"David Drake - RCN 02 - Lt. Leary Commanding" - читать интересную книгу автора (Drake David)

nothing as lovely as a well-tuned plasma motor, nothing. Unless maybe it's the way the universe shines on
you as you drop into the Matrix."

"That reminds me," Adele said with a faint smile. "I need to talk to my banker again. It's time to make
another draft on my prize account."

Uncle Stacey snorted. "Bankers!" he said. "The worst risk one of that lot faces is that the wine he orders
with dinner won't be properly chilled."

He twisted his head one way, then the other to look back at Adele; she politely stepped out to the side
and nodded to him.

"My brother-in-law interests himself in banking," Stacey said. "That's Daniel's father, you know. Though
the lad's turned out an honor to his Bergen blood,I say."

His tone wasn't usually so sharp. Daniel would have been surprised, but he knew that Uncle Stacey was
in Xenos to render on behalf of Bergen and Associates, Shipfitters his quarterly accounts to the
company's financial backer . . . who was Corder Leary.

Speaker Leary's financial interests were widespread. The only thing unusual about his share in Bergen
and Associates was that the involvement was direct instead of being filtered through one or more holding
companies. Daniel knew his father wasn't a cruel man, but he was extremely punctilious about power
relationships, especially when kinship was involved. You always knew where you stood with Corder
Leary; or, more precisely, where at his feet you were to kneel.

An open four-wheeled jitney was leaving theAristotle , probably to pick up Daniel and his party.
Aircars weren't permitted within Harbor Three for safety reasons: the risk of starships maneuvering in
close proximity was great enough without adding aircraft to the mix. Heavy machinery and laborers at
shift changes used the slow-moving overhead rail system circling the whole installation; branches led off
the central line and snaked through sectors of six to ten bays, with shunts where carloads could wait until
required.

The jitneys carried light cargo and small groups of people along the roadway beneath the rails. One had
dropped Daniel and his party here at Dock 37, then whined off to make a delivery to theAristotle in
Dock 36 before returning. The driver claimed he was carrying urgent medical supplies in the hampers,
but Daniel strongly suspected that liquor was arriving in trade for some item of the battleship's furnishings.
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That was the way of the world, and Lt. Daniel Leary had no desire to complain. ThePrincess Cecile 's
fire control system had been converted to RCN standard by means of similar off-book transactions.

A pair of limousines and a van with the pennon of the Harbor Administrator's office pulled up in front of
Dock 37. Brass of some sort, obviously, but civilian brass by the look of the vehicles. Perhaps a
Treasury delegation, checking on the way the Navy Office spent its appropriations? Though they
wouldn't run to limousines, surely.

"Let's get you safely aboard the tram to home, Uncle Stacey," Daniel said. "As shorthanded as the RCN