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

Hunter and the scouts had already converged on the hole and were dropping through, one after another.
I had no doubts of their effectiveness.

"What's it like for you?" Truett said. He was holding Becky tightly in his arms.

"Being here, or being a soldier?" I answered.

"Both. I can't see how you can be so cold and distant. Hell, man, can't you at least show some emotion?
Or are you mostly machine now?" His voice was a mixture of anger and fear.

"I grew up on a farm," I said slowly, trying to dredge up memories of a happier past on a planet now lost
beyond redemption. "I still remember the smell of autumn, the feeling of mud between my toes, and how
it felt to kill my prize sheep when it was time. This mission's no different. I do what I have to do because
there are worse things for a human being than dying."

"I saw the news tapes," he said. "Ugly. Horrible. But what about your own hide? Don't you have any
sense of self-preservation?"

"When you've been taken care of, we'll go after the Shardies," I bit out. "Our secondary mission is to
gather whatever data we can and squirt a message to the fleet. After that, well, there's four, five thousand
tons of explosive force in our packs." I patted the small canister strapped to my back. "I figure a
dead-man switch will take care of them if we get close."

Truett smiled. "Brave, but it was a foolish waste of resources to come back for us. We made our own
mess—stupid as it was to believe Robbarts—and we deserve to lie in it."

I checked the time. We only had fifteen minutes of good time left. Hunter was taking far too long.
"I'm sorry," I said quickly. "You don't have any time left."

Truett grabbed my hand and squeezed. "I just want you to know…" he began and then choked off
whatever he was going to say. Instead he slapped my shoulder. "Yeah." I could tell he was trying hard
not to cry, but his voice cracked at the end. "Well,"' he said to Becky. "Looks like we've got a ship to
catch," he said cheerily.

Hunter popped out of the hole and came toward me at a run. "We're done," he said quickly. Moments
later, the ground surged upward with a roar as smoke and flame shot from the burrow's entrance. If that
didn't get the Shardies' attention, nothing would.

"Becky," I said, and gently took her from Truett's arms. "It's time to go."

"Is the ship coming?" Becky asked excitedly as she squirmed around in my arms. "I don't see it."

"It's up there in the sky," Truett said very gently. "Just look up. There, to the right of that big, bright red
star." Becky tilted her head back to look almost directly overhead.

I brought my forearm across her throat and held her as she died. I hoped that she didn't have enough
time to realize what I had done. What I had to do.

Hunter had taken care of Truett without a struggle. He too had been looking up, as if he might have
believed his own words.