"Bolo Rising" - читать интересную книгу автора (Keith jr William H)

Some of them are armed with personal side arms or improvised melee weaponry." "Let them come," Jaime replied. They could be turners, of course, but no weapons they could possibly have would be a threat to the armored mountain now slowly crawling out of the bay. He leaned forward slightly, trying to see through the sleeting rain. / would have had a better view from the Battle Center, he thought. But it feels so damned remote, buried away in mat lead-wrapped bunker. Metal, still hot despite the sluicing rain, popped and pinged on the turret facing and Hellbore mount behind him as it cooled. "The nearest party of humans is now five meters from my left forward track. Bearing three-three-five, relative." Jaime looked in the indicated direction. Shapes were just beginning to materialize out of the downpour, bedraggled human shapes gathering in the mud alongside the Bolo's huge left forward track, peering up into the rain. Jaime recognized Dieter and waved, and a moment later the man was scrambling up one of the access ladders threading up Hector's skirts and armored sides. Two others followed, while the rest waited at the base of the Bolo's tracks. "My God," Dieter said a few minutes later as Jaime reached out and gravely clasped his hand. He looked around, a little wildly. "You actually did it!" "I didn't realize things were going to get quite that hot," Jaime replied. He had to shout to make himself heard above the hissing rain. He looked at the other two men as they scrambled up onto the wet deck. "Gentlemen? Welcome aboard." "Sergeant Jack Haley, reporting," the first man up said, saluting crisply. Haley had only one eye, with a puckered socket where his left eye had been. He was clad in a poorly fitting, mud- and blood-stained camp 174 William H. Keith, Jr. guards uniform. The faceted red lens of a clacker's electronic eye was centered against his forehead, held in place by wires twisted together in the back of his head. "An" this here's Sergeant Xin." Xin, too, wore a guard's appropriated uniform an