"Michael A. Stackpole - Battletech - Mechwarrior - Dark Age 12 - Hunters Of The Deep" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stackpole Michael A)

flexed whipcord-strong muscles to straighten his body perpendicular to the floor and brought it to a
standing position; his magnetic slips immediately adhered.

тАЬWe are doing right,quiaff ?тАЭ Sha glanced over his shoulder at one of his most trusted Star colonels,
Coleen Nagasawa. Her overlarge eyes held a doubt mirrored in the wrinkling of her expansive forehead.

тАЬAff,тАЭ Sha responded softly. тАЬHow can bringing glory to Clan Sea Fox not be right?тАЭ

тАЬBut are we bringing glory to the Clan? Or only to Spina Khanate? Only to Beta Aimag?тАЭ She moved
down the short aisle and stopped just out of touching distance. Sha entertained an errant thought; her
neck appeared too thin to support such a massive cranium, and he wondered if she could only survive in
the relatively gravityless environment of space. Her longish hair, having slipped from its coil, floated lazily.

Sha eyed the hair disapprovingly. тАЬIs it the Falcons? I know your particular . . . distaste . . . for them, but
we cannot choose where the next deal may take us, or who may sit across from us at the table.тАЭ

тАЬI know that as well as you, ovKhan,тАЭ she responded; her momentary anger did not touch him. тАЬI may
wish their genetic material flushed out the nearest airlock, but I will deal with them and take their honor
and resources like any other.тАЭ

тАЬThen what?тАЭ The genesis of the goal toward which he had worked so long and hard now lay just
behind several centimeters of metal; after all this time, suddenly she became timid, like a first-year trader?

тАЬWhat we are about to do . . .тАЭ

Sha saw the struggle of her thoughts as clearly as if a Star of тАЩMechs battled across her face.

тАЬWhat we are about to do is prove, in a way none can deny, that our Khan has become a weak old man
whose only desire is to suck the rest of the Khanates dry, while his ilKhanate feasts on the fatted calves
of our labor.тАЭ Though his voice never wavered from its soft, low-pitched cadence, ColeenтАЩs jaw snapped
shut like the clink of a Gauss rifle cycling its last round into the chamber. Power swam in his words.

He turned away, moved forward and undogged the hatch. Pulling it open, he ducked through before his
security detail could protest. Stepping out on the other side, he straightened to see three individuals
sheathed in the formal black and jade uniforms of Clan Jade Falcon. The FalconersтАЩ almost ostentatious
dress made his own deep blue single-suit seem shabby by comparison; their eyes confirmed this
impression. He bowed low in the tradition of all Sea Fox Clansmen in the opening salvos of negotiations
and his lips twitched in a smile his adversaries could not see; their arrogance would be their undoing.

Blood in the water.


3
Clan Sea Fox CargoShipVoidswimmer
Nadir Jump Point, Savannah System
Prefecture VII, The Republic
4 July 3134

Petr once again entered the Scientist Quarter, this time wearing his ceremonial leathers. The detailed sea
fox stitched across the torso of his suit conveyed dignity and power; heтАЩd need both in officiating this trial.