"Stasheff, Christopher - Warlock 00 - Escape Velocity 1 0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stasheff Christopher)

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Chapter 1

She was a girl. Dar knew it the moment he saw her.

That wasn't as easy as it sounds. Really. Considering that she was shaved bald and was wearing a baggy gray flannel coverall, Dar was doing pretty well to identify her as human, let alone female. It would've been a much better bet that she was a department-store mannequin in one of those bags that are put on them between outfits, to protect them in case somebody with a plastic fetish comes along.

But she moved. That's how Dar knew she was human.

And he was just in from a six-week trading tour and was just about to go out on another one (Cholly, the boss, was shorthanded this month; one of his traders had been caught shaving percentage points with Occam's Razor). Which meant, since the Wolmar natives didn't allow their womenfolk to meet strangers, that for the last six weeks Dar had seen things that were human, and things that were female, but never both at the same time; so he was in a prime state to recognize a girl if one happened along.

This one didn't "happen"-she strode. She nearly swaggered, and she stepped down so hard that Dar suspected she was fighting to keep her hips from rolling. It sort of went with the gray jumpsuit, bald head, and lack of makeup.

She sat down on a bar stool, and waited. And waited. And waited.

The reason she waited so long was that Cholly was alone behind the bar today and was discussing the nature of reality with a corporal; he wasn't about to give up a chance at a soldier.

Not that the girl seemed to mind. She was ostentatiously not looking at the two privates at the other end of the bar. but her ears fairly twitched in their direction.

"He never had a chance," the gray-haired one burbled around his cigar. "He but scarcely looked up, and whap! I had him!"

"Took him out good and proper, hey?" The blond grinned.

"Out! I should say! So far out he an't niver coming back! Mark my words, he'll buy the farm! Buy it for me yet, he will!"

The girl's lips pinched tight, and her throat swelled the way someone's does when they can't hold it in anymore and it's just got to bust loose; and Dar figured he'd better catch it, 'cause the soldiers wouldn't understand.

But Dar would. After six weeks without women, he was ready to understand anything, provided it came from a female.

So he sidled up to lean on the bar, neatly intersecting her line of sight, smiled with all the sincerity he could dredge up, and chirped, "Service is really slow around here, isn't it?"

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."