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

the bouncer was working the floor, watching for signs of trouble from the
crowd in the Jade Flower. It was quiet, though. Butch had run out of mid-range
sops and had, reluctantly, begun offering the high-range chemical at the same
price. Soldiers loved a bargain, and a lot of them were barely awake at their
tables, stoked with the glow of the depressant drug. Nobody fought on
high-sops, it took more energy than a user had available.

Anjue gave him the news when Khadaji went to check on the line.

"Have you heard about quadman Pendragon?" "I don't believe I know a trooper by
that name." The doormaster waved his hands. "He was one of the first—if not
the first—hit by the Shamba Freedom Forces. Six months ago, it was." Khadaji
nodded. "So?" "He's awake. The first to recover from the poisoning."

"Ah."

"Good news, eh?'

"Indeed."

He wandered back into the octagon, thinking. So. The first one was out of it.
He tried to remember the earliest troopers he'd stationed. They all seemed to
run together, it was hard to pick out a single man or woman. There were some
who stuck in his memory, of course: the couple drinking contraband voremhdlts
in the swirltub; the trooper who covered his face with his hands and would
spend the months that way; the two nude women who came at him with knives.
There were so many of them, though, he couldn't summon up, they were just
bodies falling, locked in tetany. But they were coming back to their
interrupted lives, now. Quadman Pendragon may or may not have seen him.
Probably not— he'd been particularly careful in the beginning, sometimes
wearing skinmasks, sometimes shooting from hiding. But not always. They would
start awakening by the dozens pretty soon, and some of them had seen him. Some
of them had known who he was. Very shortly, the game was going to be over. Now
it would get tricky, it could all fall apart if he allowed it to go too far.

Khadaji found he was breathing faster, that his heart was rumbling along
quicker than normal. Funny. He had known this was coming and yet now that it
was here, he felt a thrill of fear running through him like some electric
current. The years of mind and body training, of mental and physical control
kicked in, and he calmed himself. He slowed his pulse and breathing, but the
hormone balance was not so easy. The chemicals were stirred and it took more
than a quick effort of will to smooth those waters. Later, he would go to his
cube and spend a few minutes meditating, that would do it. He needed a clear
mind for what was to come.

One more station. It would be dangerous, maybe foolishly so. The big holoproj
was hardly over—it was only just started—but this portion of it was coming to
a close. Kha-daji had mixed emotions about it. On the one hand, there was the
fear—he could end it all now if he screwed it up. On the other hand, if he
pulled it off, it would be the final touch, a major coup. And it was the last.