"Timothy Zahn - Cobra 1 - Cobra" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

"Pearce!" Irena turned stunned eyes on him.

Pearce shook his head heavily. "We can't stand in his way," he told her. "Can't you hear how he's
talking? He's already ninety percent decided on this. He's an adult now, with the right and
responsibility of his own decisions." He shifted his gaze to Jonny. "Go see the recruiters; but
promise me you'll talk with us again before you make your final decision. Deal?"

"Deal," Jonny nodded, feeling the tension within him draining away. Volunteering to go fight a war
was one thing: scary, but on a remote and almost abstract level. The battle for his family's support
had loomed far more terrifyingly before him, with potential costs he hadn't wanted to contemplate.
"I'll be back in a few hours," he said, taking the keys from his father and heading for the door.



The Joint Military Command recruiting office had been in the same city hall office for over three
decades, and it occurred to Jonny as he approached it that he was likely following the same path his
father had taken to his own enlistment some twenty-eight years previously. Then, the enemy had
been the Minthisti, and Pearce Moreau had fought from the torpedo deck of a Star Force
dreadnaught.

This war was different, though; and while Jonny had always admired the romance of the Star Forces,
he had already decided to choose a less glamorous—but perhaps more effective—position.

"Army, eh?" the recruiter repeated, cocking an eyebrow as she studied Jonny from behind her desk.
"Excuse my surprise, but we don't get a lot of volunteers for Army service here. Most kids your age
would rather fly around in star ships or air fighters. Mind if I ask your reasons?"

Jonny nodded, trying not to let the recruiter's faintly condescending manner get to him. Chances
were good it was a standard part of the interview, designed to get a first approximation of the
applicant's irritation threshold. "It seems to me that if the Troft advance continues to push the Star
Forces back, we're going to lose more planets to them. That's going to leave the civilians there pretty
much at their mercy... unless the Army already has guerrilla units in place to coordinate resistance.
That's the sort of thing I'm hoping to do."

The recruiter nodded thoughtfully. "So you want to be a guerrilla fighter?"

"I want to help the people," Jonny corrected.

"Um." Reaching for her terminal, she tapped in Jonny's name and ID code; and as she skimmed the
information that printed out, she again cocked an eyebrow. "Impressive," she said, without any
sarcasm Jonny could hear. "Grade point high school, grade point college, personality index... you
have any interest in officer training?"


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Cobra

Jonny shrugged. "Not that much, but I'll take it if that's where I can do the most good. I don't mind
just being an ordinary soldier, though, if that's what you're getting at."