"Eric Flint - Ranks of Bronze 2 - Carthago Delenda Est" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

The Gha sepoy it commanded twisted the native’s arm further. Gobbling with pain, the
native struggled furiously.

Its efforts were futile, despite the fact that the orange-skinned biped was not much smaller
than its Gha tormentor. It was more slender, true—although much of the Gha’s squat bulk was
the product of its heavy armor. Still, the native was every bit as tall as the Gha. But the real
difference lay beneath the surface. For all the near-equivalence of size, the native was a child in
the hands of an ogre.

The Gha were a heavy-planet species. Due in large part to that gravity, theirs was the most
inhospitable world that had ever produced an intelligent race. The Gha were few in numbers,
but all the great trading Guilds and Combines favored them as bodyguards for their strength
and physical prowess.

The native’s gabbles reached a crescendo, but they still expressed nothing more than
pain—and curses.

“Again,” commanded the Guild Investigator. The Gha twisted; the native howled.

Guild Voivode Agayan ceased his finger-flexing. He transformed his mid-limbs into legs
and stalked off in disgust. While the native continued to screech, the Voivode stared out at the
landscape.

The scene was as barren as their investigation had thus far proven to be. The sun—a
green-colored dot in the sky—cast a sickly hue over the gravelly terrain. The land was almost
flat, broken only by a scattering of squat gray-skinned plants with long, trailing leaves.

And the bones. Gha bones, and the skeletal remains of the huge carnivores which served as
mounts for the sepoys. The bones were picked clean, now, and bleached white by the sun.
Every other relic of the battle which had raged across this plain was gone. The natives had
buried their own dead, and scavenged all the discarded weapons and armor.

Behind him, Agayan heard a cracking noise. The native shrieked and fell suddenly silent.
The Voivode twisted his body, caterpillarlike, and examined the situation. As he had expected,
the Gha had finally broken the native’s arm. And, still, without the Investigator learning
anything they didn’t already know.

“Are you quite finished?” he demanded.

Again, Yuaw Khta ignored him. But, after a moment, the Investigator made a gesture to the
Gha. The sepoy released its grip. The native, now unconscious, collapsed to the ground.

Satisfied that the charade was at an end, Agayan transformed his forelimbs into arms and
reached for his communicator. After summoning the shuttle, he amused himself by watching
the Investigator scampering about the area, looking for some last-minute clue.

As always, the Voivode found Yuaw Khta’s movements both comical and unsettling. The
Investigator, like all members of his species, was a tall and gangling creature. Its long, ungainly
head hung forward from its neck like certain draft animals Agayan had observed on various
primitive planets. That much was amusing. Yet there was a quick, jerky nature to the