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

Lisa whirled around. "Negative! They're to pull back at once."
She turned again to study a heads-up monitor and ordered a course correction. Reinhardt's voice was booming through the squawkboxes, his bearded face on one of the screens. He asked for a second correction, a subtle maneuver to reposition the main gun.
"Coming around to zero-zero-niner, sir. Standing by..."
"Picking up strong EV readings. We're being scanned and targeted."
"Get me Lang," Lisa ordered.
Lang addressed her from a peripheral screen; he had anticipated her question. "We've shunted power-from the shields to the main gun, but we're still well protected." At the same time, she heard Reinhardt say, "Prepare to fire on my command."
"Has the Skull pulled out?"
"Uh, checking..."
"Quickly!" she barked.
"Affirmative," the tech stammered. "They're clear."
"On my mark-" Reinhardt started to say.
Suddenly two brilliant flashes flowered into life in front of the ship, throwing blinding light through the viewport. Caught in the grip of the exposions, the fortress was shaken forcefully enough to toss techs from their stations and send them clear across the bridge.
Lisa's neck felt as though it had snapped. She put one hand to the back of her head, and asked if everyone was all right. Sirens somewhere off in the ship had changed tone; the fortress had sustained damage.
"What happened?" Lisa said as reports poured in.
"No trace of the ships, sir."
"God, it's like something vaporized them..."
Lisa watched in awe as the light show began to wink out.
"What's going on out there-has the enemy disengaged?"
The threat-board tech scratched his head. "No, sir; er, yes, sir. That is, the VT teams report all enemy ships inactive. They're dead in space."

The tech on the SDF-3 bridge wasn't the only one scratching his head. In a corridor fifty feet beneath Tiresia's Royal Hall, Jonathan Wolff was doing the same thing.
"They just stopped firing," one of the Pack was saying.
Certainly no one was about to argue with that or be anything less than overjoyed, but the question remained: why?
Wolff poked his head around the corner of the corridor like some of the others were doing, and saw half-a-dozen bipedal Inorganics stopped not ten years from the junction. And not simply stopped, but shut down-frozen. Presently, everyone who could stand was out in the middle of the central corridor gaping at the silent drones; it was the first time any of them had had a chance to inspect the things up close, and they found themselves relieved enough to comment on their remarkable design. Wolff, however, put a quick end to it.
The requested fire team had arrived without incident from the other side of the collapse. Wolff sent the wounded back, along with most of the original squad-it was looking better for Powers-and pushed on toward the Royal Hall. The field command post had yet to hear word one from Edwards's team.
They remained cautious and alert as they regained the ground they had surrendered. Wolff led them past the computer room and on into a confusing warren of tunnels and ducts. Along the way they passed dozens of Inorganics in the same state of suspended animation. But at last they came to the trench Edwards had seen earlier, and instinctively Wolff knew they were close to reaching the center.
"It's blue smoke and mirrors," Edwards sneered as the image in the communicator sphere de-rezzed. He had seen the explosions that wiped out the two troop carriers, but remained unconvinced. "You could be running home movies for all I know."
Obsim made a puzzled gesture and turned to the brain.
"You have a suspicious mind, Invader." The synthesized voice had a raspy sound to it now, as though fatigued.
"That's right, Mister Wizard, and I'm also the one holding a gun to your head." Edwards half turned to one of his men. "I want immediate confirmation on what we just saw. See if you can raise anyone."
The radioman moved off and Edwards continued. "But if you are on the level, I've got to say I'm impressed. The brain is certainly far too valuable to destroy-but then again, it's far too dangerous to remain operative."
Obsim showed Edwards his palms, then fumbled to open a concealed access panel in the bubble chamber's hourglass-shaped base.
"The brain can be deactivated. It can be yours to command."
Interested, Edwards stepped forward, brandishing the weapon.
"Go ahead, alien."
Obsim pulled two dermatrode leads from the panel and placed them flat against the center of his head; his fingers meanwhile tapped a command sequence into the panel's ten-key touchpad. At the same time, the brain seemed to compress as it settled toward the bottom of the chamber. After a moment Obsim reversed the process, causing an effervescent rush inside the tank as the brain revived.
"Again," said Edwards, and Obsim repeated it. Then it was Edwards's turn to try, while Colonel Adams held a gun to Obsim's snout. Edwards got it right on the first take; the brain was asleep.
Edwards shut the panel and stood up, grinning at the alien. "You've been a most gracious host." Without taking his eyes off Obsim, he yelled, "Do we have that confirmation, soldier?"
"Affirmative," came the reply.
"Waste him," Edwards said to Adams.
The burst blew out the Invid scientist's brain; the body collapsed in a heap, Obsim's once-white robes drenched in green.
"Wargasm." Adams laughed.
Edwards regarded each of his men individually; the gaze from his single eye said much more than any verbal warning could.
Just then, Human voices could be heard on the staircase. Edwards and his men swung around, weapons armed, only to find Jonathan Wolff crawling cautiously from the hole.
Wolff took a look around the room, as his team followed him out. There were two devastated Shock Trooper ships and twenty or more Invid corpses. Wolff had seen the charred remains of what looked like four men on the steps. Now he focused his attention on the bubble chamber.
"This the thing the Tiresians were talking about, sir?"
"That's it, Colonel," Edwards said.
Wolff glanced down at Obsim, then at Edwards. He had questions for the general, questions about what had gone on in the corridors and what had gone on here, but he sensed it wasn't the right time-not with Edwards's team looking as though they weren't full yet. Ultimately, he said, "Too bad I didn't arrive sooner, sir."
"You're lucky you didn't," Adams told him with a sly smile. "It was a real horror show."
"Yeah," Wolff mused, watching Edwards's men trade looks, "I can imagine."