"Alastair Reynolds - Spirey And The Queen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

"She made a move yet?" I asked.
"What?"
"The defector."
"Oh, we're back in reality now?" Yarrow laughed. "Sorry, this is going to
be slightly less exciting than Solar War Three."
"Inconsiderate," I said. "Think the bitch would give us a run for our
money." And as I spoke the weapons readout began to pulse faster and
faster, like the cardiogram of a fluttering heart. "How long now?"
"One minute, give or take a few seconds."
"Want a little bet?"
Yarrow grinned, sallow in the red alert lighting. "As if I'd say no,
Spirey."
So we hammered out a wager; Yarrow betting fifty tiger-tokens the rat
would attempt some last-minute evasion. "Won't do her a blind bit of
good," she said. "But that won't stop her. It's human nature."
Me, I suspected our target was either dead or asleep.
"Bit of an empty ritual, isn't it."
"What?"
"I mean, the attack happened the best part of five minutes ago, realtime.
The rat's already dead, and nothing we can do can influence that outcome."
Yarrow bit on a nicotine stick. "Don't get all philosophical on me,
Spirey."
"Wouldn't dream of it. How long?"
"Five seconds. Four..."
She was somewhere between three and four when it happened. I remember
thinking that there was something disdainful about the rat's actions: that
she'd deliberately waited until the last possible moment, and that she'd
dispensed with our threat with the least effort possible.
That was how it felt, anyway.
Nine of the quackheads detonated prematurely, way beyond kill-range. For a
moment the tenth remained, zeroing in on the defector - but instead it
failed to detonate, until it was just beyond range. For long moments there
was silence, while we absorbed what had happened. Yarrow broke it,
eventually.
"Guess I just made myself some money," she said.

Colonel Wendigo's hologram delegate appeared, momentarily frozen before
shivering to life. With her too-clear, too-young eyes she fixed first
Yarrow and then me.
"Intelligence was mistaken," she said. "Seems the defector doctored
records to conceal the theft of those countermeasures. But you harmed her
anyway?"
"Just," said Yarrow. "Her quackdrive's spewing out exotics like Spirey
after a bad binge. No hull damage, but..."
"Assessment?"
"Making a run for the splinter."
Wendigo nodded. "And then?"
"She'll set down and make repairs." Yarrow paused, added: "Radar says
there's metal on the surface. Must've been a wasp battle there, before the
splinter got lobbed out of the Swirl."