"Walter Jon Williams - City on Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

The soldier/steward jumps onto the floating pier and holds out a hand.
"This way, miss.тАЭ
There are soldiers patrolling up and down the quay in dark gray uniforms and
helmetsтАФConstantine's Cheloki again. Constantine isn't trusting the local
troops that had actually captured the place: they'd changed sides once, and
could again.
There are probably telepresent mages scoping the place as well. It would be
the safe thing to do.
The door leading into the pontoon, Aiah sees, is an airlock, but it doesn't
look as if the heavy steel portal has been shut in a long time. Inside is a
gold-rimmed desk where Aiah is checked in and given a badge.
"Someone is coming down to escort you," Aiah is told.
The someone appears a moment later, and she recognizes him and smiles. He
doesn't smile back: he looks as if she's a problem he doesn't want.
"Mr. Martinus," she says.
"Miss Aiah.тАЭ
He is a huge man, one of Constantine's bodyguards, not only trained for war
but bred for it. His genes are twisted to produce a massive, muscled body and
catlike reflexes. His face looks like a helmet, eyes sunk beneath protective
plates of bone. Heavy slabs of callus ridge his knuckles.
"Welcome to Caraqui," he says.
"Thank you, sir.тАЭ
Martinus escorts Aiah into the elevator and presses the lever. There is a
smell of burning that lodges in the back of Aiah's throat, a souvenir of the
fighting. The elevator doesn't go straight up, but swoops as it rises to
match the building's architecture: the Aerial Palace, for all its
extravagance, is a generator of plasm, built to distill the essence of
mage-power. Its alloy structure is a maze of careful, intricate alignments,
intended to take advantage of geomantic relationships that increase plasm
generation.
The elevator doors open. The deep wine-red carpet is plush and the walls are
paneled with dark woodтАФgenuine wood!тАФbroken with diagonal stripes of brightly
patterned tile and solid gold wall fixtures in the shape of birds in flight.
A percentage of the latter seem to have been torn from the walls by looters.
The corridor is blocked at regular intervals by sliding glass doors set into
polished bronze frames. The doors open automatically on approach, though Aiah
sees that they can be locked if necessary. Crosshatched bronze wire winks
from inside the glass. It is part of the building's defense system: the huge
Palace is divided into sealed compartments to prevent a single attacking mage
from raging through the whole building.
Martinus opens a paneled door and ushers her in.
"Wait here, please.тАЭ
Aiah steps into the room. "How long will I have to wait?тАЭ
"I don't know.тАЭ
Martinus closes the door. Aiah looks about her. More wood paneling,
gold-framed mirrors, two huge oval windows miraculously undamaged by war. The
room is intended for meetings: there's a huge kidney-shaped tableтАФmore
wood!тАФand metal-and-leather chairs, gold frames with luxurious brown calfskin
cushions. Even the ashtrays, laid out two-by-two down the length of the
table, are solid gold.