"Simon R. Green - Deathstalker - 1 - Deathstalker" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

were worse things than death.

So the Blood Runners had put them in touch with people on Virimonde, out on the
Rim, and the Shard had come to play the old game one more time. One last throw

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Green, Simon R. - Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker (v1.0) (html)


of the dice.

Hazel wondered, not for the first time, how she'd come to this. It wasn't exactly
what she'd had in mind for herself when she left her home planet ten minutes
ahead of a restraining order and a lengthy stay in jail in search of excitement and
adventure. Cloneleggers were the lowest of the low, the scum of the Empire. Even
a beggar with leprosy would pause to spit on a clonelegger. People who walked in
certain high circles liked to boast of their personal cloneleggers, as one might of
an attack beast trained for the Arenas, but no one had a good word for them in
open society. They were pariahs, outcasts, untouchables for daring to traffic in the
trade that no one wanted to admit existed.

Ha/e sighed tiredly. She'd leave the Shard in a moment, if she had anywhere to go.
Hazel d'Ark, twenty-three years old, tall, lithely muscular, with a sharp, pointed
face and a mane of long ratty red hair. Green eyes that missed nothing, and a smile
so quick people often missed it if they weren't looking for it. She'd worked in one
dirty job after another since leaving home, and it showed in the wariness of her
stance and the naked suspicion in her scowl. She'd been a mercenary on Loki, a
bodyguard on Golgotha and, most recently, part of the security forces on Brahmin
II, which was where Captain Markee found her, running for her life. A superior
officer had decided his rank entitled him to certain rights to her body, and not for
cloning, either. Hazel d'Ark had disagreed. She'd decided a long time ago that she
wasn't giving away anything she could sell. It came to blows and ended in tears,
and Hazel went on the run again with the bastard's blood still dripping from her
knife.

At the time, a little discreet clonelegging had seemed like a definite career
advancement. Low profile, low risk, the only hard work a little diggingтАж perfect.
Especially with so many people hot on her trail. Just lately, it seemed there was
always someone looking for her with bad intentions. It was all her own fault; she
knew that. She'd always had a tendency to wander into illegal deals in search of
fast money, and only afterward discover what she'd let herself in for. But even
though she'd done a lot of things in her time that she wasn't too proud of,
kidnapping people and butchering them in cold blood for their organs had to be a
new low, even for her.

She didn't know if she could do it. She had a feeling it might be a matter of
principle, something she wasn't exactly familiar with. But everyone draws the line

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Green, Simon R. - Deathstalker 01 - Deathstalker (v1.0) (html)