"Brian Daley - Jinx on a Terran Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daley Brian)

Couldn't you tell from the Suit of Lights, or whatever that outfit's called? She's twice Sintilla's size,
besides! Now, will you come on, before the Blue Pearl leaves without us?"
"Looked like her at first; same hair. Listen, Ho, we can't be too careful. We've got enough trouble as it
is."
"No argument there," Floyt conceded. Their Earthservice behavioral conditioning was eating at themтАФ
they had to take this mysterious bequest from Weir, a starship called the Astraea Imprimatur, back for
the enrichment of the Earthservice Resources Bureau.
That meant going to a planet called BlackguardтАФabout which they knew slightly more than nothingтАФto
claim her. Provided they could get out of Frostpile alive.
"Trouble?" said a voice behind them.
The two leapt up into the air, colliding with each other, Alacrity clawing for a sidearm he was not
carrying. Dincrist, Heart's father, stood watching them.
He'd already changed from funeral robes to the heavily decorated uniform of a commercial starship
captain. He didn't seem to be armed. But if looks really could kill тАж Alacrity thought.
"You have all the trouble you can handle, and far, far more." Dincrist was the picture of a patrician-
sportsman, even taller than Alacrity and very fit, white-haired and deeply tanned.
Alacrity, at twenty-two a working spacerтАФa breakaboutтАФfor many years, held himself ready. He and
Dincrist had already mixed it up twice, more or less to a draw, but Dincrist hadn't been through any
airbike disasters or murder attempts yet that day, and was in excellent condition.
Still, Alacrity bristled. "What, you again? Shouldn't you be off flogging a real breakabout someplace?"


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 [Fitzhugh 2]-JINX ON A TERRAN INHERITANCE


Dincrist flushed slightly. The head of a powerful shipping and shipbuilding empire, he'd had only a
minimum of actual experience in starship serviceтАФhad only the technical right to be wearing his
magnificent uniform.
"I heard about Endwraithe's trying to kill you," he said, tight-lipped. "I'm very glad that he failed; I mean
to see to you myself, Fitzhugh."
"See how good the guy is at that kind of talk, Ho?" Alacrity said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Very effective facial expressions, too," Floyt replied lightly. Inside, though, he was fighting dread and
despair. Dincrist was a man to be feared.
"I've no time to waste on nitwits." Dincrist took a half step toward them, and Alacrity braced for a
dustup.
Instead, Heart's father pointed a finger at them and proclaimed, "Alacrity Fitzhugh and Hobart Floyt, I,
Captain Soft-coygne Dincrist, declare myself to be your sworn enemy and you both to be mine. By the
Bans and the Pandect, by word and by deed, I swear to harm and to hinder you, to break and to kill you.
I call down upon you misfortune, reversal, calamity, and affliction."
The rolling cadence of the avowal was so hypnotic, Dincrist's tone so orotund, it took them a moment to
realize that he'd finished.
"Oh, oh yeah?" Alacrity parried weakly. "Well, don't count on it."
"Right!" Floyt jumped in, surprisingly ferocious. "If you give us any trouble, we'll spin your head
around like a weathervane!"
Alacrity took heart. "That's right; we'll stomp you flatter than a month-old road-kill!"
"Kill you faster than anything in the pharmacy!"
"Polish our shoes on your balls!"
Their uncouth counterspell took Dincrist by surprise. Too furious to retaliate in kind, he turned and
strode away quickly. They called parting incantations after him.