"Continuing Time - 01 - Emerald Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moran Daniel Keys)

certain whether that surprised him or not. From a woman of such exceptional
skills, one might reasonably have expected anything.
The same comment, of course, might be made about Malko Kalharri, the director of
security for the installation.
An Information Network terminal, left turned on and connected to the Mead Data
Central medical database, sat at attention immediately next to her desk. Amnier
made a note to find out what sort of bill the laboratories were running up on
the Network. An ornamental bookshelf against one wall held reference works in
too excellent condition. There were no holographs, not even of Colonel Kalharri,
who was reputed to be her lover. Nor were there paintings. The desk was locked.
Amnier considered picking it, and decided not to. There was unlikely to be
anything inside that he would either understand or find incriminating, and
whether he opened it or not, Montignet was certain to suspect he had.
Which was the whole point.

The empty corridor in which I appeared connected the sterile genegineersТ labs
with the showers which led to the unsterile outer world, on the first floor of
the New Jersey Laboratories of the United Nations Bureau of Biotechnology
Research. The entrance to the genegineerТs labs was through a small room with
sealed doorways at both ends. They were not airlocks, though the technology of
the day was sufficient to allow the use of airlocks; indeed, at the interface
between the showers and the rest of the installation airlocks were in use. But
it was cheaper to keep the laboratories under a slight overpressure; when the
door opened, the wind, and any contaminants, blew outward.
The door swung wide, and a pair of laboratory technicians in white gowns and
gloves strode through. The resemblance between their garb and mine brought the
ghost of a smile to my lips.

As they left, I, the god Named Storyteller, entered.
Suzanne Montignet stopped by Malko KalharriТs office on the way to her own. The
lights in his office had not yet been turned on that morning. Entering the room
from the brightly lit hallway, Suzanne found it difficult even to see Kalharri
at first.
УMalko?Ф
УYes?Ф The office lacked a desk; the man who was sprawled loosely on the couch,
one oversized hand wrapped loosely around a steaming coffee cup, did not look
away from the holo tank in the corner of his office. Kalharri did not resemble
his name, which he had received by way of his grandfather; he was a big blond
man with a tan. The channel light glowed at 35: S-STR, the political news
station.
УWhatТs happening?Ф
Malko Kalharri had been a soldier for too many years; he never moved quickly
when the situation did not warrant it. After a moment he said simply, УThe
Unification Council is СdiscussingТЧthis is the word they have used all morning
for the screaming and threatsЧthe feasibility of adding an amendment to their
damned Statement of Principles, to allow the Secretary General to hold office
for more than three four-year terms. Sarah Almundsen must be turning over in her
grave; the first amendment ever proposed to that brilliant piece of writing
being a tool to keep one of her more foolish successors in office a little while
longer.Ф He shook his head. УItТs not going well at any rate; SecGen Tenerat