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

He straightened up at that and nodded, his expression unreadable. Ripley understood what it was
like to lose someone close and knew there was nothing she could do to make it easier for him.

"Thanks," he said, walking to the door. "I'll be there."

She had no doubts about that.



Wilks watched General Peters scan the printout sheet of the psych files Leslie had pulled. To avoid
problems with confidentiality and computer rascaling, she had only included the names of the dreamers
they had spoken to, along with statements from Billie and Ripley; twelve in all. Ten of them had agreed to
go.

"And you say that this dream is the same in all of these cases, Sergeant?" The general spoke
without looking up.

"Yes, sir." Wilks stood in his office at ease, hands behind his back. It was one of the more palatial
rooms on Gateway, well-lit and comfortably warm. Pastel paintings were hung on the walls and the
stuffed chairs were a high-quality synthetic leather. Peters had not asked him to sit.

The general had not gotten as far as he had through imaginative thinking. His stoic expression and
hard eyes said as muchтАФstandard military right down the line. The man was also quite fat, hadn't seen
much hands-on combat lately. Wilks had served under such men before, assholes too closed-minded and
by-the-numbers to believe in anything outside their own experience. He was wasting his fucking time
here, but Ripley wanted to give it a shot. Fine ...

"Well, this is very interesting," Peters said, looking up, "but I'm afraid there's really no way I can
authorize such a trip on just this. We'll have to look into it further." His tone was dismissive.

Wilks said, "Is there somebody else I can speak to about this, sir?"

"Excuse me?"

Wilks shrugged. He was still a marine, sort of. They hadn't been able to pull all his records, so his
status was pretty much in limbo until they did.

That gave him a little leeway when talking to officers. He said, "Well, sir, there are civilians in the
governing board. They might be interested in this."

Peters looked at Wilks with his piggy eyes. "Are you trying to be smart, Sergeant?"

"No, sir." Not with this clown. Say something smart and it would sail right past.

"Yes, there are civilians in power here, but when it comes to military missions using my hardware, I
am God."

Wilks said nothing, waiting.
 "I've read your record, Sergeant, and you've got a long history of being a troublemaker. I don't
need any more trouble than I've got." Peters set the proposal aside and motioned toward the door.