"David Drake - Piet Ricimer 02 - Through the Breach UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

ment, Gregg with no amusement at all. I didn't understand
their coolness. I'd thought this was the way to build
rapport, since Gregg was a gentleman also, member of a
factorial family, and Ricimer at least claimed the status.
"Ah . . ." I repeated. Carefully, because the subject could
easily become a can of worms, I went on, "I've been a
member of the household of Councilor Duneen--chief
advisor to the Governor of the Free State of Venus."
"We know who Councilor Duneen is, Mister Moore,"
Ricimer said dryly. "We'd probably know of him even if
he weren't a major backer of the expedition."
The walls of the room were covered to shoulder height
in tilework. The color blurred upward from near black at
floor level to smoky gray shot with wisps of silver. The
ceiling and upper walls were coated with beige sealant that
might well date from the tavern's construction.
The table behind which Ricimer and Gregg sat-they
hadn't offered me a chair-was probably part of the tayern
furnishings. The communications console in a back corner
was brand-new. The cera m-ic chassis marked the console






THROUGH THE BREACH 3

as of Venerian manufacture, since an off-planet unit would
have been made. of metal or organic resin instead, but its
electronics were built from chips stockpiled on distant
worlds where automated factories continued to produce
even after the human colonies perished.
Very probably, Piet Ricimer himself had brought those
chips to Venus on an earlier voyage. Earth, with a popula-
tion of twenty millions after the Collapse, had returned to
space earlier than tiny Venus. Now that all planets outside
the Solar System were claimed by the largest pair of ram-
shackle Terran states, the North American Federation and
the Southern Cross, other men traded beyond Pluto only
with one hand on their guns.
Piet Ricimer and his cohorts had kept both hands on
their guns, and they traded very well indeed. Whatever
the cover story-Venus and the Federation weren't techni-
cally at war-the present expedition wasn't headed for the
Asteroid Belt to bring back metals that Venus had learned
to do without during the Collapse.
I changed tack. I'd prepared for this interview by trad-
ing my floridly expensive best suit for clothing of more
sober cut and material, though I'd have stayed with the