"Flint, Eric - Weber, David - Honorverse SS - From the Highlands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flewelling Lynn)

complying."
Zilwicki's only response was a faint snort. He returned the martial
artist's scrutiny with one of his own.
Robert Tye had been the first person Anton contacted after he
discovered Helen's abduction when he returned to his apartment
the previous evening. The captain was still not quite certain why
he had done so. He had acted out of impulse, and Anton was not
by nature and habit an impulsive man.
Slowly, Anton took a seat on a nearby couch, thinking all the
while. He and Helen had been on Terra for slightly over four
years. Because of his duties in the Navy, Anton had lived a rather
peripatetic life and he was sometimes concerned over the toll
that took on Helen. Having to change schools and sets of friends
frequently was difficult for a child.
But his daughter, to his surprise, had greeted the announced
move to Chicago with enthusiasm. Helen, following in her
mother's footsteps, had begun studying the martial arts at the
age of six. As was his daughter's habitЧher father's child, in
thisЧHelen had studied the lore of the art as well as the art itself.
To her, Chicago meant only one thing: the opportunity to study
under one of the galaxy's most legendary martial artists.
Anton had been worried that Tye would not accept a young girl
for a student. But the martial artist had done so readily. At his
age, Tye had once told Anton, he found the presence of children
a comfort. And, in the years which followed, Helen's sensei had
become a part of their little family. More like a grandfather, in
many ways, than anything else.
"Are you sure you want to be part of this, Robert?" he asked
abruptly. "I'm not sure it was right for me to get you involved.
Whatever I wind up doing, it's bound to beЧ"
"Dangerous?" suggested Tye, smiling.
Anton chuckled. "I was going to say: illegal. Highly illegal."
The martial artist's shoulders moved in a slight shrug. "That does
not concern me. But are you so certain your superiors are in
error?"
Zilwicki's jaws tightened. His already square face now looked like
a solid cube of iron.
"Trust me, Robert. Something like this is completely out of
character for Peep intelligence. And they've got nothing to gain."
His expression changed. Not softening so much as simply
becoming more thoughtful. "By the nature of my position in
Manticoran intelligence, I don't know anything of real use to the
Peeps anyway. Not enough, that's for sure, to warrant such a
risky gambit." He moved a hand across his knee, as if brushing
off a fly. "The Admiral thinks the Peeps are engaging in a long-
run maneuver, designed to turn me into an ongoing conduit for
disinformation. Which is probably the single most asinine thing
that asinine man has ever said in his life."
The martial artist cocked his head a bit. The gesture was a subtle
suggestion that the captain's own subtlety had escaped Tye's