"David Drake - Hammer's Slammers 15 - Grimmer Than Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

casualty of the next firefight.

"No, Corporal Dodd," said Kowacs. "Admiral Mayne is planning coordinator for this mission, but
neither he nor any nephews of his have anything behind-the-scenes to do with it."

He glared at his assembled company.

The behind-the-scenes order had come from Grand Admiral Forberry; and it was Forberry's son, not a
nephew, who'd been snatchedтАФno body recovered, at any rateтАФwhen the Khalians raided the Pleasure
Dome on Iknaton five years before.
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Nobody else spoke up; even Dodd looked abashed.

Kowacs gazed at the hundred and three pairs of waiting eyesтАФwondered how many of them would
have any life behind them in twenty-four hoursтАФ

Sighed and thumbed the handset controlling the holo projector.

The image that formed above Kowacs' head was fuzzy. The unit was intended for use in a shielded
environment, while the bay of the landing shipBonnie Parker was alive with circuits and charged metal.

No matter: this was the 121stMarine Reaction Company, not an architectural congress. The projector
would do for the job.

"Fleet Intelligence believes this site to be the Khalians' major holding facility for human prisoners on
Target," Kowacs said, referencing the hologram with a nod. "Their slave pen. Reconnaissance indicates
that slave ships land at a pad three kilometers distantтАФ"

A second hologram bloomed briefly, the scale of distance merging it with one wall of the big room.

"тАФand their cargoes are carried to the holding facility by air trucks which touch down on the roof of the
Administration Building," Kowacs continued as the image of the outlying spaceport disappeared. The
building in the center of the main hologram brightened and began to rotate in three dimensions while the
Marines squinted.

"Based on analysis of captured Khalian structures," Kowacs said, "Intelligence believes the building is an
integral polyborate casting, probably of two above-ground levelsтАФ"

"That high and the weasels only got two floors?" demanded a sergeant from the Heavy Weapons
platoon. She was concerned, not gibing like Dodd earlier. "Them little bastards, theylike low ceilings."

"Good point, Sergeant Rozelle," Kowacs said, as if he liked to be interrupted . . . but soldiers who were
too dumb to think for themselves were too dumb to trust with your life in a reaction company.
"Intelligence believes the building is scaled to the needs of humanтАФslaveтАФintake. But there aren't any
windows, and there may well be a third level inside."