"David Drake - RCN 01 - With the Lightnings" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

If youтАЩd like him to locate some carpenters . . . ?тАЭ
Adele snorted. The library budget, if there was one, wasnтАЩt under her control. тАЬI appreciate the offer,тАЭ she said,
тАЬbut I regret that IтАЩm not in a position to take advantage of it. Unless your man could find the carpentersтАЩ wages as
well as the carpenters themselves.тАЭ
Leary grinned, but there was a serious undertone in his voice as he said, тАЬI really donтАЩt dare suggest that,
mistress. While I donтАЩt think Hogg would be caught, IтАЩm afraid his methods would bring spiritual discredit on a Leary
of Bantry. What Hogg does on his own account is his own business, but if I set him a task . . .тАЭ
The world had gone gray around Adele. тАЬYou said, тАШa Leary of Bantry,тАЩ sir,тАЭ she said. Her voice too was without
color. тАЬYouтАЩd be related to Speaker Leary, then?тАЭ
Leary grimaced. тАЬOh, yes,тАЭ he said. тАЬCorder Leary is my father, though weтАЩd both be willing to deny it.тАЭ
тАЬI see,тАЭ Adele said. Her voice came from another place, another time. She crossed her hands behind her back.
тАЬLieutenant Leary,тАЭ she said, тАЬI have a great deal of work to do. YouтАЩre a Cinnabar citizen and I will presume a
gentleman. I therefore request that you cease to trouble me and my staff.
Daniel Leary reddened also. He made a stiff half-bow. тАЬGood morning, mistress,тАЭ he said. тАЬNo doubt weтАЩll meet
again.тАЭ He strode with a caged grace from the library.
Later, he sat on a bench in a garden. HeтАЩd walked until the adrenaline burned off and he needed to sit. He hadnтАЩt
been so angry since the afternoon he broke with his father.
HeтАЩd have to challenge her to a duel, of course. The insult had been too deliberate to ignore. . . .
 A NOTE ON WEIGHT AND MEASURES
As most of my fiction is either set in the far past or the distant future, I regularly face the question of whether to
use weights and measures familiar to the reader or instead to reflect the differences that time brings. In this particular
case IтАЩve decided to use English and metric measurements rather than inventing different but comparable systems.

In my opinion the weights and measures of thousands of years in the future will differ as strikingly from those of
today as the latter do from the talents and stades familiar to classical Greeks. Those future systems may well vary
among themselves as confusingly as the Euboic and Aeginetic standards did. But while I hope a reader may learn
something from this novel as well as being entertained, the state of the world isnтАЩt going to be improved by me
inventing phony measurement systems.
Me that тАЩave followed my trade
In the place where the LightninтАЩs are made тАж

тАФKipling
 Book One
Lieutenant Daniel Leary ambled through the streets of Kostroma City in the black-piped gray 2nd Class uniform
of the Republic of Cinnabar Navy. He was on his way to the ElectorтАЩs Palace, but there was no hurry and really
nothing more important for Daniel to do than to savor the fact that heтАЩd realized one of his childhood dreams: to walk a
far world and see its wonders first hand.
His other dream, to command a starship himself, would come (if at all) in the far future; a future as distant in
DanielтАЩs mind as childhood seemed from his present age of twenty-two Terran years.
For now, he had Kostroma and that was wonder enough. He whistled a snatch of a tune the band had played at
the supper club heтАЩd visited the night -before.
Daniel smiled, an expression so naturally warm that strangers on the street smiled back at him. The Kostro-man
lady heтАЩd met there was named Silena. The honor both of a Leary of Bantry and the RCN required that Daniel offer his
help when the ladyтАЩs young escort drank himself into babbling incapacity. Silena had been very appreciative; and after
the first few minutes back at her lodgings, pique at her original escort was no longer her primary focus.
Daniel was only a little above average height with a tendency toward fleshiness that showed itself particularly in
his florid face. His roundness and open expression caused strangers sometimes to dismiss Daniel Leary as soft. That
was a mistake.
A canal ran down the center of the broad street. During -daylight it carried only small craft, water taxis and light
delivery vehicles, but at night barges loaded with construction materials edged between the stone banks with loud