"Sharon Green - Diana Santee 3 -Tanderon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Sharon)

handy having him sign me out of there, but I hadn't thought he would. He had his
own reasons for wanting me locked up in a hospital room, and the state of my health
was only one small part of it.
I glanced over at the door before stretching out flat on my back on the bed, then
held up my bandaged wrists in front of my eyes. Although the bandages were more
than the decorations I'd told Ringer they were, my wrists were healed well enough to
be no more than an annoyance. If Ringer had had an assignment for me he wouldn't
have hesitated long enough even to remember my wrists, let alone pester me about
them. But assignments weren't supposed to be coming my way for a while. Ringer
and the Federation Council had something else in mind for me, plans I'd had the time
to do a lot of thinking about over the past two weeks.
Due to the small mishap I mentioned, I ended up discovering an entire Confederacy
of humanoids previously unknown to anyone in my Federation. They had known
about us, though, and I'd helped out with a problem they'd had, acquiring, in the
process, the new face I'd thought would do me so much good. They'd then sent me
back home with an introduction from their central government to mine, suggesting
that our two civilizations begin friendly negotiations.
I'd brought a man of their civilization back with me, but not because Val was their
choice of a representative. Valdon - plus a long list of other names - had been my
own choice as a candidate for swapping, as he possessed what was called original
Absari blood. That means his gene makeup lets him change his features and voice
and build to match anyone he's ever seen, a talent worth having in my line of work. I
would have been able to make good use of Val while he partnered with me, but his
pig-headed stubbornness had wrecked things right from the very start.
Val didn't care much for taking orders from me, and when I'd gotten myself into an
unpleasant situation he'd ignored everything I'd told him and had come charging to
my rescue. The gesture may have saved me some pain, but he came that close to
getting the two of us killed and when the Council heard about it they'd needed
emergency first-aid.
Since the Council had already started moving on establishing friendly relations with
Val's people, they hadn't been happy about what had nearly happened. They'd
pictured themselves having to announce Val's death at the first conference, had
nearly had apoplexy over the vision, then had turned around and blamed me for what
Val had done.
Everyone was insisting that I hadn't given Val enough information to work with,
thereby putting him in danger of nearly losing his life, but I knew Council methods
and practices better than that. If any of the Council members had really been after
my head they would have sent investigators around to compile data for a closed
hearing, then would have hit me with it all at once. The fact that no investigators or
hearings were involved meant the Council knew damned well they couldn't make the
charges stick, but unimportant facts like that didn't seem to be interrupting their sleep
much. They'd gone blithely along with everything Ringer had suggested about
keeping me tied down, and had probably grinned while doing it.
A good ten minutes had gone by since Ringer had exited stage right, so I sat up in
the bed, pressed the switch that lowered the safety rail, then climbed out onto the
floor. Standing up didn't take much effort anymore, but my body still echoed faintly
to the memories of the past two weeks. I could have used somewhere quiet and
unofficial for another week or so, but cutting myself loose from ties and tails had a
higher priority.
Ringer, with the Council's blessing, was sending me back to the training facilities on