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

"The troops ought to be wearing class two or three armor, Subbie."

The Lojt glanced at Khadaji's face through the smoke. He seemed more relaxed,
now. "There's not enough to go around. You were in the Quartermasters, you
know how Supply works. In a ten-kay, you only get so many suits and additional
reqs take months. Besides, class two won't stop a . 177 and you can't move in
class three except to waddle."

"Way I heard it, most of the casualties are from dart poison, so class two
should—"

"Where did you hear that?" Even through the drug, he sounded suspicious.
Careful, Khadaji told himself.

"I run a pub, Subbie. I hear a lot of things. Men get drunk or stoned, they
say things they don't think about."

Subru shook his head. "Damn! Listen, Emile, I know this won't get past you,
but upranks is shitting bricks over this thing. A lot of the troops the Scum
have hit are stiffies from Spasm poisoning and some of them were wearing class
two. I even heard of a couple wearing class three who took darts."

"I don't believe it." He knew that was not true, he wasn't so stupid he'd try
a class three with a spetsdod.

"My information comes from high places, Emile. But if you hear any of the
troops babbling in their smoke or splash, see if you can't shut them up before
they get their asses into a sharp crack. The Old Man would love to have a
target to shoot at, any target, including our own."

"Okay, Subbie, I'll try and keep your boys out of trouble in my place. It
would be bad for business if somebody thought they talked too much in here and
made me off-limits."

"Thanks, Emile. I appreciate it."

Khadaji left the shaken Lojtnantinhaling flickstick smoke and walked for the
closest exit. He needed some unpolluted air. Sometimes, this game seemed to
get too twisty, even for him. But Lojtnant Subru was in Administration, he had
access to all the facts about the campaign against the Shamba Scum and he
believed that the rebels were able to knock off men in class three body armor
with spetsdods, something Khadaji himself knew was impossible.

It was twisty, but it was going better than he'd hoped.

And the end was nearly here.

Chapter Five

SLEEL'S PHLEBITIS MUST have responded to treatment, Kha-daji thought, because