"Alastair Reynolds - A Spy In Europa" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

find a way of attacking it. All you'd need would be a molecular agent

capable of opening the gaps between the fullerene strands so that a

molecule of water could squeeze through, or something which impedes the

piezo-electric force."

Absently Vargovic watched a squidlike predator nibble a chunk from the bag

of a ventling. The squid blood ran thick with two forms of haemoglobin;

one oxygen-bearing, one tuned for hydrogen sulphide. They used

glycoproteins to keep their blood flowing and switched metabolisms as they

swam from oxygen-dominated to sulphide-dominated water.

He snapped his attention back to Cholok. "I can't believe I came all this

way for... what? Carbon?" He shook his head, slotting the gesture into the

primary narrative of their conversation. "How did you obtain this?"

"An accident, with a gilly."

"Go on."

"An explosion near one of the bubbles. I was the surgeon assigned to the

gilly; had to remove a lot of hyperdiamond from him. It wasn't hard to

save a few splinters."

"Forward thinking of you."

"Hard part was persuading Gilgamesh to send you. Especially after

Maunciple..."

"Don't lose any sleep over him," Vargovic said, consulting his coffee. "He

was a fat bastard who couldn't swim fast enough."
The surgery took place the next day. Vargovic woke with his mouth

furnace-dry.

He felt - odd. They had warned him of this. He had even interviewed