"Rusch,_Kristine_Kathryn_-_The_Retrieval_Artist" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

"He said I wasn't -- "
"Who is it?"
Again she licked that lower lip just like she had the day before, a movement that was too unconscious to be planned. The nervousness, then, wasn't feigned. "Norris Gonnot."
Gonnot. Sobol was the third client he'd sent to me in the last year. The other two checked out, and both cases had been easy to solve. But he was making himself too visible, and I would have to deal with that, even though I hated to do so. He was extremely grateful that I had found his daughter and granddaughter alive (although they hadn't appreciated it), and he'd been even more grateful when I was able to prove that the Disty were no longer looking for them.
"And how did you find him?"
She frowned. "Does it matter?"
I leaned back in my chair. It squeaked and the sound made her jump ever so slightly. "Either you're up front with me now or the conversation ends."
The frown grew deeper, and she clutched her left wrist with her right hand, holding the whole mess against her stomach. The gesture looked calculated. "Do you treat everyone like this?"
"Nope. Some people I treat worse."
"Then how do you get any work?"
I shrugged. "Just lucky."
She stared at me for a moment. Then she glanced at the door. Was she letting her thoughts be that visible on purpose or was she again acting for my benefit? I wasn't sure.
"A cop told me about him. Norris, that is." She sounded reluctant. "I wasn't supposed to tell you."
"Of course not. Gonnot wasn't supposed to talk to anyone. This cop, was he a rent-a-cop, a real cop, a Federal cop, or with the Earth Force?"
"She," she said.
"Okay," I said. "Was she a -- "
"She was a New York City police officer who had her own detective agency."
"That's illegal in New York."
She shrugged. "So?"
I closed my eyes. Ethics had disappeared everywhere. "You hired her?"
"She was my fifth private detective. Most would work for a week and then quit when they realized that searching for an interstellar Disappeared is a lot harder than finding a missing person."
I waited. I'd heard that sob story before. Most detectives kept the case and simply came to someone like me.
"Of course," she said, "my father's looming presence doesn't help either."
"Your father?"
She was staring at me as if I had just asked her what God was.
"I'm Anetka Sobol," she said as if that clarified everything.
"And I'm Miles Flint. My name doesn't tell you a damn thing about my father."
"My father is the founding partner of the Third Dynasty."
I had to work to hide my surprise. I knew what the Third Dynasty was, but I didn't know the names of its founders. The Dynasty itself was a formidable presence all over the galaxy. It was a megacorp with its fingers in a lot of pies, mostly to do with space exploration, establishing colonies in mineral-rich areas, and exploitation of new resources. My contacts with the Third Dynasty weren't on the exploration level, but within its narrow interior holdings. The Third Dynasty was the parent company for Privacy Unlimited, one of the services which helped people disappear.
Privacy Unlimited had been developed, as so many of the corporate disappearance programs had, when humans discovered the Disty, and realized that in some alien cultures, there was no such word as forgiveness. The Disty were the harshest of our allies. The Revs, the Wygnin, and the Fuetrer also targeted certain humans, and our treaties with these groups allowed the targeting if the aliens could show cause.
The balance was a delicate one, allowing them their cultural traditions while protecting our own. Showing cause had to happen before one of eighteen multicultural tribunals, and if one of those tribunals ruled in the aliens' favor, the humans involved were as good as dead. We looked the other way most of the time. Most of the lives involved were, according to our government, trivial ones. But of course, those people whose lives had been deemed trivial didn't feel that way, and that was when the disappearance services cropped up. If a person disappeared and could not be found, most alien groups kept an outstanding warrant, but stopped searching.
The Disty never did.
And since much of the Third Dynasty's business was conducted in Disty territory, its disappearance service, Privacy Unlimited, had to be one of the best in the galaxy.
Something in my face must have given my knowledge away, because she said, "Now do you understand my problem?"
"Frankly, no," I said. "You're the daughter of the big kahuna. Go to Privacy Unlimited and have them help you. It's usually not too hard to retrace steps."
She shook her head. "My mother didn't go to Privacy Unlimited. She used another service."
"You're sure?"
"Yes." She brushed a hand alongside her head, to move the long hair. "It's my father she's running from."
A domestic situation. I never get involved in those. Too messy and too complicated. Never a clear line. "Then she didn't need a service at all. She probably took a shuttle here, then a transport for parts unknown."
Anetka Sobol crossed her arms. "You don't seem to understand, Mr. Flint. My father could have found her with his own service if she had done something like that. It's simple enough. My detectives should have been able to find her. They can't."
"Let me see if I can understand this," I said. "Are you looking for her or is your father?"
"I am."
"As a front for him?"
Color flooded her face. "No."
"Then why?"
"I want to meet her."
I snorted. "You're going to a lot of expense for a 'hello, how are you.' Aren't you afraid Daddy will find out?"
"I have my own money."
"Really? Money Daddy doesn't know about? Money Daddy doesn't monitor?"
She straightened. "He doesn't monitor me."