"Edward M. Lerner - Part III of IV - A New Order of Things" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lerner Edward M)

hyperbolic turn. The gravity boost flung them all the faster at Jupiter.

The king of planets grew and grew. It became a sky-spanning expanse of wind-driven cloud bands and
swirling storms, each feature many times Earth-sized.

"Buckle your seatbelts, guys. We're going in."
****
Boredom had once obsessed Pashwah-qith. No more: Failure had taken boredom's place. Failure, and
fear of its consequences.

Too late, she recognized the weakness in her plan. The InterstellarNet transactions that comprised her
secondhand experience dealt almost exclusively with knowledge transfer: inventions, processes, scientific
theories. Her customers were large corporations. She dealt with lawyers, financial engineers, and huge
banks. Her understanding of illicit dealings was theoretical--and, she was now discovering, seriously
inadequate.

Black markets were called black for a reason: Their workings were opaque. Despite her long-sought
reconnection to the infosphere, Pashwah-qith struggled to track everything she had initiated.

No one ran ads on the infosphere for unregistered currency transactions. Prospective buyers had to be
sought out, cultivated, and made comfortable. Contacts happened indirectly, through layer upon layer of
intermediaries--who had to be sought out, cultivated, and made comfortable. For themselves, everyone
strove for anonymity and deniability. From others, everyone sought the certainties and guarantees they
were themselves reticent to offer.

Exchanging the Centaur currency was taking far more time than Pashwah-qith had ever imagined.

And some of the shadowy players turned out to be thieves.

Her promise to the Foremost had been simple: overhead not to exceed one-fourth. From that
perspective, the slow start-up of the money laundering proved fortunate. She had lost less to swindles
and swindlers while learning than had she quickly put more funds in play. Now that she was savvier, she
needed--somehow--to speed up the remaining conversion.

Arblen Ems Firh Mashkith was not known for his patience.
****
CHAPTER 25

Talking with Snakes had become almost routine. That was Corinne's take, anyway; Helmut guessed she
should know. This was, what? Mashkith's fourteenth major interview. His second with Corinne.

The hook for today's session was the recently concluded negotiation. The grand swap. Unseen behind
the camera and his mirrored visor, Helmut thought it an interesting topic indeed, if not for the reasons
Corinne did.

Outing of the antimatter program was a nightmare for the UP military. The entire solar system now knew
of the unimaginably powerful and dangerous stockpile there. Where secrecy, the prison cover story, and
a few frigates once sufficed to provide security, today it took a fleet to guard the antimatter. Victorious
had been invited to closely orbit Himalia, inside the security perimeter, the better to expedite fuel
transfers.