"John Maddox Roberts - Cingulum 03 - The Sword, The Jewel and the Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Roberts John Maddox)

us with his mastery of the brush."
"He's a man of many talents," said Haakon with massive understatement. Soong
had once been an assassin in the wars between Han and Bahadur. He was making a
living as a gambler when he joined Eurynome's crew.
A big, ugly man in flashy clothing walked over to Haakon, a steaming,
multilayered drink in one beringed fist. "Fantastic ship you have here,
Captain. Does it help you in moving goods that your ship looks like a
space-going bordello?" He pushed a hand through his elegant coiffure. Neither
clothes nor hairdo softened the toughness of his face. This particular man,
Penrose, headed this planet's largest and most prestigious smuggling firm.
"Customs authorities seldom deal thoroughly with a luxury yacht," Haakon
acknowledged. "I'm not sure why. There wouldn't be much to find on this trip
anyhow." He nodded toward the woman who sat in an alcove near them. Six
othersтАФthree men, two women, and a hermтАФsat across from her, all speaking at
once in
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John Maddox Roberts
a high-speed, incomprehensible babble. It was the secret language of
technothieves, by which they transmitted, stored, and delivered data otherwise
accessible only to computers.
Haakon's technothief was Mirabelle. She was small, brown-haired and
voluptuous, and just now she was taking on their cargo: a list of transfer
coordinates for hundreds of deep-space rendezvous to be carried out over the
next standard year by vessels of Penrose's firm and their customers. It was a
sight he never quite believed, no matter how many times he'd seen it:
Mirabelle could feed all this information back to a computer, or to another
technothief, any time she was called to. She could also erase it from her
memory instantly, which was what made technothieves the best method of
smuggling contraband data.
"She has the schedule of contacts, of course," Penrose said. "I am assured
that you shall be able to make all of them on time over the next six months
standard." He did not inflect it as a question, so Haakon did not answer it as
such. "That leaves only the closing, then," Penrose said, holding out an open
palm. The two men touched palms and the deal was made. There could, of course,
be no official record, but if Haakon reneged on the agreement, he would never
get another contract from the sub-Bahadur underworld. Penrose would suffer
likewise if payment were not to be forthcoming at the contact points.
Jemal came in, accompanied by a man with long hair that had once been yellow,
but was now heavily shot with
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THE SWORD, THE JEWEL, AND THE MIRROR
gray. "Hack," Jemal said, "meet Hamish Connaught. He's Delian."
"Jem and I are from Delius," Haakon said.
"So he's told me," Connaught said. He was slightly drunk. "Says you were both
in the war. Which fleet?"
"S'vth," said Haakon. "Lord Hatch's. You?"
"'Forty-seventh, the Prince's Own. Put up a good fight, didn't we?"
"That we did," Haakon answered.
"Well, maybe we're not through yet," Connaught said, the words coming a little
thickly. "We can alwaysтАФ"