"Timothy Zahn - Hero of Cartao 3" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

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Hero of Cartao.

Episode III.

Hero's End.

by Timothy Zahn.


The streets of Foulahn City were dark and deserted as Kinman Doriana
picked his way through the litter of broken droids, small missile craters,
shattered buildings, bodies, and the general clutter of war. The military
comlink he'd borrowed from Commander Roshton had allowed him to listen in on
the Republic side of the battle, and he'd known the fighting here and at the
Triv Spaceport had been fierce. But even that knowledge hadn't prepared him
for the actual carnage the soldiers had left behind.
A half dozen craters overlapped each other across the street in front of
him, half filled with rubble from the buildings the missiles had destroyed and
a few mutilated bodies of the civilians who'd been caught in the crossfire.
The fighting here must have been particularly bad, he decided, with a higher-
ranking officer directing the Republic side of the attack. Maybe here he'd
finally find what he was looking for.
He hoped so. It was well after midnight, he was achingly tired, and the
new Separatist masters of this part of Cartao undoubtedly had a curfew in
place for the citizenry. The first patrol that spotted him would be trouble,
and he wasn't in the mood for arguing with combat droids. Despite the dramatic
events and reversals of the past few hours, things were still adhering
reasonably closely to Lord Sidious's plan, but that didn't mean Doriana
himself had to enjoy the situation. He'd had his fill of battles a long time
ago, and very much preferred to stay at his desk in Supreme Chancellor
Palpatine's office and handle his schemes and manipulations long-distance.
A glimmer of white to the left caught his eye, and he picked his way
carefully toward it through the shattered road material. Probably just another
piece of the deco-rative white roof trim Foulahn's residents were so fond of,
he thought sourly, but it still had to be checked out.
But it wasn't a piece of roof trim. It was the half buried body of a
clone trooper. A lieutenant, from the markings on his armor.
Finally.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been the work of perhaps two
minutes to dig the body out of the rubble. With the need for absolute silence,
it took Doriana closer to ten. But it was worth the effort. Hidden away in the
back of one of the survival pouches on the lieutenant's utility belt was an
unlabeled datacard. Slipping it into his pocket, Doriana resealed the survival
pouch and started to straighten up.
"Halt," a flat mechanical voice ordered from behind him. Doriana froze in
mid-crouch. "Don't shoot," he called, stretching his hands slowly to the sides
so that the droids could see they were empty. "I'm an official medical
observer."