"Jack McKinney - Robotech Sentientals 4 - World Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

"But why do you reveal this now? Bela asked suspiciously. She had rather
liked Jan-admired her for being as quick and strong and skilled in battle as
an amazon. But Bela looked upon this being before her-a Wyrdling, as Praxians
would call it-with wariness.
"Because we mustn't follow the inertial trackers directly to Glike," the
AP answered. "The Awareness that oversees Haydon IV is near, and I think it's
the key to our dilemma. I saw that there was no other way to get you to
detour, though, and if I'd merely slipped away, you'd have come searching for
me and put yourselves in greater danger. I understand friendship that well,
you see."
She put one hand back to gather up her long lavender hair and hold it
out from the nape of her neck. "And there is another reason to reveal myself.
To locate the source of this Awareness I must contact it directly, and to do
that-I must speak to it."
She reached up with her free hand and pulled a patch of synthetic skin
from her neck. She turned to show them the input aperture that had been hidden
there. There was a concerted hiss from the two lesser Invid scientists, and
Tesla's eyes bulged with fascination. Burak slashed the air angrily with his
horns and made a mystical sign of protection.
Jan let her hair fall back into place, and dipped into a pouch on her
harness. She came up with connector cord and several different sorts of
adaptors. "According to my analysis, one of these will let me link up with
this artificial sentience I've detected."
"No! She's not to be trusted," Tesla objected. "An android? How can we
know what her real motive is? Better that I were allowed to converse with this
Awareness, my friends."
Jack looked Tesla over. The Regent's onetime chief scientist no longer
resembled a conventional upper-caste Invid; some time after the awful events
on Garuda, he had undergone some kind of change that he still refused to
explain.
He was now almost as tall as the Regent-over seventeen feet. His snout
was shorter, head more defined, hands and feet more humanoid than reptilian.
His hide was now a pale green, waxy and smooth.
But most troubling of all, he had grown a fifth digit, and his hands and
his use of them looked quite Human.
Tesla had convinced the Sentinels that he could be of help on this
mission, but Jack wasn't about to trust the scientist with the secrets of
Haydon IV. He moved the muzzle of his chattergun over to cover Tesla. "Forget
it. You stay away from the machinery down here unless I say otherwise."
Tesla radiated an unspeakable hatred, but said nothing. Burak bridled,
too, and moved to stand by the Invid. Jack had long since noticed that there
was something between the two, some secret they shared, but Burak's gesture
was more on the order of a realignment of loyalties.
Burak had been growing a little unstable. He resented it that his
homeworld, Peryton, was far back on the timetable of Sentinels priorities.
Jack made a mental note to keep an eye on him, as well.
"Okay, uh, Janice." Jack decided that he might as well go on calling her
that. "What d'you need?"
"First, a proper interface." She led them off along the highway-wide
catwalk; they automatically took up tactical positions and intervals. They