"Steve Perry - Matador 01 - The Man Who Never Missed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

'To the left, Subbie, just like always." He grinned. "How's the ratface job?"
 Lojtnant Subru shook his head and exhaled a fragrant blast of flickstick
smoke. The smell of hot cashews surrounded Khadaji. "Busy today, Emile.
Word is there were several skirmishes within fifty klicks of town."
Khadaji raised an eyebrow and tried to look surprised. "Really? Get any of
the Scum?"
The dark soldier nodded. "Body count of fourteen, I heard. They nicked
one of ours in a blastfight, but she's okay."
Khadaji didn't have to work very hard to suppress his smile. He'd heard
this kind of statistic too many times. "Good for the troops."
"Yeah, we should have the Scum cleaned out pretty soon. Only problem is,
I hear 1C has upped their estimates of the numbers. Even with the ones
we've been cutting down, 1C says there are close to a thousand guerrillas in
the field now."
Khadaji shook his head. "Where are they coming from?"
"IC would love to know. I hear the Old Man would give his left nut and a
kilogram of bauxite to be able to spike the leaders." He took another blast
from the flickstick. "You ever do any ratface-time, Emile?"
Khadaji smiled. "Sure. I did my tour sitting planet and pushing disks for a
supply unit. Strictly button-thumbing stats, Subbie. Never saw action."
"Yeah? What unit?"
"14-788 Quartermasters, on Tomodachi. Been a few years." The unit was
real enough, Khadaji had known men who served in it while he was training,
but in fact his own unit had been the 14-433 Jumptroop Plex and he'd seen
more action than most of the soldiers on this world. Too much.
The Lojtnant nodded, not really interested. He looked around for a table
with an empty stool. "Emile, who's working the sheets tonight? Anybody
worth a week's pay?"
"Marj is on, Brin, Roj, Davisito, and... let's see, I think Sister Clamp is on at
1800."
"Sister Clamp, huh? I heard she's something else. Expensive, too."
"You can't take it with you, Subbie. Never know but you might get pulled
out of that air-conditioned T-plex and put on the line."
"Shee-it, they'll have to be scraping the walls for that. Still, I might get
flattened by a ground-effect tank crossing the street. Eighteen, you said?"
"I can put in a word, if you like, maybe get her to give you an uprank
discount."
 Lojtnant Subru nodded again. "Yeah. Do that, would you? I'd appreciate
it."
The soldier wandered off, trailing the smell of cashews.
"Afternoo', Chief."
Khadaji's head pubtender stood there, looking grave.
"Butch. A problem?"
"We runnin' low on mid-range sops. Las' week's delivery was short two
gross and we only got half what we need 'til next shipment."
"What do you think, Butch?"
"I think we put a limit on and ration them suckers out."
Khadaji shook his head. "No. Business as usual and when we run out, offer
high-range at the same price."
"Jeet, Chief, we lose half a stad every tab!"