"Simon R. Green - Deathstalker - 1 - Deathstalker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

somewhere. She ran through the options open to her. It didn't take long. She
couldn't just announce her newfound integrity to her fellow crew members. Not
unless she wanted to see the inside of a body bank the hard way. She could always
jump ship; ride one of the escape pods down to the planet below and lose herself
in the crowds. But Virimonde was a primitive place by all accounts, based around
hard work and damn all luxuries. Not a good place to be stranded on the run.
Especially when there are people looking for you on both sides of the law.

Hazel d'Ark looked around her at the waiting body banks and shuddered, not
entirely from the cold.

What am I going to do? What the hell am I going to do?

Lights flared around her as the ship's alarms went crazy. Hazel winced away from
the sudden blare of sound, her hand dropping automatically to the gun at her side.
Her first thought was a hull breach, but she quickly realized that if there'd been an
explosive decompression in any part of the ship, she'd have felt its effects long
before the sirens went off. She accessed the emergency channel through her comm
implant, and a babble of voices filled her head. It only took her a moment to pick
out the phrase battle stations, and then she was off and running. Someone had
pierced the Shard's cloaking device, and that was supposed to be impossible for
anything less than an Imperial starcruiser. And if the Empire had found them,
there was a very real danger that Hazel d'Ark's career as a clonelegger was over
before it had even begun.

Just my luck, thought Hazel bitterly as she ran out of the cargo bay and headed for
the bridge. Just my luck to get picked up for one of the few crimes I haven't
actually committed.

"Hannah, talk to me. How deep are we in it?"

"I'm afraid you couldn't get much deeper without crouching," the AI said calmly
through her implant. "An Imperial starcruiser has dropped out of hyperspace and
taken up orbit around Virimonde. Their sensors brushed aside our cloaking
devices in well under a second, and it didn't take them much longer to issue a
challenge. I'm currently lying through my electronic teeth, but there's a limit to
how long I can hope to bluff them. And I have a strong suspicion it isn't going to

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be anywhere near long enough for us to raise enough power to escape into
hyperspace."

"Couldn't we make a run for it in normal space?"

"This is an Imperial starcruiser we're discussing. Hazel. They don't come much