"James Alan Gardner - League of Peoples 04 - Hunted" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

stumbled up against the man in pink pajamas and they grabbed each other in a tight hug, the drunk's arms
reaching out of the roach's chest, the pajama man's head disappearing through the roach's mandibles. He
must have been leaning in to rest his cheek on the drunk's shoulder.

Gong.

Four seconds of silence.

Gong.

Everyone had stopped talking, but I could hear somebody sniffling back tears. And somebody else
praying. And somebody whispering, "Please, please, please..."

Gong.

Then I gasped as someone new came through the door: someone wearing the holo of a Mandasar
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hive-queen, sulphur yellow, four meters long, built like a four-clawed lobster with a huge brain-hump on
her back. Her venom glands were fat and inflamedтАФdays past the time she should have been milked.
Even though I could tell it was only a holo, the sight still made me flinch.

Remembering what happened to Samantha.

The man in silk pajamas saw the queen and screamed. He wasn't the only one: people shouted and
wailed all over the room, till a voice inside the queen said, "At ease, damn it, it's only me."

"Christ Almighty!" the man in pajamas said, pressing a hand against his chest. "You nearly gave us a
heart attack, Captain."

"He should have worn something different," whispered the woman in my arms. "He's the captain; he
should know better."

Gong.

"What's the count?" she asked suddenly.

"I don't know." My mind had shut down for a moment when I saw the hive-queen. I might have missed a
gong or two.

"What's the count?" my admiral called to the room.

No one answered. Faces looked wildly at each other, some of them going pale... as if no one had kept
track of the tolling.

Gong.