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

Both Humans ignored him.
"Well?"
"Why not." Sibley looked up and grinned, pushing his last markers
into the center of the table. "I call. What've you got?"
Ryder laid out his cards.
The grin slipped sideways but held. "Buh-bye," he sighed throwing
in two jacks, two tens, and a seven.
The Krai, who'd played cautiously all night, still had a few markers
left, the rest Ryder scooped up and dumped into his belt pouch.
"Always a pleasure doing business with the Navy." He lifted his beer
in a flourishing salute, drained it, and tossed the empty pouch down on
the table. "Hope you lads don't mind cleaning up ..."
It was almost a question.
He was gone before anyone answered.
The markers were a comfortable weight against his hip as he made
his way back to shuttle bay four—nothing like turning a profit to
improve the time wasted in Susumi space. Later, he'd head down to
QSM and cash in, but right now he needed to reach his ship before
someone in Navy gray checked his pass and discovered his clearance
didn't include this part of the Berganitan.
They—they being the anal retentives in uniform running the show—
hadn't wanted him along. Too bad. He alone knew where they were
going, and he had no intention of handing that information over gratis.
Restricting his unescorted movements beyond the confines of the
shuttle bay had been their way of taking a petty revenge. The sergeant
at arms had made it quite clear they'd slap a security chip in him if they
found him where he didn't belong.
That said, he still preferred to play on the other guys' turf, it made
the opposition overconfident and kept the repair bills from coming out
of his account if the game got out of hand. As friendly little games so
often did.
A couple of techs on morning watch looked up from an open panel
as he passed, but he made it back to the Promise without attracting any
unwelcome attention. He'd refused the generous offer of access to the
Berganitan's system—and the reflective access that would give the
Berganitan to him—and, because he'd always been a cautious man,
he'd locked his implant and his ship down tight. A quick check after
boarding proved the security protocols on both were intact; as far as
anyone who might care would ever know, he'd spent the night sound
asleep.
"And wouldn't that have been a waste of time?"
Tossing the belt pouch onto his bunk, he stripped off for the shower.
He'd sincerely meant it when he'd said it was a pleasure doing
business with the Navy—a vacuum jockey's idea of saving for
retirement was drawing to an inside straight. Probably a result of too
much time spent in zero gee.
He had a feeling the Marines weren't going to be half so much fun.
 Torin had her team in place well before the briefing was due to start.
The twelve Marines filled the last two rows, the double line of service
uniforms creating a matte-black shadow at the back of the room. With