cut the current! Now!’ Parry yelled as the severed limb twitched beside the dish.
    In his haste the MO dropped the probe. Stooping to retrieve it, he’d just straightened up when the Armagi transformed completely.
    In the blink of an eye, it suddenly had three pairs of limbs branching from its thorax, like an enormous transparent arachnid. The limbs thrashed, tearing the leather constraints binding it to the gurney as if they were tissue paper.
    The MO didn’t stand a chance as he regarded the creature with a stunned bewilderment.
    His head came off with one short sweep of the Armagi’s forelimb. The three claws were as deadly as they looked.
    Then it sprang from the gurney and hit the dividing window with a resounding clang. Its claws penetrated the tempered