"Robert Reed - A Place With Shade" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Robert)

world
in the Realm.

"Yes, Mr. Locum?" she teased. "What do you want to say?"
"Call me Hann," I growled.

My student pulled her hair away from her jungle-colored eyes. "I've always
been
interested in New Traditionalists. Not that I believe what you preach . . .
not
entirely . . . but I'm glad Father hired one of you."

I was thinking about my ruined jungle. Fifty years in the past, and still it
made my mouth go dry and my heart pound.

"How will we move water without a river and falls?"

"Underground," I told her. "Through the porous rock. We can make a string of
pools and lakes, and there won't be erosion problems for centuries."

"Like this?" She called up a new schematic, and something very much like my
idea
appeared before us. "I did this in case you didn't like my first idea."

A single waterfall was at the high end of the cavern.

"A compromise," she offered. Enlarging the image, she said, "Doesn't it look
natural?"

For a cliche, I thought.

"The reactor and pumps will be behind this cliff, and the water sounds can
hide
any noise --"

"Fine," I told her.

"-- and the entranceway too. You walk in through the falls."

Another cliche, but I said, "Fine." Years of practice had taught me to
compromise with the little points. Why fight details when there were bigger
wars
to wage?

"Is it all right, Mr. Locum?" A wink. "I want both of us happy when this is
done. Hann, I mean."

For an audience of how many? At least with shallow socialites, there were
hundreds of friends and tagalongs and nobodys and lovers. And since they
rarely