"Gordon Eklund - Serving in Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

noticed that window over there in the wall?"

Jan nodded tensely. "I tried to look out it."

"Good, because that makes it easier to explain. That window
happens to look out on what is called the time-void. It is a
portion of the physical universe that exists outside of time. It is
used by the corps as a vehicle for traveling from one time to
another. This academy has been built smack in the middle of it.
If you quit the corps or if later you are busted from training,
then out there is where you go. It's cruel but it's necessary. The
corps cannot afford to have possibly disloyal former corpsmen
walking around free with all sorts of explosive knowledge at their
disposal."

"Why not?" Jan said.

But Gail seemed to recognize the question as mere diversion
and she chose to ignore it. "So the choice is strictly yours,
Jeroux. You can elect to stay here and attend classes and maybe
even graduate from the Academy. Or you can quitтАФand out you
go."

Jan believed her. He did not think her threat was shear bluff.
They had kidnapped him. Whatever was outside that
windowтАФtimevoid or notтАФwas surely real. These were serious
people. "Do you want me to say it?"

She nodded and grinned nastily: "That might be fun."

"Then I'm staying," Jan said.


CHAPTER FOUR
"All right," Mallory said, stepping away from the open door.
He raised an arm above his head and let it drop swiftly, like an
axe. "Second squadтАФget in there."

These casual words struck Jan like a painful blow to the body,
but his feet were too well-trained by this time to resist, and he
ended up moving obediently forward in line with his classmates.
The file of green-suited trainees passed through the open door
and entered the small dark room beyond. Four neat rows of
folding chairs had been crammed into the limited space between
the stage and the door. Jan's squad occupied the second row. At
a signal from Whitlow, who stood upon the stage, they sat down
in unison. None relaxed. They all sat stiffly, at attention, hands
on knees, spines not touching the backs of their chairs.

Jan himself might have been trembling. Whitlow kept