"Joe Haldeman - The Forever War (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

FOREVER WAR
PRIVATE MANDELLA
1
"Tonight we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man." The guy who said that was a
sergeant who didn't look five years older than me. So if he'd ever killed a man in combat,
silently or otherwise, he'd done it as an infant.
I already knew eighty ways to. kill people, but most of them were pretty noisy. I sat up straight
in my chair and assumed a look of polite attention and fell asleep with my eyes open. So did most
everybody else. We'd learned that they never scheduled anything important for these after-chop
classes.
The projector woke me up and I sat through a short tape showing the "eight silent ways." Some of
the actors must have been brainwipes, since they were actually killed.
After the tape a girl in the front row raised her hand. The sergeant nodded at her and she rose to
parade rest. Not bad looking, but kind of chunky about the neck and shoulders. Everybody gets that


file:///F|/rah/Joe%20Haldeman/Haldeman,%20Joe%20-%20Forever%20War,%20The.txt (1 of 107) [1/15/03 7:21:55 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Joe%20Haldeman/Haldeman,%20Joe%20-%20Forever%20War,%20The.txt

way after carrying a heavy pack around for a couple of months.
"Sir"-we had to call sergeants "sir" until graduation- "most of those methods, really, they
looked. . . kind of silly."
"For instance?"
"Like killing a man with a blow to the kidneys, from an entrenching tool. I mean, when would you
actualiy have only an entrenching tool, and no gun or knife? And why not just bash him over the
head with it?"
"He might have a helmet on," he said reasonably.
"Besides, Taurans probably don't even have kidneys!" He shrugged. "Probably they don't." This was
1997, and nobody had ever seen a Tauran; hadn't even found any pieces of Taurans bigger than a
scorched chromosome.
"But their body chemistry is similar to ours, and we have to assume they're similarly complex
creatures. They must
3
4
Joe Haldeman
have weaknesses, vulnerable spots. You have to find out
where they are.
"That's the important thing." He stabbed a finger at the screen. "Those eight convicts got caulked
for your benefit because you've got to find out how to kill Taurans, and be
able to do it whether you have a megawatt laser or an emery
board."
She sat back down, not looking too convinced.
"Any more questions?" Nobody raised a hand.
"OK. Tench-hut!" We staggered upright and be looked at us expectantly.
"Fuck you, sir," came the familiar tired chorus.
"Louder!"
"FUCK YOU, SIR!" One of the army's less-inspired morale devices.
"That's better. Don't forget. pie-dawn maneuvers tomorrow. Chop at 0330, first formation, 0400.
Anybody sacked after 0340 owes one stripe. Dismissed."
I zipped up my coverall and went across the snow to the lounge for a cup of soya and a joint. I'd