"Serrano Legacy - 03 - Winning Colors" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"You're ridiculous," Ronnie said, but his heart lifted a little, a dead leaf still, but one that might blow where the wind sent it. He let George make the call, and the appointment.
"And don't tell your parents," George said after he had named the day and hour. "It's all their fault, remember, and you're furious with them."
He wasn't, really. It wasn't their fault; they had tried, and Aunt Cecelia had simply gone off like fireworks. But he understood George's point. It was hard enough to have them lurking around trying to cheer him up about Raffa; if they knew he was about to go do something, they'd hover even more.
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Ronnie let George explain that they both felt they could be of use to the new governmentЧthat they had unique talents which should be exploited. He halfway expected Lord Thornbuckle and George's father to laugh at them and send them away. But instead, they exchanged significant looks.
"You're serious," Lord Thornbuckle said. "You would be willing to go anywhere and do anything?"
"Wellа.а.а." George looked at Ronnie. "Perhaps notquite anything. I mean, if you had in mind sweeping streets in some benighted mining village, I'd rather not. Be a waste of our abilities, anyway."
"And you see your abilities as?"
"Discreet, loyal young gentlemen of the world, able to take care of themselves, strong, healthy, the usual. Intelligent enough, ingeniousЧ" That did get a laugh, from George's father.
"Ingenious, yes. That's how you nearly got yourself killed, wasn't it? But we might have something suitable for two young wastrels, at that."
"It's fairly complicated," Lord Thornbuckle said. "And it's extremely confidential. If you were still on active service, we could not possibly share this with you." That sounded serious enough. Ronnie tried for an expression of intelligent interest. To his surprise, Lord Thornbuckle started by talking about rejuvenation.
"Most people now use the Ramhoff-Inikin method, which allows serial rejuvenationsЧ"
"Up to how many?" George asked.
"I don't know," Lord Thornbuckle said. "Anyway, the pharmaceuticals used in this process are manufactured in the Guerni Republic, or under their license in a few other places. Most are imported from the Guernesi, simply because of their known quality. They developed the process; they know it best. And, of course, it was originally illegal in the Familias, so people had to go there to have it done."
"Why was it illegal?" George asked.
"It's a long story that doesn't concern you," Lord Thornbuckle said. "It's not illegal now, but most of our supply still comes that way. Now. You know that Lorenza was involved in the distribution of illicit pharmaceuticals, right?"
"Like what happened to George and the prince," Ronnie said, nodding.
"Yes. And othersЧsome we know, and some we suspect. Lady Cecelia's medical reports suggest that some of these drugs are very similar to variants of the rejuvenation drugs. We are concerned that our supply of Ramhoff-Inikin drugs might be adulterated at some point between the manufacturer and the user. The Guernesi ship by commercial carrier, and something Heris Serrano said made us wonder about the security of those shipments. If the Compassionate Hand wanted to cause us real trouble, adulterating those drugsЧperhaps contaminating them with mind-altering componentsЧwould be a good start."
"So," Kevil Mahoney said, before George could interrupt, "it would be very useful to us if you could take a sample of these drugs back to the Guerni Republic and have them analyzed. Are they still what we paid for? If not, what would be the effects of using them in the rejuvenation procedure? What symptoms should we look for in multiple Rejuvenants that suggest a misuse of the drugs?"
"You want us to goЧwith some drug samples?" George sounded insulted.
"It would be helpful, yes. And the data we've collected so far. We'd been wondering whom we could trust to hand-carry these things; it's not something we want to risk to ordinary shipping."
"You've got perfect cover," Mahoney pointed out. "Young men, rich and fun-loving, the sort who would ordinarily be running off to distant places for the fun of it. Everyone knows Ronnie and Raffaele Forrester-Saenz broke up; everyone suspects the reasons. What's more natural than fleeing from the constraints of home? Especially since your aunt had been there, and you might have legitimate questions about her medical treatment."
"I might?" Ronnie felt humiliated enough to hear older men discussing his lack-of-love life.
"Of course. She came back and sued your parents; you might be questioning whether her rejuvenationЧwhich did not involve suspect drugs, since it was done thereЧhad influenced her mind, or whether the original attack did."
"Oh."
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"How are we going to keep the samples from being stolen?" asked George. They had adjourned to George's suite at his father's house, where they could be reasonably sure they were free of intrusive recorders.
"Why would they be? If no one knows we're carrying themЧ"
"But if someone suspectsЧ"
"LookЧyou heard what they said. I've got the perfect excuse for going to the Guerni Republic. My aunt was rejuvenated there, and her doctors asked for clarification of the recordsЧ"
"They won't let you look at her records!"
"How do you know? They have different lawsЧmaybe their laws don't say anything about medical confidentiality. Besides, I can askЧthey don't have to answer."
"I suppose that makes sense." George reached out and took a handful of tawny grapes. "These are goodЧI wish we were traveling with your Aunt Cecelia. I've never forgotten the food her gardeners and cooks put on the table."
"Which brings up how we will travel. It will be too obvious if we take a private yacht."
"We're goingcommercial ?"
"Yes, and not even a major line. Your father suggested a mixed-cargo vessel."
George wrinkled his nose. "Blast him. He's afraid we'll get into trouble on a big passenger liner. He should know better by now."
Ronnie shrugged. "Well, unless you want to pop for the ticket yourself, we haven't much choice." His parents, faced with a lawsuit from his aunt, were busily divesting themselves of assets, trying to lessen the blow. That meant his usual generous credit line had been pared down, if not to the bone at least well beneath its usual cushion.
"No. My father says this is no time for us to show off our wealth, and I'm not in the Royals anymore, so I don't need that size allowance. I think he's trying to get me to godo something with my life. You know?"
"I know." Ronnie stared at the wall, took a deep breath, and intoned, "It's time you made something of yourself young man, and when I was your age I had alreadyЧthat speech."
"He doesn't say it like that, but he's hinting. At least he's not pushing me to take classes at the University."
"Brun had fun on a mixed-cargo ship," Ronnie said. "We should be able to survive."
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Survival won out over fun, when they discovered that there were noЧabsolute zeroЧeligible girls on theSekkor Vil . No eligible anythings, in fact; the other passengers were bored middle-aged middle managers on business trips. Once they discovered that Ronnie and George were Chairholders' sons, and not active in any corporation, they went back to their handcomps and ignored them. Ronnie spent hours with the Guernesi language tapes, because it was better than listening to George complain about the way the cards fell when they tried to play a hand.
Finally they arrived in the Guerni Republic and transferred to a local line for the run to Music. At last there were other passengers, not only Guernesi, and not all over forty. Ronnie had no trouble enacting the rich young man, and although he missed Raffa, he had to admit that evenings spent dancing in the passenger lounge were more restorative than those spent lying in the bunk wishing she were there.
On Music, they delivered their samples, and the datacubes, to the pharmaceutical industry's combined quality control laboratory. "We'll have the preliminary results in a day or so," the director said. "But you'll want more precise tests, if anything shows up. If these were not manufactured here, for instance, I presume you would like some idea where else they might have been made."
"Wellа.а.а. yes." Ronnie hadn't known that was possible.
"You're not a chemist or pharmacist," the man said. It wasn't a question at all.
"No," he said. He hated to admit he was nothing but an ignorant errand boy, but that was the truth.
"I understood that you had theа.а.а. erа.а.а. confidence of your new prime minister or whatever you call him." That with a doubtful look, as if he might have fabricated the whole thing.