"Dan Simmons - The rise of Endymion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Simmons Dan)

think that his conference room was bugproof -- absolutely resistant to taps, bugs, wires, and
squirts. Any recording device in the room -- even implanted in one of the participants -- would



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have been detected and homed in on. Any attempt to tightbeam out would have been detected and
blocked. It had been one of the Grand Inquisitor's finest moments, getting the complete visual and
auditory recording of that meeting.
Monsignor Lucas Oddi had gone in to the Vatican Hospital for a routine eyes, ears, and heart
replacement two local years ago.
The surgeon had been approached by Father Farrell and the full weight of the Holy Office had
been shown ready to descend upon the poor medico's neck if he did not implant certain state-of-the-
art devices in the Monsignor's body. The surgeon did so and died the true death -- no resurrection
possible -- in a car accident far out over the Big North Shallow shortly after that.
Monsignor Lucas Oddi had no electronic or mechanical bugs in his system, but connected to his
optic nerve were seven fully biological nanorecorders. Four auditory nanorecorders were tapped
into his auditory nerve system. These biorecorders did not transmit inside the body, but stored
the data in chemical form and physically carried it through the bloodstream to the squirt
transmitter -- also fully organic -- set into Monsignor Oddi's left ventricle. Ten minutes after
Oddi had left the secured area of Cardinal Lourdusamy's office, the transmitter had squirted a
compressed record of the meeting to one of the Grand Inquisitor's nearby relay transponders. It
was not real-time eavesdropping from Lourdusamy's bugproof rooms -- a fact that still worried
Cardinal Mustafa -- but it was as close to it as current technology and stealth could get.
"Isozaki is frightened," said Father Farrell. "He thinks ... "
The Grand Inquisitor raised one finger. Farrell stopped in mid-sentence. "You do not know that
he is frightened," said the Cardinal. "You do not know what he thinks. You can only know what he
says and does and infer his thoughts and reactions from that. Never make unsupportable assumptions
about your enemies, Martin. It can be a fatal self-indulgence."
Father Farrell bowed his head in agreement and submission.
The EMV touched down on the landing pad atop Castel Sant'Angelo. The Grand Inquisitor was out
the hatch and down the ramp so quickly that Farrell had to trot to catch up to his master.
Security commandos, dressed in Holy Office red armorcloth, fell into escort step ahead and behind,
but the Grand Inquisitor waved them away. He wanted to finish his conversation with Father
Farrell. He touched his aide's left arm -- not out of affection, but to close the bone-conduction
circuits so that he could subvocalize -- and said, "Isozaki and the Mercantilus leaders are not
frightened. If Lourdusamy wanted them purged, they would be dead by now. Isozaki had to get his
message of support to the Cardinal and he did. It's the Pax military who are frightened."
Farrell frowned and subvocalized on the bone circuit. "The military? But they haven't played
their card yet. They have done nothing disloyal."
"Precisely," said the Grand Inquisitor.
"The Mercantilus has made its move and knows that Lourdusamy will turn to them when the time
comes. Pax Fleet and the rest have been terrified for years that they'll make the wrong choice.
Now they're terrified that they've waited too long."
Farrell nodded. They had taken a dropshaft deep into the stone bowels of Castel Sant'Angelo,
and now they moved past armed guards and through lethal forcefields down a dark corridor. At an
unmarked door, two red-garbed commandos stood at attention, energy rifles raised.
"Leave us," said the Grand Inquisitor and palmed the door's ideyplate. The steel panel slid up