"Williamson,.Michael.Z.-.Freehold.02.-.The.Weapon.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Michael Z)

wasn't much of a knife. Just a bar of steel with a crudely ground
and serrated edge with a chisel point ahead of a tape-wrapped hilt,
but it would suffice for this. And I'd been in a hurry.

Goon One looked shocked as I ripped it through his braided
oxygen hose. He gaped like a fish, then gulped as I had while Tom
caught him from behind and tangled with him. As Goon Two
approached to see what the problem was and lend assistance, I
swung over him and jammed the armor-piercing point into the edge
of his faceplate, near the gasket. He imitated a carp also, and I
twisted over him and back into the airlock, clutching for the safety
bar. Tom was waiting, having levered the first goon out into space
while I dealt with the second one.

As air roared into the lock from soprano to basso, the sweetest
music anywhere, I heaved several deep breaths, the blotches in
front of my eyes fading along with the twanging in my ears. I then
opened the inner hatch, we swam inside and waited for the
inevitable response one gets for outwitting the instructors.

They both tumbled back in a few seconds later, coughing and
gasping. They proceeded to verbally ream us meter-wide rectums.
I was worried it might actually turn into a real fight, when Captain
Ntanga swam in from his observation post.

"Brace up!" he snapped. We did. It looks odd in microgravity. "I'm
disgusted," he said. "How in the name of God and Goddess did
you two screwups let a student get a blade in here?"

As they looked stunned and sheepish, he turned to me and said,
"Chinran, you are a devious, non-regulation, bloodthirsty, vicious,
murderous little bastard. You'll go far. If you live long enough."
Then he left and it did turn into a real fight. I'm sure he knew it, he
just pretended not to see it.

Higher praise a student cannot get.

* * *

It always bothers civilians, and more than a few military personnel,
that it is a required part of our training to practice suffocation,
drowning and surviving torture. But they're just exercises. We
cannot, ever, panic in an emergency. We've made a career field
out of hypoxia and pain.

Let me start at the beginning. This will be graphic, so don't read it if
violence and human suffering bother you.

Everyone has heard of Black Operations, the utterly clandestine
division of Freehold Military Forces Special Warfare. You probably