"Frank Herbert - Destination Void 4 The Ascenscion Factor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

It had been five years since she washed out of the sea and into the news, and in that five years
Flattery had allowed no one but his lab people near her. Ben has asked to do the story out of
curiosity, and wound up pursuing more than he'd bargained for. He'd learned to hate the Director,
and as he watched Crista's fitful sleep, he wasn't the least bit sorry.

He had to admit that, yes, he knew from the first that it had always been a matter of time. He'd
fought Flattery and Holovision too openly and too long.

A recent Shadowbox accused Holovision of being a monopoly of misinformation, Flattery's propaganda
agent that would not regain credibility until it became worker-owned. Ben had leveled the same
attack at the production assistant the previous day.

Ben found himself being preempted by propagandistic little specials that Flattery's technicians
were grinding out. Ben and Rico had bought or built their own cameras and laserbases to minimize
the company's intimidation and Flattery's interference. Now they had full-time, nonpaying jobs as
air pirates with Shadowbox.

And fugitives, he thought.

Ben Ozette eased back into the old chairdog and let the sleeper lie. Of all the deadliness on
Pandora, this sleeper could be the most deadly. It was rumored that people had died at her touch,
and this was not just the Director's professional rumor mill. Ben had dared touch her, and he was
not yet one of the dead. It was rumored she was very, very bright.

He whispered her name under his breath.



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Crista Galli.

Her breathing skipped, she sniffed once, twice and settled down.

Crista Galli had green eyes. Even now they opened ever so slightly, turning toward the sun,
visible but not waking.

Eerie.

Ben's last love, his longest love, had brown eyes. She had also been his only love, practically
speaking. That was Beatriz. Her coffee-colored eyes became vivid to him now against the shadows.
Yes, Beatriz. They were still good friends, and she would take this hard. Ben's heart jumped a
beat whenever their wakes crossed, and they crossed often at Holovision.

Beatriz took on her series about Flattery's space program, she was away for weeks at a time. Ben
freelanced docudramas on earthquake survivors, Islander relocation camps and an in-depth series on
the kelp. His latest project featured Crista Galli and her life since her rescue in the kelp.