"David Drake - Hammer's Slammers 13 - The Sharp End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

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THE SHARP END



by David Drake




DEDICATION

To our architect and builder Derwood Schrotberger



Writing a novel and moving to a new house are both stressful occupations. The fact that I was able to
combine them is a comment on Derwood's consummate skill, which reminds me that architect originally
meant Master Builder.



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS



Those of you who notice echoes of TheGlass Key andRedHarvest by Dashiell Hammett in this book
are correct. Those of you who don't should go off and read Hammett's splendid novels at your earliest
convenience.

When I'm at a crux in my plotting, I tend to talk at those around me. When I did that this time on the
way to the state fair with friends, my wife, Jo, and Mark Van Name made suggestions which were
precisely on point. I adopted both.




NIEUW FRIESLAND




The room housing the Officers Assignment Bureau was spacious enough to have three service cages and
seats for twenty around the walls of colored marble. Nobody was waiting when Major Matthew Coke
entered, though a single officer discussed alternative assignments with a specialist.