"Julian May - Rampart Worlds 3 - Sagittarius Whorl" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

"Milik!" huffed the Lady in Black. "Can one rely upon her word? She was a flaming
idealist and an egregious fool, claiming she was ready to die if it would advance the
cause of interspecific friendship."
"Milik was a selfless benefactor of our race," said the Servant with dangerous
emphasis. "A martyr canonized by the Priesthood of Luk."
"But one that we in the Council of Nine did not fully trustтАФno more than you did,
Servant of Servants. In truth, she was another human turncoat of unstable temperament
and cloudy motivation ... and one who may have secretly meddled with our racial
heritage, if certain rumors are to be given credence. This one has recently heard that some
of Milik's work on the eradication of allomorphism has come under scrutiny."
"Nonsense," retorted the Servant of Servants. "Those rumors are quite devoid of truth.
It's ridiculous to think that Milik would have tinkered maliciously with the trait-
eradication treatment. Or lied about the flawlessness of the demiclone procedure." "As
you say," the Locutor murmured. There was a brief silence. Then she asked, "When will
the second demiclone be ready?"
"Ru Balakalak is preparing to enter the dystasis tank immediately. As I understand it,
the unabbreviated procedure takes about twenty-six weeks. Is that correct, Archiator?"
"Approximately," said Mustard Smock. "In interspecific DNA exchange, there is a
necessary preliminary operation, a sort of inoculation of the human template individual to
preclude rejection of exotic DNA by the nonhuman recipient. This is followed by the
phase during which the actual gene transfer and bodily transformation of the recipient is
accomplished."
"Twenty-six weeks is a long time to wait," said the Locutor.
The Servant said, "Additional time will be required to tutor Ru Balakalak in details of
the mission once he emerges from dystasis. It is estimated that he will be ready after
thirty weeks."
"Thirty!"
"Meanwhile, one will keep the Council of Nine fully informed concerning operations
on Earth. Needless to say, one expects that you, Ru Kamik, will be zealous in supporting
the revised Grand Design."
She lowered her head again. "As you say, Servant of Servants."
"Excellent." He turned to the scientist. "And now one believes it is time for this one
and the Council Locutor to interview the human demiclone."
"He awaits in the recovery room," Archiator Malotuwak said. "Please follow this one."
The three Haluk went away and I was left suspended in dopey horror, boggled by the
technobabble and at a loss to understand the kind of espionage my duplicate was about to
undertake. Questions swirled in my brain like terrified bait minnows in a bucket.
Who was the human traitor who now wore my face, who had hatched some ploy that
was deemed vital to the Haluk Grand Design?
Whatever the hell that was.
How could a demiclone of me help put the Commonwealth of Human Worlds in thrall
to an alien race?
 DammitтАФwho am I, anyway?
A disgrace. A former cop. A diver. A zillionaire. Aside from the useless fragments of
memory, my drugged brain had no answers.
So after a while I slept again and dreamed of falling snow, the roaring fire, the
champagne, and my nameless wife's loving arms. Dreamed over and over again, to the
accompaniment of Scott Hamilton's ancient, peerless saxophone.
At long last the dreaming stopped.
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