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

and out of sight. The corridor had been stone and shadows. Inside the room, everything was bright
light, instruments, and sterile surfaces. Technicians looked up as the Grand Inquisitor and
Farrell entered. One wall of the room was taken up by square doors, looking like nothing so much
as the multitiered human file drawers of an ancient morgue. One of those doors was open and a
naked man lay on a gurney that had been pulled from the cold storage drawer there.
The Grand Inquisitor and Farrell stopped on either side of the gurney.
"He is reviving well," said the technician who stood at the console. "We're holding him just
beneath the surface. We can bring him up in seconds."
Father Farrell said, "How long was his last cold sleep?"
"Sixteen local months," said the technician. "Thirteen and a half standard."
"Bring him up," said the Grand Inquisitor.
The man's eyelids began to flutter within seconds. He was a small man, muscular but compact,
and there were no marks or bruises on his body. His wrists and ankles were bound by sticktite. A
cortical shunt had been implanted just behind his left ear and an almost invisible bundle of
microfibers ran from it to the console.
The man on the gurney moaned.
"Corporal Bassin Kee," said the Grand Inquisitor. "Can you hear me?"
Corporal Kee made an unintelligible sound.
The Grand Inquisitor nodded as if satisfied. "Corporal Kee," he said pleasantly,


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conversationally, "shall we pick up where we left off?"
"How long ... " mumbled Kee between dry, stiff lips. "How long have I been ... "
Father Farrell had moved to the technician's console. Now he nodded to the Grand Inquisitor.
Ignoring the corporal's question, John Domenico Cardinal Mustafa said softly, "Why did you and
Father Captain de Soya let the girl go?"
Corporal Kee had opened his eyes, blinking as if the light pained him, but now he closed them
again. He did not speak. The Grand Inquisitor nodded to his aide. Father Farrell's hand passed
over icons on the console diskey, but did not yet activate any of them.
"Once again," said the Grand Inquisitor.
"Why did you and de Soya allow the girl and her criminal allies to escape on God's Grove? Who
were you working for? What was your motivation?"
Corporal Kee lay on his back, his fists clenched and his eyes shut fast. He did not answer.
The Grand Inquisitor tilted his head ever so slightly to the left and Father Farrell waved two
fingers over one of the console icons. The icons were as abstract as hieroglyphics to the
untutored eye, but Farrell knew them well. The one he had chosen would have translated as crushed
testicles. On the gurney, Corporal Kee gasped and opened his mouth to scream, but the neural
inhibitors blocked that reaction. The short man's jaws opened as wide as they could and Father
Farrell could hear the muscles and tendons stretching.
The Grand Inquisitor nodded and Farrell removed his fingers from the activation zone above the
icon. Corporal Kee's entire body convulsed on the gurney, his stomach muscles rippling in tension.
"It is only virtual pain, Corporal Kee," whispered the Grand Inquisitor. "A neural illusion.
Your body is not marked."
On the slab, Kee was straining to raise his head to look down at his body, but the sticktite
band held his head in place.
"Or perhaps not," continued the Cardinal. "Perhaps this time we have resorted to older, less
refined methods." He took a step closer to the gurney so that the man could see his face. "Again