"Huff, Tanya - What Ho, Magic!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

A muscle jumped in the Atabeg's jaw. The aide stepped back. "Yes. He got away. Again."
"Oh, good." The young man favored his father with a dazzling smile. "Now I don't have to be Shahinshah."
"You don't have to beЕ" The Atabeg sputtered into silence then began again, his voice rising to a shriek. "For the last time, Darvish, you will be Shahinshah!"
"ButЕ"
"Not another word!" He glared up at his aide, his anger a sizzling presence in the room. "Get me that ship and everyone on it. Call out the fleet if you have to!"
"Why me?" Darvish asked of no one in particular.
"What I don't understand," Kelly murmured, her booted feet up on the control console, "is how he knew I had the rocks on board."
"Maybe he was watching our dealer," the ship suggested.
"The Atabeg can't keep spies in Company space," the independent scoffed. "His men sell themselves too cheaply."
"Lucky guess?"
Kelly yanked both hands up through her loose curls. "Maybe." The only alternative, that one of their own had sold them out, didn't stand considering. Independents trusted few enough people as it was. If they couldn't trust each other, the whole system would fall apart. "How are repairs coming?"
"I'm running final systems checks now. Give me a few minutes, and I'll have full internal sensory input again."
The ship fell silent and Kelly amused herself by watching lights flicker on the control board as one by one the systems damaged in a small argument with a Company patrol boat came back on line.
"Uh, Kelly. Maybe they weren't after the rocks."
"What?" Kelly's feet hit the deck.
"I've just picked up an intruder in the lounge; within human parameters but small."
Kelly was out of the control room almost before the ship finished talking. She raced into the lounge and skidded to an abrupt halt. Backed against a bulkhead was a red-haired boy with a runny nose, a dirty face, and an energy weapon pointed at the general area between her chin and her navel.
"Come one step closer," said the youngster calmly, "and I'll blow you into a greasy smear on the deck."
"Lovely," said Kelly. "Just what I needed to round out my day." She took a step forward but stopped when the boy showed every indication of carrying out his threat. "Couldn't we talk about this?"
He shook his head, lips compressed into a thin line.
Suddenly, alarms shrilled and lights flashed. As the boy jerked, Kelly dove to the deck, seconds before an energy blast boiled the paint on the metal behind her head.
"I feel," commented Val, the boy and his weapon safely wrapped in the extensile arms she used in the lounge, "like a child molester."
"Child, hell!" Kelly snapped. "That little monster nearly fried me."
The little monster in question stopped struggling and relaxed against his bonds, frustration giving in to fatigue.
"This ship's self-aware," he said sulkily. "That's against the law."
"So, sue me." Kelly gingerly touched the blistered paint and shook her head. "Why didn't you grab him before I was in his line of fire?"
A shrug was implicit in the computer's sheepish tone. "I didn't think of it."
Kelly's brows rose. "You didn't think of it? The best interfaces money can buy, and you didn't think of it? Maybe I should turn you in for a good abacus, then if I get shot at, at least it'll be my own fault."
"My old man'll get you for this," the boy blurted out suddenly, more peeved at being ignored than confined. "You'll see."
Kelly sighed. "Listen brat, I don't know why you're on my ship, and I don't care if you're the Shahinshah's only sonЕ"
"Yeah? Well, I am."
"Am what?"
"I am the Shahinshah's only son."
"All right, Ahrikhartoum GaferЕGaafЕGiffЕ" Kelly threw up her hands in defeat. "What did you say your name was again?"
"Ahrikhartoum Gaafar Nimeiry Umma al-Mahdi, Heir to Infinity." He stopped mashing his food into interesting piles long enough to add: "Most people call me Your Magnificence."
"They do?"
"Yeah."
"Well, forget it." She considered a moment, absently sculpting her own dinner into mounds and hollows. "AhrikhartoumЕ AhrikharЕErikЕI'll call you Erik. If," she added mockingly, "the Heir to Infinity approves."
The boy shrugged, more interested in whether or not he could stand an eating utensil up in the mess on his plate.
She took that as an affirmative. "Okay, Erik, let's see if I've got this straight. Your uncle, the Atabeg, wants to kill you so that his son Darvish inherits the throne. He destroyed the troops escorting you from your grandmother's but you slipped by his Immdrtals, stowed away on my ship, almost killed me, and now want me to take you to your father. The Shahinshah. The King of Kings. He Whose Slightest Whim is Law in a Thousand Star Systems."
Erik nodded. "Grandmother says I'm old enough to start protecting myself."
Kelly remembered the squad commander and sighed. Perhaps she'd been just a tad hasty. "Well, I can't take you back, that's for sure."
"Surer," broke in Val. "We've been followed."
"Followed?" Kelly ran for the control room. "What did you do, stop and admire the scenery?"
"Youldon't like the way I move, get out and walk."
"Maybe half a dozen self-aware ships in the galaxy," Kelly muttered as she slid into the pilot's couch, "and I get the one who thinks she's a comedienne. C'mere, brat."
"I'm here."
"Right." She waved him into the other couch and indicated two brightly-lit screens. "Those ships belong to your uncle?"
"A ship this size doesn't carry trackers for Susumu space."
"That's not what I asked you."