"13 Sentinels 01 - The Devils Hand" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

"Colonel Wolff and Commander Breetai have pulled out of Tiresia with scarcely half their command, sir. Latest reports shows them in sector November Romeo-"
"Admiral!" a second tech shouted from farther along the threat-board console. "Priority transmission from the GMU."
"Go ahead," Rick told him.
The tech listened for a moment, then swiveled to face Rick again. "They say they're receiving transmissions. From Tirol, sir-from somewhere in the city. The message is in Zentraedi, sir."
"Have they identified themselves?"
"Negative, sir, other than to say they are Tiresians, and that they have important intelligence for our forces."
"A trick," Edwards spat. "An Invid trick. They've been sending in false messages all morning."
Rick regarded him a moment, then turned to Max. "Scramble the Skull, Commander. Get down there and lend support."
"Aye, aye, sir." Max saluted, leaving the room in a rush.
"Tell Commander Grant to continue monitoring transmission," Rick instructed the tech. "I want them to patch us in so we can hear it for ourselves." Rick slapped his hand down on a mike switch. "Notify Exedore and Dr. Lang to meet me in the briefing room. I'm on my way now!"
Rick ran for the door, already considering the decisions he would have to make.


CHAPTER TEN
Cabell's age was incalculable, as had been the case with Exedore, Breetai, and several other Zentraedis who'd permitted Zand's team to study them. But whereas the warrior clones had been "birthed" full-size and ageless, Cabell had enjoyed an actual childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. His decision to undergo the Protoculture treatments that fixed his age was a conscious one. It has yet to be demonstrated how DNA and Protoculture combine to allow this miracle to occur. Like the Micronization process, it remains a complete mystery.
Louie Nichols, BeeZee: The Galaxy Before Zor

"My name is Cabell. I am Tirollan scientist. Our people are being held prisoner by the Invid in structures throughout the city. The Invid ships and Inorganics are receiving their orders from a computer that has been placed in Tiresia's Royal Hall. To defeat them, you must destroy the computer. And you must do this quickly. The Invid are many and merciless. Reinforcements will arrive if you do not take immediate action. My life is now forfeit; but I place the future of this world in your hands. Act swiftly, Humans, and be equally as merciless. For there is much more at stake than this tiny moon."
Cabell repeated the message twice more, then shut down the com device and turned to Rem. "Well, that does it, my boy. We have compromised our location."
Rem answered him in a determined voice. "But we may have saved Tirol, Cabell."
The old man began to look around the room, his face a mixture of rapture and longing. He ran his long fingers over the console. "Such a waste...What wonders we had at our disposal, what miracles we could have worked in the Quadrant."
Rem raised his eyes to the ceiling, as a sound like distant thunder shook the lab. This was followed by the sibilant burst of faraway energy beams. "It's too late for dreams, Cabell."
"I fear you're right. Their search has commenced."
Rem reactivated the communicator and gestured to the console audio pickups. "Repeat your message. We have nothing more to lose."

"The transmission is being repeated," the Invid brain informed Obsim.
"Pinpoint the source, computer."
A wiggling current coursed over folds of computer cortex. "Below this very chamber. There are vaults and corridors, a mazelike complex."
Obsim swung to an Enforcer lieutenant. "I want the Inorganics to flush them out. Tell your troops to stand by."
The soldier saluted and left the nave for an adjacent room where several Invid were watching an armored Shock Trooper bring its annihilation discs to bear on a stretch of ceramiclike floor. Already a wide wound several yards deep and as many wide had been opened.
"Continue," the Enforcer's synthesized voice commanded. "Locate and destroy."

"What does he mean by 'Inorganics'?" Rick wanted to know.
Lang leaned back from the briefing-room table and steepled his fingers. "I think he must be referring to the fiendish drones Colonel Wolff faced in the city. Certainly the ships we salvaged are anything but inorganic."
Lang tried to keep the excitement from his voice, but he was sure Rick and the others caught it. He had passed the better part of twenty-four hours in the laboratory dissecting those ships and the remains of one of the alien pilots. And what he'd uncovered about the Invid had been enough to send him into a veritable delirium. Thinking back even now to those hours of experimentation and discovery was like some wild roller-coaster ride. The very shape and form of those beings! As though they existed outside any rules of evolution. And the incredible similarity their brain patterns had to the emanations of Protoculture itself! The green nutrient the pilots bathed in inside their crab-ships, the myriad mysteries of the ships' propulsion, communication, and weapons systems, the integrity of pilot and ship that rendered Robotechnology's advances primitive and childlike by comparison...It had all sent him running-literally running!-to the Council to sue for a course other than the warlike one they had embarked on...
"Dr. Lang," Rick was saying. "I asked you if this message will be enough to change the Council's mind about leaving Tirolspace."
Lang started to reply, but Exedore's late entry interrupted him. The Zentraedi ambassador apologized and seated himself at the table between Lang and General Edwards, who was plainly disturbed by Exedore's arrival. Rick had the transmission replayed for Exedore's benefit and waited for his evaluation.
Exedore was silent for a long moment. "I...hardly know what to say," he began. Rick had never seen the Zentraedi so, well, moved.
"Cabell," Exedore uttered. "He was a contemporary of Zor, a mentor, I think you would say. And to me, as well. He...he made me."
Lang and Rick exchanged astonished looks while they listened to Exedore's explanation. This Cabell had apparently been instrumental in the creation of the first biogenetically engineered clones. "Then this message is on the level, Exedore?"
"No one would use the name Cabell to evil purpose, Admiral. Of this much I am certain."
"Bullshit," barked Edwards. "This is another Invid trick. They're trying to lure us to this...`Royal Hall.' Why? Because they have some sort of weapon there. They're playing with us."
"What about it?" Rick asked the table.
One of Lang's techs spoke to that. "Scanners indicate the source of the transmission is subterranean-perhaps beneath the very structure we've identified as the Royal Hall. Colonel Wolff described it as..." the tech checked his notes, "`a flat-topped pyramid as big as a small mountain, crowned with some kind of columned shrine.' We've picked up intense energy readings emanating from the structure."
"A weapon," Edwards interjected.
Rick tried to puzzle it out. "Suppose it is legit. Would Cabell knowingly call a strike down on his own head, Exedore?"
"Without question, if Tirol could be saved by his actions."
"Then the Robotech Masters may still be alive. Is it enough to convince the Council, Doctor, yes or no?"
"I think they'll listen to reason. But if we can possibly achieve these ends without destroying-"
"Raise the GMU," Rick instructed one of his aides. "Inform Commander Sterling that I want a recon flyby of that pyramid. I don't want anybody trying anything stupid. Tell Grant to keep the GMU dug in and wait for my word to move in."