"Jack McKinney - Robotech Sentientals 4 - World Killers" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

suspiciously. "You said you were taking us to Sarna."
The Haydonite was smaller and more slender than either Veidt or Sarna
and had an emerald cast to her skin. In the center of her forehead was a
star-sapphire pattern of light that came from no apparent source. Her features
were no more pronounced than those of any other Haydonite the visitors had
seen, and yet there were contours that somehow gave her face an individuality.
The offworlders had learned that the Haydonites were far from anonymous.
She bowed serenely. "She will be with you presently. You will, after
all, wish some privacy for your consultations. There are dangers in this city,
as well you know. And now, if you will pardon me, I have other pressing
matters to which I must see."
Vince led the way out of the cone-flier, and in another few seconds it
was lifting away into the sky of Glike, among the flying carpets and lolling
sky barges.
It was windy and chilly up there, but the view made it worthwhile.
Jonathan Wolff unlimbered a telebinocular and looked around. Max glared out
angrily at the Oz-like urbanscape; he was worried about Miriya and the rest,
wishing some direct action were possible.
Vince said, "What I don't get is this business with Vowad, Sarna's
father. I mean, jealousy, from a Haydonite?
The emotions of the synthetically spawned Haydonites were usually too
subtle for the other Sentinels to detect, or were deeply suppressed. And
certainly their family ties were tenuous by outsiders' standards. But the
situation between Sarna, Vowad, and Veidt was apparently the exception.
Haydonites didn't so much reproduce as literally create their offspring,
as a sort of art form. The young incorporated characteristics of the elders
and selected innovations, as esthetic essays, as well.
Wolff lowered the telebinocular. "From what I've been able to pick up
since we've been here, Vowad is the ultimate expression of Haydonite
development, their Number One," he said. "And Sarna was, sort of, his crowning
achievement. Except, she didn't behave quite the way she was supposed to. Got
all enthused over Veidt and some radical ideas he had, like resisting the
Invid encroachment."
"Where've we heard that before?" Max murmured.
"Thing is," Wolff Went on, "I get the impression that if anybody could
keep the Invid from having their way on Haydon IV, it's Vowad. Only, he
doesn't seem inclined to do it."
"The whole thing's a little slippery by Haydonite standards, I suppose,"
Vince said. "The Invid ease their way in with trade arrangements and
diplomatic missions, cultural exchanges and all that, and the next thing you
know, they're entrenched. Bribed the officials; intimidated or blackmailed the
bureaucrats-they've got all the leverage they need around here, more or less."
And if the planet's vaunted defense system ever really existed, the
three had come to realize, it found the Invid infiltration/subversion
operation too nebulous to deal with. So long as the Invid made no overt moves,
they were safe from retribution. And violent transactions between offworlders
were, so it seemed, exempt from interference by planetary defenses.
Wolff raised the telebinocular again, scanning. "Heads up," he said
softly.