"Bud Sparhawk - Bright Red Star" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sparhawk Bud)

there and yell. Tell them you're hurt and need help. I don't think they'll shoot a little girl."

"Aren't you coming with me?" she said.

I shook my head. "No, they might be afraid if they saw me. You can tell them who we are if you want
and then I'll show myself." I wiped her nose and pushed her behind to get her moving.

Becky hesitated and then slowly hobbled across the field. "Help! I been shot!" she screamed.

A black hole appeared in the ground by the barn ana a man climbed out. "Becky?" he called out.
"Robbarts said you were dead." I noticed he'd left the hatch open. Good.

"He just shot me, like he did Paw and the Pastons," she answered.

"We heard a shot but didn't know it was you," the man said as he approached and knelt before Becky.
"Damn, that looks bad. How did you manage to get here—and where are Robbarts and his men?" He
was looking around nervously.

"The rescue soldiers took care of him," Becky answered innocently.

"Soldiers!" That didn't sound like a curse. More like a man with hope in his voice. I stepped forward.

"Captain Savage; forty-fifth combat arm," I said. "We came to save your souls." I could see by his
frightened reaction that he wasn't going to be a problem.

"He's got a ship to take us all away, Mr. Truett, just like Paw said," Becky said. "They'll have a doctor to
fix me up and we'll all be safe."

Truett stepped closer. "I heard things." I could hear the fear in his voice. How much he knew, I did not
know.

"We can't be used by the Shardies," I said calmly. "Can't survive more than a few minutes without our
combat rations." I figured he knew about the measured doses of anticoagulants fed into my bloodstream.
When those stopped, my brain would suffuse with thick blood, hemorrhaging and destroying the
remaining organic brain cells. "We're running out of time here."

"How long?" he said, showing more understanding than I expected from a dumb-assed farmer who
hadn't had the good sense to save himself and his family when he could.

"I've only got about another hundred minutes," I answered.

Truett turned his head and whistled. "Suicide trooper." He blinked, but that didn't stop a tear from
running down his cheek. He understood. Without another word he led the way toward the black hole.
"They're all inside," he remarked quietly. "There's thirty of us. Mostly women. Some are just kids," he
added sadly. "I was hoping…" He stopped, looked at Becky, and sighed. "Never mind."

Thirty in the bunker. That meant that all forty were accounted for, counting the three men of Becky's
family, the six Hunter had taken out, Becky, and Truett. Good. "We'll take care of them quickly," I said
and he nodded. Quiet. Yeah, I guess he did know "things."