"Alexander Jablokov - Deep Drive" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jablokov Alexander)

Each member of Kammer and Kun's expedition carried cash in a secure module in his shoulder blade. In
a true expression of trust, the cash was arranged in that ancient gentleman/adventurers' form of financial
trust, the tontine. Survivors could call up the access codes of the dead and drain their valuta stores. Soph
had visions of a failed expedition, its goal forgotten, but with various members hunting each other down
for the remaining expeditionary cash in each others' scapulas.

"I don't think it will come to that," Kun said. "Really, Soph. I'll never kill you for the money in your
shoulder."

A proximity alarm buzzed in Soph's mastoid bone. Too bad that it would wake up her team. They
needed the sleep. But perhaps they needed the alert practice more. She leaned out into the rushing
darkness, expecting to see some large high-flying bird curiously investigating the huge airship.

Instead, what she saw was the flicker of copter blades.

"Down, Kun!"

Together they rolled behind a chrysalis and scuttled backward. Soph could hear her team yelping
questions in the darkness.

"Who the hell is that?" Soph asked. Now that she knew what to look for, she saw several more of the
sound-screened aircraft hovering just beyond the first one. They vectored in.

"Enforcement & Joy. They won't fire yet. All this hydrogen, and no one wants to piss the Bgarth off by
blowing up a biopackage carrier. Who knows what the Bgarth might do? Take away the oxygen
atmosphere, maybe. People are always terrified that will happen."

Kun was panicked, babbling.

"Venusians are such worrywarts," Soph said. "Kammer!"

"No need to yell." Kammer appeared at her side and handed her a shoulder-launched antiaircraft
munition from stores. Kammer's munition was already crouched tensely on
DEEPDRIVE 13

her shoulder like a waiting hawk. She pulled on a control gauntlet and pointed at the nearest copter,
which was only meters away. A thud, an almost subliminal flash of explosive, and it tilted and fell away
into the darkness.

"I don't know who the hell they think they're dealing with," Kammer muttered.

Soph aimed her own munition and fired. But hers vanished into the darkness, and the copter she had
aimed it at moved in unharmed. They had turned on their countermeasuresтАФ and Soph was sure that the
penetration software in the munitions she had bought in Copernicus was months if not years out of date.
The lead copter had been destroyed through its own overconfidence.

As the attackers came closer, they opened fire to cover their landing. Soph and Kammer ducked. A
copter bounced against the underside of the biopackage at the stern, and troops with black
image-amplification face masks spilled out of it. On each glared two green laser-grained eyespots, a
visible sign of authority. They fanned out among the chrysalises.