"Kay Kenyon - Maximum Ice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kenyon Kay)

BadтАж something, Zoya guessed. Yes, very bad.

Amid the carnage, one of the crew said, "The man was starv-ing to death."

Someone answered, "What starving man has the strength to do thisT

Janos put an abrupt end to the macabre speculations, order-ing them to bring the bodies on board, all but
the murderer.

Zoya turned to Janos. "I think the man with the harpoon did us a favor. It came too late, but he wasn't
threatening us."

Janos murmured at her, "We'll get his storyтАФif you'd be so kind as to translate, instead of playing
soldier."

"Yes, Lieutenant." She had no will to snipe back at him, here, with three of her people lying dead.

Janos nodded at the crew, and they released the man. The sled man's face was impassive, but turned
dark when he glanced at the man holding his harpoon. Then he looked over at Zoya as though he blamed
her for his loss.

She allowed a crewman to lead her up the ramp. Turning back at the hatchway, she met Janos Bertak's
cold gaze. There was no mistaking it, she had just made an enemy.

But it was for a good cause. Janos couldn't be trusted in command. In the crisis, his impulse was to fire
before aimingтАФ before thinking. Anatolly had wished to present a peaceable face to the world, and it
was a good inclination. One that Janos Bertak didn't share.

As she turned to enter the shuttle, a glint of light caught her eye.

A few hundred feet away, Zoya saw, through the windblown shards of crystal, a violet pulse of light rise
to the surface and disappear again like a drowned shooting star.

тАФ2тАФ

Captain Anatolly Razo walked down Ship corridor at the head of a gaggle of officers and techs, all
talking at once. Cluck, cluck, cluck like geese.

Did he wish to call a general meeting? Did he wish to meet with the families of the murdered crew?
Would he answer a ra-dio call from Janos Bertak? Should the shuttle crew go into quarantine upon their
return? And what about Tereza Bertak? The first mate's wife was in hospital. Suicide or accident, Ship's
priest wanted to know.
That last was one he could answer. He turned in mid-stride to Sandor, his assistant. "Tereza is not dead;
therefore, she is not a suicide."

"No, sir," Sandor replied, "butтАж"

Lieutenant Andropolous elbowed Sandor a bit to one side. "Janos Bertak is on the comm sir, waiting."
As a group they turned down a connecting corridor, where knots of crew mem-bers were gathered in