"Keith Laumer - Bolos 9 - Bolo Strike" - читать интересную книгу автора (Laumer Keith)

waited by the open hatch, along with Senior Factor Redmond, and
Redmond's servant. A last few stragglers from the home office were
arriving as well, clambering off grounded flitters and making their way to
the starship, children and baggage in tow.
"Step lively, Ms. Morrigen," Redmond called to her with that oily,
patronizing laugh she despised. "We don't want to be caught at ground
zero now, do we?"
Morrigen wondered about Redmond. Did the man really want to free
the locals as passionately as his speeches over the last few months
implied? Or was he thinking about the profits, once the indigenes were
freed from the Trixies and turned into dutiful and grateful consumer-
customers of DI? With Sym Redmond it was always hard to tell. She
glanced at Veejay, Redmond's stolid servant. He was a local, his freedom
purchased from one of the minor gods in Ghendai two years ago. What
did he think about all of this?
There was no reading the man's placidly emotionless features.
Another flitter arrived from the city, touching down in the field a
hundred meters away. The exodus had been going on for hours, now.
The corporate starship had been flown out here during the night; it was
unlikely that the Trixies would give permission for her to boost off-world,
and Redmond had decided not to chance their probable refusal.
But there were Bolos on the way, a lot of them. It would be healthier
for DI's Caernan branch office if the senior trading partners and their
families were safely off-planet when the hammer fell.
 Movement caught her eye, a flash of Dislight on metal or glass.
"Pityr?" she asked, pointing toward the distant city. "What's that?"
"Uh-oh," Pityr Morrigen said. "Trouble, is what."
It was a godflier, huge, stoop-winged, insectine, its oddly faired and
blistered hull garish in black and yellow. It raced low across the plain
toward them, overtaking the families still hurrying toward the ship and
coming to a dead-stop hover overhead.
"You will please step out of the ship," an amplified voice called from
the metallic threat hanging overhead.
"Let me handle this," Redmond said, reaching inside his jacket. "The
rest of you get on board."
"No, sir." Veejay's voice was as calm, as implacably unhurried as
ever.
"Pityr!" Tami cried. "That man has a gun!"
Redmond's servant had stepped back, and he held a wicked-looking
needler in his hand. "The gods do not want you to leave," he said. "Please
step away from the hatch."
"Veejay!" Redmond snapped. "What kind of nonsense is this? Put
that thing away!"
"No, sir. Please take your hand away from your jacket slowly. That's
good. Now keep your hands where I can see them, all of you. Ms.
Morrigen?" He gestured at Tami's daughter and she felt a stab of ice-
sharp fear. "Would you tell those on board to begin coming outside?"
"Daddy?"
"Do what he says, honey," Pityr Morrigen told his daughter.
"Damn it, Veejay!" Redmond snapped. "You can't do this! We're trying