"Blish, James - Anywhen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blish James)

curious nations, all fiercely independent, and a cultural pattern which
overrides all local variations. To this all the Boadaceans are intensely
loyal."
"I commend them," Simon said; and then added sourly, "it is well for a man
to have a belief he can cling to."
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 A Style in Treason

"The point is well taken," said the vombis. "Yet the pride of Boadacea.
springs from disloyalty, in the last analysis. The people believe it was
the first colony to break with Old Earth, back in the first days of the
Imaginary Drive. It is a breach they mean to see remains unhealed."
"Why not?" Simon said, shrugging. "I'm told also that Boadacea is very
wealthy."
"Oh, excessively; it was once a great temptation to raiders, but the
nations banded together against them with great success. Yet surely wealth
does not interest you, reverend sir9"
"Marginally, yes. I am seeking some quiet country in which to settle and
study. Naturally, I should prefer to find
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myself a patron.
"Naturally. I would suggest, then, that you try the domain of the
Rood-Prince. It is small and stable, the climate is said to be clement, and
he has a famous library." 1he creature arose. "For your purposes I would
avoid Druidsfall; life there, as in most large cities, might prove rather
turbulent for a scholar. I wish you success, reverend sir."
Placing its hand formally upon the jewelled shiv, the creature bowed
slightly and left. Simon remained staring down at his cards, thinking icily
but at speed.
What had all that meant? First of all, that his cover had been broken?
Simon doubted that, but in any event it mattered little, since he would go
almost into the open directly after landing. Assuming that it had, then,
what had the creature been trying to convey? Surely not simply that life in
Druidsfall would be even more turbulent for a traitor than for a lapsed
divine. Naturally, it would expect Simon to know that; after all,
Druidsfall was the centre of the treason industry on Boadacea-that was why
Simon was going there.
Or was it that Boadacea would be difficult for an ordinary traitor to buy,
or was not for sale at all? But that might be said of any worthwhile
planet, and no professional would 17
 A Style in Treason

let such a reputation pass without testing it, certainly not on the
unsupported word of a stranger.
Besides, Simon was after all no ordinary traitor, nor even the usual kind
of double agent. His task was to buy Boadacea while seeming to sell High
Earth, but beyond that, there was a grander treason in the making for which
the combined Traitors' Guilds of both planets might only barely be
sufficient: the toppling of the Green Exarch, under whose subtle, nonhuman
yoke half of humanity's worlds had not even the latter-day good sense to