"Dafydd ab Hugh, Brad Linaweawer DOOM: Hell on Earth (english)" - читать интересную книгу автораyou a lesson. At such times, it is advisable to carry an
equalizer." "Like this?" Arlene asked, bending down to re- trieve an AB-10 machine pistol, her personal fave. Every little bit helps. "If my friend had one of those in her purse—" I began, but Arlene interrupted. "Too long to get it out. I like to carry on my person." "Yeah, yeah. I was about to say if she had carried, she might be alive today." Arlene stopped rummaging through the contents of a UAC crate and looked up. "Oh, Fly, I'm sorry." "Sometimes you get the lesson only one time, and it's pass-fail." I playfully poked the air in her direc- tion. "Welcome back," I said. "What do you mean?" she asked, squinting at me the way she always did when I made her defensive. "You can feel again, dear." "Oh," she said, her body becoming more relaxed. "You're right. One person means something. Well, sometimes . . . if there aren't too many one persons." "One's real. There's the body on the floor. A million is just a statistic, no matter how much screaming the professional mourner does." We didn't talk for a little while. We continued gather- ing goodies en route to the shed. It didn't take long to locate; the good news was that it was large and apparently well-stocked. It would take days to go through all the crates and boxes; but if the labels on the outside were accurate, we'd discovered a much larger inventory of parts than I would have imagined necessary for Deimos Base. The bad news was a complete absence of ships in any state of assembly. There was nothing to fly! "Well jeez, I thought it was a great idea," said Arlene. "Too bad it flopped." Somehow it seemed immoral to give up hope while standing inside Santa's workshop. I began examining some of the boxes while Arlene kicked one across the room; but that didn't bother me, she was never meant for the modern age she was born into. She'd have been more homey as a freebooter in the days of blood and iron, when one physically competent woman did enough in her lifetime to breed legends of lost, Amazonian races of warrior queens. She had guts; she had cold steel will. She didn't have patience, but what the hell! I didn't think I would face death as well as she. I'd |
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