"Timothy Zahn - Cobra 3 - Cobra Bargain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

Justin made a disgusted sound in the back of his throat. "All of it I could stomach, anyway. Which
wasn't very much. Is Priesly as much of a phrijpicker in private as he is in public?"

"I almost wish he was. I'd actually be happier if he and the rest of the Jects were simply the
frothing idiots they look like on the net--if they were we'd have found their strings years ago."
Corwin sighed. "No, unfortunately Priesly is as sharp as he is gantua-headed, and now that he's
finally hammered the Jects into a real political force he sees himself as holding the balance of
power in both the Council and Directorate. That's heavy stuff for someone who considers himself an
outcast, and he sometimes goes a little overboard."

"Does he?" Justin asked bluntly. "Hold the balance of power, I mean?"

Corwin shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted. "With his pack of sore losers trying to stir up a
full-fledged crisis none of the Syndics or Governors seem quite sure of how to handle him. If
Priesly offers them a deal that would henceforth keep him quiet..." He shook his head. "It's


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conceivable they might go for it."

"We still need the Cobras," Justin interjected with some heat. "Need them more than ever, in fact.
With Esquiline and the other New Worlds expanding like crazy, they need a steady supply of Cobras.
Not to mention the need to keep a credible Cobra force here in case some group of Trofts decide to-
-"

"Easy, brother," Corwin cut him off, hands held palm outward. "You're preaching to the converted,
remember?"

"Sorry," Justin growled. "Priesly's pack has a way of getting under my skin. I wish someone had
realized sooner that the Jects were a political powder keg waiting for a flicker to come along.
_That_ should have been obvious as soon as we found out about Cobra Syndrome."

"Hindsight is wonderful, isn't it?" Corwin said dryly. "What would _you_ have done, then?"

"Given them the regular nanocomputer and made them full Cobras in the first place," Justin
growled. "It's just a waste of time, energy, and expensive equipment to have them running around
with bone laminae and servos their computer won't let them use."

Corwin cocked an eyebrow. He'd heard variants of that argument before, but never from Justin. "You
don't really mean that."

"Why not?" Justin countered. "Okay, so the training period uncovered psychological problems the
pre-screening had missed. So what? Most of the glitches weren't all that severe; given time,
they'd probably have worked things out eventually by themselves."

"And what about the harder cases?" Corwin asked. "Would you really have taken the risk of turning
potentially unstable Cobras loose on the general population?"