"Ben Weaver - Brothers in Arms 01 - Brothers in Arms" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weaver Ben)

his shoulder, тАЬbut IтАЩm tired of carrying this gennyboy. I say he dusts out right here, right now.тАЭ Halitov
gritted his teeth, which made his blocky face seem all the more hatchet-shaped and drew out the veins in
his tree trunk of a neck. He poked me again, then traced his finger along the two-inch, cross-shaped
birthmark on my cheek. And thatтАЩs when I grabbed his wrist.

And Staff Sergeant Claudia Rodriguez grabbed mine. The tall, humorless woman had the grip of ashraxi
, and I was one to know since I had once inadvertently run into two of those nocturnal little bastards on
my way back to First Year Barracks. Luckily, Jarrett had been with me and had pried them off before
they had sunk their teeth into my arm.

тАЬSquad Sergeant?тАЭ Rodriguez called.

тАЬIтАЩll take it from here, maтАЩam,тАЭ Pope said.

тАЬVery well.тАЭ Rodriguez released my wrist as I freed HalitovтАЩs. She spun on her heel and headed back
for the shade of the Eighty-firstтАЩs Mobile Training Command Center, not much more than a small pup
tent from where she monitored the squadтАЩs progress via her tactical computer. She could view us via
three-dimensional simulacrum, old-style flat screen projection, or even a direct interface, were we
wearing cerebros. I could always feel the heat of her electronic gaze on my neck. And sometimes I wish I
had been nicer to her, but I couldnтАЩt have known then that I would watch her scream and clutch her
spilling intestines before she collapsed to her death.

тАЬThe exercise is over,тАЭ Pope said, holding the end of my rope. тАЬThis break is clean. Looks like someone
gave Mr. St. Andrew a little help getting down. You know who you are. And so will I. Now weтАЩre going
to hump back. Last mess formation at twenty-two thirty. Evening study period is cancelled.тАЭ

A collective groan rose through the squad since in the morning we had major exams in astrophysics,
composition, and colonial history. Never mind the fact that ExeterтАЩs twenty-eight-hour days taxed the hell
out of us and we generally slept through our classes with our eyes open.

тАЬWeтАЩll be back out here at twenty-seven hundred,тАЭ Pope added. тАЬAnd weтАЩll do it again, in the dark. I
donтАЩt give a shit how much youтАЩre dragginтАЩ. Police up your gear and move out.тАЭ

тАЬCan he do this?тАЭ someone muttered.

Halitov snorted. тАЬWhy donтАЩt you ask him?тАЭ Then he looked at me and just nodded, as though confirming
to himself that yes, he would find a way to dust out the gennyboy. He squeezed my birthmark, twisted the
skin, then wrenched himself away.

I stood there, rubbing my sore face and damning to hell my ancestors who had damned me. Back in
2144, Jeffery St. Andrew, his wife, and their five sons had been members of the original forty thousand
to settle on Kennedy-Centauri, humanityтАЩs first extrasolar colony. With the sponsorship of NASA,
Coca-Cola, Inte-Micro, and the old PeopleтАЩs Republic of China, great-great-grandfather Jeffery and his
family had mined iron ore, copper, and feldspar, and in doing so had contracted a new airborne disease
called epineuropathy. The disease caused a rapid though ultimately treatable gene mutation that resulted
in seizures not unlike those associated with grand mal epilepsy. It also affected a gene dubbed TIE-2,
which codes for a receptor on cells that line the insides of blood vessels, and the malfunctioning receptor
resulted in birthmarks. Similar to the old port-wine stains but created by microscopic parasites of an
unknown origin, parasites that affect vein growth and strength, the marks cannot be removed without
severely scarring the patientтАФlaser surgery or no. Irony was, the marks themselves produced scars that