"James Doohan - Flight Engineer Volume 2 - The Privateer-" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doohan James)

corner.
“The pirate ship the Invincible is going after, the Bastard’s Bait, appropriately enough, will be coming through the
jump point in three weeks.” Scaragoglu grimaced. “Unless they all get drunk and forget about it completely.”
Raeder and Knott smiled politely.
“It’s tight, I know. But I’ve given orders that your resupply needs are a top priority, so I don’t imagine you’ll be
given the usual runaround by the quartermaster.” This time he smiled, and it wasn’t polite.
Uh-oh, Peter thought again. There weren’t very many people who’d care to talk procedure with Scaragoglu when
he had a mission priority statement from the High Command. The problem was that the Marine knew that and
savored it.
This guy knows what he’s doing. Trouble is, he enjoys having that sort of clout. Which made you just a bit
nervous about working for him. I’d trust Knott to back me up whatever happened. Hell, he has backed me up when it
put his ass in a crack too. Scaragoglu . . . all I know about Scaragoglu is rumors and the fact that he’s called the -
Spider.
Scaragoglu leaned back, the chair creaking slightly under his massive shoulders.
“Questions?” he asked.
“None immediately spring to mind, sir,” Knott answered. “I may have a few once I’ve reviewed this material.”
The Marine general nodded affably and turned to Peter.
“I have my pick of personnel, sir?” he asked.
Scaragoglu nodded.
“With only seven days I’ll have to get my candidates from Ontario Base and the Invincible,” Raeder said. “Will I
be allowed access to service records?”
“Virtually unlimited access,” the general said expansively. “Your way is cleared and the rails are greased.” He
gave Raeder a smile. “Don’t get used to it.”
“No, sir,” Peter answered, with a small smile of his own.
“If there’s nothing else, gentlemen . . .” The Marine general rose and they rose with him. He extended his hand to
Knott, then to Raeder. “Good luck, good hunting, and may God and His Prophet go with you.”
 “Thank you, sir,” they both murmured and left the office together.
They’d walked a long way through the myriad corridors of Ontario Base, each lost in his own thoughts as they
made their way back to the Invincible.
At last, Peter cleared his throat and asked, “Did you still want to see me, sir?”
Knott gave him a sidelong glance and shook his head.
“No point,” he said with a rueful smile. “I’ve been snookered by the old bastard myself. Who am I to give you
dire warnings?”
Then the older man grinned. “Besides, this is exactly the sort of thing the Invincible was designed for, and I did
request the command.”
“In other words, sir, you’re exactly the sort of glory hound you were about to chew me out for being?”
For a moment Raeder thought he’d gone too far, and then the captain’s shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “That’s
one way to put it, son. The other is that I’m extremely focused . . . which is what you call the same behaviors once
the hormonal storm of youth has passed. Let’s go; we’ve both got a Hell-load of work to do.”
 CHAPTER FOUR
Raeder entered his office with a sprightly step and sat at his desk, radiating energy. He rubbed his hands together
briskly, flexed his fingers and called up personnel records on his computer. There was a bright side to this whole
mess. Two, in fact. If it worked and he survived, he’d have done the war effort a real service; good in itself, and it
looked good, which he frankly conceded to himself he needed badly at this point in a more-than-eventful career.
Second . . .
Anybody I want . . . and anything. His smile was so wide it almost hurt. You didn’t get a better offer than this,
ever. And I intend to take full advantage of the good general’s generosity, he thought with an evil grin. Carte
blanche will come this way but once, hee hee. It’s Christmas day and the sun’s coming up. Toy time!
Names scrolled up the screen; he ticked off the ones he wanted and the computer brought them up in a queue. He
sipped at a cup of cocoa his orderly deposited in an outstretched hand.