"Jeff Grubb - StarCraft Libertys - Crusade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grubb Jeff)

тАЬTheyтАЩre from beyond the Jaandaran embargo,тАЭ said Anderson temptingly. тАЬRolled on the thighs of
cinnamon-shaded maidens.тАЭ

Mike held up both hands and smiled broadly. Everyone knew that Anderson was too cheap to get
anything beyond the standardel ropos manufactured in some bootleg basement. But the smile was
intended to reassure.

тАЬWhatтАЩs the beef?тАЭ Mike repeated.

тАЬYouтАЩve really done it this time,тАЭ said Anderson, sighing. тАЬYour series on the construction kickbacks on
the new Municipal Hall.тАЭ

тАЬGood stuff. The series should rattle a few cages.тАЭ

тАЬTheyтАЩve already been rattled,тАЭ replied Anderson, his chin sinking down to touch his chest. This was
known as the bearer-of-bad-news position. It was something that Anderson had learned at some
management course but that made him look like a mating ledge-pigeon.

Crap,thought Mike.HeтАЩs going to spike the series.

As if reading his thoughts, Anderson said, тАЬDonтАЩt worry, weтАЩre going to run the rest of the series. ItтАЩs
solid reporting, well-documented, and best of all, itтАЩs true. But you have to know youтАЩve made a few
people very uncomfortable.тАЭ

Mike mentally ran through the series. It had been one of his better ones, a classic involving a petty
offender who was caught in the wrong place (a public park) at the wrong time (way after midnight) with
the wrong thing (mildly radioactive construction waste from the Municipal Hall project). Said offender
was more than willing to pass on the name of the man who sent him on this late-night escapade. That
individual was in turn willing to tell Mike about some other interesting matters involving the new hall, and
so forth, until Mike had, instead of a single story, a whole series about a huge network of graft and
corruption that the Universe Network News audience ate up with their collective spoons.

Mike mentally ran through the ward heelers, low-level thugs, and members of the Tarsonis City Council
that he had skewered in print, discarding each in turn as a suspect. Any of those august individuals might
want to take a shot at him, but such a threat wasnтАЩt enough to make Handy Anderson nervous.

The editor-in-chief saw MikeтАЩs blank expression and added, тАЬYouтАЩve made a few powerful,venerable
people very uncomfortable.тАЭ

MikeтАЩs left eyebrow rose. Anderson was talking about one of the ruling Families, the power behind the
Confederacy for most of its existence, since those early days when the first colony ships (hell, prison
ships) landed and/or crashed on various planets in the sector. Somewhere in his reporting, he had nailed
somebody with pull, or perhaps somebody close enough to one of the Families to make the old
venerables nervous.

Mike resolved to go back over his notes and see what kind of linkages he could make. Perhaps a distaff
cousin to one of the Old Families, or a lack sheep, or maybe even a direct kickback. God knew that the
Old Families ran things from behind the scenes since the year naught. If he could nail one of them . . .

Mike wondered if he was visibly salivating at the prospect.