"Modesitt, L E - Forever Hero 03 - The Endless Twilight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Modesitt L E)

"Since you're the cred worrier, some good news. In tracing down Grom'tchacher, ran across some business. Managed to broker a lab lease and some other property along with ours. Finder's fee arrangement. Took it personally, but felt some belonged to the foundation. Means no draw on my operating account for a while. Remainder of the OERF share is coming through the general receipts. Code blue."

Lyr frowned. That she'd have to check. Credits were often the last thing the commander worried about, the very last thing .

". . . off to Byzania. See you soon."

He always closed that way, she reflected, tapping the studs to store the message in the permanent file, but it had been more than five years since he had been anywhere near New Augusta.

She pursed her lips, knowing she should be somewhere other than before the console at 2030 on a spring evening. At less than seventy, she certainly wasn't novaed; her weight was the same as it had been years earlier; and her muscle tone, thanks to her exercise regime, was probably better. She looked far younger than she was.

"That could be the trouble . . ."

She cut off her monologue before it began and called up the general receipts account and the commander's code blue entry.

"Unsolicited donation. Fyrst V D'berg, Aerlion. One million credits. Codes follow. . . ."

Lyr ran her tongue over her chapped lips. Gerswin and his unsolicited donations ran to as much as several million annually. Where he found them she wondered, but they always were supported.

And his ventures . . . she really wanted to ask him what else he had been doing besides tracking completed grants and projects and grantees who had failed to report or collect. Always the ventures, like the fabrication plant on Solor and whatever he was doing on Westmark with that plant protein substitute. Add to that the aliases . . . she worried at her lower lip with her upper teeth.

After forty years with the foundation, she could see an accelerating trend, even more than in the first few years after the commodore's retirement, a trend where things were building. To what, she didn't know, but once again she had the feeling that the Empire and the commodore were going to clash.

She'd really have to talk to him about itЧassuming he ever came back.

III

"SELERN? THE NEPHEW of the old Earl?"

The deep bass voice disconcerted Selern, coming as it did from the chipmunk cheeks and bright green eyes of a fool. But His Majesty Ryrce N'Gaio Bartoleme VIII was no fool, reflected Selern, not if his actions in removing the previous Eye indicated anything at all.

"That is correct, Your Majesty."

"Surprised, weren't you?"

"At becoming the Earl? Quite."

"That was not the reference I meant, Selern."

"Then I do not understand the question." Selern swallowed and hoped that the gesture had not been noticed.

"That I doubt." The current ruler of the Empire of Light pointed toward the single small chair on the other side of the inlaid and oldfashioned wooden desk. The occasional shimmer of dust motes that intermittently resembled a ghostly curtain revealed the defense screen that separated the two men. "Have a seat."

The newest Earl of Selern sat cautiously, keeping his eyes fixed on the Emperor. Ryrce wore neither circlet nor crown. Wispy strands of straw-tinted hair framed his all too-round face.

"Caution carried to excess, Selern. That warning about CalendraЧthe old EyeЧcould only have come from one or two sources. None of them would have had the nerve to deliver it, even anonymously. So I checked the peerage lists for the newly elevated and for recent heirs. Had to be you. Would you care to comment?"

Selern smiled. The smile was forced, but with a bit of humor. "You apparently have me on all rights, Your Majesty." He paused, then added, "I thought I was more discreet than I was."

"You were discreet enoughЧassuming your Emperor was trustworthy."