"Michael Stackpole "The Bacta War"" - читать интересную книгу автора

his job.
Booster's grudging respect for Karrde counted for a lot with Wedge. He'd
actually met Karrde years earlier, back in the days before he joined the
Rebellion. Wedge had owned a freighter and was hauling cargo all over the
Empire. Karrde had inquired if Wedge wanted to move some cargo for him, but
Wedge had turned down the offer. He'd heard nothing bad about Karrde and that
had set him back a bit. No nega-tive rumors means too little is known about the
man, and I wasn't inclined to trust him as a result.
Since joining the Rebellion, Wedge had not run across Karrde, but he didn't
doubt Karrde's ability to produce the weapons and equipment they needed. The
fact that Booster went to him first is proof enough that Karrde is genuine and
can be trusted to deal straight with his clients. The munitions, launchers, and
sensor systems would give them what they needed to complete Isard's downfall.
"Lead, this is Seven."
"Go ahead, Tycho."
"Wedge, I'm getting anomalous contacts from the Grave-yard on my IFF frequency."
Wedge frowned. The Identify Friend/Foe system involved the identification beacon
all ships carried. It sent out a signal that other ships picked up, telling them
the name of the ship and its identification designation. Smugglers often had two
or three IFF modules that they could swap in and out to run under clean names.
Contacts on the IFF frequency were sim-ple rechecks of a ship's identity. And if
Imps are waiting in the asteroids it's an unbelievably stupid way to tip us to
their presence.
"Tycho, is it the same signal over and over again?"
"Seems so. You thinking an automated beacon of some sort?"
"You are running an Alderaanian code. Perhaps there is
an old system traffic satellite in the asteroids wanting to check you for
Alderaan control."
"Probably. I'll punch up the gain on my passive sensors and see if I find
anything in that direction."
"I copy." Wedge looked at his main screen as Mynock began beeping again. "Heads
up, people, we have incoming traffic."
A string of freighters entered the system, led by a ship tagged Starry Ice by
the IFF system. A half-dozen ships drifted in behind Ice, staggering their
positions so strafing runs along any one particular vector would pick up only
two targets. Because Karrde's ships were bigger than most of the freighters
Booster had collected, the smuggler only needed half as many to deliver his
goods.
A man's voice broke in on the comm channel. "This is Quelev Tapper for Karrde.
We've gotten the initial payment for this lot and you've got fifty million
credits still in your account. In another month we should have another thirty
percent of your order ready."
Booster responded to him over the comm channel. "Fine with us. Begin the
transfer."
One of the freighters began to move forward, but as it cruised in right below
the Ice, a huge patch of space went from black and star-strewn to white,
angular, and deadly. The Interdictor Cruiser's bulk eclipsed a massive slice of
the Graveyard. The sight of its quartet of domed gravity well projectors caused
Wedge's stomach to fold in on itself. The cruiser will stop us from running into
hyperspace, but it's far too weak to engage us by itself. It's going to be