"Williamson,.Michael.Z.-.Freehold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williamson Michael Z)

matters. Hopefully her parents wouldn't see this immediately. The
announcer gave a fairly accurate description up to the point where
he claimed she was armed and dangerous and had overpowered
Sergeant Janie Woods, then attempted to run over Sergeant Tom
Anderson as she fled the base "Just seconds ahead of the Military
Police." Kendra snapped it off viciously and strode over to the tub,
which now held six. She snatched off her tunic, almost ripping it,
and jumped in in her underwear. The water was scalding, and
shocked her out of her daze.

"You okay?" Jelsie asked, looking concerned.

"No." After a few seconds of silence, Kendra continued, "I'm
supposed to have attacked two of my friends as I left. They're
probably being interrogated."

"Goddess. That's a pretty slimy trick to pull."

"This isn't going to work," Kendra said, shaking her head sadly. "I
need to go back. If they have Tom, it means either they retrieved
the phone call or they think it suspicious that I got out when I did.
And Janie didn't do anything. They might wind up dead because of
me."

"You won't change that by going back," an older man said. Kendra
recognized him as one of the two who'd been here when she and
Jelsie arrived. She looked at him in curiosity.

"Walter Andropolous," he introduced himself. He was about forty,
very lean with near black skin and had a wire braided through the
entire length of his left ear. "I'm the intelligence analyst here and I
used to be in military intelligence. If they have your friends, it's to
make you come back. You do and they'll rope them in too. If you
stay, they have nothing to go on and might let them go."

"Do you know what they do to people when they interrogate them?"
Kendra asked, teary-eyed.

"In disgusting detail," Andropolous assured her. "And you won't
help them by going back. Your friend Tom risked his life to cover
for you, presumably because he believes you're innocent. Your
coming here took an equal amount of guts. If you skip, you'll be
wasting both of you, because it'll be assumed you're guilty, and I
know how your investigators will proceed with that assumption. The
best thing for you to do is have a drink," he suggested while
handing her a glass, "and display some more of that courage by
not wasting your friends' sacrifices."

Kendra gulped at the glass as Jelsie placed a hand on her
shoulder.