"Rampart World - 02 - Orion Arm" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

I touched the Open pad, then went through the rigamarole of iris-ID verification and establishment of a Phase XII encrypt filter. When that was complete, my big sister's awful face appeared on the monitor screen and she spoke to me across the fourteen thousand light-years separating the Perseus Spur from Earth.
"Asa, the Galapharma merger bid was turned down again by the Rampart board. Thanks to Mom."
"Katje voted with Simon?" I was thunderstruck. "But I thought she'd switched over to the other side!"
"So did all the rest of us, going into the meeting. But somehow, Pop talked her out of it. Cousin Zed, Leo Dunne, and Gianni Rivello were livid. Even Dan and Beth were shocked to the socks." Eve was smiling, and it broke my heart to see her semimorphed features, partially human and part Haluk as a result of the interrupted demiclone genetic engineering procedure instigated by her kidnappers.
"The bad news is," she continued, "there'll be another vote taken in six weeks, immediately after ICS rules on Rampart's status upgrade. If we don't make the jump and gain Concern immunity, I'm afraid we're wiped."
"So Simon refused to retire?"
"On the contrary. He agreed to step down if the board elected what he called a suitable successorЧone whom the ICS would have confidence in. The consensus was that neither Zed nor Dan really fit the bill. The only viable candidate left was moi."
"Yes!" I enthused. "I knew it! Congratulations, EvieЧ"
"Not so fast, little brother. I turned Simon down. Conditionally."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"I don't dare travel to Rampart Central on Seriphos, where an effective CEO rightfully belongs. I'd be a sitting duck for the media or even Galapharma hired guns. But I can't run the Starcorp from Earth, either, hiding out at the Sky Ranch. It would be an administrative nightmare, given the horrendous problems we're facing. I told the board that I would accept the CEO job under one condition: that they elect you Chief Operations Officer, immediately under me."
"What!"
"Zed could retain the presidencyЧnominallyЧbut he'd no longer be in a position to give orders and screw things up. On purpose or otherwise. I'd remain on Earth and call the shots very broadly. You'd be on Seriphos or wherever else you were needed, doing what had to be done any way you saw fit. Between the two of us, we can pull the show back on the road and impress the pants off ICS. What do you say, kid?"
I couldn't say anything. I only sat there, open-mouthed, in a state of total disbelief.
Four days ago at Rampart Central on the planet Seriphos, when I still held the ad hoc title of Vice President for Special Projects foisted on me by my father, I'd taken part in a three-way conference call with Simon and Eve, who were back on Earth. We wrangled about what I perceived as the Haluk threat.
I had just learned that my Cravat deposition to SXA had been shitcanned. Mimo's statement and that of our young associate, Ivor Jenkins, had also been disallowed on the same legal technicality. I demanded that Eve show her Halukoid self immediately to Assembly Delegate Efrem Sontag, an old university friend of mine who was now Chairman of the Xeno-affairs Oversight Committee. Eve's mutation, together with a formal complaint that the Haluk had been stealing the genen viral vector PD32:C2 from Rampart and conducting a secret demiclone project on Cravat, would provide valid grounds for suspicion that the aliens were up to dirty work, possibly aided and abetted by Galapharma. My pal Sontag could be counted on to light a fire under the feet of the secretariat, forcing it to launch a full-scale investigation into dubious Haluk activities in the Perseus Spur.
But Simon had his own reasons for refusing to file a complaint about the vector theft and the Cravat shenanigans immediately, and for pressuring Eve to remain in hiding until after the status upgrade decision. He explained everything to me in words of one syllable, and also stoutly maintained that he could stave off the Gala acquisition bid at the upcoming general board meeting.
I told my father that his reasoning sucked. And if the takeover did go through, Galapharma would be in a position to conceal the vector theft evidence and fatally weaken Eve's deposition against the Haluk.
Our conference deteriorated into a shouting match. I berated Simon for putting the welfare of the family Starcorp ahead of a possible alien threat to the human hegemony in the Spur worldsЧand maybe in the Orion Arm itself.
Simon told me I didn't understand the Big Picture.
