"Steve Perry - Aliens 03 - The Female War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

"Somebody fucked up," he said.

Suddenly there came an alien's hoarse shriek, loud enough that it had to be inside the APC. There
was no sound of a weapon to answer its cry.

A thick, spidery shape moved across the screen, too close to see clearlyтАФbut Wilks knew.

Ripley groaned. "Oh, shit."

The screen cut to static, then black. Neither of them said anything for a moment, just watched the
darkness. A mechanical, unisex voice chimed on, informing them that there were technical difficulties.

"It was a mistake," said Wilks. The 'cast had played for less than two minutes, if Billie had caught
the beginning; the voice meant that it had been pulled on purpose. Ten-vee was a consistently boring
channel dedicated to pro-military information programs, propaganda. He could almost see some vidtech
private sweating in his boots right now. A colossal fuck-up. The wrong tape switched to at the wrong
time; everyone on Gateway tuned in would have seen it.

A harried-looking man stepped on to the screen and faced the camera. His brow and upper lip
were dotted with sweat. His face and hair looked military, but he was dressed in a rumpled coverall.

"It's weasel time," said Wilks softly.

"You're on," a voice stage-whispered offscreen. Live, of course.

"We, uh, apologize for the interruption in regular programming," he said. "Due to an error in our
video room, a transmission of the ... Earth mission from five weeks ago was ... put on." The PR man
fumbled his way through a rationalization, obviously unprepared.

"What bullshit," Wilks said. "No way that was ever supposed to see air."

"We now return to, ah, the program. Ten-vee will issue a formal statement at a later time." The
screen cut to a space walk, some minor fix-it operation on the station. Ripley hit the command, blacking
the picture. She turned to Wilks, her face pale and numb.

"Won't people know?"

Wilks shook his head. "Maybe friends of the dead soldiers. But who will they talk to before
command gets to them?" He realized his hands were still in fists and let them relax, taking a deep breath.
"This was supposed to be a secret, and they're going to step on it hard. Believe that."

Ripley looked at him. "What do you think this is going to do to our mission?"

Wilks returned her look, frowning. What would it do? The military couldn't keep people from
talking ... it could swing the transport problem either way.

"I don't know," he said. "I guess we'll find out soon enough."