"Doohan, James & Stirling, S M - Flight Engineer 02 - The Privateer 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doohan James)

Scaragoglu laughed dryly.

"That boy is in trouble, Captain. Grettirson meant what he said about a
desk assignment for him."

"At least he'll be alive," Sjarhir said, meeting the African's eyes.

"Oh," Scaragoglu said, raising his brows in polite inquiry. "Is that what
you'd call it?" He leaned forward, his dark eyes hardening. "For a man
like Raeder you'd call that living?" The word was freighted with contempt.
"That man is a warrior, Sjarhir, not a data twiddler. It would be a waste
of his talents and a waste of the man. A year in a job pushing statistics
around and he'll be as useless to himself as he'll be to us."

"Then it's pure altruism, sir?" the captain asked casually. "You'd rescue
him by giving him an assignment that's likely to get him killed?"

Scaragoglu leaned back slowly, his eyes never leaving Sjarhir's face.

"Is that what you think I do, Captain? Choose people solely to get them
killed?" His gaze sharpened, and though this was a game they'd played for
years Sjarhir's mouth went dry. After a moment the Marine general spoke
again, but he allowed Sjarhir to see that he was angry, though his voice
was calm. "Dangerous, high-risk assignments are constantly coming our
way," he said. "That is a fact of war, Captain. I choose the men and women
least likely to get killed on those assignments. That is my particular
gift and my curse. Fact," he said and leaned forward again. "Raeder can
either be alive and at risk, or he can be a zombie in a dead-end cubicle
job. I know which I'd choose." He tilted his head. "And I can guess which
you'd choose for yourself. Are you going to help me or not?"

Sjarhir allowed himself to look surprised.

"Why do you need my help, sir? You pretty much have carte blanche when it
comes to recruiting."

Scaragoglu laughed, this time with genuine amusement.

"Because I could see by the way he looked at me that Commander Raeder has
heard all the nasty rumors about my puppet-master proclivities. All the
really independent ones have trouble with that at first. If someone he can
trust gives him the nod and tells him I'm okay-" Scaragoglu shrugged
"-it'll smooth the way."

"But General, I don't trust you."

Scaragoglu raised his brows.

"You've been on assignments for me before this, Captain."