"Steve Perry - Matador 5 - The 97th Step" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)


wrapped around galactic transportation, but there were ways, there were always
ways, if you had stads, or if you knew the game. Or he could go to the cools.
Locally, they were mostly honest, and if the slaver hadn't bought a pet in the shop,
maybe the boy had a chance in that direction. It didn't matter so much to Ferret
what the boy did, his concern had been less for the slave than for the way the
slaver had gone after him. He had bought the boy a chance; what he did with it
was his own worry.

Ferret had forgotten about the strap he still held. He glanced at it, now in two
pieces. He tossed them at the slaver. The mue made no sign he saw or felt the
broken strap when the sections of it hit him.

"We'll be going now," Stoll said. It came out as an announcement, as if he were a
king informing his subjects of some major policy. He waved the wand in an
offhand gesture. Some of the patrons flinched when the weapon's stubby barrel
tracked past them. A blast from a hand wand was good for a very nasty headache
when one awoke from the primary effect, itself not in the least pleasant.

"The drinks are okay, but stay away from the food in this place," Stoll said.

Ferret felt the urge to laugh, but he was still too wired to let it out. Stoll's comment
could not have made any sense to anyone else, unless they happened to know the
fat man was a gourmand of the most exotic rank, and what he said would have
been of little use, unless they trusted his taste.

Outside the pub, Stoll tucked the wand out of sight. He glanced at Ferret, whose
face was still flushed with the remains of his rage. "What was that all about?"

Ferret shook his head. "An old disk. Something that happened a long time ago."

Stoll nodded, but said nothing. The two men walked away from the pub in the
general direction of the port where their ship, the Don't Look Back, was berthed.

Ferret said, "I'll tell you about it someday."


file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...0Matador%2005%20-%20The%2097th%20Step.html (6 of 313) [12/29/2004 12:32:31 AM]
Perry, Steve - The 97th Step


Stoll nodded again.

Fifteen years, Ferret thought, and it all came back as if it we're only yesterday. So
many light- and real-time years away, and still as clear as bottled air. Like the
hand of God on his shoulder, he knew he would never be able to shake it, not if he
lived to be a thousand. He did not want the memory, but it lay ever there. The
strap had brought it back.

That goddamned strap.