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

Storm made the door first, but she was right on his heels.

The breach in the wing that had set off the alarm gaped before
them—rank, scoured, and still smoking.

"My God," Amber said, as she slowed. "They blasted their way through."

"Stay back."

She halted behind his warning hand. "Why?"

"That was done by a suit."

Her response was drowned out by the rattle of Thrakian carapaces on the
corridor floor. Instead of talking, she grabbed Jack's restraining hand but he
shook her off.

"Thraks!"

"Answering the alarm. They're part of the guard now. They'll be here as
soon as they seal off the wing." Even as he spoke, Jack moved forward into
the blasted outer lab that had surrounded Jonathan's hospital room. Amber
followed close behind.

In the shadowy interior, machinery sputtered and sparked. Plastic and
metal crunched under his steps. Amber had not pulled on her boots. Biting
her lip, she halted, unable to go farther, but past Jack's frame she could see a
tall and darker shadow pulling at leads and machinery with quick, effective
rips, freeing Jonathan's limp body.

"Drop him, Denaro," Jack said quietly.

The battle armored man turned, the massive Jonathan cradled in one
plated arm as though the size of a child. The visor was down, screen
darkened.

"He's mine. You bastards have had him long enough. If you want him,
come take him."

Amber's breath hissed inward. By that faint sound, Jack placed her
location as well behind him and out of the wreckage of the room, and the
tension in his shoulders relaxed just a bit. The plastic and glass shards
littering the floor kept her out of harm's way.

His answer was to move against Denaro, fast, quick, unpredictable—the
only advantage flesh had against battle armor. He'd trained Denaro—the
man had been one of the Knights' best before he'd gone rogue. Denaro had
always been St. Colin's man, not a soldier of the Triad Throne, and Jack had
known it when he took him in. And just as he knew who was in the armor,