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

Wilks could see that there was no chance. If he thought kissing ass here would work, well, fuck,
he'd done worse, but he knew it was a waste of time. Had known it all along, but at least he'd held his
temper in check. There was a time when he would have popped fatso here right in the mouth and smiled
as he waited for the MPs to come get him.

"Thank you for your time, sir."

The general grunted but didn't look up from his desk, where he was already looking through other
papers.

The temptation to slam the door on the way out was one that Wilks was only barely able to resist.



Billie met Wilks at the Four Sails. He sat at his table staring at his drink, his scarred face tense.

"Ripley 'commed, said she'd be a few minutes late," said Billie, and sat down. "How'd it go with the
general?"

"About like I expected. Head was jammed too far up his ass for him to begin to hear me." He
sipped at his drink. "Fucking officers."

Billie felt her stomach clutch at itself. This had become important to her. How could she get to
Amy, how could she still hope that the child would be alive?

"What's the matter with you two?" Ripley said. She slid into the booth and sat across from them.
"Are we ready for our meeting tomorrow?"

Wilks said, "Yeah, if we can fly without a ship. The general thinks we're crazy. No surprise."

Billie's heart felt heavy. "It looks like the game is over," she said. "Unless you want to steal a ship."

Ripley grinned. "I thought you'd never ask," she said.

Wilks returned the grin. "I knew it. I fucking knew it."

"You didn't really think some fat old general was going to give us a ship, did you? That was a long
shot at best."

Wilks nodded. "Gonna make us criminals again."

"Well, sure, it would've been nice, but we don't always get what we want, do we? Time to go to
plan B," Ripley said. "Which was really plan A all along: We swipe what we need."

"Makes sense to me," Wilks said. He raised his glass in salute. "Here's to crime."

Billie smiled and nodded. Well. It wasn't as if they'd never done it before. Christ, they were getting
to be old hands at stealing ships. The one from Earth to Spears's military base, the one from there to
here, the escape pod. It did make sense. What the hell.