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

two-week period," he added, a bit of information he hadn't been given until it was all over. Probably
fortunately. "I guess the Army's anxious to get new recruits trained and in service."

"Uh-huh. So... you've said your good-byes and all? Everything settled there?"

Jonny tossed a pair of socks into his suitcase and sat down beside it on his bed. "Jame, I'm too tired
to play tag around the mountain. What exactly is on your mind?"

Jame sighed. "Well, to put it bluntly... Alyse Carne is kind of upset that you didn't discuss this whole
thing with her before you went ahead and did it."

Jonny frowned, searching his memory. He hadn't seen Alyse since the tests began, of course, but
she'd seemed all right the last time they'd been together. "Well, if she is, she didn't say anything to
me about it. Who'd you find out from?"

"Mona Biehl," Jame said. "And of course Alyse wouldn't have told you directly—it's too late for you
to change things now."

"So why are you telling me?"

"Because I think you ought to make an effort to go see her tonight. To show that you still care about
her before you run off to save the rest of humanity."

Something in his brother's voice made Jonny pause, the planned retort dying in his throat. "You
disapprove of what I'm doing, don't you?" he asked quietly.

Jame shook his head. "No, not at all. I'm just worried that you're going into this without really
understanding what you're getting into."

"I'm twenty-one years old, Jame—"

"And have lived all your life in a medium-sized town on a frontier-class world. Face it, Jonny—you
function well enough here, but you're about to tackle three unknowns at the same time: mainstream
Dominion society, the Army, and war itself. That's a pretty potent set of opponents."

Jonny sighed. Coming from anyone else, words like that would have been grounds for a strong
denial... but Jame had an innate understanding of people that Jonny had long since come to trust.
"The only alternative to facing unknowns is to stay in this room the rest of my life," he pointed out.

"I know—and I don't have any great suggestions for you, either." Jame waved helplessly. "I guess I
just wanted to make sure you at least were leaving here with your eyes open."

"Yeah. Thanks." Jonny sent his gaze slowly around the room, seeing things that he'd stopped
noticing years ago. Now, almost a week after his decision, it was finally starting to sink in that he
was leaving all this.

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