Behemoth: B-Max, Book 1Starfish lit the fuse. Maelstrom was the explosion. But five years into the aftermath, things aren't quite so simple as they once seemed... Lenie Clarke-rifter, avenger, amphibious deep-sea cyborg-has destroyed the world. Once exploited for her psychological addiction to dangerous environments, she emerged in the wake of a nuclear blast to serve up vendetta from the ocean floor. The horror she unleashed-an ancient, apocalyptic microbe called ßehemoth- has been free in the world for half a decade now, devouring the biosphere from the bottom up. North America lies in ruins beneath the thumb of an omnipotent psychopath. Digital monsters have taken Clarke's name, wreaking havoc throughout the decimated remnants of something that was once called Internet. Governments have fallen across the globe; warlords and suicide cults rise from the ashes, pledging fealty to the Meltdown Madonna. All because five years ago, Lenie Clarke had a score to settle. But she has learned something in the meantime: she destroyed the world for a fallacy. Now, cowering at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, rifters and the technoindustrial "corpses" who created them hide from a world in its death throes. But they cannot hide forever: something is tracking them, down amongst the lightless cliffs and trenches of the Midatlantic Ridge. The consequences of past acts reach inexorably towards the very bottom of the world, and Lenie Clarke must finally confront the mess she made. Redemption doesn't come easy with the blood of a world on your hands. But even after five years in purgatory, Lenie Clarke is still Lenie Clarke. There will be consequences for anyone who gets in her way-and worse ones, perhaps, if she succeeds. . . . ßehemoth: ß-Max is the first of two volumes. The story will conclude in ßehemoth: Seppuku. |
Contents
AUTHORS NOTE | 9 |
THE SHIVA ITERATIONS | 33 |
HUDDLE | 51 |
PORTRAIT OF THE SADIST AS A YOUNG BOY | 69 |
CAVALRY | 83 |
PORTRAIT OF THE SADIST AS AN ADOLESCENT | 99 |
BOILERPLATE | 113 |
FIRE DRILL | 129 |
CONSCRIPT | 167 |
AUTOMECHANICA | 191 |
STRIPTEASE | 207 |
HARPODON | 225 |
THE BLOODHOUND ITERATIONS | 239 |
BAPTISM | 267 |
FULCRUM | 291 |
PORTRAIT OF THE SADIST AS A FREE MAN | 143 |
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Common terms and phrases
Achilles Desjardins ahead airlock Alice Alyx anyway Atlantis Atlantis's barely Bhanderi biosteel brain brainstem breath bulkhead channel Chen Clarke buzzes Clarke says Clarke shakes Clarke's contrail corpses corridor course Creasy CSIRA dark deck diveskin dryback Erickson eyecaps eyes face feel fins flesh fold catastrophe Friedman fucking Gene going Grace Nolan halocline hand hatch head cheese headlamp Hopkinson hull Impossible Lake infected inside Jakob Julia Jutta keep Ken Lubin kicks kill kind lantis Lenie Clarke light looks Lubin buzzes Lubin says machinery Mary Poppins meters never nods Nolan says ocean okay past Patricia Rowan plankton pulls Rama remember rifters Rowan says says softly Seger shakes her head shit shrugs side smiles somehow someone sonar Spartacus squid ßehemoth stares stop stumpfucks suddenly sure takes talk tell There's thing turns tweaks vocoder voice Walsh What's Yeager Yeah