"Charles Ingrid - The Sand Wars 06 - Challenge Met" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ingrid Charles)

Their voices faded as they turned the corner and passed from view.

Amber turned her head slowly until the room opened up in front of her
and she saw Jack sitting crookedly on a lab table, fastening the front of his
tunic. Her senses flared with the sight of him, his plain but honest face
unaware that she looked at him, his sandy hair darkened by exertion on the
treadmill, his faded eyes focused on thoughts and events elsewhere, relaxed
body still muscular from the demands of wearing battle armor. And
although she'd grown up in the years she'd known him, he hadn't aged to
speak of, his body, frozen by time, that of a man in his prime.

She spoke as she entered. "Vandover says your tape has been
transcribed."

He looked up, not startled, having grown used to her catlike ways of
entry and exit. He smiled, crinkling the sun wrinkles at the corners of his
eyes. "It's going to work! I'm all cleared. Pepys should be down in a minute
to discuss final arrangements." He reached out for her and pulled her close.
She found it momentarily disconcerting—he sat on the lab table, and she
looked down at him.

Biting down on her lip, she made a decision. "I saw Jonathan while you
were in examination," she said.

Jonathan was Colin's right hand, a great big bear of a man—and he was
the only survivor of the Walker's ill-fated expedition. Jack looked up,
meeting her worried gaze. "He's comatose," she added. "He may not make
it."

"What happened?"

"They don't know… there's not a mark on him. He's around the corner
with more security than I've seen in a long time. Jack… it's not like Colin to
take Jonathan with him and then abandon him."
 "You worry too much."

"You've given me a lot to worry about."

He kissed her chin, a nibble of a kiss. In a low, intimate voice that did not
match his words, he said, "I'll want to see him before they wire me up for
the cryo bay. They just told me they expect the playback imprint to run
maybe four, five days."

"Pepys left word you're to be let in. I wouldn't." She swallowed. There
was a heat creeping up her body, spreading from the point on her jaw where
his lips rested briefly and then continued on, following the swan swoop of
her neck down to the delicate bones below her throat where he paused
again. She closed her eyes and, despite the attention Jack was giving her, she
saw Jonathan's vast, near lifeless body, sheeted and wired, monitors