"Steve Perry - Matador 6 - Black Steel" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

have any enemies you want to tell me about?"

Reason laughed. "I was a thief for more than half a century before I got out of the biz," he finally
managed. "After the Confed fell, it wasn't as much fun as it had been. If all the people mad at me for
what I took were to line up, they'd probably reach to the horizon. And those are just the ones who
suspect I had something to do with it. I expect that the ones who are certain, men, women and mues,
wouldn't lose a second of sleep if I shuffled off into the final chill."

Sleel nodded. "Okay. So we have to narrow that down a little. It probably isn't a conspiracy of all of
them; we just need to find the right ones."

Reason laughed some more. "You're an optimist, Sleel."

"Yeah, well, dead bosses don't pay real well. You have to look on the positive side."

Sleel grinned. So this one might be hard. That was good. No point in doing easy stuff. He always liked it
better when the odds were against him. You couldn't show anything if a job was going to be a walk in
the country.

What was the point in being the best unless people could see it?



Chapter TWO

RIFT, IN THE Delta System, lies dozens of light years away from Earth, normally a six-day trip by
Bender drive. It is one of three planets in the system, the other two being Lee and Thompson's Gazelle.
Rift is also the least civilized of the trio, exports mainly certain technologies involved in waste -
recycling, and has upon it three major land masses, unoriginally called the Greater, the Middle and the
Lesser Continents. Upon the Lesser Continent is the old Romantic Enclave, and deep therein a fair-sized
hereditary estate known as La Casa del Acera Negro.

The House of Black Steel.



file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...e%20Perry%20-%20Matador%206%20-%20Black%20Steel.txt (7 of 190)23-2-2006 23:02:36
 file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruiswijk/Mijn%20do...ten/spaar/Steve%20Perry%20-%20Matador%206%20-%20Black%20Steel.txt

In the main gymnasium Hoja Cierto dodged the simulacrum's cut and V-stepped to his left with his
return strike. The lac's parry blocked Cierto's blade with a convincing ring of steel on steel, and the
vibration might be ersatz but in the boosted sturz field, Cierto felt it nonetheless. He spun away as the
lac stabbed at him with its cutlass. The computer's gain was rigged to illegal standards and turned up to
full; should the lac's weapon get through his guard, the pain would be as real as that of an actual sword.
A fatal strike would be just as deadly to Cierto, who wore no protection, and who was in fact naked save
for his sword and a groin strap. He danced away from the lac's stab and follow-up four-step attack: head
cut, heart stab, back and forth slash, and lunge for the groin. The lac was programmed to the ability of an
expert human in superb condition, and would be considered a worthy opponent for a top player in most
styles of fencing. The lac used most of the power of a mainframe viral matrix for its moves, and could
be adjusted to the rules of classical foil, epee or saber, kendo, the Indo hard-knife, keras pisau, or