"Liz Martin - Bright Cloud of Music" - читать интересную книгу автора (Martin Liz)

Kozinski tugged at the white streak in his beard and continued his unnecessary history, grounding his
reasoning and asserting his lack of fault in whatever matter he so ponderously approached. "By the time
the flood had swallowed low-lying nations of what was then known misleadingly as the European
Community and made an Atlantis of the Union of American States, they had turned out one starship." He
held up a pudgy finger. "One. The Sirius. And so matters stood when the Beneficent Emperor of the
New Kingdom...adopted...his Australian children to protect them from Ural and Nepalese domination."

"May he live forever," Wu Lin murmured his only response to the hesitations over Imperial liturgy.
Kozinski squinted a sideways look. Wu Lin nodded encouragingly. Zack saw no trace of humour in the
chocolate eyes, but suspected it.

Kozinski went back to trying to extend his facial hair. "The EmperorтАФ"

"May he live forever," Zack put in.

"тАФmayheliveforever saw the foolishness of trusting his children to the prototypeтАФ" Even rushing it,
Kozinski got no further.

"Of course, cognisant of the glory of expansion and exploration, the Avatar of Glory found an admirable
compromise in a precedent from the ancient history of the magnificent Southern Provinces," Wu Lin said.

"Transportation," Zack agreed. "There were sufficient rebels and gwailo to fill the cryoffins of the ship."

Wu Lin folded his hands, emanating benign satisfaction.

Too late, with the "T" word hanging in the air, Zack heard the snap of carnivorous petals shutting. He
refrained from swearing. He wasn't a Republican. Wu Lin knew it, but it didn't stop him trying to bait
Zack into the no man's land that lay between them.

In Zack, E.P.I. had a provincial-born governor for the first time in its two hundred year history. In theory,
he had made the jump from military to diplomatic corps as reward for a "singular act of heroism" that had
involved blasting an asteroid and the escapees from this very prison who had taken refuge on it into
particulate matter. To this day, he thought they had thrown the single glueball from their stolen repair craft
at his ship knowing what his response had to be, choosing martyrdom. In reality, he found himself here
because no governor could make any impression on the running of the off-Earth prison system and the
Glorious Son of Heaven had begun a campaign of carrots to distract from a stick wielded recently against
of the more rebellious provinces of the Empire. What had briefly declared itself Free Siam steamed under
a dome erected to protect the rest of the world from air currents carrying unwanted microbes, the
Worshipful Steward of Earth's less gentle example of imperial power.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," Kozinski said into the silence. "To speak of stars and the firmament, perhaps
you would wish to look at the scene of the vanishment?" Zack and Wu Lin both agreed that they would.

Setting mist swirling, Kozinski led them towards a huddle of techs around a sallow-skinned young man in
Specialist blue. Kozinski pointed at him to stay. The others melted away. Clowning, Kozinski's target
aimed a finger at his own heart, poking a black and white yin-yang teardrop on his coveralls. The man
was a genius, or he wouldn't be one of Kozinski's Specialists.

"Itohaki," Kozinski said shortly, drawing the young man forward.