"Evans,.Linda.-.Sleipnir" - читать интересную книгу автора (Evans Linda)

the gods tonight, good buddy."

As we started down the access road that led up toward the main
missile site, I growled morosely, "Odin help us if we run into
trouble."

"Odin, huh?" Gary's ugly face broke into a lopsided grin. "The
fledgling pagan speaks."

"You're a good one to talk about pagans, Vernon."

He laughed. "Yeah. Well . . ."

The little gold Thor's hammer I wore beneath my shirt moved on its
chain as I shrugged. "I wish more of those old stories had
survived. It's really great stuff. Whoring, drinking, fighting off the
bad guys against all oddsЧour kind of guys."

"Kind of thought you might like that," he laughed.

I grinned; then we headed into the woodline and fell silent. It hadn't
snowed yet. The iron-hard ground was littered with leaf debris, all
of it tinder-dry. It was tough to move without making enough noise
to wake the dead. Thanks to the full moon, ghostly white light fell in
odd bright patches. The forest floor was a nightmare of shadows
and light. Where moonlight cut across low-hanging branches, hard
black lines ended abruptly in a tangle of silver limbs, confusing the
eyes and distorting depth perception. Patches of shapeless grey
where low-hanging pine boughs brushed the ground made it hard
to see what was pine tree and what might be a foreign object under
it.

With this lighting, we could run across anything from a wild boar to
a Soviet Spetznaz platoon, and not even see it. Of course,
realistically speaking, we'd probably either run into ragheads or
nothing at all. I figured it was just a matter of time before one of the
groups hit a nuke site. They didn't even need to carry off any
warheadsЧjust blowing up a Pershing or three would generate the
desired effect, and be much easier.

I could see the headlines nowЧU.S. NUCLEAR M
ISSILE EXPLODES. Ought to do wonders for our political
and military presence in Europe. Not that any of the little incidents
we'd had with terrorists over the past few months had made it into
the press. They hadn't. Not one. And we soldier-types were
expected to keep the world safe for democracyЧwithout bullets? I
shuddered. Stupid peacetime army . . .

One of these nights I was going to get backed into a tight enough
jam to make a pact with Odin myself, and see where it got me. All

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263646566676869707172737475767778798081828384858687888990919293949596979899100101102103104105106107108109110111112113114115116117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151152153154155156157158159160161162163164165166167168169170171172173174175176177178179180181182183184185186187188189190191192193194195196197198199200201202203204205206207208209210211212213214215216217218219220221222223224225226227228229230231232233234235236237238239240