"Sharon Green - Mists of the Ages" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Sharon)

legally, it wasnтАЩt likely to change back again. When I reached the front
entrance I pushed inside to the outer foyer, and the maitre dтАЩ on duty glanced
up from his station, then suddenly grinned.
тАЬWell, will you look at that.тАЭ he drawled in greeting, nothing left of his usual
professional aloofness of manner. тАЬWe must be starting that age of miracles the
preachers keep telling us is on the way. Inky has finally decided to come home.тАЭ
тАЬYou may be a dear, Mal, but home isnтАЩt necessarily where the heart is,тАЭ I
answered, not letting the familiarity of the noisy dining room behind him reach
all the way through to me. тАЬAll IтАЩm back for is a visit, and to ask myself what
I ever saw in this dump. I donтАЩt expect to do it a second time.тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩll change your mind,тАЭ he said, the grin softening to a smile, which also
softened his handsome features. тАЬHome is where your friends are, where you can
be yourself with others like you. We all knew why you left, doll, and we all
understood. Now that youтАЩre back again, everything will be the way it used to
be.тАЭ
тАЬNot quite everything,тАЭ I corrected, almost losing it so far that I told him not
to call me doll. That was what Seero had most often called me, and Seero was
dead.
тАЬNo, not quite everything,тАЭ he agreed, losing his smile as he remembered. тАЬBut
things do change, and the rest of us are still here. Tris, Riccom and Sharp said
to send you back as soon as you showed up.тАЭ
тАЬIтАЩm willing to bet they said if I show up,тАЭ I countered, deliberately pushing
away the air of gloom that was trying to descend like a falling building. тАЬI
didnтАЩt know if IтАЩd be able to make it, so I didnтАЩt commit to anything definite.
All I promised to do was try.тАЭ
тАЬWhich is why they said when, not if,тАЭ he countered back, the grin beginning to
return. тАЬWe know the people we can trust from those we canтАЩt. IтАЩd be there with
them myself if I didnтАЩt have to work, so IтАЩll have to catch you next time.
TheyтАЩre waiting in the quiet corner.тАЭ
As expected. I nodded my thanks to Mal and headed into the room his station
guarded, paying no attention to the people at the curtain tables which crowded
almost every inch of floor. About a fifth of the tables had nothing of a
distortion field around them, double that number had shadow curtains to tease
passersby, and all the rest were completely hidden by fields that let no one see
who was at them, what those people were watching, or what the watchers were

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doing. How you set your table depended on what you had come to the club to see
and do, and very few of the table patrons were there for wholesome
entertainment. The club had a full spectrum license, though, which meant even
opera and ballet were available, and some of the tables were automatically set
to those frequencies. Doing it that way meant no one could prove what anyone had
chosen to view unless they were right there beside a particular individual, an
anonymity which meant quite a lot to some of the regulars.
I was almost across the floor to the booths when Tris spotted me, and then
Riccom and Sharp were turning around, adding their grins to TrisтАЩ.
Most of the booths in the quiet corner were taken, which was usually the way it
went. Our kind of people preferred keeping their conversations private even if