"Jerry Pournelle - High Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

now!"
The boat was pitching wildly, and the Americans found it hard to pay attention to anything. The
storm rose, wind howling until the Tongans reefed, reefed again until the sail was a tiny patch in
the night, but the boat tore on at high speed, leaving a great creamy wake behind, actually
outrunning the seas, carried along by the screaming wind.
"Quite a blow," Michael King said. His voice was strained, artificially calm.
"Not really," Toki answered. "You will know it when the storm really hits. There will be rain
then. I warned
you. . . ."
"Yeah." Adams grimly held the bulwarks. He looked behind, saw an enormous wave building up astern,
flinched, but they ran away from it so that it broke harmlessly aft of them. Another monster sea
came up, with the same result, but it was unnerving to watch them. He tried to close his eyes, but
his stomach heaved and he quickly opened them again, grimly took a deep breath, and held it.
"At night, with this storm, there shouldn't be anyone very alert," Adams told the prince. "I
hope."
Toki shrugged. "Fijians might, but I do not believe their Asian masters will let them out in
boats." Mike King looked up in surprise, and Prince Toki grimaced. "Malays, Indians, Chinese-they
outnumbered the Fijians as far back as the late fifties. We would have gone the same way if we
ever let the Europeans control us. The Indians came to Fiji as workers, so did the Chinese. Soon
there was no room for the sea poeple. Our King George Tupuo I kept Tonga for the Tongans. A wise
policy, I think."
Adams looked at the enigmatic face and wondered if there were a message addressed to him. His wits
weren't sharp, not in this wild sea and screaming wind.
Prince Toki read the expression and smiled thinly. "No, I don't mean your Company, Mr. Adams. I
was worried at first, but you have kept your agreement, brought in only enough westerners to run
the Station, kept them on short-term contracts. If you had encouraged your people to settle
permanently . . . but do you know why I agreed to help you tonight?"
Adams shook his head warily.
"The whales. The sea people have always respected the whales, Mr. Adams. It will be a sad world
for us when they're gone. But there's nothing we can do to keep the powers from killing them all
off. Your Company is at least trying."
"Be damned," Adams muttered to himself. Had Mr. Lewis seen that coming, or did he really just want
to save the beasts for sentimental reasons? No matter, the books balanced nicely now.
"Understand me," the prince was saying. "We can help each other, and the reefs you occupy would
never have been much use to us. You can keep them. But I hope you have no other plans for Tonga."
"We don't," Adams said. At least none I'll talk about now, he added to himself. A thick cloud had
moved over the already feeble moon, and it was dark and threatening in the open boat.
Phosphorescent seas crashed around them. Ominous black clouds astern added an atmosphere of
menace. Bill settled his windbreaker around himself and stared miserably at the water.

In four hours they were at the harbor entrance. A driving rain obscured everything, and Adams was
amazed at the skill of the Tongan helmsmen who seemed to know exactly where they were. They had
sailed to Fiji many times across hundreds of miles of open water, and they had phenomenal
memories, but there was no clue to what they steered by in this wet darkness. A tiny reef to port,
swirls and breakers in the water, the boat raced on past the harbor bars in silence, and they were
in calmer water.
Then, quite suddenly, a white shape loomed up off the starboard bow. Persephone riding at anchor,
tossing violently in the big swell that swept in from the Pacific. Even close up the ship was
almost hidden in the driving rain.
The boat moved quietly to the anchor chain and Prince Toki, followed by three Tongans swarmed up