"Tony Daniel - A Dry, Quiet War" - читать интересную книгу автора (Daniel Tony)

years, the only way to get to Heidel was by freighter, but we had finally
gotten
a node on the Flash, and, even though Ferro was still a backwater planet,
there
were more strangers passing through than there ever had been -- usually en
route
to other places. But they sometimes stayed a night or two in the Bexter
Hotel.
Its reputation was spreading, Bex claimed, and I believed her. Even when she
was
young, she had been shrewd but honest, a combination you don't often find in
an
inn-keeper. She was a quiet woman -- that is, until she got to know you well
--
and some most likely thought her conceited. I got the feeling that she hadn't
let down her reserve for a long time. When I knew her before, Bex did not
have
many close friends, but for the ones she had, such as me, she poured out her
thoughts, and her heart. I found that she hadn't changed much in that way.
"Did you marry?" I asked her, after hearing about the hotel and her father's
bad
health.
"No," she said. "No, I very nearly did, but then I did not. Did you?"
"No. Who was it?"
"Rall Kenton."
"Rall Kenton? Rall Kenton whose parents run the hops market?" He was a
quarter-splice, a tall man on a world of tall men. Yet, when I knew him, his
long shadow had been deceptive. There was no spark or force in him. "I can't
see
that, Bex."
"Tom Kenton died ten years ago," she said. "Marjorie retired, and Rall owned
the
business until just last year. Rall did all right; you'd be surprised.
Something
about his father's passing gave him a backbone. Too much of one, maybe."
"What happened?"
"He died," she said. "He died, too, just as I thought you had." Now she told
me
she would like a beer after all, and I went to get her a bottle of Shin's
ale.
When I returned, I could tell that she'd been crying a little.
"The glims killed Rall," said Bex, before I could ask her about him. "That's
their name for themselves, anyway. Humans, repons, kaliwaks and I don't know
what else. They passed through last year and stayed for a week in Heidel.
Very
bad. They made my father give over the whole hotel to them, and then they had
a
... trial, they called it. Every house was called and made to pay a tithe.
The
glims decided how much. Rall refused to pay. He brought along a pistol --