"Jacqueline Lichtenberg - Lifewave 02 - City of a Million Legends" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lichtenberg Jacqueline)

Health, serenity and enthusiasm rose from the city like a heat shimmer. He lived here among the gold and platinum roofs,
the balmy breezes and open shopping arcades where most goods were free. All citizens shared the capacity to experience
penetrating beauty.
Because of a single moment of faulty judgement, he had destroyed this city. Neither he nor anyone else would be reborn
here again.

And in the pond room, he knew that the end of his exile was at hand, if he could bear the cost.

The reception room was artificially lit, its windows buried entirely under midwinter snow. After the tropical heat of the
spawning pond, it felt cold. But the room was done in the warm, welcoming elegance of MorZdersh'n.
Before entering, Zref paused to flip his Interface Medallion out of his breast pocket. He was wearing his oldest Guild uniform,
with kren-style house shoes, and his hair was wild from too many immersions. But he fixed his most forbidding expression on his
face, and marched into the room as if it were his private office, Arshel at his shoulder as bhirhir, Khelin and Ley flanking the two of
them.
The man, a human, was pacing restlessly before the large polished stone table in the center of the room. There were a number of
small conversation pits throughout the large room which was divided by rows of columns into private areas. But Zref chose to
keep the atmosphere businesslike. He strode to the table and seated himself at one end.
"I am Master Interface Zref."
The human shoved his knee-length coat back behind his hips, and braced his fists on his hipbones. He wore a fur brimmed hat
tilted onto the back of his head, and knee-high black boots. He was the image of high-powered Business.
"I have been waiting a good while to see you, Master Interface."
"You will be billed only from this moment," said Zref.
"Are you going to introduce me to your friends?"
"I had not planned to," said Zref.
Amusement chased exasperation across the man's face until he gave a courtly bow in the latest fashion and amended, "Will you
please introduce me to your friends?"
Zref did so, and the man repeated, "Arshel Holtethor Lakely. I'd been told I would not be allowed to meet you."
Arshel began to answer, but Zref held up his hand. "State your business, sir." He glanced aside and queried the comnet for the
man's identity.
"I've come to invite you-тАФboth you and your bhirhir ArshelтАФto come on a Schoolcruise Pilgrimage Tour to the spiritual
shrines of the galaxy. Your duties would be exceptionally light. You would be free to enjoy yourselves."
"I go where the Guild assigns me."
"And the lady?" he asked, looking to Arshel.
Arshel held her silence, but she obviously disliked this man. Zref received the answer to his query, and said, "Mr. Onsham,
we're not interested in taking any tour sponsored by Lantern Enterprises. It isn't the spiritual shrines of the galaxy that interest
Lantern: it's the remains of the civilization of the First Lifewave. Such remains no longer interest us. I believe that completes our
business."
"I believe that it does not," countered Onsham. "I'd hoped to keep this friendly, but now I must ask you to check with your
Guild Dispatcher, Master Interface Rodeen. She avers that the Guild has ceased its vendetta against Lantern Enterprises, and
therefore the remains of the First Lifewave are of interest to Interfaces."
Zref lowered his blood pressure to control a sudden, overwhelming curiosity. Liking this man less and less, he opened with a
deliberate rudeness, looking directly into Onsham's eyes. "Checking as per instructions of a Mr. Onsham. Zref." That was twice in
less than an hour he'd acted on a kind of angry impulse Interfaces never had. It was as if his obligations to the Guild were
threatening something precious he almost had with Arshel.
"Check Guild File #9777. And, Zref, I expect you'll do this for us. Ostensibly, we support education. Rodeen."
Rising and pacing around the table, Zref called up the file. A query dropped into his private file from his physician, the
human Interface Jim Diebold, asking about the status of the mating. Zref answered, and Diebold came back immediately.
"Listen, Zref, I'm privy to #9777, so if you can't get back here to Hengrave to take immunization, at least do it at the Camiat
Guild hospital, not in that house. There's no telling what that venom will do to your brain chemistry. I'd come if I could.
Jimdiebold."