"Vernor Vinge - Rainbows End" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vinge Vernor)

CDCP in China.

But G├╝nberk Braun was not an epidemiologist. He was a spook, and he was paranoid even for that.
Braun's fire drill was under his personal control; he had no trouble suppressing the news there. Meantime,
he used his resources in the EUIB and the Indo-European Alliance. Within hours, he was deep into a
number of projects:

He brought in the best cult expert in the Indo-European intelligence community and set her loose on the
evidence. He reached out to the military assets of the Alliance, in Central Africa and all the failed states at
the edge of the modern world. There were solid clues about the origin of the July 18 Pseudomimi.
Though this research was not bioscientific, Braun's analysts were very similar to the best at CDD тАФ only
smarter, more numerous, with far deeper resources. Even so, they were lucky: over the next three days,
they put two and two (and two and two and two...) together. In the end, he had a good idea who was
behind the weapons test.

And for the first time in his life, G├╝nberk Braun was truly terrified.

01
Mr. Rabbit Visits Barcelona

Within the intelligence services of the Indo-European Alliance, there were a handful of bureaucratic
superstars, people such as G├╝nberk Braun of the EUIB. Hopefully, their identities were unknown тАФ or a
mass of contradictions тАФ to the general public. The superstars had their own heroes. In particular, when
people like G├╝nberk Braun were confronted with the most desperate problems, there was a place to get
help. There was a certain department in India's External Intelligence Agency. It didn't show up in EIA
organization charts, and its purpose was happily undefined. Basically, it was whatever its boss thought it
should be. That boss was an Indian national known (to those very few who knew of him at all) as Alfred
Vaz.

Braun took his terrifying discovery to Vaz. At first, the older man was as taken aback as Braun himself
had been. But Vaz was a fixer. "With the proper human resources, you can solve almost any problem,"
he said. "Give me a few days. Let's see what I can dig up."

In downtown Barcelona, three days later:

The rabbit hopped onto the unoccupied wicker chair and thence to the middle of the table, between the
teacups and the condiments. It tipped its top hat first at Alfred Vaz and then at G├╝nberk Braun and
Keiko Mitsuri. "Have I got a deal for you!" it said. Altogether, it was an unremarkable example of its
type.

Alfred reached out and swiped his hand through the image, just to emphasize his own substance. "We're
the ones with the deal."

"Hmph." The rabbit plunked its ass down on the table and pulled a tiny tea service out from behind the
salt and pepper. It poured itself a drop or two тАФ enough to fill its cup тАФ and took a sip. "I'm all ears." It
wiggled two long ones to emphasize the point.

From the other side of the table, G├╝nberk Braun gave the creature a long stare. Braun was as ephemeral
as the rabbit, but he projected a dour earnestness that was quite consistent with his real personality.
Alfred thought he detected a certain surprised disappointment in the younger man's expression. In fact,