"Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan - The New Space Opera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dozois Gardner)

Tiamaat fell to her knees, with a wail of despair, pressing her hands to either side of her head. тАЬHe has a
right! Ki territory is An territory, he has a right to behave as if we were at home. And the Others knew it,
donтАЩt you see? They knew!тАЭ

The CSP officer yelled something inexcusable and lunged at the killer. Pel├й grabbed him by the shoulders
and hauled him back, talking urgent sense. The Ki said nothing, but I thought Tiamaat was right. TheyтАЩd
known what the DiasporaтАЩs pet monster would do in here; and he hadnтАЩt let them down.

****

Perfectly unconcerned, Baal stood guard over the body until Colonel HaaтАЩagaan arrived with the closed
cars. Then he picked it up and slung it over his shoulder. I traveled with him and his booty, and the
protection of four Green Belts, to the elevator. Another blacked-out car waited for us on Parliament
level. What a nightmare journey! We delivered him to the ser-vice entrance of his suite in the Sensitive
Visitors Facility, and saw him drop the body insouciantly into the arms of one of his aidesтАФa domestic,
lesser specimen of those rare and dangerous animals, the An.
The soldiers looked at each other, looked at me. тАЬYouтАЩd better stay,тАЭ I said. тАЬAnd get yourselves
reinforced, there might be reprisals planned.тАЭ

BaalтАЩs tawny eyes in my mind: challenging me, trusting meтАФ

****

The debriefing was in closed session; although there would be a transcript on record. It took a painfully
long time, but we managed to exonerate everyone, including Baal. Mistakes had been made, signals had
been misread. We knew the facts of the KiAn problem, we had only the most rudimentary grasp of the
cultures involved. Baal and Tiamaat, who were not present, had made no further comment. The Ki (who
were not present either) had offered a swift deposition. They wanted the incident treated with utmost
discretion: they did not see it as a bar to negotiation. The Balas/Shet party argued that BaalтАЩs kill had
been unique, an тАЬextraordinary ritualтАЭ that we had to sanction. And we knew this was nonsense, but it
was the best we could do.

One of our Green Belts, struck by the place in the report where Tiamaat exclaims тАЬthe Others knew it!,тАЭ
came up with the idea that the young Ki had been a form of suicide bomber: sacrificing his life in the hope
of wrecking the peace talks. Investigation of the dead boy and his contacts would now commence.

тАЬThank funx it didnтАЩt happen on the live transmission!тАЭ cried Shamaz, the old soldier, getting his priorities
right.

It was very late before Pel├й and I got away. We spent the rest of the night together, hiding in the
tenderness of the Blue Planet, where war is shameful and murder is an aberration; where kindness is
common currency, and in almost every language strangers are greeted with loveтАФdear, pet, darling;
sister, brother, cousinтАФand nobody even wonders why. What an unexpected distinction, we who
thought we were such ruthless villains, such fallen angels. тАЬWeтАЩre turning into the care-assistant caste for
the whole funxing galaxy,тАЭ moaned Pel├й. тАЬQu├й cacho!тАЭ

****

The Parliament session was well attended: many tiers packed with bilocators; more than the usual scatter