"Tanya Huff - Valor 2 - The Better Part of Valor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

"And you think you're proof of that?"
"Damned right. Anyone in here think they're not?"
She paused for effect and got an answer.
"He's not." Jynett jabbed her elbow into the ribs of the di'Taykan
beside her.
"Suck up," Huilin grunted, rubbing at the damp patch of spilled beer
on his shirt.
"Slacker."
"All right, let's be ..."
"Relax, Corporal, we took our HE1 course together. This one ..."
Huilin raised the remains of his beer in an exaggerated toast. "... placed
top in the class."
Jynnet's glass rose to touch his. "Which means poor Huilin had to
settle for second."
"I was robbed."
Nivry's eyes lightened. "Which proves my point. We were picked
because we're the best. Staff Sergeant Kerr was probably picked
because she could get the job done even under the handicap of Captain
Travik."
Across the room, Corporal Harrop said something that sounded
distinctly rude in one of the remaining Human languages. With all eyes
on him, he shrugged and translated. "No one's that good."
Werst drained his sah, stood, and tossed the cup into the recycler.
"She'd better be."
 Craig Ryder held a full house, kings over threes, when his ship,
parked in one of the Berganitan's shuttle bays, informed him it was
0600 hours. He tongued in an acknowledgment, then looked up and
swept the table with his second best smile, the one designed to distract
from the situation—which was, at the moment, the happy fact that he'd
taken a month's pay or better off everyone at the table. "Afraid this'll
have to be the last hand, mates. Duty calls."
"Duty?" One of the two watching di'Taykan, long since tapped out,
stared up at him from under a moving fringe of lavender hair. "Calling
you?"
"As it happens, I've got a briefing to attend in under two hours
and—you know how it is—I'd like to make a good impression."
"On who?"
"On whoever it would do me the most good to impress, of course."
"Well, as it happens," Lieutenant Commander Sibley echoed,
tapping his own cards on the edge of the table, "it's up to you."
Ryder allowed his smile to pick up a slight predatory edge as he
aimed it directly at the vacuum jockey.
"So it is. I see your hundred and I raise you ..." Eyes locked on the
opposition, he picked up a stack of U markers and threw them into the
pot. "... three hundred more."
The Krai between them glanced at the cards in her right foot, took a
long draw on a pouch of beer, and shook her head. "I fold."
"Down to you and me, Sibley."
"You wish," he muttered, frowning at his hand.
The second di'Taykan made a suggestion.