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

"You'll have to show me what they are," Haakon said.
The man looked at him suspiciously. "You're a ship's captain, and you don't know anything about Teslas?"
"Are you serious?" Haakon asked. "I have nothing to do with them. I wouldn't have the damn things on my ship except it won't go anywhere without them."
"Can't say I blame you. I spaced for twenty years and had to abandon ship three times because of blown Teslas. The last time the lifeboat just barely made it here, and I haven't gone offworld since. Come on." He led the way toward the hulk and the rest fell in behind.
"Why does your helmet have a face plate?" Jemal asked.
"You work in a junkyard, sometimes you got both hands full when the bugs come at you. Besides, you have to be born on this place before you can cut the bugs out of the air. I like to have a second chance."
"I've noticed that nobody carries guns or beamers around here," Haakon said. "We were warned not to bring any down. The Bahaduran authorities pretty strict on weapons control?"
"Yeah, but I don't think the locals would use them anyway, much as they love to fight. They prefer hand weapons."
"Why don't they at least set up electronic bug screens?" Jemal asked. "Even the Bahadurans wouldn't give them any trouble over that. Do they have some kind of taboo against them?"
"Naw," the man answered. "They just think cutting them down on the wing is more fun."
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They poked through the ruined Tesla engines only to find that the transmission nodes were indeed deteriorated past any possible use. They returned to the dome to look for some of the smaller items on the list. They found a small reception committee waiting for them.
Three were burly, shaven-headed men who wore the strings of beads they had seen Soun wearing. Their armor and clothes were colored a subdued saffron. The fourth person was plainly a woman, although a close-fitting metal mask covered her features. She was taller than her male companions and looked willowy even in her bulky armor.
"You are the ones who have agreed to take our treasures offworld, to the Cingulum?" the woman asked.
"We haven't agreed to anything," Haakon said. "And nobody mentioned treasures. We told LeMat and Soun that we'd talk further about a job, and we got some cagey talk about some items innocuous enough to be carried openly through customs. Now we're ready to hear more."
"Very well," the woman said. "WeЧ"
Haakon interrupted. "If you don't mind, I'd prefer it if you'd take off that mask. I like to see who I'm talking to when I'm discussing sensitive business."
The bald men bristled but, after a moment's hesitation, the woman removed her helmet and then the metal mask. She handed them to the nearest of the men and faced Haakon. She was stunningly beautiful, with high cheekbones and a high-bridged, aristocratic nose. Despite her old-ivory coloration and the slight epicanthic fold in
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the inner corners of her eyes, her features were unlike those of the Chamukan natives they had seen so far. Her shiny black hair was gathered into a waist-length tail and her face was sheened with fine sweat from wearing the mask.
"Is that satisfactory?" she asked.
"Much better. I'm Captain Haakon. These men are my officers, Jemal and Soong."
She scanned them briefly with enormous brown eyes that were intimidatingly cool. "You've lived dangerously," she said, "and you are dangerous men." Startlingly, her teeth were lacquered glossy black.
"We've done what was necessary to stay alive," Haakon said. He was always cautious with people who possessed that easy ability to read character.
"Just as well," she said. "We weren't looking for saintly people. I don't suppose ordinary people would be entrusted with the coordinates to the Cingulum."
"How do you know we have them?" Haakon asked.
"How could you hope to carry out our mission if you didn't have them? Of course," she said and scanned them bleakly, "there is always the possibility that you intended to take our pay without holding up your end of the bargain-. That would be unwise."
"No need for threats. We're reputable smugglers. Ask anybody. We'll undertake no job we can't see through."
"Captain," Jemal said, "before things proceed any further, I think it's time for the lecture."
"Lecture?" the woman asked.
"We have to caution you about our relationship with
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the Cingulum," Haakon said. "You're aware that those coordinates change from time to time?"
"I know. Is it really true that the whole planetary system can be moved at will?"
"Quite true. In telling you that, I'm revealing nothing that Bahadur doesn't already know. The inhabitants of the Cingulum are a truly hardcore pack of resisters. If we ever brought them anybody or anything that was in the slightest way dangerous or compromising to them, we'd be executed immediately. We don't take people there just for the asking. We're regarded with suspicion there at the best of times. They think, quite correctly, that we lack proper revolutionary fervor."
"I think," Soong said, "that these people have heard enough from us for now. It is time that we learn something about them and their mysterious mission."
The woman turned to the wrecking yard man. "Kiley, keep a lookout and make sure to warn us if anyone comes close."
The man nodded and left. The woman sat cross-legged on the floor and the three native men sank beside her in a peculiar crouch, with one knee on the floor and the other foot planted flat, left hands grasping their sheaths. They appeared to be as ready for action as when standing. Haakon and his men sat as well, cross-legged like the woman.
"The people of this planet," the woman began, "are without question the most intransigent foes of Bahadur in existence. I realize that they continue to exist only because of the unique economics of the planet. Courage
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and character are as nothing in the face of modern weapons."
"As I understand it," Haakon said, "this character doesn't extend to any degree of unity."
"That is true," the woman admitted. "They are deeply divided by regional and religious differences especially. Still, there is a single rallying point: The ancient royal line still lives here."
"That is not in agreement with the data in our banks'," Soong protested. "According to our information, some members of a cadet branch of the old Imperial house were among the early settlers. There is no record of any pretenders to a throne of Chamuka."
"Our royal house," growled one of the warrior-monks, "is not a foreigner's illusion of thrones and palaces. Their Majesties have always been our connection with the gods of our ancestors. They are our living gods, and we have protected them from the upstarts of Bahadur by a conspiracy of silence."
Being told other people's secrets always made Haakon nervous. "What has all this to do with the goods you want taken to the Cingulum?"