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

together. For that alone, Jin thought bitterly, she could wish the Jects to drown in their own
saliva.

Her father was where she'd expected to find him: downstairs, alone, in the large practice area the
Cobras had dubbed the Danger Room.

For a few minutes she stood above him in the observation gallery, watching and remembering. The
target robots the room's computer controlled weren't especially smart, but they were fast and
numerous. As a child, Jin had also thought their low-power lasers were dangerous, and she could
still remember the terror she'd felt watching from up here as her father went head-to-head against
them. In actuality, as she'd finally learned years later, the robots' lasers were dangerous only


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to a Cobra's pride; but that knowledge couldn't entirely suppress her adrenaline-fueled gut
reaction as she watched her father fight.

It wasn't exactly an even fight, for one thing. Arrayed against Justin at any given time were
between four and seven of the target robots, all taking pot shots at him, often with little
concern for their own welfare. Cover in the Danger Room had been deliberately kept to a minimum,
leaving the Cobra no choice but to keep moving if he was to survive.

And Justin kept moving. Superbly, to Jin's admittedly biased way of thinking. Using walls, floor,
and ceiling as backstops, his computer-driven servos had him bouncing all around the room, flashes
of light flickering almost continuously from the little fingers of both hands as his metalwork
lasers combined with his optical-enhancement targeting system to make impossible midair hits on
his attackers. Half a dozen times the observation gallery's windows vibrated as reflections from
one or the other of Justin's sonic weapons hit them, and once the brilliant spear of his antiarmor
laser flashed out from the heel of his left leg to take out a persistent enemy right through the
low covering wall it was hiding behind. Jin found herself gritting her teeth as she watched, hands
clenched into fists at her sides as her body half crouched in sympathetic readiness. _Someday,_
the thought came dimly through her tension, _that could be me in there._ Will _be me in there._

At last the lopsided duel was over; and it was with mild surprise that Jin discovered she'd been
watching for less than five minutes. Taking a deep breath, she blew at the drop of sweat on the
tip of her nose and tapped on the window.

Below, her father looked up, surprise creasing his face as he saw her. _Can I come down?_ she hand-
signed to him.

_Sure,_ he signed back. _Main door._

She took the stairway down, and by the time she pushed open the heavy door he had a towel wrapped
around his neck and was dabbing at his face with it. "Hi, Jin," he greeted her, coming forward for
a quick hug. His expression, she noted, was the flat-neutral one he always used when he was trying
to bury some strong emotion. "This is a surprise."

"Thena called an hour ago and said you were on your way home from the hospital," she explained.