"Kerrion Empire - 03 - Earth Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morris Janet E)

themЧ" his chin, jutting toward the cave's depths,
quivered, "Чyou're space-eyed. None of those weekend
rebels failed to recognize Rizk the ironmonger, once that
Kerrion bitch pointed me out! Half those lads are my
clients. 'Enchanter' or no, my life's worth nothing once
this uniform comes off. . . ." Still protesting, plucking at
his quilted black-and-reds, he backed from the bright
light, sensingЧnow that his fury was abating and he
could think at allЧsomething in Tempest's demeanor
that urged caution. . . .

The dark intelligencer followed him into the night,
murmuring, "You are sure that you can be of no further
use to us? Perhaps a transfer, up to the platform?"

The men coming back from the horse-line and the two
in the inflatables saw the ground agent Rizk and the Ker-
rion intelligencer meld into midnight, Tempest's calm
words of debriefing floating in the air behind them.

But it must have been that the two could reach no
agreement, for the redhead did not return that evening,
and in the morning his horse was gone from the line.

Over breakfast served hot from the firepit before the
cave's mouth, Tempest told Chaeron and Shebat what
had transpired, saying that the man had disappearedЧ
defected to the Orrefors rebels because of Shebat.

It was Chaeron who asked her, "Is that what you did?
Exposed one of our own agents? I checked my data base
on oracles, in general and Oracles, Delphic. For Delphi
we've statistics. Zero percent of the historical responses
were oracular; or, to put it another way, zero percent of
the prophetic responses were historical. Only legendary
onesЧlike your paraphrase of the Delphic Oracle's reply
to AgamemnonЧever predicted anything. Fiction aside,
the Oracle's responses were mundanely political."

Shebat smiled demurely."! thought you would recog-
nize it. But about the enchanter ... the ground agent: I
swear, the muses moved me. I knew nothing about him.
Did you Tempest?"

"No, not until he declared himself."

"Then how could I?" she rejoined sweetly, but her
lower lip edged out into a pout.

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