"Walter Jon Williams - Dread Empire's Fall 02 - The Sundering" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

knew it perfectly well. тАЬWe have to prevent panic from spreading in the civilian population,тАЭ he said.

Sula gave an acid laugh. тАЬNo, we canтАЩt have the civilians panicking. Not thewrong civilians, anyway.тАЭ
She gave Foote a cynical look. тАЬIтАЩm sure our honorable censorтАЩs family is panickingright at this very
moment . The only difference between them and the general population is that Clan Foote is going to
panic their way into aprofit. IтАЩm sure their moneyтАЩs moving all over the exchanges, and itтАЩs being
converted intoтАжтАЭ Her invention failed her. тАЬтАжinto, ah, convertible things, to be carried to the safer
corners of the empire to await a brighter dawn. Perhaps theyтАЩre even being carried in the current Lord
FooteтАЩs very own pillowcase.тАЭ

тАЬMy lord great-uncle,тАЭ Foote said quietly, тАЬis too ill to leave his palace on Zanshaa.тАЭ

тАЬHis heir, then,тАЭ Sula said. тАЬThe point of the censorship is that we Peers are going to have a monopoly
on the information necessary to survive whateverтАЩs coming. Everyone who doesnтАЩt belong to our order
is expected to continue their normal lives, making money for the Peers, right up to the point where a
Naxid fleet shows up and starts raining antimatter bombs out of the sky.Then maybe theyтАЩll be allowed
to notice that the media reports were less than candid.тАЭ

The acting captain pitched his voice even lower. тАЬSublieutenant my Lady Sula, I think this is not a
suitable topic for the dinner table.тАЭ

Sula felt her lips quirk in amusement. тАЬAs my lord wishes,тАЭ she said. Probably MorgenтАЩs relations were
going to do well out of this, too.

SulaтАЩs relations would not, for the simple reason that she didnтАЩt have any. She was in the nearly
unprecedented position of being a Peer without any money or influence. Though the title of Lady Sula
made her the theoretical head of the entire Sula Clan, therewas no Sula Clan, no property, and no money
save for a modest trust fund that had been set up by some friends of the late Lord Sula. She had only got
into the Fleet because her position as a Peer gave her automatic place in one of the academies. She had
no patron either in the service or outside it.

Deplorable though it was, her position nevertheless gave her a unique insight into how the Peers
actually worked. The alien Shaa, who had bloodily conquered the Terrans, Naxids, and other species
who made up the empire, had created the order of Peers as an intermediary between themselves and the
great mass of their subjects. Now that the last of the Shaa was dead, the Peers were in chargeтАФand had
managed to land-crash into a civil war within bare months of their last overlordтАЩs demise.

Sula was surprised it had taken them that long. So far as she could tell, the Peers acted exactly as one
might expect from a class who had a near monopoly on power, their fingers in every profitable business,
and who with their clients owned almost everything. The only check on their rapacity was the Legion of
Diligence, who would massacre anyone whose avarice became too uninhibitedтАФas, in fact, they had

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 Williams, Walter Jon - [Dead Empire's Fall 02] - The Sundering

massacred the last Lord and Lady Sula.

The Peers, Sula observed, seemed to act out of naked self-interest. But for some reason it was impolite
to actually say so.