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

"What good would that do?" Caine snorted. "I want to be a blackcollar, not just dress like one."

Lathe pursed his lips. "If we had any Backlash, you'd be the first to get it. You know that."

Caine nodded. BacklashтАФthe code name for the drug that had been the heart of the whole
blackcollar project. Given in a tailored dosage pattern, it permanently altered a man's neural
chemistry, effectively doubling his speed and reflexes in combat situations. Backlash, and Backlash
alone, had allowed the blackcollars to successfully pit their low-tech, low-profile weaponry against
the more sophisticated Ryqril equipment and, in many cases, come out ahead. Shuriken and
nunchaku passed detectors set for lasers and high-metal projectile guns without raising a ripple;
Backlash speed and blackcollar marksmanship turned them into deadlier weapons than they had any
right to be.

But there was no Backlash on Plinry, and no indication that it still existed anywhere else in the
TDE... and if that was true, the first generation of blackcollars would also be the last.

Lathe was speaking again, and Caine snapped his attention back to the blackcollar. "But without it,
you and your team are about as ready as we can make you," the older man said. "So if you want to
talk to Lepkowski about travel arrangements, this is the time to do so."

Caine licked his lips briefly. The moment he'd been aiming at for the past year... the moment when
he would leave the relative safety of Plinry and strike out on his own against the Ryqril puppet
government on Earth.

But there was no way he was going to show his private uncertainties before Lathe. "Good," he said
briskly, getting to his feet. "Is the general still here?"

"He will be for another two hours. Then a shuttle's due to take him back up."

Caine nodded. "Okay. See you later."

тАФ
General Avril Lepkowski's room at Hamner Lodge was small and sparsely furnished, as befit a man
who'd spent perhaps a total of six days there in the past year. A cot, a desk and pair of chairs, a
computer with scramble/code capabilityтАФbrought down from one of the Nova-class warships Lathe
and his blackcollars had dug out of decades-old storage from under the Ryqril collective snout a year
earlierтАФand, of course, one of the ubiquitous "bug stompers" that seemed to sprout around the lodge
and environs exactly like what their mushroom shapes suggested. Caine eyed the device dubiously
as he entered the room. At the moment a good bug stomper was supposed to be proof against all

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Blackcollar: The Backlash Mission

known electronic monitoring devices, but that was bound to change someday. Unfortunately, no one
would immediately know when that happened.

"Be with you in a minute, Caine," Lepkowski said, eyes on something tracking across his display.
Nodding silently, Caine took the chair beside the desk, from which the screen was out of view.
Whatever Lepkowski was working on, it was probably none of Caine's immediate business... and
both Lathe and Lepkowski were very big on the compartmentalization of secrets. If you didn't need