I told him what he could do with said picture.
Eve tried to soothe the pair of us.
I lashed out at her for compromising her principles.
Finally, I tendered my resignation as VP Special Projects, announced that my tiny department was herewith dissolved, and wished my father, my sister, and Rampart Starcorp the best of left-handed luck.
Simon called me a traitor to the family honor, a sorry-ass bent cop, a born loser, and a cowardly coyote. Then he cut out of the conference. Eve remained calm and said she'd call later to let me know how the board meeting went.

After announcing my bail-out to Matt and to Karl Na-zarian, my associate and nominated successor in Special Projects, I left Seriphos with my tail between my legs. Home again on my little tropical island, I tried to expunge from my mind the improbable events of the past six months that had torn me out of my beachcomber's paradise and plopped me back into the turbulent mainstream of the Commonwealth of Human Worlds.
The mental delete job hadn't been going too well.
And now my sister had come up with this. ..
"Evie, you're stark staring loco. I can't run Rampart."
"Of course you can, with competent support. Once upon a time, you were an excellent bureaucrat, Divisional Chief Inspector Asahel Frost."
"Oh, sure. And how would the ICS Upgrade Committee react to my appointment?"
She laughed. "The Board of Directors asked me the same question. Dan and Cousin Zed figured ICS would go seriously apeshit, and so my proposal was tabled. But not formally rejected! I didn't force a vote because I wanted to ask you whether you'd accept. In my opinion, ICS will react to your COO appointment in the same way that they did when Simon made you VP Special Projects: they'll judge your performance by results and not quibble about your shady reputation. You did a hell of a job on Cravat, Asa. And there are still people at Commerce who don't believe you were guilty of malfeasance and all the rest of it. You aren't without friends in high places."
"Horse apples."
The half-alien face was almost impossible to read. She spoke very softly. "You don't have to give me a decision immediately. Think about what I've said. The moment that Rampart makes Concern, I'll institute a civil action against Galapharma. Jump on 'em with rowel-spur boots. Throw the Cravat affair in their teeth. Expose that damned Gala hit man, Elgar/McGrath. Implicate him in my kidnapping and demi-cloning and the attempts to murder you. Let the media know how Gala has tried to undermine and devalue Rampart to force the merger. And their secret dealings with the Haluk aren't merely violations of interstellar commerce. They're treason, Asa! We'll crush those bastards. You and I!"
"Evie ... we don't have enough evidence for any sort of case against Galapharma. Not without Ollie Schneider as a star material witness."
"Then find him, goddammit!"
"I've tried," I said wretchedly. "Karl and Matt and I combed the Spur from one end to the other, using all of Rampart's security resources and whatever help we could pry out of Zone Patrol. Schneider and his passel of Gala infiltrators have vanished without a trace. They must have escaped to the Orion Arm. And we haven't a prayer of tracking them there, among so many human worlds."
"Find other evidence, then. Play the Qastt angle. Put the screws on those Squeak pirates we've still got locked up on Nogawa-Krupp. They were dealing directly with the Haluk. Maybe some of them had contact with Bronson Elgar or other Galapharma covert agents."
"I never thought of that. It's a long shot, but I can put Karl Nazarian on itЧ"
"I want you on it!" Oh, God. Tears were running down her blue alien cheeks.
"But EvieЧ"
"Please work with me, Asa. Simon can call an extraordinary session of the board and ram both our appointments through. All the directors will remain on Earth for another week."
"I don't see howЧ"
"Will you at least think about what I've said? Give me your decision tomorrow. Whatever it is, I'll accept it."
I hesitated, then said, "All right, Evie. Tomorrow."
"Love you, Asa. Goodbye." My older sister's mutated face winked out and I shut down the subspace communicator.
Why the hell didn't I have the guts to say no to her, once and for all?
Because I'm a cowardly coyote, that's why.
I left the study and went to find Mimo. He was sitting at his dining room table, a polished wooden slab supported on wrought-iron legs, reading the morning news on a jumbo magslate. He had put his clothes on and now wore pressed slacks and a madras plaid sport shirt. His hair was still flyaway frizz.