"Timothy Zahn - Blackcollar 3 - The Judas Solution" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

had no trouble seeing the conflict raging behind the alien's eyes. On the one hand, his pride demanded
that he utterly obliterate the town that had dared to raise a fist against their Ryqril overlords.
But on the other hand, he also knew that the war was going badly, and that his people needed an influx
of spirit and imagination and tactical skill.
They needed the blackcollars. And without Galway, they would never get them. "'Ery rell," Taakh said
at last. "Yae rill seal the region. Re rill tell yae ren it rill 'e o'ened again."
Weissmann took a deep breath. "As you command, Your Eminence," he said.
Galway suppressed a grimace. So that was how the alien's pride was going to work itself out. He would
allow Weissmann to seal the district as Galway had requested, cutting it off completely from the outside
world. But it would be the Ryqril who would decide when that lockdown would be lifted. Until then, it
would be the local government's job to figure out how to keep the people inside the ring area alive and
fed.
But at least they would be alive. That was the important thing.
For another moment Taakh gazed at Weissmann, perhaps wondering if the humans were getting off too
easily. Then, apparently dismissing the thought, he turned to Galway and gestured toward the transport
with his laser. "Re rill go," he ordered.
"As you command, Your Eminence." Stepping to Judas's side, Galway took his arm. "Come on, Herr
Judas," he said. "Time to go."
"Yes," Judas said, his eyes on the dead men in the snow. Men who'd once been his colleagues and allies.
"Maybe even past time."
***
For a moment Sam Foxleigh lay in his narrow bed in the darkness, wrapped tightly in his blankets,
wondering what had awakened him. The wind had picked up since he'd gone to bed, whistling cold and
wet off the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Probably that was what it was, he decided; the wind
tearing around the corners of this one-room shack that old Toby had built to hide out in so long ago.
Or maybe it was the dropping temperature. The fire in the wood-stove in the center of the cabin had
burned down, with only glowing ashes visible through the slats of tempered glass in the cast-iron door.
He peered at the old wind-up clock sitting on the rough nightstand beside his bed. Just after two in the
morning. If he didn't restock the fire, it would get a lot colder in here before it got any warmer.

file:///K|/BitLord/Downloads/54%20books%20sf-fantasy-a...ar%203%20-%20The%20Judas%20Solution/1416520651___0.htm (7 of 9)2-1-2007 14:36:56
 - Prologue

With a sigh, he unwrapped himself from his blankets and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He
winced as his feet hit the cold wooden floor, winced even harder as he carefully put weight on his bad
left leg. The leg, he'd told his rescuers down in the tiny community of Shelter Valley, that had been
damaged when he parachuted out of his crippled fighter in the midst of Earth's last, futile defense against
the Ryqril.
And the villagers, simple folk that they were, had swallowed the story whole.
Hobbling over to the stove, he popped open the door and fed in a few sticks and a small piece of log.
The snows had come early this year, and he just hoped he had enough wood cut and stacked to make it
until spring. Cutting wood in the dead of winter with a bad leg would be a great deal less than fun.
For a minute he stood at the stove, stirring the ashes with the poker until the sticks caught. Then, closing
the door again, he limped over to the south-facing window and pushed aside the shade, feeling a soft
breeze on his fingers from the small leaks around the glass. A quarter kilometer downslope, Shelter
Valley was mostly dark, but he could see a couple of lights still burning. Insomniacs, probably, up
reading or watching television.
Or perhaps someone was tending to the Ryqril sensor pylon.
He gazed down at the lights, old memories burning at his throat. He'd been up here with Toby when the
Security men had come by with their offer to allow the villagers to stay if they would accept the pylon