"Smith, E E Doc - d'Alembert 8 - Eclipsing Binaries" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

easily-you, the only child of Emperor Stanley Nine's oldest son? You have a better claim
to the throne than the silly little snip who sits there now!"

A trace of Boros's old haughtiness returned. Straightening her back, she said, "Of course
I haven't forgotten. But it didn't seem to matter to anyone else."

"It matters to me," Lady A said with conviction. "This revolution is dedicated to restoring
the proper order of things. "

"Am I to be made Empress, then?" No matter how sincere the woman's voice was,
Boros could not bring herself to believe Lady A was going to all this trouble purely for her
benefit.

A tiny hint of a smile touched the corners of Lady A's lips. "Well, perhaps not yet. I was
reserving that for myself. But you will receive a position commensurate with your
heritage. I have special plans for you, my dear, that you can't even begin to guess."

"And what does C say to all this?"

The smile broadened on Lady A's face. "To show you how much I trust you, I'll let you in
on the best-kept secret in the Galaxy: There is no one named C. He is purely a myth
created to confuse our enemies into thinking the conspiracy is more complex than it really
is. All orders from C are my orders relayed through a special switchboard to appear as
though they're coming from elsewhere. No such human being exists. You're now only the
second person in the universe to know that."

Again Boros felt uneasiness creep over her. Lady A was being far too open, and that
was suspicious. "Why are you telling me all this?" she asked.

Lady A's mood shifted instantly to anger. "I open my heart to you and receive distrust."
She stood again, and in three long strides she was before Boros's chair. Lifting the
younger woman effortlessly by the front of her tunic collar, Lady A held her a few
centimeters off the ground and said with crystalline enunciation, "You now have two
choices, my dear. You either pledge me your unswerving, undivided loyalty and love, or
I'll crush your skull until your brains trickle down your neck. You do not leave this room
alive until I am assured the information you have is safe. You betrayed your father with a
few inadvertent words; I'll not have you do the same to me. Do I make myself clear?"

For a long moment, Tanya Boros was too frightened to say anything. She knew her life
was dangling by a very slender thread, and the wrong word-or even the right word with
the wrong inflection-would give that thread a sudden snap. She considered her next
words very carefully.

"Yes, ma'am," she said slowly. "I am completely loyal to you. No one can doubt that. I've
obeyed you completely from the first moment I met you on Gastonia. It's just ... I didn't
expect ... I ... I was surprised . . . I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

Another eternity passed as those intense green eyes pierced all the way to her soul.
Then slowly Lady A lowered the younger woman to the floor and loosened her grip on
the front of the tunic. Boros was shaken. She had not known her superior was that