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

The free-runner came to a halt beside a low building set into an artificial hillside inside the Park. There were a remarkable number of people coming and going from the place, from all corners of Ring Park.

With a shock, Elber realized what the УbuildingФ was. It looked very different than it had when he had lived in the Park. Then it had been surrounded by guards in olive-green assault fatigues, the grass had been burned off and blackened by an accidental brush fire, and the landscaping around it had been chewed into a muddy brown pulp by marching feet in combat boots and the comings and goings of severe black command cars that seemed to drive everywhere but on the designated roadways.

Now the grass was a lush green carpet, the vehicles were free-runners painted in cheerful pastels, the pedestrians were civilians dressed in stylish, brightly colored office wear, and everyone kept politely to the paths.

Elber and his sort had never gotten within a hundred meters of this place, or the others like it. The guards had been there for the express purpose of keeping gluefeet away. It was one of the entrances to DeSilvo Tower and the Gondola, the massive structure that hung off one side of the spinning station. DeSilvo Tower was actually three giant glass-and-steel towers that formed the legs of a massive tripod, topped off with a six-sided office building, generally known as the Gondola. It held the poshest, most grand homes and offices on the station.

They had expended endless effort to keep his sort out of the Tower and the Gondola. And now Elber was being taken there whether he liked it or not. And he most decidedly did not.



They shot down an incredible glassed-in elevator car with a view of the wheeling, gleaming exterior of the station and the shining world of Solace far below, then dropped into the six-sided jewel that was the upper side of the Gondola proper. Elber stumbled a bit as he exited the car, half from shock and half because he suddenly weighed more, so much farther out from the stationТs spin axis. The cop led him along to another elevatorЧno ornate glass box that looked out on wonders but just a simple steel lift. The doors shut, and Elber watched the floor indicator on the forward display count down.Upper Level ,5, 4, 3, 2, Lower Level . Then the display went blank, and Elber was alarmed to see that the car kept moving, as if it were dropping down past the bottom of the Gondola, headed straight into space whereЧ

Then the car did stop, and the door opened. The cop gestured Elber to step out. He did, onto a greyish silver floor. Something in the floor wasmoving. He glanced down and realized that the movement laybeyond the floor, outside. He was looking down at Solace, spinning past, dimly seen, beneath his feet. At last Elber realized where they were, and knew that they were as far УdownstairsФ as anyone could get at SCO Station. He had read about this place. Everyone on the Station had.

They were in the famous commanderТs office, at the very base of the Gondola, a room with a smartglass floor and smartglass walls that looked out into space and let one watch the universe roll past as the station spun on its axis and orbited the planet below. A grand view, but a supremely distracting and disconcerting one, so much so, the news stories said, that the commander usually kept the walls and floor opaque.

Or at least,thought Elber as he watched the planet wheel out of sight and dim stars come into view,the commander tried . The smartglass was supposed to dial down to perfect opacity, but Elber had read in the same somewhere that the smartglass all over the station was beginning to wear out, the opacifiers no longer reacting as quickly or as fully as they were supposed to do. Even there, in the commanderТs office, it would seem the smartglass was not working as well as it should.

УElber Malloon,Ф the SSF officer announced. Elber looked up and realized for the first time there were other people in the chamber. Two other people, and he recognized both of them at once. The dark-skinned bald man with a seemingly permanent frown sitting behind the big desk was Karlin Raenau, the station commander. Elber had seen his picture often enough to recognize him without trouble. The other man was standing by the desk, wearing an SSF uniform. He was short, burly, olive-skinned, black-haired, with a beaklike nose and hard grey eyes under bushy black eyebrows. Elber had seen him in person, plenty of times, commanding the crowd-control squads against the gluefeet. It was hard to imagine a gluefoot not knowing Captain Olar Sotales, director of Station Security. ElberТs own little daughter Zari still had nightmares about being chased by the Sotales monster.

ElberТs bewilderment transformed into utter shock. These were the two most powerful men on the station. What in the name of dark devils could he have done that was bad enough that it could bring him before them?

УGlad we finally found you,Ф Sotales said. УWeТve been looking for a while now.Ф

УDo you know where you are?Ф Raenau asked. УDo you know who we are?Ф

Elber felt as if he were in fact a gluefoot, rooted to the floor. He nodded without speaking and swallowed nervously.

УGood,Ф said Raenau. УSo we can get started. The situation is getting serious, and we need to do something.Ф

What was getting serious? Do something about what? Why were two of the greatest and most important men on the station concerned with Elber Malloon? What could makehim that important?

More out of bewilderment than anything else, Elber finally worked up the nerve to speak. УSir? PleaseЧif it wouldnТt be too much trouble, can you please tell me why I was arrested? I mean, what the charge is? What am I accused of, I think you call it.Ф

УArrested?Ф Raenau asked, apparently surprised. УYou werenТt arrested. You were invited to answer a few questions and to see if you could help us with a problem. ThatТs all.Ф

From some part of himself he barely knew, formed more from fear than nerve, Elber Malloon found the courage to contradict the man in absolute authority over him. You never dared argue with a copper. But sometimesЧsometimesЧyou could appeal to the big uppers, the sort who assumed their cops and overseers treated the lowdowns as nice as nice and were surprised when things werenТt like that.

УSir, IТm sorry, sir, but, well, sirЧthis officer came to my workplace during business hours, spoke to my supervisor before looking for me, had her point me out to him, then told me I was Сwanted downstairsТ in front of all and everyone.Ф

Raenau frowned thoughtfully. УI see. That makes it sound bad for you. Is that how people get arrested back home?Ф

Elber nodded stiffly. УPretty much, sir. Everyone in the office thought I was being arrested.I thought I was. My boss thought so.Ф

УWeТll make sure they know it was a mistake,Ф Raenau said.

УWell, ah, sorry sir, butЧI saw the look my boss gave me, sir, and Iknow IТve lost my job already. IТm cooked. Fired.Ф