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

The nighttime sentry chief was right on top of things... for all the good it would do him. Kanai's
second shot arced lazily toward the doorтАФslow enough for the antipersonnel motion sensors to pick
upтАФ

And the eaves directly above the door exploded into a lethal cloud of flechettes.

The tiny metal darts were still ricocheting off the patio flagstones when the two black-clad men
flanking Kanai rose from cover and zigzagged off toward the mansion. On the rooftop a chain gun
began to track; an instant later its first salvo went wild as the impact of Kanai's shot knocked it a
couple of degrees off target. Beside the door a gunport slid open, and a scatter of flechettes sprayed
at the running men. Uselessly, of course, as the few darts that managed to connect were stopped by
their flexarmor. One of the attackers windmilled his arms, sending black throwing stars into the
gunport. The barrel sagged as the shuriken found a target... and then the runners were at the door,
one crouching beside it as the other slapped tiny shaped charges in an X pattern on the nearest
window. With luck, Kanai's elimination of some of the door's automatic defenses would delude the
mansion's defenders into expecting the main assault there.

The attackers dropped to the ground, and the window exploded with flashes.

It didn't shatterтАФthe glasstic was too strong for thatтАФbut when the afterimages faded Kanai could
see the honeycomb of cracks there. A few good whacks with a nunchaku would finish the job... and
then only the inside defenders would be left.

Both attackers were on their feet now, flanking the window and flailing away at the glasstic with
their nunchaku. Kanai loaded another pellet into his slingshot, trying to watch everywhere at once
for the inevitable counterattack.

His tingler gave first warning: Bandits coming around north side. A second later they were there:
three of them, encased in heavy body armor, with flechette repeaters at the ready. Two came around
the corner into military kneeling stances, their repeaters laying down an inaccurate but intimidating
fire. The third stepped between them, a scud grenade clutched in his hand.

Amateurs. Behind his gas filter Kanai's lip twisted with contempt. Scud-grenade needles were a
danger even to flexarmor at sufficiently point-blank range, and armored as they were the defenders
were essentially invulnerable to the throwing stars and nunchaku of their attackers... and their blatant
overconfidence was going to kill all three of them. The man with the grenade armed it and swung his
arm back for an underhand throwтАФ

And Kanai's tiny pellet slammed into his wrist.

Without hurting him, of course, through all that armor. But the impact was more than enough to

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Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission


knock the grenade from his casual grip and send it to the ground.

Kanai didn't see the thing go off; even at his distance he wasn't taking chances with scud needles
against his goggles, and he kept his face pressed into the grass until the deadly sleet had spent itself