"Ringo, John - Council Wars 1 - There Will Be Dragons" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ringo John)

you anything?"
"Well for one thing, the credits," Dionys said, apparently unfazed by the
laughter. "I can pay you handsomely for it, I don't think you'll believe how
much."
"I don't think you have any idea how much it is worth," Edmund replied. "I don't
just conjure armor out of the air or you wouldn't be here. Every piece is custom
constructed from the base iron and for enhanced armor, which I assume is what
you want, I use customized nannites. A full suite takes nearly three months to
complete. What could you possibly offer me that would be worth three months of
my precious life?"
"Two hundred teracredits," Dionys said promptly.
"What?" Talbot snapped. "That's a noticeable slice of the planetary budget!
There is no way you can find that sort of money!"
"I can get it," McCanoc replied. "I haveЕ sources."
"Okay," Talbot admitted, grudgingly, "assuming you can lay your hands on it,
that's a lot of credits. There's only one problem."
"What?"
"I don't want them," Edmund said. "I have nothing worth spending two hundred
teracredits on. In fact, I have nothing to spend the credits I have on; I give
almost all my surplus to my daughter. Who never manages to spend all of them. So
I don't have any use for your fortune, whatever its source."
"All right then," Dionys said with a nod. "I can appreciate that. In that case,
think of the challenge. I don't want just any set of weapons and armor, I want
the most magnificent armor and sword ever created. The armor has to have
self-contained power sources, be able to drain power from external sources,
trade power and repair damage to itself and its user. The mail should be kinetic
reactive and, of course, impenetrable. All of it proof against any field
generation or energy weapons. The sword needs to generate a scything field and a
power field as well as be able to drain and trade power. It has to be the
finest, the best nannites, the best programs, capable of taking on any enhanced
suits on Earth and defeating them. All of that invisible to casual inspection
and, of course, it should lookЕ good." He gave the battered suit of mail and
half armor by the fireplace a dismissive wave.
"Challenge is for the young," Talbot said, leaning back in his chair and
stretching out his feet. "When you get to be my age, you're either over doing
stuff for the 'challenge' or you're dead. There is a reason the most common
cause of death in our time is accident. Followed closely by suicide."
"So you won't do it?" Dionys asked.
"I doubt it," Talbot said. "And why in the hell do you want something like that?
You can't use that in any tournament, anywhere. Not even ones that permit
enhancements. The power drain function alone would preclude that. And that is
more than a 'casual' inspection."
"It's not for a tournament," Dionys said. "Although, I'd want to be stealthed
and be able to turn down the enhancements if I did use it in a tournament. But I
intend to use it to become king of Anarchia."
Talbot was not one for expressive mirth but he couldn't help laughing out loud
again.
"Oh, thank you for that, Dionys," he said, trying to get his breath back. "I
haven't laughed this hard in forever."
"I'm serious," the visitor said with a glare. "I can make myself the first king