"Allen, Roger MacBride - Chronicles of Solace 3 - Shores of Tomorrow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Roger Macbride)

Make a gift of a new water purifier to the village elders and slip the mayor some cash to pay for its installationЧten times more than the job would really costЧand whoТs going to ask the mayor what happened to the rest? Fix up the old school, and the parents will be grateful enough that it will be thought bad manners to ask if the building materials were stolen. Show up at local weddings and festivals and hand out lavish gifts often enough that people come to count on them as a normal part of the celebration.

See to it that slightly bad thingsЧor even very bad thingsЧhappen to people who object, or who ask questions. Keep at it for a while, and the villages will resent the hell out of the Central Police who come and try to shut down the local benefactor. A nice man like him couldnТt possibly have committed that murder, or robbed the bank in that town a hundred kilometers away, or run that smuggling ringЧand even if he did, well, the people who got hurt were outsiders.Our reiver watches over his own people. Besides, he is so strong. We couldnТt fight him even if we wanted toЧso why not enjoy the wealth he offers us in exchange for just a little silence?

Elber knew the story from the inside. He had grown up listening to romantic adventure stories of the reivers, told in the village inn or around campfires. Robbing the fat upperclassers who got what they had by squeezing the peasants, using the booty to stop the widowТs farm from being sold away from her or to save the village girl from a marriage she couldnТt abide. Propaganda, theyТd call it on the station. Or, perhaps, marketing.

Child and adult, he had played along. There had been a grand gift of two healthy cows and a store of hay at his wedding, and a wad of cash as well. Elber had been pleased, but not surprised. It was part of the natural course of things.

So when the Center Cops finally did make a move that meant something, and dragged away Smit Sarten, the local reiver king, Elber had been as hurt and confused and resentful as anyone. And, somehow, the way the Center Cops rubbed the hard evidence of robbery, murder, and smuggling in the localsТ faces made them angry at the cops, not at Sarten. The old crones still had a warm place in their hearts for him. He was just a mischievous boy, not a cold-blooded murderer.

But, even so, for a time, at least, the cycle had been broken. Until, just recently, it started up again. It was a lot to read from the cautious phrasing in a few insurance claims, but Elber knew his people, knew the way rural life worked on Solace.

But who could he go to with his warning? What did he have, except for vague suspicions? He might be able to talk to Beakly, his department head. But what couldshe do, except pass it up the line? What would be the final result? TheyТd raise the premiums, perhaps, but they were doing that anyway. And if Elber could read the return of Smit SartenТs sort from as far a remove as claim reports on SCO Station, no doubt the Central Solace Police Service could do so from closer in and with far more information.

But even if he could or should do nothing, it was worrisome. The reivers didnТt come out when times were good, or stable, when the government was strong, and people had faith. Things were getting worse.

Rumors about graver, deeper problems planetside had been floating all over the station for months. If the Central Cops could no longer keep a lid on the reivers, that made Elber that much more willing to believe the situation was still deterioratingЧand faster than they were being told. His confident prediction to Jassa that morning, his promise that things would keep getting better for his family, suddenly sounded horribly false.

ElberТs own village had been caught in surprise spring floods that had never receded. His village was still underwater, and the last Elber had heard, the local officials had finally given up pretending that the waters would ever recedeЧand that was far from an isolated incident.

But even if things might be bad, and getting worse, back on the planet, there wasnТt a thing he could do about it. BesidesЧit was nothing to do withhim . Not anymore. Elber shook his head and tried to focus on his risk evaluations.

УElber Malloon?Ф

Elber looked up sharply. It had been a long time since anyone in the office had addressed him by name. He wasnТt of high enough rank or sufficient consequence for it to be worth their while to learn his name. But he saw as soon as he looked up that this was not someone from the office who had taken a sudden interest in low-level functionaries. People who worked in the shipping office did not wear the uniform of the Station Security Force.

Elber suddenly realized that the entire office had gone silent. Everyone was looking at him, and the SSF officer. УAh, yes, thatТs me.Ф

УCome along,Ф said the SSF cop. УYouТre wanted downstairs.Ф

Elber stood up uncertainly, his heart pounding. УAh, ah, all right,Ф he said. УIТll have to clear it with my supervisor.Ф

УShe knows all about it,Ф the officer said, casually gesturing in the direction of Supervisor BeaklyТs office. Sure enough, she was watching along with everyone else. She nodded once at Elber, her expression puzzled, perhaps a bit worried.

And in that moment, Elber saw the ruin of his world in her face. All his endless efforts to work hard, show good faith, earn the trust of his superiorsЧall of it was gone in a blink of an eye, the turn of a frown. If they had come for him at home, perhaps it could have been all right. But not now, not after arrest in front of the whole office. Why would any of them have the slightest reason to take a chance on him now? His hopes and plans for a comfortable future for his wife and child, a safe future here on the station, had vanished like a soap bubble stuck with a pin. It was all over.

He gathered his things and meekly followed the officer out of the room, not looking back, looking no one in the eye, refusing to hear the murmuring tide of voices that swelled up behind as he passed through the big room.

It was not until they were out of the shipping office, and in the corridor, that it even occurred to him to wonder why he had been arrested. Even then, it never entered his head to ask the SSF officer. Elber had lived his whole life in a world where no good could possibly come from questioning an authority figure.

So Elber said nothing, asked nothing, as the SSF man led him to a waiting open-bodied free-runner car. He took his seat and did not even listen as the policeman spoke to the car and told it where to go. The car turned itself on and rolled off down the labyrinthian corridors.

The policemen spun his seat around so that he faced Elber in the backseat. He smiled at Elber, and seemed to expect him to have something to say. But Elber still kept silent. УOne of the quiet ones, huh?Ф the policeman said, and shrugged. УSuit yourself.Ф

The free-runner whizzed along the corridors, rolled itself onto a cargo elevator, and decanted itself just off the Long Boulevard. It instantly started off again, heading back toward the Aft End and Ring Park, retracing ElberТs journey of the morning. The car threaded itself neatly through the busy vehicular traffic. Soon it was at the bulkhead opening that formed the entrance to the Park itself. It rolled inside, then turned off the main road onto a side path.

Elber saw the cop watching him. Elber had lived in the Park, squatting with his family on that patch of ground right there, not twenty meters from where the car was rolling. And the copper knew, and knew that Elber knew. He wanted to see Elber be embarrassed, or ashamed, or just plain scared.

Elber felt reflex take over, turning his face impassive, unreadable. A smart peasant didnТt let cops know when he was worried. The clerk, the desk worker, the station man was already vanishing, exposing the lost and bewildered peasant dirt farmer underneath, bringing the old habits and survival skills to the surface.