"Nicola Griffith - Ammonite" - читать интересную книгу автора (Griffith Nicola)

тАЬMaybe it will. But, John, donтАЩt you see? I donтАЩt care. The chance theyтАЩre
offering me far outweighs the risk. Acquila went to the moon, you went to Hammami
during those awful warsтАж IтАЩm going to Jeep.тАЭ
тАЬBut theyтАЩre using you!тАЭ
тАЬOf course they are. And IтАЩll be using them. A fair exchange. тАЭ
тАЬYouтАЩll be risking your life; they risk nothing. YouтАЩll be alone, powerless. Your
SEC position as independent observer will be as much protection as an ice suit in
hell. SECтАЩs been in bed with Company for years.тАЭ
тАЬDonтАЩt lecture me on corruption and power politics. I know better than most
what it means.тАЭ She took a deep breath and started again, more calmly. тАЬAnyway, I
wonтАЩt be alone. Two of CourtivronтАЩs team are still alive. And IтАЩll only be there six
months. Besides, what if I am CompanyтАЩs guinea pig? So what if SEC doesnтАЩt give
a damn about my report? The important thing to me is that I get six months on a
closed world to research a unique culture.тАЭ
Her father had sighed. тАЬIтАЩd probably have made the same choice at your age.тАЭ
And Marghe had noticed for the first time how old and frail he seemed.

Marghe contemplated the smooth white ceiling of D SectionтАж And maybe the
vaccine will kill you, her father had said.
She got off the bed, suddenly restless. Exercise, that was what she needed. She
pushed two of the beds back against the wall and the edge of a workstation and
stood quietly, hands by her sides in the space she had created, centering herself. She
raised her hands slowly to waist level, then across, in the first move of a tai chi form.
She knew several different styles, fighting and meditative, but Yang style, with its
even and measured movements, its grace, was her favorite for moods like this.
When she finished, her restlessness was gone.
тАЬLights, low.тАЭ They dimmed and the place looked more friendly. She crossed to
her screen.
D SectionтАЩs information storage was held separately from EstradeтАЩs main files,
and was a disorganized patchwork of technical, anecdotal, and speculative notes
added to by each decontaminee. Files ended mid-sentence and had large chunks
missing. Marghe began to scroll through material with which she was already
familiar, looking for the files that had been uploaded from Port Central during the
eighteen months she had been aboard the Terragin.
GrenchstomтАЩs Planet had been rediscovered five years ago by a routine Company
probe. Preliminary satellite surveys had showed a small indigenous human
population living in various communities scattered over the planet, origin uncertain,
though likely to stem from the same colonizing spurt that had seeded Gallipoli.
Remote atmosphere testing had indicated that this could be a lucrative planet for
CompanyтАЩs various leasing operationsтАФ
Marghe scrolled on.
Company landed its usual survey and engineering teams to lay out
communications and construct the working base, Port Central. Accompanying them
were a contingent of Company SecurityтАФMirrorsтАФand, to comply with the law,
SEC representative Maurice Courtivron and his small team, entrusted with the
welfare of JeepтАЩs natives.
Marghe had not known Courtivron, but he must have been good. Jeep was a
Company planet; they owned and ran every line of communication, every item
shipped or manufactured there: the food, the clothes, the shelter. When Company
had started setting off the burns that ruined the nativesтАЩ land, he had done his best to