"Jack Vance - Demon Prince 05 - The Book Of Dreams" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

" 'No, I am not.'

" 'Then you'll not get a cent from me, and I'm also turning
you in for a fink.' "

Koedelin drained his goblet of rum punch and looked up at the
dark green foliage from which depended strips of pink blossoms.
"Splendid place for microphones. I wonder who is listening to us."

"No one, according to Chancy."

"It's hard to be certain nowadays. Still, the Organization isn't
all that strong around here."

Gersen raised his hand. "Two more of the same. .. . So, Tree-
song is no longer Lord of the Overmen?"

"Hardly that. But he gave up detail work to sublords quite some
time ago. Howard only looks in from rime to rime and runs his eye
over the books."

"Benign fellow. So what is he up to now?"

Koedelin hesitated, calculating his response, then made a fatal-
istic gesture and drew himself forward. "There's no harm in telling
you, although if the story gets wide circulation we'll be embar-
rassed. It may not even be true." Koedelin looked right and left.
"Don't let it go any further."

"Certainly not."

"IPCC administration is rather looseтАФthat you know. There
is a board of directors and a presiding officer, who is now Artur
Sanchero. Five years ago his confidential aide died in an accident.
A close friend recommended a man named Jethro Cope for the job,
and after the usual background check Cope was hired. Cope proved

750 THE DEMON PRINCES
very efficient, so much so that Sanchero had less and less work to
do. And now began a strange process. The directors began to dieтАФ
by disease, by accidents, by murder and suicide.

"Sanchero, or more accurately Jethro Cope, recommended new
directors who were thereupon voted into office. Jethro Cope always
handled the vote and counted the ballots. He put seven men into
the IPCC board of directors and needed only six more to achieve
a voting majority. He probably would have gotten them had not
one of the new directors, who called himself Bemus Carlisle, en-
countered an agent who recognized him to be Sean McMurtree of