"Nancy Kress - Beggars 2 - Beggars and Choosers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

BEGGARS & CHOOSERS
I
Copyright ┬й 1994 by Nancy Kress

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book,
or portions thereof, in any form.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Edited by David G. Hartwell

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10010

Tor┬о is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

Design by Lynn Newmark

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kress, Nancy.
Beggars & Choosers / Nancy Kress.
p. cm.
"A Tom Doherty Associates book."
ISBN 0-312-85749-7 (hardcover)
PS3561.R46B38 1994
813'.54тАФdc20 94-21753
CIP

First edition: October 1994

Printed in the United States of America

0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Miriam Grace Monfredo
and Mary Stanton

without whose friendship in a bad time
this book would not have been finished.
 Prologue
2106




T he clanging of the priority-one override alarm ripped
through the cavernous backstage dressing room. Drew
Aden, the only occupant, jerked his head toward the holo-
terminal beside his dressing table. The screen registered his retina