"John Dalmas - The Three-Cornered War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

advanced lecture on 'the parts of man.'"
"Parts of man?" he said. "If you'll give me a lecture, I'll give you a demonstration."
She jabbed him with an elbow. 'That's not one of the parts I referred to." She got to her
feet, then sat astride his lap, leaning against him, her face close to his. "Although if
you're up to it again ..." she purred.
Chapter 3 Briefing
In his office in the OSP Building, Kusu Lormagen touched the switch on his desk
communicator. "What is it, lira?"


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John Dalmas - The Three-Cornered War


"Colonel Romlar is here for his briefing, sir."
"Good. Send him in." As the Director of Research and Development got to his feet, the
door opened and Artus entered. Kusu gestured at a chair.
Artus took it. "So," he said. "Here I am, ready to be informed."
"I don't know how much you already know."
"Assume zero. You won't be far off."
"Right. Lotta told me she was in two-way communication with you psychically, while
you were still on Maragor, and let you know then about the invasion Armada. How
much did she tell you?"
Artus frowned. He'd been in a weird state at the time. Had confused the Armada with a
war fleet of twenty millennia earlier, that he'd revisited in nightmares. "I know it
exists," he said. "That it left their central system two or three years ago. And that it's
bigger and better equipped than anything we'll have to meet it with."
Kusu nodded. "We've made major progress in matching its equipment, but they'll arrive
with close to twice as many warships of every class. I'll give you a chart comparing
forces; you can familiarize yourself with it after you leave." He got up and walked to
his beverage machine. "Joma?" he asked. "Or thocal?"
"Joma."
Kusu drew two cups and set one of them in front of Artus. Sitting down himself, he
sipped reflectively and began his lecture. "I suppose you know how we've learned what
we know."
"From Lotta. And her staff."
"Right They get it through a covert, long-distance mind meld, the sort of thing she did
as your intelligence specialist on Terfreya. Some T'swa have been able to do it for a
long time. For generations, some of our Ostrak masters have been able to meld too, but
only with people they knew, and mostly face to face. Lotta bridged the gap. She may be
as good at it as any T'swi. And she's testing other Ostrak operators for the potential, and
having them trained.
"The tricky part of remote spying is the initial connection. She learned how to find, and
meld with, a person she simply knows about. That was the critical step. From them she
learns about others with the sort of knowledge she wants to tap, and melds with them. A
chain of connections, so to speak. So far as we know, none of the imperials has any
notion they've been visited. Except maybe their central artificial intelligence; she tried
snooping it." He grinned. "It spit her out. That's how she put it.
"The first person she trained was her own old mentor, Wellem Bosler. Now Wellem