"Joe Haldeman - 1968" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

operation. It was like assembling one of those carved-wood Chinese puzzles.

He got it back together, carefully propped it against his rucksack, out of the dust, and then stepped away
from the gas to light up a cigarette.

"It won't be so bad, though, if we do go out. Right?"

"Depends." Wilkes was ostentatiously taking apart his bolt assembly "All we ever do is walk, practically.
Walk all day, dig a hole at night. Fill up the hole in the morning and start walkin' again." He made a face,
concentrating so as not to lose the little spring when it popped out. "Some guys like it better. You know
that. No dust, no officers to speak of."

"No dinks."

"Not in over a month. And the last one wasn't even a fire-fight, just a little argument. One casualty."

"Yeah, I heard-"

"Poor ol Smiley. Got it right here." He indicated a point midway between his own sternum and navel.
"Haven't heard anything since we put him on the medevac, guess he's dead." He got the spring out,
without its flying into the dust. "Ah. Son of a bitch owed me almost a hundred bucks."

"You and everybody else."

Wilkes laughed. "We oughta get together and hit up his ol' lady for it. Hire a bill collector or somethin',
shit,he was such a hard ass. " The trigger assembly came apart more easily. He swished the components
around in the gasoline.

"I like fire base better. Like right here, three hots a day, beer, sleep on a cot-"

"You've got a cot?"

"Hell, yes. Don't seem so safe since last night, though, shit. Fuckin' gooks just walked in, all it takes is
one asshole asleep at the switch."

"They find out who?"

"Nah. Prob'ly Bravo, if they went out the same way they came in." He dipped a toothbrush into the
gasoline and worked over the outside, all around the receiver. "Trouble with a fire base is that you're a
bigger target. Liable to get a whole fuckin' regiment attack at once. Human wave, man, bad shit."

"Like a banzai-"

"I guess. Never been in one myself, but God. bloodbath, that's all. They just keep comin'. Happened
down Plei Djarang, was it? Couple of months ago, two and a half." He shook his head and started fishing
pieces out of Spider's helmet.

"Heard about it. Said we had a lot of work at Graves."

The enemies