"Resnick, Mike - Oracle 2 - Oracle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Chandler looked up at the sky, which had suddenly clouded over. "It rains every afternoon about this time," he said. "Let's go inside and make ourselves comfortable, and you can lay it out for me."
He led the Iceman back inside the house, ordered the glass portals to slide shut, and walked over to a pair of chairs that had been carved out of the native hardwood of the surrounding forest and covered with the pelts of some blue-skinned animals.
"All right," he said when both men had seated themselves. "I'm listening."
"Penelope Bailey was eight years old when I met her," said the Iceman. "The Democracy had taken her away from her parents when she was five or six, and an alien had stolen her from the Democracy. By the time I ran across her, she was in the company of a woman who used to work for me."
"Why did the Democracy seize her in the first place?" asked Chandler.
"She has a gift -- a talent, if you will -- that they wanted."
"What was it?"
"She's prescient."
"You mean she can predict the future?"
The Iceman shook his head. "It's not that simple. She can see an almost infinite number of possible futures, and she can manipulate events so that the one most favorable to her comes to pass."
Chandler stared at him for a long moment. "I don't believe it," he said at last.
"It's the truth. I've seen it in action."
"Then why isn't she Queen of the whole damned universe?"
"When I first met her, she could only see those futures in which she faced imminent danger. By the time we parted, she could see the outcome of everything from poker hands to gunfights, and could manipulate things so they'd come out the way she wanted them to -- but she could only see a few hours into the future." He paused. "If her power never extended beyond that, she could make herself a very rich, very powerful woman, but in the larger scheme of things she'd be no more than a nuisance."
"But you think her talent has continued to mature," said Chandler. It was not a question.
"I don't know why it shouldn't have," replied the Iceman. "It grew more powerful almost daily when I knew her."
"I'm surprised you didn't try to kill her."
"I did." He patted his prosthetic leg. "This is what I got for my trouble."
Chandler nodded, but said nothing.
"The last time I saw her she was with an alien called the Mock Turtle -- I'll swear that's what it looked like -- and to the best of my knowledge, no human has seen her since."
"Why an alien?"
"It practically worshipped her, and it seemed convinced that once she developed her powers, she could keep the Democracy from assimilating its world."
"Is the girl on its world?" asked Chandler.
The Iceman shook his head. "No. I've been there twice, and there's no sign of them."
"So that's where you go when you're not on Last Chance," said Chandler, not at all surprised. "You're hunting for Penelope Bailey."
"It hasn't done any good." The Iceman grimaced and finished his drink. "If there's someone better equipped to stay hidden than a woman who can see all possible futures, I can't imagine who it is."
"Then how did you find her?" asked Chandler.
"I didn't," answered the Iceman. "But a week ago I was approached by a woman who represented herself as Penelope's mother. She thinks she knows where the girl is, and she hired me to bring her back."
"Represented herself?" repeated Chandler. "That's a curious choice of words."
"She lied from start to finish."
"What makes you think so?"
"She knew things she had no business knowing."
"Such as?"
"She knew that Penelope escaped with an alien -- but only about ten people on a little planet called Killhaven know that. She knew that I've been searching for her -- but I've never told that to anyone." He paused. "She knew that she was looking for the Iceman, and not for Carlos Mendoza."
"She works for the Democracy, of course."
The Iceman nodded in agreement. "Nobody else has the resources to spy on me for fourteen years."
"They've been after her for fourteen years . . ." began Chandler.
"Sixteen," interjected the Iceman.
"All right, sixteen. Why have they approached you now?"
"Because they think they've found her."
"That's not good enough," said Chandler. "Why did they lie to you? Or, better still, if they've found her, why don't they just go in after her themselves?"
"I'm sure they've sent their best people in after her and failed, or else they would never have approached me." The Iceman suddenly noticed his drink and finished it with a single swallow. "As for why they sent someone who pretended to be Penelope's mother, it's simple enough: the Inner Frontier doesn't owe any allegiance to the Democracy, and they don't know if I'd be willing to help them. Also," he added, "I killed some of their bounty hunters fourteen years ago."
"Why did you want to save her from a bunch of bounty hunters?"
"She was never in any danger from them," answered the Iceman. "I was trying to save another member of her party." He paused. "It didn't help."
"You make Penelope Bailey sound very formidable," commented Chandler.
"She is," the Iceman assured him seriously. "Make no mistake about it."
"Where do they think she is?"
"A planet called Alpha Crepello III, out in the Quinellus Cluster."
"And they're sure it's her?"
The Iceman shook his head. "They think it is; they don't know for sure."