"Timothy Zahn - Blackcollar 2 - The Backlash Mission" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

the highway through to Denver has clearly collapsed. I don't know about you, but I sure wouldn't
want to live that isolated from everywhere else."

"Unless the Ryqril allow them aircarsтАФyes, I know how likely that is. What about those ventilation
tunnels you mentioned? Could someone get in that way?"

"Only if he had more lives than a litter of kittens. Those tunnels have at least eight types of sensors,
hooked to three separate sets of active and passive defense systems. Lethal defense systems."

"After thirty yearsтАФ"

"Some of them will be working for another century or two."

Caine pursed his lips. The whole thing was sounding less promising by the minute... and he might
have said so if Lepkowski hadn't beaten him to it. "You know, Caine, the more I think about this the
more I think the mission would be a dangerous waste of time. If the Ryqril haven't been able to get
in, you won't be able to either; and if they have gotten in, you won't want to. Maybe you'd better go
for something a little less ambitious."

Something a bit easier for beginners? Even if that wasn't what Lepkowski had meant, the thought
was too much to ignore. "Thanks for the advice, sir," he said, perhaps a shade too stiffly. "But it's my
time to waste. It can't hurt to just take a look."

Lepkowski shrugged. "It's your team and your mission. But you're totally insane to even consider it."

Caine had to smile at that one. "Any more than you are to zip around the TDE in that big flying
target of yours? But let's keep my insanity our private secret, if you don't mind," he added, glancing
automatically at the humming bug stomper. "Even my team isn't going to know the objective until
they need to; I don't want anyone else knowing, either."

"Not even Lathe?"

"No. Compartmentalization of secrets, remember?"

Lepkowski's eyes bored into his. "It's hardly the same thing. Lathe is in charge here."

"Here he's in charge. Not on Earth."

For a moment the general gazed at him, a frown creasing his forehead. Then he shrugged. "I suppose
I can understand how you feel. It is your first command, after all. Well... good luck. If there's

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Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission

anything else I can do to help, just let me know."

"Thank you, sir, but I think all we'll need from you now is safe passage to Earth. The rest will be up
to us."

The rest will have to be up to us, Caine reflected as he returned to his own room. Any details about