"Shirley Meier & S. M. Stirling - Fifth Millenium 03 - The Cage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Meier Shirley)

The saber hilt punched up two-handed, struck his nose; he
felt something crumble in the forepart of his head, and the room
blurred. A looping foot coming at him, impossible angle, impact
like an explosion on the side of his head. He sagged, as the world
slipped sideways. He fell to lie next to his sister.

Yareslav, backed against one of the locked cabinets, heard a
choked-off sound from his superior. Vhsant was still sitting at
the stool, but Megan was sitting as well. On the counter, with
her fingertips resting on the middle-aged clerk's bull throat,
fingers and thumb along the line of the arteries and dimpling
the soft flesh without quite cutting it. OrтАж As he watched, a slow
red trickle started out from beneath the little finger.

Megan looked at it in annoyance. "Nicked. Have to file it out."
She glanced over her shoulder. Bhodan was still conscious, after
a fashion; the blonde woman stood over him, saber in one hand,
a boot on his neck below the Adam's apple; she was still wearing
the same slight smile, and gradually increasing the pressure.

"Shkai'ra!"

She glanced up.

"That is, in a manner of speaking, my employee." Megan's
face was an angry mask, her tone dry, and her hand flexed
slightly, harmlessly, bringing a sudden explosive gasp from
Vhsant as he felt the outer layer of skin nick and part under the
razor edges.

"Killjoy, " Shkai'ra replied, with a disappointed shrug. She
lifted the boot.

The Zak woman slid forward. Vhsant gagged and somehow
got off the stool; Megan eased forward just enough and her hand
never moved from his throat. The other two clerks had backed
against the wall, and one made a small sound of protest. Megan
ignored him and stared into the Head Clerk's eyes.

"You," she said. "As I understand it from rumors I heard on
board ship and in the city, and the evidence of my own eyes,
have been dealing with slavers. " Vhsant tried to shake his head,
and stopped, very quickly. "You have been using my name and
seals to do someтАФshall we say, less than moral things. It might
be that this was all Habiku's idea, so I might give you the benefit
of the doubt. My doorkeeper dead? Two hired strong-arms
needed inside? Barely enough business to support three clerks
instead of a half-dozen? Vhsant, I won't fire you yet, not until I
know more about what's going on, but I think I should have a