"Shane Tourtellotte - String of Pearls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tourtellotte Shane)

"Invalid sentence. You lose your turn."

Milinor did not eschew the gloating.
****
"Welcome, Marc," Jun Hua said behind the desk in his office. "Please have a seat. How was your trip
in?"

"Okay," Marcus lied. He had been nauseated the whole way from Aghrelowa to the Terran Embassy in
Ubhettid, not from airsickness, but from aversion to the debriefing to come.

"Glad to hear it. It was good of Bunwadde to let you off for the morning."

"They're unloading a cargo ship at the landing field. Bunwadde's supervising that, so he doesn't need his
shill for a few hours."

Jun Hua raised his eyebrows. "Shill? What's the matter? And do take a seat."

Marcus paced over to the window, which mostly showed the building next door. "He had me writing
descriptions of his incoming inventory. Turns out I was writing the first draft of a script: my own. He
means me to be the presenter for those items in his network catalog."

"Then Bunwadde finds you useful," Jun Hua said, almost smiling. "Isn't that good?"

"He finds me convenient. I'm a human face, and voice, to lend an air of exotic authenticity to his wares.
My actual expertise is secondary, if how little of my report made the script is any indication."

"But certainly you--Marc, either sit down or stop pacing so at least I can go stand next to you." Still
fuming, Marcus dropped himself into the chair, swiveling it so he looked at the side wall, not Jun. "You
understood Bunwadde was hiring you to help his business from the start."

"I did, but I didn't think he'd--" He sagged into the chair, not even noticing that it was made for humans,
and didn't torment his back or legs. "I thought I would be an advisor, not a mouthpiece."

"Does he have you speaking Vetra or English?"

"Oh, Vetra. He trusts me to do that from a script."

"Ah. Can I infer from that that Bunwadde trusts you less to speak Vetra in other circumstances?"

"Infer what you will," Marcus grumbled.

"I shouldn't have to," Jun Hua said. "You're here to inform me fully about your progress. If we don't get
that information, I can have the embassy invalidate your visa. It wouldn't help your career back on Earth
to have an expulsion from Obrith on your record."

"In some quarters it might," Marcus answered, but his heart wasn't in the retort, and Jun Hua could tell.

"Answer my question, Marc. Are you making progress in mastering Vetra syntax?"

Marcus seemed to examine the floor. "No. None that I've noticed."