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

efforts to look down it produced no fire, so they gave the all-clear signal. The
two Vratix then rushed forward to flank the only door in that hallway and then
checked it. They indicated it was locked. Elscol and Iella went running down the
hall to its end and crouched there, prepar-ing to glance down either branch
after their quarry.
Iella pressed her back against the corridor's left wall. She started to nod to
Elscol, inviting her to check her end of the corridor first, but she saw
movement back the way she had come. The duraplast door exploded out into the
hallway as blasterfire chewed it in half. Two bolts caught the Vratix on the
right side of the door in the abdomen, spinning him fur-ther into the corridor.
As the fire swung back through the doorway the second Vratix took a pair of
shots to the thorax, dropping him to the floor with his sextet of limbs
twitching.
The two men at the far end of the corridor came running up and rushed the
doorway before Iella or Elscol could call them off. The second man in
straightened up abruptly, then flew back into the corridor all loose-limbed and
burning from a trio of shots to the chest.
Of the first man Iella only saw booted feet that jerked twice, then lay still.
"Jesfa, get me a six-man team up here now." Iella looked over at Elscol. "We
wait, right?"
"For that guy to escape? If he got in that room, he knows override codes. He
could have a secret turbolift in there and be on his way out."
"I doubt it." Iella keyed her comlink again. "Jesfa, have them bring concussion
grenades.'*
Smoke drifted out of the doorway, then a blaster carbine came sailing out of it
and clattered to the floor in the midst of the dead commandos. "I give up."
Iella and Elscol exchanged glances, then Iella snapped a command. "Come out with
your hands in the air."
"Do I recognize that voice?"
lella's jaw dropped open. Fliry Vorru!1 She slowly smiled. "Vorru? I'm expecting
those hands raised."
The small white-haired man appeared in the doorway and gingerly stepped between
the legs lying therein. "Ah, Iella Wessiri. Someone I can trust to do the right
thing."
Elscol stood and leveled her blaster carbine at the man. "You want the right
thing? I have justice in a clip right here for you, murderer."
Iella reached up and laid a hand on Elscol's carbine. "You can't. He's
surrendered."
"Surrendered? He just burned down four people."
"More crimes for him to be tried for."
"Exactly." Vorru smiled rather smugly. "I'm sure -the people of Thyferra will
want to try me, if the New Republic will let them."
Iella frowned as she stood. "Oh, once the New Republic is through with you, the
Thyferrans will have their chance."
"I hope you're right, Iella, because I know the Thyferran people have a strong
sense of justice." Vorru's hands slipped down to the level of his shoulders. "Of
course, since I know which of the New Republic officials have been hoarding
bacta and I know the backdoor deals made by member states to get bacta, well, I
suspect this is information they won't want to have come to light."
Iella laughed. "You think you're not going to pay for your crimes because you'll