"Christopher Stasheff - Warlock 01 - Escape Velocity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

She got that blank look of total surprise for a minute; then her lip curled, and she spat, "Yes,
unless you're looking for death! You seem to dish it up awfully fast around here, just because
you're wearing a uniform!"

" 'Uniform'?" Dar looked down at his heavy green coveralls and mackinaw, then glanced over at
the two soldiers, who were looking surprised and thinking about feeling offended. He turned back
to the girl, and said quickly. " 'Fraid I don't follow you, miz. Hasn't been a killing around here all
year."

"Sure," she retorted, "it's January seventh. And what were those two bums over there talking
about, if it wasn't murder?"

She had to point. She just had to. Making sure Dar couldn't pretend she'd been talking about two
CPOs walking by in the street, no doubt. To make it worse, judging by their accents, the two
privates were from New Perth, where "bum" had a very specific meaning that had absolutely
nothing to do with unemployment.

The older private opened his mouth for a bellow, but Dar cut in quicken "Points, miz. You can
believe me or not, but they were talking about points."

She looked doubtful for a fraction of a second, but only a fraction. Then her face firmed up again
with the look of someone who's absolutely sure that she's right, especially if she's wrong. She
demanded, "Why should I believe you? What are you, if you aren't a soldier?"

Dar screwed up his hopes and tried to look casual. "Well, I used to be a pilot ..."

"Am I supposed to be impressed?" she said sourly.

"They told me girls would be, when I enlisted." Dar sighed. "It's got to work sometime."

"I thought this planet was an Army prison."

"It is. The Army has ships too."

"Why?" She frowned. "Doesn't it trust the Navy to do its shipping?"

"Something like that."

"You say that with authority. What kind of ship did you pilot-a barge?"

"A space tug," Dar admitted.
She nodded. "What are you now?"

Dar shrugged, and tried to look meek. "A trader"

"A trader!" She spoke with such gleeful indignation that even Cholly looked up-for a second,
anyway. "So you're one of the vampires who're victimizing the poor, helpless natives!"

"Helpless!" the old private snorted-well, roared, really; and Dar scratched his head and said,