"David Drake - Hammer's Slammers 04 - Counting The Cost (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

beyond the concrete were the inevitable froth
speckling moving water, the channel or the ocean
itselfтАФand the water looked cursed close to
somebody who'd just spent six months on a place as dry
as Miesel.

"Where do they put the warehouses?" Tyl asked.
"Don't they flood?"

"Every three months or so they would," the
crewman agreed. "That's why they're on the
mainland, in Bamberg City, where there's ten meters
of cliff and seawall t' keep 'em dry. But out here's
flat, and I guess they figured they'd sooner the
landing point be on the island in case somebody,
you know, landed a mite hard."

The crewman grinned tightly. Tyl grinned back.
They were both professionals in fields that in-
volved risks. People who couldn't joke about the
risks of the jobs they'd chosen tended to find
other lines of work in a hurry.

The ones who survived.

"Well, I guess it's clear," Tyl said with enough
question in his tone to expect a warning if he were
wrong. "There'll be ground transport coming?"

"Yeah, hovercraft from Bamberg real soon," the
crewman agreed. "But look, there's a shelter on
the other side a' that bucket there. You might
want to get over to it right quick. There's some
others in orbit after us, and it can be pretty inter-
esting t' be out on the field when it's this wet and
there's more ships landing."

Tyl nodded to the man and strode down the
ramp that had been the lower third of the hatch
door. He was nervous, but it'd all be fine soon.
He'd be back with his unit and not alone, the way
he'd been on the shipтАФ
And for the whole six months he'd spent with
his family and a planet full of civilians who under-
stood his words but not his language.

The mainland shore, a kilometer across Nevis
Channel, was a comiche. The harsh cliffs were
notched by the mouth of the wide river which was
responsible for Bamberg City's location and the