"Mercedes Lackey - A Tail Of Two Skittys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

installed a tangle-field generator across the doorway. With no windows, these
little offices made perfect holding-pens. Most of them didn't have furniture
yet, those that did didn't really contain anything that could be used as a
weapon. The desks were simple slabs of native wood on metal supports, the
chairs molded plastile, and both were bolted to the floor. There was nothing
in Dick's little cubicle that could even be thrown.

Dick was still trying to figure out who and what these people were, when
something finally clicked. He looked up at the Gray Man. "You're from TriStar,
aren't you?" he asked.

If the Gray Man was startled by this, he didn't show it. "Yes," the man
replied, gun-muzzle never wavering. "How did you figure that out?"

"BioTech never ships with anyone other than TriStar if they can help it," Dick
said flatly. "I wondered why they had hired a tramp-freighter to bring out
their cats; it didn't seem like them, but then I thought maybe that was all
they could get."

"You're clever, White," the Gray Man replied, expressionlessly. "Too clever
for your own good, maybe. We might just have to make you disappear. You and
the Makumba woman; she'll probably know some of us as soon as she wakes up,
and we don't have the time or the equipment to brain-wipe you."

Dick felt a chill going down his back, as the men at the door finished
installing the field and left, quickly. "BioTech is going to wonder if one of
their designated handlers just vanishes. And without me, you're never going to
get SKitty back; BioTech isn't going to care for that, either. They might
start asking questions that you can't answer."

The Gray Man stared at him for a long moment; his expression did not vary in
the least, but at least he didn't make any move to shoot. "I'll think about
it," he said finally. He might have said more, but there was a shout from the
corridor outside.

"The cat!" someone yelled, and the Gray Man was out of the door before Dick
could blink. Unfortunately, he paused long enough to trigger the tangle-field
before he ran off in pursuit of what could only have been SKitty.

Dick slumped down into the chair, and buried his face in his hands, but not in
despair. He was thinking furiously.

TriStar didn't like getting cut out of the negotiations; what they can't get
legally, they'll get any way they can. Probably they intend to use us as
hostages against Vena's good behavior, getting her to put them up as the new
negotiators. I solved the problem of getting the cats for them; now there's no
reason they couldn't just step in. But that can't go on forever, sooner or
later Vena is going to get to a com unit or send some kind of message
offworld. So what would these people do then?