"Steve Perry - The Man Who Never Missed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

"She says she used to be a doctor, but even if she wasn't, she'd seen enough
cases of this to know what it was." Khadaji laughed again. "I'll bet she has.
Poor Sleel.

Maybe he learned something."

"I don't think so, Boss. He's talking about a rematch." "Let me know if it
happens, Bork. I'll bet my money on Sister."

The big man grinned. "Yessir, me too."

The octagon was about three-quarters full, early morning being the slackest
period, but there were still almost two hundred men and women perched on the
stools, smoking or drinking or wrapped in the grip of some other rec-chem. It
could be noon or midnight, from the artificial lighting; it always looked the
same in the octagon.

Khadaji looked at the scene with some fondness. As pubs went, this was one of
the better ones he'd worked in—and he'd been in no small number. It would not
be too hard to see himself growing old here, serving the troopers, being well
thought of by the military and locals, playing this simple game. He shook his
head. No. It was a nice fantasy, but that's all it was and he knew it. It was
temporary, and he was better off keeping short-timer's attitude about it.
There were some good people here, a lot of them, and he would miss them, but
this wasn't his karmic destiny.

Lojtnant Subru entered the octagon from the front and strode across the room
toward the dispensing window. He was a man in a hurry.

Khadaji walked toward the window, so that by the time Subru had bought and
collected his flickstick, the owner of the Jade Flower was standing next to
him.

"Something, Lojt?"

Subru scratched the end of the flickstick along the seam of his creased
uniform pants. The tip flared, then faded to a glowing dot. He stuck the
flickstick to his lips and drew in a deep breath of the fragrant smoke. He
held the blast for a second, then began to speak. Dark purple smoke emerged
from his mouth with the words. "A major attack, Emile. The Scum hit a T-plex
last night. My T-plex. They got the guards and then hit the C.O. herself." He
took another hit from the stick. "I could have been there. If they'd come a
day earlier, I would have been sitting on the O.O.D. desk my-fucking-self."

"They get any of the rebels?"

"Not alive. I hear there were twenty-five or thirty of the Scum involved in
the attack. Armed with stolen .177s and spetsdods."