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

he had presence. Ottala couldn't analyze it; she only knew that she felt his intensity as a pressure under her
rib cage. She wanted that pressure elsewhere.
As usual, Sikar began speaking without preamble. "We, the young, serve the old," he said. "And the old can
live forever now, and they expect us to serve forever. We will grow old and die, but they will not. Is this right?"
"NO!" the room vibrated to that angry response.
"No. It was bad before, when the old rich first set their hands against the gate of death, but a hundred fifty
years is not forever. That is why our fathers and grandfathers submitted; they hoped to afford that process for
themselves, and it was limited. But nowтАФ"
"They live forever," a woman's voice interrupted from behind Sikar. "And we work forever, and our childrenтАФ"
"Forever." Sikar made the word obscene. "Their children will live forever too; our children will DIE forever." An
angry rumble, indistinct, shook the room again. "But there is a chance. Now, while the government is shaken
by the king's departure." They had discussed this, night after night, what it meant that the king had resigned.
Would it help the cause, or hurt it? Rejuvenants littered both sides of the political scene; almost everyone rich
and powerful enough to be a force in the government had been rejuvenated at least once. Apparently the
hierarchy had decided: it was a good thing, and now they could act. Ottala pulled her mind back from its
contemplation of the aesthetics of Sikar's striking coloringтАФthose fire-blue eyes, the pale skin, the black hair
with the silver streakтАФto listen to his speech.
"But before we act," Sikar said, "we must purify ourselves. We must not allow any taint of the Rejuvenant to
corrupt our purpose. Are you sureтАФsureтАФthat none among you harbors a sneaking sympathy with those old
leeches?"
"No!" growled the crowd, Ottala among them. Her parents weren't old leeches; they were merely idiot fools.
When she had to say these things, she always thought of people she didn't like.
"Are you sure?" Sikar asked again. "Because I am not. In other cells, we've found those pretending to be with
us, and secretly spying on us for the RejuvenantsтАФ"
"Secretly spying" was exactly the kind of rhetoric that Ottala enjoyed. She curled her tongue around it in her
mouth, not realizing until Sikar stood in front of her table what he was leading up to. The tool in his hands,
though, clenched the breath in her chest. She recognized it; everyone did, who had ever changed fertility
implants. It would locate even unexpired implants, and could be used to remove them. ButтАФno one here had
implants. She did.
"Put out your arms, brothers and sisters," Sikar said. "For this is how we found the traitors beforeтАФthey had
implants."
She couldn't move. She wanted to jump and run; she wanted to scream, "You don't understand," and she
knew that wouldn't work. Sikar smiled directly into her eyes, just as she'd wanted since she'd first seen him,
and the people on either side of her forced her arms out flat on the table. The tool hummed; even though she
knew she could not really feel anything, she was sure her implant itched. The skin above it fluoresced, a
brilliant blue.
"Perhaps she was a manager's favoriteтАФ" said Irena, down the table. She had liked Irena.
"Perhaps she's an owner's daughter," said Sikar. "We'll see." He pressed the tool to her arm; she had no
doubt of the next sensation. No anesthetic spray, no numbing at allтАФthe tool's logic ignored her pain and
sliced into her arm, retrieving the implant, and pressed the incision closed with biological glue. Her arm
throbbed; she was surprised that she hadn't screamed, but she was still too scared. Those holding her
tightened their grips. Sikar held up the implant. "You see? And this tool will tell us whose it is."
She had forgotten that, if she'd ever known. Implants carried the original prescription codes; that had
something to do with proving malpractice. Sikar touched the implant to a flat plate on the tool's side, and
laughed harshly.
"As we suspected. This is no Finnvardian assembly worker. This is a Rejuvenant, child of Rejuvenants, our
mortal enemies. This is one who would enslave our children to her pleasure, for all time."
"NoтАФ" She got that out in a miserable squeak before Sikar slapped her. It hurt more than she had imagined.
"I hate you!" That was Irena, who had come up behind her and now clouted her head. "You lied to meтАФyou
were never my friendтАФ"