"Richard Morgan - Broken Angels" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morgan Richard)

be my interpersonal ideal?'
The woman shook her head again. 'I am an intra-format service construct for Wedge One
Systems Overview, based physically on Lieutenant Colonel Lucia Mataran of Protectorate
High Command.'
'With that hair? You're kidding me.'
 'I have latitudes of discretion. Do you wish me to generate an interpersonal ideal for you?'
Like the offer of a high-ratio format, it was tempting. But after six weeks in the company
of the Wedge's boisterous do-or-die commandos, what I wanted more than anything was to be
alone for a while.
'I'll think about it. Is there anything else?'
'You have a recorded briefing from Isaac Carrera. Do you wish it stored at the house?'
'No. Play it here. I'll call you if I need anything else.'
'As you wish.' The construct inclined her head, and snapped out of existence. In her place,
a male figure in the Wedge's black dress uniform shaded in. Close-cropped black hair
seasoned with grey, a lined patrician face whose dark eyes and weathered features were
somehow both hard and understanding, and beneath the uniform the body of an officer whose
seniority had not removed him from the battlefield. Isaac Carrera, decorated ex-Vacuum
Command captain and subsequently founder of the most feared mercenary force in the
Protectorate. An exemplary soldier, commander, and tactician. Occasionally, when he had no
other choice, a competent politician.
'Hello, Lieutenant Kovacs. Sorry this is only a recording, but Evenfall has left us in a bad
situation and there wasn't time to set up a link. The medical report says your sleeve can be
repaired in about ten days, so we're not going to go for a clone-bank option here. I want you
back on the Northern Rim as soon as possible, but the truth is, we've been fought to a
standstill there for the moment and they can live without you for a couple of weeks. There's a
status update appended to this recording, including the losses sustained in the last assault. I'd
like you to look it over while you're in virtual, set that famous Envoy intuition of yours to
work. God knows, we need some fresh ideas up there. In a general context, acquisition of the
Rim territories will provide one of the nine major objectives necessary to bring this conflict . .
.'
I was already in motion, walking the length of the jetty and then up the sloping shore
towards the nearest hills. The sky beyond was tumbled cloud but not dark enough for there to
be a storm in the offing. It looked as if there would be a great view of the whole loch if I
climbed high enough.
Behind me, Carrera's voice faded on the wind as I left the projection on the jetty, mouthing
its words to the empty air and maybe the seals, always assuming they had nothing better to do
than listen to it.
 CHA PTE R TWO




In the end, they kept me under for a week.
I didn't miss much. Below me, the clouds roiled and tore across the face of Sanction IV's
northern hemisphere, pouring rain on the men and women killing each other beneath. The
construct visited the house regularly and kept me abreast of the more interesting details.
Kemp's offworld allies tried and failed to break the Protectorate blockade, at the cost of a
brace of IP transports. A flight of smarter-than-average marauder bombs got through from
somewhere unspecified and vaporised a Protectorate dreadnought. Government forces in the
tropics held their positions while in the north-east the Wedge and other mercenary units lost