"Sea Change, With Monsters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

Paul J. McAuley

SEA CHANGE, WITH MONSTERS


She made it clear that she was taking the job as a favor.
Vlad Simonov pretended to be slighted by her reluctance. He said, УBut Indira, whatТs the problem? ItТs a fantastic job, and itТs not as if you are working.Ф
УI have been working,Ф Indira said. УNow IТm resting.Ф
She had spent two weeks supervising the clearance of an infestation of urchins at the perimeter of a farm collective. It had been difficult, dangerous, tiring work, and she had nearly been killed in almost exactly the same way she had nearly been killed on her first job, when she hadnТt really known what she had been doing. She had come full circle. She was beginning to believe that she had killed enough monsters.
Vlad snapped his fingers and leaned close to the camera of his phone. УAfter that picayune little job, you need to rest? That kind of thing, I do as an exercise. I do it for relaxation! I do it in my sleep, after a proper dayТs work.. Listen, Indira, I would take this job myself, it is so good, except already I am committed to three others. So I give it to you. With my usual commission of course, but the terms are so generous you will not notice the little I have kept to take home to feed my children.Ф
VladТs restless, goodhumored energy was apparent even over the phone. Indira laughed.
He said chidingly, УIndira, Indira. You are getting old. You are getting bored. Urchins, spinners, makos, theyТre all the same to you. Routine, routine, routine. It hurts me to see you like this. So, I put some pep in your life. To make you think again. To make you love life. Say yes. You will have fun, I promise.Ф
УVladЕwe are all getting old.Ф
УNot the monsters. While you sit around in your nice, warm, comfortable apt, the monsters are swimming in the cold and the dark, pumping sulfides, getting strong. Indira, this is a very exciting job, and the people who commission it are some kind of funny monks who know nothing about the value of money. You will be rich, even after my tiny percentage is removed. They claim it is a dragon, Indira. You have never hunted a dragon, but I know you can do it. That is why I ask only you.Ф
УAnd thatТs why IТm taking it as a favor to you, Vlad. Because I know no one else will do it.Ф
Indira had started out as an apprentice to Vlad Simonov; now she freelanced for him. He was one of the first generation of hunters, one of the few to have survived the early days of tracking the biowar macroforms, the monsters, which had been set loose during the Quiet War. Vlad liked to project a buccaneering image. He had two wives and five children. He drank brandy and smoked huge cigars. He had a wild mane of black hair with little lights spidering inside its curls. But there was no safer or more cautious hunter in all of EuropaТs ocean.
She said, УA dragon.Ф
УPerhaps a dragon. Are you scared?Ф
УIТm always scared.Ф
A pod of urchins had ambushed her toward the end of the last job. She had been finning down a long flaw in pure water ice, leading her diving buddy, a nervous farm worker. The flaw had been polished smooth by methane seep. It had reflected her lights in a bluewhite glare that had prevented her seeing very much of what was ahead. The urchins had fallen down on her from a crevice. She had doubled up, knocking two urchins off her face maskЧtheir spines left deep scratches in the glassЧand had started firing her flechette pistol even as she kicked backward. Her diving buddy had been frozen in fear, blocking her escape; the urchins had bobbed toward her through a dancing dazzle of reflected light. She had coldly and methodically killed every one of them in a Zenlike calm that had thawed to violent trembling as soon as the slaughter was over.
She told Vlad, УI canТt go solo against a dragon. If it is a dragon.Ф
He said, УYou wonТt need to go solo. The monks have a big weed farm and their workers will help you. Anyway, itТs probably no more than a mako. No one has seen a dragon for yearsЧtheyТre probably extinct. The monks see something lurking just beyond their perimeter and make it bigger than it is. Let me tell you what I know.Ф

IndiraТs daughter, Alice, came in two hours later. She found her mother in the workshop, with the luggage pod open on the floor. She said, УYou only just came home.Ф
УI know, sweet.Ф
Alice stood in the doorway, bouncing up and down as gently as a tethered balloon. Seven years old, smart and determined. She wore baggy shorts and a nylon vest with many pockets and an iridescent flared collar that rose above her head like a lizardТs ruff. Fluorescent tattoos braided her thin brown arms. She had changed them since she had gone off to school that morning. They had been interlocking lizards and birds then; now they were long fluttering banners, red and violet and maroon. Her hair was done up in tight cornrows and decorated with little tags that flashed in random patterns of yellow and green.
Alice said, УHave you told Carr yet?Ф
Indira didnТt look up. She was concentrating on fitting her dry suit into the pod, taking great care not to crease it. She said, УHeТll be home soon. How was school?Ф
УIТm doing a project.Ф
УYou must tell me all about it.Ф
УItТs a secret.Ф
A pause. Indira knew that her daughter had been down to the service levels of the city again, at the bottom of the ice. She had beeped AliceТs location after she had finalized the contract with Vlad. And Alice knew that she knew. She watched solemnly as her mother checked the weapon cases. They were flat metal shells with foam plastic bedding inside. The smallest contained three kinds of specific neurotoxin in glass snaptop vials. Indira made very sure that these were packed properly.
At last, Alice said, УDid you know that the city once hid another name?Ф
УOf course.Ф
УIt was called Minos. Why was that?Ф
УBecause Minos was one of the sons of Europa. Of Europa and Zeus.Ф
When Alice stamped her foot, she bounced a meter into the air. УI know that! It means creature of the moon. He was the king who built a maze under his palace. But why did it change?Ф
УPolitics.Ф
УOh. You mean the war.Ф
Alice had been born ten years after the Quiet War. Like all of her generation, she couldnТt understand why the adults around her spent so much time talking about it when it clearly made them so unhappy.
УYes, the war. Where did you find this out?Ф
УI saw a sign,Ф
УA sign? In school?Ф
Alice shook her head. УOf course not in school. The GooniesЧФ which was the latest nickname for the soldiers of the Three Powers Occupying ForceЧhave changed all the signs they know about. But they donТt know everything.Ф
УThen where was it?Ф
Alice said, УCarr will be cross because youТre going away again so soon.Ф
УThatТs because he loves me almost as much as he loves you. Where was this sign, Alice?Ф
УItТs to do with my project. So itТs a secret until my projectТs finished.Ф
Indira closed the luggage pod. It made a little whirring noise as it sealed itself up. She didnТt want an argument just before she went away, but she didnТt want Alice to think that she could disobey her. She said, УI think we had better have a little talk, you and I.Ф
Later, Carr said, УThereТs nothing to harm her down there.Ф