"Clancy, Tom - Op-Center 04 - Acts of War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clancy Tom)

Helluva machine Matt and Mary Rose
designed. K. keeps you young, Lowell."
"Learning about Batman and the ROC aren't
exactly things to live for," Coffey said. "And as
far as your ancient Turks are concerned, with all the
planting and sowing and irrigating and rock-hauling those
people did, forty years old probably felt like
eighty."
"True enough."
"And their life's work was probably the same job
they'd been doing since they were ten," Coffey said.
"Nowadays we're supposed to live longer and
evolve, professionally."
"You trying to say you haven't?" Katzen asked.
"I've evolved like the dodo," Coffey said.
"Stasis and then extinction. By this time in my
life I always thought I'd be an international heavy
hitter, working for the President and negotiating
trade and peace accords."
"Ease up, Lowell," Katzen said. "You're
in the arena."
"Yeah," Coffey replied. "The nosebleed
seats. I'm working for a low-profile government
agency nobody's ever heard of---"
"Low-profile doesn't mean lack of
distinction," Katzen pointed out.
"It does in my end of the arena," Coffey
replied. "I work in a basement at Andrews Air
Force Base--not even Washington, D.c., for
God's sake--brokering necessary but unexciting deals
with grudgingly hospitable nations like Turkey so that
we can all spy on even less hospitable nations like
Syria. On top of that, I'm roasting in the
freakin' desert, sweat running down my legs
into my goddamn socks, instead of arguing First
Amendment cases in front of the Supreme
Court."
"You're also starting to whine," Katzen said.
"Guilty," Coffey said. "Birthday boy's
prerogative."
Katzen pushed up the back of Coffey's
felted wool Australian Outback hat so it
covered his eyes. "Lighten up. Not every useful job
has to be a sexy one."
"It isn't that," Coffey replied. "Well,
maybe just a little it is." He removed the Outback
hat, used his index finger to wipe sweat from around the
band, then settled the hat back on his dirty
blond hair. "I guess what I'm really saying
is that I was a law prodigy, Phil. The