"Sheri S. Tepper - After Long Silence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

"What you spent for that unit you've got on your wrist would get Mom's eyes fixed and set her up for
life," Tasmin said flatly. "Don't feed me that shit about putting it all into equipment because I know it's a
lie. You were never a Tripsinger. You broke every rule, every oath you took. You set up that ass Ran
Connel to help you fake your way through the first trip, then after you were licensed you led four trips,
and your backup had to bail you out on all of them. You got through school by stealing. You stole tests.
You stole answers. You stole other people's homework including mine. Whenever anyone had anything
you wanted, you took it. And when you couldn't make it here, you stole money from Dad's friends and
then ran for the Coast. The reason I have to support Mom as well as my own family is that Dad spent
almost everything he had paying off the money you took. You never figured the rules applied to you, big
brother, and you always got by on a charming smile and that damned marvelous voice!"

Celcy was staring at him, her face white with shock. Lim was pale, mouth pinched.

Tasmin threw down his napkin. "I'm sorry. I'm not hungry. Celcy, would you mind if we left now?"

She gulped, turning a stricken face on Lim, "Yes, I would mind. I'm starved. I'm going to have dinner
with Lim because he invited us, and if you're too rude to let childish bygones be bygones тАж " Her voice
changed, becoming angry. "I'm certainly not going to go along with you. Go on home. Go to your
mother's. Maybe she'll sympathize with you, but I certainly don't."

He couldn't remember leaving the restaurant. He couldn't remember anything that happened until he
found himself in a cubicle at the citadel dormitory, sitting on the edge of the bed, shivering as though he
would never stop. It had all boiled up, out of nothing, out of everything. All the suppressed, buried stuff
of fifteen years, twenty years тАж

Over twenty years. When he was seven and Lim was twelve, Dad had given Tasmin a viggy for his
birthday. They were rare in captivity, and Tasmin had been speechless with joy. That night, Lim had
taken it out of the cage and out into the road where it had been killed, said Lim, by a passing quiet-car.
When Tasmin was eight, he had won a school medal for music. Lim had borrowed it and lost it. When he
was sixteen, Tasmin had been desperately, hopelessly in love with Chani Vincent. Lim, six years older
than she, had seduced her, got her pregnant, then left on the trip to the Deepsoil Coast from which he
had never returned. The Vincents moved to Harmony, and from there God knows where, and Dad had
been advised by several of his friends that Lim had stolen moneyтАФquite a lot of it. With Dad it had been
a matter of honor.

Honor. Twenty years.

"Oh, Lord, why didn't I just say I'd think about it, then tell him I couldn't get access to the damn thing."
He didn't realize he had said it aloud until a voice murmured from the door.

"Master?" It was Jamieson, an expression on his face that Tasmin could not quite read. Surprise,
certainly. And concern? "Can I help you, sir?"

"No," he barked. "Yes. Ask the dispensary if they'd part with some kind of sleeping pill, would you. I'm
having aтАФa family problem."

When he woke before dawn, it was with a fuzzy head, a cottony mouth, and a feeling of inadequacy that
he had thought he had left behind him long ago. He had ruined Celcy's big evening. She wouldn't soon let
him forget it, either. It was probably going to be one of those emotional crises that required months to