"Elizabeth Moon - Serrano 3 - Winning Colors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

suddenly by the rich aroma of stew and bread.
"What's wrong, hon?" Meharry leaned across the crowded table. "Got a bug or something?"
She didn't want to answer. Meharry and the others had been so careful of her since the shooting, so sorry
they'd believed a former shipmate and condemned her. They had organized that revenge on Amalie's
counselor in hopes of cheering her up; they had enjoyed it a lot more than she did. She was tired of it, tired of
having to be kind in return. What she really wanted, she thought, was to be somewhere else, with someone
else, someone who wasn't part of the original mess. A face flickered in her memory a moment, the rich girl
who had been Lady Cecelia's friend and pretended to be hers as well.
She scolded herself into a deeper depression. Probably she wouldn't see Brun again. Why would a girl like
that want to be around her? It was silly to keep looking at the presents Brun had bought, as part of their
pretense of courtship.
"Hi, there!" Sirkin looked up, startled. Meharry scowled, and Oblo grunted. Brun in the flesh, clearly excited
and happy, in a soft blue silk jumpsuit that must have cost a fortune and brought out the blue of her eyes.
Brun squeezed in next to Sirkin, with a chair she snagged from the next table. "We have to talk," she said.
Sirkin felt her face going hot. There was no need for this; that other game was long over.
"And how did you find our humble eatery?" Meharry asked, with a bite to her voice.
Brun smiled, smugly. "I asked where the Sweet Delight's crew usually ate. Since I'm now in the crewтАФ"
"You're not!" Oblo stared at her wide-eyed, then shook his head. "I wonder what the captain's thinking of."
"My father," Brun said, and reached for a hunk of bread. "He thinks I need seasoning before I'm turned loose
on an unsuspecting universe, and he thinks Captain Serrano is the right person to provide it. And you, of
course." She grinned around the table. The others all stared at Brun, and Sirkin hoped no one would notice
how fast her own pulse was beating. She didn't know yet if she was happy about this or not, but she couldn't
be indifferent.
"I hope you're ready to go aboard and start working," Meharry said. "Captain's told us to be ready to ship out
at a half-shift notice."
"Fine with me," Brun said. "I've already put my stuff aboard."
"It's called 'duffel,' " Meharry said.
"Duffel." Brun smiled at her, blue eyes wide. "Are you really angry, or just pretending? Because I'm not really
an idiotтАФI actually have some ship time."
"On what?" Oblo said quickly, hushing Meharry. Brun's grin widened.
"On a shit-shoveler," she said. "Caring for critters."
Oblo snorted. "That's not ship time . . . that's just work. Proves you can work, butтАФwe'll see about you and
the ship."
Sirkin watched the others watching Brun, and wondered. She felt less alone now, less the one being
watched. And Brun still gave her a good feeling, as if they might really be friends.
***
Esteban Koutsoudas arrived at the shipline in a plain gray jumpsuit with a Sweet Delight arm patch already
on it. That didn't surprise Heris. What did surprise her, a little, was that he'd made it here alive if Livadhi was
right about how much danger he was in. Surely it would have been easier to take him on the station than on
her ship. If notтАФshe didn't want to think about that.
"Esteban Koutsoudas, sir," the man said. He carried an ordinary kitbag slung over his shoulder, and a couple
of handcarries. She would have passed him in the concourse without a second thoughtтАФjust another traveler,
neither rich nor broke, with an intelligent but unremarkable face. Until he smiled, when his eyebrows went up
in peaks.
"Glad to have you aboard," Heris said, though she still wasn't sure of that. "Mr. Petris will show you your
quarters," Heris said, by way of taking up a moment of time.
"Commander Livadhi sent you this," Koutsoudas said, handing over a datacube. "And he said I was to assist
you any way you liked."
Right. Turn a superb longscan communications tech loose on her equipment . . . could she trust this man?
Yet she lusted for his expertise; she had suspected for years that Koutsoudas was the secret of Livadhi's