"William Tuning - Terro-Human - Fuzzy 04 - Fuzzy Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tuning William)

for themselves- temporarily or permanently. Theology has to pay its own
freight; I don't preach."

"What about the souls of the Furries?" Christiana put in. "Don't-"

"Fuzzies," Helton interrupted irritably. "You mean Fuzzies."

"Sure," she said. "Fuzzies. What about the souls of the Fuzzies. Don't they
need saving?"

"Don't know," The Rev said. "Their souls may be in better shape than ours are.
On the other hand they might not be what people think they are, these Fuzzies.
I make up my mind about such things when I've seen for myself."

"Sounds odd coming from a priest," Christiana said.

"So it might," The Rev agreed, "so it might. I don't worry too much about this
intellectual stuff. We have priests in my order who sit around with computers
and try to mathematically calculate the ages of the prophets and the angels.
That's swell for them; I just go to where there are people who are hurting and
try to put something in their bellies and keep them from catching the
polka-dot plague."

She smiled. "Is that why they sent you to such a helluva-such a Nifflheim of a
place? According to my packet, there isn't a religious congregation on
Zarathustra."

The Rev took a long, noisy suck at his drink, then smacked his lips. "Don't be
particular about cussing around me, daughter," he said. "I don't give a damn
one way or the other."

He paused, staring at the observation screen. "If my superior had his way-or
wanted to spend that much more money-I suppose he would have sent me even
further into the celestial boondocks. Someplace like the Gartner Trisys-tem. I
hear that's real rough-and-ready country since crazy old Genji Gartner died at
Storisende. Everyone's been wearing out holsters to see who's going to control
Poictesme."

"But don't they have a chartered company there?" Christiana asked, "With a
Resident General and Federation troops?"

The Rev laughed mirthlessly. "Of course, sweetheart," he said, "and all the
settled planets in the trisystem are Federation members. So what?"

She wasn't so sure of what she meant, now. "Well, if they have a colonial
government, how can law and order break down that way-just over the death of
one man?-even if he did establish the first settlement on the planet."

"Systematically," The Rev said-genuinely amused, now. "Systematically. You
know how long it takes just to get some heavy Federation troops out here?"