"L. E. Modesitt - Spec-Ops" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

moment before he touched the pad. It sucked the heat from his fingertips.

Entry granted The pod door irised open, and deJahn slid inside. His sensies
flicked to the captain standing Duty OpsCon. "Tech deJahn reporting, sir."

"Take number two, Tech deJahn," replied the captain.

DeJahn stepped up beside the sensie console and link-pulsed. He was
relieving Suares.

The wiry tech didn't blink. He just stood. "Its yours, deJahn. Scowls, tonight.
Best hurry. They're in free hunt."

"Got it."

DeJahn touched the sensie-seat. Suares left it cool. He always did. DeJahn
didn't know how. Still, he wiped the seat before he settled down. Once more, no
scroaches. He kept the sigh inside, then slipped on the mesh cap, checked the
handshake, and linked into the scowls.

He dropped into the third seat, and linked. Tech first Khorbel deJahn.

Accepted. Flash background: Scowls. Initial target: guards, research
station gamma three-one. Primary target: technicians.

Frigging great. He had to pull the scowls off free hunt after they took out
enough guards to get an opening for the scroaches and turn them to finding the
scientists and technicians who were doing the research.

A sharpness of gray images overtook him, so clear that they were more
disorienting than the fuzzy sharpness that came with chimbats. Disorientation
through precision. Better that than the looming wavering images and prey lust that
pervaded the scroach links.

As Suares had said, the scowls were in free hunt.

Checking the mind sidescreen, deJahn verified the target, a bioware research
station. Small, no more than fifteen science types, and twice that many guards. The
scowls were priority programmed, as much as a modified owl could be. The guards
were secondary. Guards didn't create biotech and bioweapons. What the station
produced or researched, deJahn didn't know. He switched views from the
too-distant shifting composite, to one scowl after another, stopping at one stooping
into an attack on a guard post.

One of the guards turned and fired. The incendiary pellets exploded into a
cage of flame and fire. The stab of pain ran down deJahn's back for an instant
before he disengaged that link, later than he should have.

Quick-switching again, deJahn caught the feedback view from next owl as it
struck the guards arm. Fire-venom from the talons went straight to the guard's