"Vatta's War - 03 - Engaging The Enemy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moon Elizabeth)

"And Slotter Key," he said quickly.
"Fine. And so do I. Vatta and Slotter Key both."
"You're on a no-contact list," MacRobert said.
"So are you: Vatta was told not to contact anyone at Spaceforce Academy." Grace said. "Your point is? We need to meet. Do you ever get leave?"
"In seventeen days," he said. "Graduation's over, there's the cleanup period, then I get ten days before the new class arrives."
"What sport?" Grace said.
"Sport?"
She let her irritation hiss out on her breath. "Pick a sport," she said. "Something you do anyway."
"Oh. Er...fishing. Up in the Samplin hills; I usually rent a cottage on one of the streams near Tera Lake."
"Fine," Grace said. "Just do that. I prefer dry flies."
"I'm a wet-fly man myself," he said.
"Well, then. Until." She closed the connection.
On her visual, the President got up, went to the bathroom, came back with a glass of water, fumbled in a drawer, and unpeeled an orange pill. "Now that's a mistake," Grace murmured to herself. "You're going to be drowsy in the morning..." He had left the chip under his pillow. Another mistake. If the drug made him forget it, and his house staff found it...she grinned, imagining the furor when Security got hold of it. She watched until he was clearly asleep, snoring, then played with the room's surveillance equipment, inserting a shadowy figure that moved to and from the President's bed from a closet. They'd find that on the daily review, and whoever was supposed to be monitoring the night shift would be in deep trouble.
Then she reviewed the rental records of holiday cottages on likely fishing streams near Tera Lake, and found that MacRobert had booked through Murrian Holiday Rentals for the past twelve years. In their records, his first preference was Greyfalls, second was Over-brook, and the third was Greentop. All were on Middle Run. He had a current reservation for Greyfalls; the other two were also reserved already. The nearest available property was Brookings Manor, "a working farm with sizable residence suitable for bed-and-breakfast accommodations. Includes fishing rights on Middle Run within walking distance. Available for seasonal or long-term lease, or purchase." It wasn't a bad location at all, and it might serve displaced Vatta family members as an interim residence-headquarters.
After some haggling with the Larger Properties section of Murrian Real Estate, Grace arranged a year's lease in the name of Stavros' widow, who had-understandably-gone back to using her maiden name. A widow and her relatives retiring to a remote country estate would raise no eyebrows. Helen was presently living in one of the Stamarkos homes; that couldn't go on for too long anyway.
It was so satisfying when one action solved more than one problem. Grace stretched and let herself drop into sleep for a short nap. The one good thing about being old was that she didn't mind not sleeping through the night.
_______
Ky Vatta looked around the bridge of Fair Kaleen shortly before they were due to drop back into normal space in the Garth-Lindheimer System. Her crew had removed all the evidence of the pirates' occupation except what had been locked away in case evidence was needed. The weeks in FTL flight had given them plenty of time to inventory cargo, purge and reinitialize the computers, and make her a healthy ship for decent crew to ship on. With a new paint job, Fair Kaleen could be the flagship of a new Vatta fleet, proof that Vatta Transport, Ltd., was still a going concern.
Or she could be a privateer, proof that Vatta Transport, Ltd., was a going concern with teeth.
When they emerged into the Garth-Lindheimer System, her ship's excellent scan showed nothing suspicious in the system except that the system ansibles were not functioning. Without ansible function, they had no real-time communication with Garth-Lindheimer Traffic Control, so Ky entered their ship's information in response to the automated beacon's request. The convoy, as expected, had emerged ahead of her ship, with the Mackensee escorts positioned to guard either flank. She saw less traffic than expected, and all but two local. Those two carried normal beacon IDs; one had already jumped out by the time they received its signal.
She hailed their escort. "When we dock, the other ships will owe me their percentage for safe transit. Under the circumstances, I could sign that over to you, if you'd like. Or have you made separate arrangements with them?"
Lieutenant Commander Johannson shook his head. "No, Captain Vatta. They still have a contract with you, not with us. It's a legal mess at the moment. Let's keep it simple. They pay you, as they agreed. You pay us, as we agreed. Then we part company." Forever, his tone implied.
"I would be glad to supply a statement for your command, if it would help," Ky said.
"I'm afraid it wouldn't," Johannson said. "Any statement by you would be considered contaminated. We'll just take our scolding when we do finally get home."
"I'm sorry we've been such a problem to you," Ky said. She'd had leisure, during the long transit, to realize just how foolish she'd been, and how far the mercenaries had bent their rules to save her and her ship. Should she admit that? "You were right," she said. "About the trap, about...everything. I can't regret taking out Osman, but there must've been a less risky way to do it-"
"I hope you keep that in mind the next time you're in a tight spot," Johannson said. His voice had warmed a trifle.
"I will," Ky said. "And I appreciate your standing by us and saving our skins."
"Some skins are worth saving," Johannson said, and then cut the contact.
Ky stared at the blank screen a moment. What was that about? Her skin? Vatta Transport's? Then she shook her head and called Stella on Gary Tobai. "How do you like being a ship captain?"
"I haven't done anything fatal so far," Stella said. "I think Quincy could run this ship herself, though I have been studying hard. But how are we going to dock without a pilot? I can't bring her in, and Quincy says she can't. She's not a licensed pilot, and anyway she doesn't know how."
That was a problem Ky hadn't thought of. Legally, they should not approach within two kilometers of any facility without a licensed pilot aboard. Legally, every ship was supposed to have a licensed pilot aboard, too, but most orbital stations had a pilot service for those whose pilots were incapacitated for some reason. Still, that could be expensive, and it was also a route by which strangers could intrude. She would prefer not to trust a pilot she didn't know.
Ky glanced over at her own pilot. "Lee, how do you feel about a suited transfer back to the Gary to bring her into dock?"
He grimaced. "I can...if that's the only way. Maybe we'll be lucky and this station will have a tug or pilot service."
"They list one," Ky said. "But after that bonded security service guard tried to kill me, I'm not inclined to trust a commercial service."
"There's a scooter down in number three hold," Rafe said.
"That's better than swimming," Lee said. "But you'd have to wait for me to come back out and bring you in-assuming you're sending the Gary in first."
"I was planning to," Ky said. "With us out here armed to the teeth, she's less likely to run into trouble. I hope."
Next, Ky talked to the other captains in the convoy, explaining that her contract with Mackensee would end when they docked. "I will open a new account as soon as we're close enough; you can pay into that."
"But we want to go on," Captain Sindarin of Beauty of Bel said.
"Then you'll have to contract with Mackensee yourself," Ky said. "They may be willing."
"Why did we stop out there and hang around for days?" asked Captain Tendel of Lacewing. "Mackensee wouldn't tell us anything but that it was safer."
"Pirate in a system we came through," Ky said. "With allies. They jumped you out of the system, went back and dealt with them."
"Oh. But you weren't on scan...where were you?" That was Captain Harper, of My Bess.
"Bait," Ky said. "My choice. That's where this ship came from."
"Oh. We thought maybe you'd picked up another convoy member. The beacon reads Vatta." Captain Tendel, as always, looked as if she suspected Ky of something.
"The pirate had stolen a Vatta ship," Ky said. "They were operating under our name, illegally."
"So you're taking the ship in for adjudication?"
"I'm reclaiming stolen property," Ky said. "And we can discuss this, if you wish, once we're docked."
Harper nodded; Tendel just glared at Ky until the screen blanked.
"That was interesting," Rafe said from over her shoulder. "I wonder what Tendel has against you. You've got a bigger ship, maybe?"