"David Weber - Worlds of Honor 4 - Service of the Sword" - читать интересную книгу автора (Weber David)

could not be prevented would be striving to win over the Graysons.
The men who had volunteered for the Masadan mission were eager for any chance to prove
themselvesтАФas they most surely would if they could win the misogynistic and egocentric
Faithful over to an alliance.
Forbes Lawler, a first generation prolong recipient and former member of the House of
Commons, was the head of the group. Handsome, with iron grey hair, and a lean, athletic build,
Lawler spoke in a straight-at-them, square-jawed fashion that reminded Michael of his first gym
teacher. Although Lawler never said so directly, he clearly hoped that in addition to bringing new
instructions he would soon be replacing the current ambassador.
Quentin Cayen served as Lawler's personal assistant. Young enough to be a second-
generation prolong recipient, Cayen tinted his hair silver at the temples and affected reading
glasses in an attempt to bring gravity to his otherwise boyishly plump features. Michael thought
Cayen looked rather silly, but since Cayen was otherwise competent, and eager to please without
being offensive, the midshipman tried to overlook the other man's cosmetic enhancements.
The last member of the delegation, John Hill, was ostensibly a computer specialist. He was
very knowledgeable about the Masadans, including being familiar with the Faithful's religious
rituals and dietary restrictions. Hill was pretty clearly a spy, but Michael thought he might well
be the most competent member of the trio.
On the day Intransigent entered the Endicott System, Michael was working in the almost
empty middy berth when a memo requesting his attendance at a final planning session came from
Lawler. Since Michael had a mess of homeworkтАФit might be called other things, but it still felt
like homeworkтАФhe wasn't terribly pleased. However, he knew his duty and reluctantly put aside
the fusion repair sim he'd been assigned by the chief engineer herself.
"Where are you going, Michael?" Astrid asked, setting her own reader aside, apparently
prepared to accompany him.
"Mr. Lawler wants me," Michael replied.
"Oh," Astrid said, disappointed, and turned back to her work.
Michael, who had the vague feeling that Astrid had been trying to get him alone for several
days now, saw Sally Pike smirking, and thought he might be right. Relieved, he grabbed a few
things, waved a vague farewell, and got out of there before Ozzie or one of the other hangers-on
could decide to walk him to the diplomats' suite.
When Michael arrived, Lawler was pacing back and forth, barely containing his excitement.
"A notice just came from the bridge," he said, thrusting hard copy into Michael's hand. "There
is at least one Peep ship in system."
"Doesn't the People's Republic have an embassy here, just like we do?" Michael asked.
"They do," Lawler agreed. "However, an embassy is no reason for the Peeps to station a
heavy cruiser here, is it?"
 Michael felt his eyebrows shoot toward his hairline. Intransigent was a light cruiser, and Beth
had considered sending her on a diplomatic mission a rather heavy-handed move. Apparently, the
Peeps were less subtle.
"It's the Moscow, Prince Michael," John Hill added. "Not one of their newest models, but not
one of the oldest either."
"Has she been here long?" Michael asked, feeling odd, as he always did after existing within
the Navy's rigid command structure, to be back among those who subtly deferred to him.
"Not long enough to state that Moscow is stationed here," Hill replied, with the vaguely
exasperated note in his voice that Michael had learned was reserved for correcting Lawler's more
extreme statements. "Nor would I say that Moscow was sent in anticipation of our own arrival,
though that isn't impossible. Mr. Lawler's coming with new instructions has not precisely been
kept a secret."
There was no real reason Lawler's arrival should have been, Michael knew, but he had a